Homework: 

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Study lecture notes

Know nuts and bolts of Gods of Olympus (quiz on Friday)


EuroLit Notes 9/6/18

Man has roamed Earth for a million years but only in last 8,000 no longer nomadic — WHY SO LONG?  Glaciers!!

The Neolithic Revolution - when man ceased to be nomadic and started growing food and raising animals.

Everything Egypt gives posterity they stole by conquering another civilization. However, Egypt does give us a model of stability, as it lasted over 3,000 years. However, they were a backward-looking civilization that enjoyed its golden age at the beginning. 

The Sumerians were conquered by the Egyptians. They gave us writing, mathematics, astronomy, the first written law, and literature (The Epic of Gilgamesh). 

From the Hebrews came monotheism.

From the Persians, Zoroastrianism. It is the beginning of the concept that the deeds of this life influence the next. This figures into existentialism later. 

(Paradoxically, if we question everything, there is one thing we cannot question: our minds. “I think, therefore, I am.”)

Every society and civilization has a flood myth. Many anthropologists and geologists think it happened - might be tied to glaciation and the recession of the glaciers at the end of the ice age.

The opposite of cosmos is Chaos, which is described as silent, dark, and cold. Chaos ruled over darkness.

The cosmology of the Ancient Greeks started in Chaos. Out of the darkness was born Love and the Fates (Clotho spun the “thread” of human fate, Lachesis measured it, and Atropos cut the thread, thus determining the individual's moment of death).

The Greeks created the gods anthropomorphically (not just in the image of man but in our emotions and motivations as well). They are projections of human beings and are an early form of psychology. This allowed people to look inside themselves, and know themselves. 

The oldest literary work in the Western tradition is The Iliad. It is built on the shoulders of Gilgamesh which was written on 26 clay tablets. Gilgamesh is the King of Uruk. He takes first night rights, which does not gain him favor with his people. Despite this, he strives to be the best he could be (arrete). The Epic of Gilgamesh has a Homeric pattern. Gilgamesh has too much pride (hubris), so the people pray to Marduk, who sends Enkidu (a demi-god) to Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu get into a fight which lasts for two days, results in a draw, and they become friends. They decide that they can come close to immortality by attaining fame. They cut down the Cedars of Lebanon in order to provoke the gods, who decide to humble Gilgamesh. Marduk sends a sickness to kill Enkidu, which saddens Gilgamesh and reminds him of his own mortality. Eventually, Gilgamesh learns the secret of immortality - the plant of everlasting youth. The plant is eventually stolen by a snake. Gilgamesh decides to return home and built a wall around his city rather than search for the plant again. Thus, we learn that a person gains true immortality through fame and glory, rather than a long and unremarkable life. 

There is a paradox in Greek literature in that most things are predetermined, nonetheless, people have the freedom to deal with those things the way we choose. Thus, people are responsible for their situation because of how they deal with what fate gives them.  

Prometheus is a traitor. He is a Titan who steals fire from the gods and gives it to humans.

Fire is a symbol of knowledge, intelligence, thinking, reasoning, intellect, or ability to question.

Why does Zeus punish Prometheus for providing fire to humans?

The possession of fire gives man the power to overcome the gods, and surpass them. This is all anthropomorphic projection of what it means to be human. We are self-surpassing - what were were yesterday we can surpass tomorrow. How do we do that? By knowing ourselves (gnothi seaton). By knowing ourselves we can change ourselves.