Norton: The Epic of Gilgamesh 

• Complicated sources for the text: Sin-leqi-unninni's derivation of a written version from multiple sources.
• Contrasting concepts of immortality: not dying vs. not being forgotten. Cf. Achilles.
• Utnapishtim's version of the Flood.
• Earliest example of themes common to many myths, such as the Hero's Journey.

 

Norton: Genesis 

• Monolatry vs. Monotheism.
• Cain & Abel: Dramatization of the conflict between agriculturalists and pastoralists. (See also Gilgamesh's relationship with Enkidu.)
• The Flood. Cf. Gilgamesh.
• Complex text: see The Documentary Hypothesis.
• Further reading: Thomas Cahill's The Gifts of the Jews. It's an easy and very entertaining read. Also contains information relevant to The Epic of Gilgamesh.

 

Norton: Homer: The Odyssey 

• Hospitality as the distinguishing mark of civilization (along with only taking wine with water and meat with bread).

 

Norton, Lualdi: Sappho 

• Contrasts with Homer: lyric vs. epic; domestic vs. public; love vs. war; male vs. female.

 

Norton: Sophocles: Antigone 

• Protest against the state: but is Antigone's protest radical or reactionary?
• Conflict between Laws of Man & Laws of God.

 

Norton: Herodotus 

• "Father of History".
• Hubris and Nemesis in history: dramatized in each of three narratives.
• The importance of fair shares (isonomia) for democratic Athenians.

 

Handout: Zeno of Elea 

• Paradoxes of motion.
• First use of the reductio ad absurdum.
• Either time and space are infinitely divisible or they are not; either way Zeno finds a paradoxical conclusion.

 

West & West: Aristophanes: The Clouds 

• An example of Old Comedy: raucous satire of actual personalities.
• Earliest text referring to Socrates, here lampooned as a sophist and a cosmologist, two activities he denies pursuing in the Apology.

 

Plato: Plato: Gorgias 

• The Socratic Method
• Dialogue discussing the competing merits of rhetoric and philosophy.
• Also a clear statement of Socrates's ethical egoism.

 

West & West: Plato: The Apology of Socrates 

• Political subtext: Socrates is a vulnerable associate of an anti-democratic clique (the former Thirty Tyrants) who have legal immunity.

 

Norton: Plato: The Republic 

• The allegories of the Sun, the Line, and the Cave.
• Each explains an aspect of Plato's theory of forms by an analogy between seeing and understanding.

 

Norton: Aristotle: Poetics

• The origins of literary criticism; `catharsis'

 

Norton: Virgil: Aeneid 

• Roman appropriation of the Greek epic: but with different priorities.
• Pius Aeneas: a very Roman virtue.
• Another view of the afterlife, tinged with Virgil's Orphism, and influencing Dante.

 

Norton: Catullus 

• Searing emotional honesty, even when self-incriminating.
• Influence of Sappho: relationship to epic similar to hers.

 

Norton: Petronius: The Satyricon 

• Insight into Roman entertainment and private life
• The significance (but still ambiguous status) of the freed slave.

 

Norton: New Testament

• Synoptic gospels: same sources; different audiences.
• Ethical teachings of Jesus, both direct (Sermon on the Mount) and indirect (parables).
• Importance of proto-orthodox canon building in establishing which books get included in the NT, and ultimately what sort of faith Christianity will be.

 

Norton: Beowulf

• Orally transmitted heroic narrative, in tradition of Gilgamesh, (although that cannot be a direct influence).
• Liminal status on the transition from a pagan to a Christian world: a sympathetic description of pagans written by a Christian.
• Monsters: how should they be interpreted? Literally? Allegorically? As heavily distorted versions of real phenomena?

 

Handout: Mediaeval Philosophy: Anselm

• Famous Ontological Argument for the existence of God.
• Is Gaunilo's Island a devastating counterargument? But (a) island's are finite, God is not; (b) Anselm's definition of God is fairly universal, Gaunilo's definition of his island is cooked up specially.

 

Handout: Mediaeval Philosophy: Thomas Aquinas

• The Five Ways: Proofs of the existence of God, perhaps Aquinas's best known passage.
• Just War Theory. Is Aquinas's definition morally defensible? Is it workable?

 

Handout: Mediaeval Philosophy: William of Ockham

• Nominalism: Universals are just in the head (or on the page). Compare with Plato andAristotle.
• Fideism: Attempts to prove God's existence through reason (e.g. Anselm, Aquinas) fruitless, and ultimately corrosive of faith.

 

 Norton: Dante: Inferno

• Synthesis of pagan and Christian mythologies
• Elaborate numeralogical symbolism, especially representing the Trinity
• Sophisticated taxonomy of sin--how does it compare with modern perspectives?

 

Norton: Mediaeval Women: Heloise

• Relationship with Abelard, indicating both the opportunities and pitfalls of mediaeval womanhood
• Ostensibly misogynistic: but does she really mean it?

 

Norton: Mediaeval Women: Christine de Pizan

• Extraordinary career for any mediaeval writer, male or female
• Clear, and powerfully argued, feminist beliefs
• Room of her own: apparently contradicting Virginia Woolf more than five hundred years in advance, but very lucky to be (a) born rich; (b) educated by a surprisingly progressive father; (c) widowed when young, and thereby more independent than any married or never married woman.

 

Norton: Chaucer: Canterbury Tales: Prologue and Wife of Bath's Tale , The Miller’s Tale

• Cross-section of mediaeval society.
• Ambiguous attitude to religion.
• Unabashed anatomical detail.

 

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