Intro: Ancient Mediterranean and
Near Eastern Literature (Volume A)
Invention of Writing
• original purposes
for writing
• Mesopotamia,
3300–2900 B.C.E.
• pictographs
• wedge marks,
2800 B.C.E.
Writing Forms
• hieroglyphs, “sacred
carvings”
• Egypt, Sumer, and
scribal culture
• Phoenician alphabet
Cuneiform
•
•
•
•
wedge-shaped script
2100 B.C.E.
clay tablets
Sumerians
Background
• slavery
• Nile, Euphrates, Tigris
valleys
• polytheism
• orthopraxy, orthodoxy
The Greeks
•
•
•
•
•
Minoa, Crete
Linear B
fire and oral traditions
Phoenician influence
city-state structure
and influence on
writing
Persian Influence
Sparta and Athens
• Sparta, oligarchy
• Attica, democracy
• rights for slaves and
women
• political approach
• Spartan defeat of
Athens, 404 B.C.E.
Herodotus
•
•
•
•
nomos
historia
abduction of women
Persian culture
Greek Education and Culture
•
•
•
•
children’s education
slave tutors
Sophists
Socrates
Macedonian Rule
• Greek city-states
• King Philip, Macedon
• Alexander,
imperialism
• Ptolemy, Egypt
• Hellenism
• koine
Rome
Roman Values
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
tradition (mos maiorum)
seriousness (gravitas)
courage (virtus)
industry (diligentia)
duty (pietas)
Catullus, Virgil, Ovid
origins and themes of Latin literature
Julius and Octavian, empire and Republic
The Ancient Middle East
The Persian Empire
Greece during the Peloponnesian War
Roman Expansion
Test Your Knowledge
The earliest literature took the form of:
_________ .
a. oral stories and songs
b. poems collected in anthologies
c. stories in holy books
d. epics inscribed on stone tablets
Test Your Knowledge
The earliest written documents (dating from
about 3300–2990 B.C.E.) were:
___________ .
a. epic poetry
b. political and legal records
c. religious texts
d. historical fiction
Test Your Knowledge
One of the earliest literary texts was the
Sumerian poem called The Epic of
Gilgamesh (NAWOL, Volume A). What
writing system was used to first record this
epic poem?
a. Phoenician
b. Latin
c. cuneiform
d. hieroglyphics
Test Your Knowledge
Most ancient cultures were: ___________.
a. monotheistic
b. atheistic
c. polytheistic
d. dualistic
Test Your Knowledge
During the Dark Ages of Greece, Greeks lost
which of the following?
a. wealth
b. writing
c. industry
d. all of the above
Test Your Knowledge
As Greece emerged from its Dark Ages,
what empire ruled most of Asia Minor?
a. Roman
b. Persian
c. Egyptian
d. Indo-European
This concludes the Lecture
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