World Literature Analysis - Assignment Example

World literature The goodness Inanna can be found in many myths and The Epic of Gilgamesh, where the hero was asked to marry this goodness, is not an exception. The hero rejected her proposition and noticed that her previous partners had a complicated fortune. The reaction of Inanna was pretty expectable. She told about this accident to An. The god gave her a Bull and she sent it to Gilgamesh and Enkidu. They killed the Bull. This goodness Inanna is famous for her methods to struggle with those, who rejected her. The bright example of such kind of manipulation was the case with the god Enki. By making him drunk she persuaded him to give her lots of Mes. The benefits of having Mes were obvious. Those who had them possessed much power. Later, being in the normal condition, he would like to take back all Mes, but could not do that. Here we can see that Innana’s behavior is similar to the behavior of a plain woman; she does not possess much power as goddess should possess. She can’t make all her dreams come true. Innana struggles like any plain woman for her happiness. In contrast to Innana Athena represents real goddess with much power and the desires of a goddess. She has many virtues and we would never see her avenging a plain man for ignoring her. Her mission as a goddess is to help people as she helped Odysseus. She was attracted by his virtues and asked father to help her: "My own heart is broken for Odysseus" (The Odyssey 3). People would never dare to ignore Athena as Gilgamesh ignored Innana, they admired her, always asked for help and did their best to get her disposition. Athena is much more respected and powerful than Innana. This testifies that the attitude towards gods was changed by the time The Odyssey was created. 2. The Greek and Rome mythology often describes the life after death. In some descriptions this is the place, which is called Underworld. In the literature of ancient Greece there was a belief that heroes go to Olympia. Heracles is one of such heroes. The stories about heroes tell us much about death. If a person had all the virtues and values that the hero should have had, he would die in a peace and glory. Speaking about women, they should have had quite different values and virtues. A woman must give birth to at least one son, she had to be a good wife and daughter. There was a belief that those people, who have many virtues, would be able to get a better position in the Underworld. This place was a place for plain people at the same time as gods and heroes came there only with some mission. For example, in The Descent of Inanna, the goddess came to the Underworld to see her sister, Ereshikigal, who was a queen of the Underworld. She informed her sister about the death of her husband. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero appears in the Underworld, where Ereshikigal told him that he would be blessed and become immortal, if died in battle. Here we see the attitude towards fights, deeds and heroes. Gilgamesh suffers for twelve days, until he was allowed to live forever. Odysseus went to Underworld to speak to Tiresias to get valuable advices from him. In order to be allowed to penetrate the Underworlds, the hero should have made a sacrifice. We can see that in ancient mythology people should have sacrificed something in order to receive the invaluable gifts in return. 3.The literature of ancient Egypt is mainly concerned with religious background and it was a great surprise for scientists to discover the love poems. The love motives played a very important role in the literature of ancient Egypt. They were composed many years ago, and they help reveal the secret of life of ancient Egyptians. A number of poems were found in the prominent place, the Valley of King, that was famous for numerous burials of pharaohs. These poems provided the scientists with the knowledge about the important part of people’s life about their emotions. By reading and analyzing the poems one can understand, what people felt and how they saw their life. The main part of the poems was written between 1539 -1075 BC, this time period is also known as New Kingdom of Egypt. However, some experts claim that they were created much earlier. The main topic of such songs was love and romantic relations. There one can find different literature tropes, which can be found also in modern poems. In the poems we can see different methods the authors used to explain their feelings. The following poem demonstrates how the love is compared to such amenities like food and wine: The Flower Song (Excerpt)      To hear your voice is pomegranate wine to me:      I draw life from hearing it.      Could I see you with every glance,      It would be better for me      Than to eat or to drink.      (Translated by M.V. Fox, cited in Breasted) The next poem shows, how the description of nature and daily activities is applied in the poem to express the strength of love: The Crossing (Excerpt)      I'll go down to the water with you,      and come out to you carrying a red fish,      which is just right in my fingers.      (Translated by M. Fox, cited in Breasted) 4. Oedipus the King is one of the most famous tragedies of ancient Greece. It represents the struggle between the man and his fate. Oedipus wanted to escape from the fate that was foretold for him. He went away from the place, where his adopted parents lived, in order to eliminate the possibility of the events, which were forecasted. The classic tragedy, where the irony and destiny play an important role is shown in the story of Oedipus. His tragedy can be described with several main words: arrogance, irony of fortune and crash. He wanted to ignore gods’ forecast and was too self-assured. He criticized the gods and their actions and was sure that his own cleverness can help him: “And what was that? One clue might lead us far, With but a spark of hope to guide our quest” (Sophocles 1-28). However, that time it was not possible to ignore the forecasts of gods, thus Oedipus was punished severely for criticizing their decision. Another example refers to the play of Aristophanes, where Lysistra uses the sex as symbol to take her goals. It was done deliberately with the purpose to make men hear about the problems women had. One of such reason was the general situation that was at that time. A great number of men were at war. Their women had to struggle with all the tasks by their own. They fulfilled not only women’s but also men’s duties. Most of the time men were absent so women had to learn how to live without them. That time the attitude to women was quite chauvinistic. Religion and beliefs prevented women from gain freedoms, thus they were criticized by the author. Women had no right to take decisions or vote. By the humor with sexual context and comedy situations Aristophanes depicted thoughtlessness of the people. His work contributed to the essential issue of gender and equality. 5. The history of the East is full of great teachers and prophets, the role of which was crucial for the community development. Lao-Tse, Confucius and Buddha are among them. The main idea of the Confucius’ ethics was reflected in the statement that one should treat people the way he wants people to treat him. Lao-Tse underlined that the attitude towards life should be based on the Tao. Buddha had another point of view: he claimed that in order to gain nirvana you had to elude the extremes. Buddha, the famous philosopher Gautama Siddhartha, lived in the fifth century b.c. His philosophy became an integral part of Buddhism. The main idea of his philosophy was to help other people struggle with the sufferings, get rid of uncertainty and become masters of their own life. Lao-Tse emphasized the importance of understanding the nature as this understanding would help achieve the possibility to change the life for better. By the sixth century b.c the life of Greek community also underwent many changes. The philosophy of Plato and Socrates helped people change their attitude towards the life and religion. People began to understand that much depends on their own efforts, not only on God and his will. The interest towards the real origin of the world grew, different versions appeared. The philosophers got much power and influence, Plato stated: “until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophise, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils,... nor, I think, will the human race." (Republic 473c-d) ” Works cited Sophocles. Sophocles I: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone. 2nd ed. Grene, David and Lattimore, Richard, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1991. Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. by Robert Fagles. Introduction by Bernard Knox. United States of America: Penguin Books, 1996. Breasted, James Henry. Ancient Records of Egypt: Vol. I, The First to the Seventeenth Dynasties, & Vol. II, the Eighteenth Dynasty, New York: Russell & Russell. 1962. Plato. The Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Read More