WORLD LITERATURE II

(Key Points)
𝟏. 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐪-
Historical Background: Mesopotamia, often referred to as the "Cradle of Civilization," is located
between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in what is now modern-day Iraq. It was home to some of
the earliest human civilizations, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.
The region was known for the development of writing, urbanization, and complex societies. Over
time, the land became part of various empires, such as the Persian Empire and later the Islamic
Caliphates. The name "Iraq" began to be used in the 6th century during the Sassanid Empire, and
it became the official name of the modern state after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early
20th century.

ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

- The Sumerians organized labor and set up irrigation systems

- The cultures of ancient Mesopotamia achieved a number of significant firsts in human
history, and the restrictions placed on them by their environment are central to
understanding the forms that these innovations took.

Reeds were used to make baskets, mats, and boats; they were also burned as fuel. In the absence
of stone, many tools were crafted out of mud. It was also shaped into a vast array of pots,
dishes, basins, jars, lamps, and storage containers.
Mud brick was the basic construction material. Most commonly mud was mixed with reeds or
other vegetable matter and placed into molds. These shaped bricks were dried in the sun and
then used to erect walls. Unfortunately, mud brick buildings were quite vulnerable to floods,
which could literally dissolve them away.
The earliest monumental structures in history were the temples erected to the gods known as
ziggurats. The Anu ziggurat at Uruk has been calculated to have required nearly 100,000
person-days of labor to construct.

Cuneiform Writing System- one of the greatest achievements of the Sumerians was the
invention of the earliest known system of writing. But for writing to be useful, one must have
a durable yet readily available material on which to write.

The Sumerian penchant for record keeping led to the development of cylinder seals, probably
the most common artifact from Mesopotamia found in museums. They were used to mark
documents, seal trade shipments, and to otherwise personalize documents. Cylinder seals also
became status symbols, worn around the neck to demonstrate the wearer’s importance.

Hammurabi’s code is retaliatory, meaning that what you do to someone else often gets done to
you in return. Many of the rules of the Old Testament, also formulated in the Near East during
the 2nd millennium B.C., are of a similar nature, exemplified by the phrase “an eye for an eye,
a tooth for a tooth.”
 Whatever its quirks, Hammurabi’s code represents a huge step forward for civilization. The
code itself is preserved on a stone stele, covered on both sides with 3,500 lines of text listing
nearly 300 laws, as well as a prologue and an epilogue. At the top is a relief carving depicting
Hammurabi standing before the god Shamash, god of both sun and of justice.

The Epic of Gilgamesh- One of the oldest surviving works of literature also comes from
Babylonian civilization: The Epic of Gilgamesh. It tells the story of a Mesopotamian god-king
from Uruk who, in the fi rst part of the poem, fi ghts a wild man named Enkidu. As a result of
their combat, Gilgamesh and Enkidu develop a mutual respect and become best friends. At this
point, the epic turns into a classic buddy movie. The friends go on all sorts of manly adventures
together, camping out in the wilderness, hunting fi erce beasts, drinking, subduing monsters,
and so on. Gilgamesh offends the gods, however, and the gods are quick to take revenge. They
strike down Enkidu. Traumatized and grieving, Gilgamesh decides to go on a quest for
immortality, which occupies the rest of the poem. In the end, the quest is a failure, and
Gilgamesh must confront the fact that all human beings are mortal. As the poem draws to a
close, he approaches the walls of Uruk, and it dawns on him just how glorious and enduring
the city is. Thus the poem suggests that while all individual humans must die, we can achieve
a form of immortality through what we create.

2. Ancient Egypt- The Gift of Nile. About 97 percent of Egypt consists of bleak, uninhabitable
desert. It is likely that Egypt would have remained an empty wasteland but for one factor: the Nile
River, the longest river in the world, which fl ows northward for thousands of miles from its
origins in the heart of Africa to a broad delta that empties into the Mediterranean Sea.

From before recorded history, Egypt was divided into districts called nomes. In the earliest
phase of Egyptian history, called the predynastic period, alliances gradually built among the
nomes until there were two main factions: Upper Egypt to the south and Lower Egypt to the north.

The capital of the united Egypt was Memphis. Egypt entered its fi rst reliably attested historical
period, known as the Old Kingdom, in the early 27th century B.C. One of the early pharaohs
was Zoser (or Djoser).

The Step Pyramid laid the foundation for all the pyramids to come. The Old Kingdom became
the golden age for pyramid building, including the famous pyramids of Giza. These were
astonishing achievements constructed from millions of tons of gigantic stone blocks.

The core myth of Egyptian religion during the New Kingdom nicely summarizes many of the
people’s fundamental beliefs. The main fi gures are Isis and Osiris. They are not only husband
and wife but brother and sister, and such incestuous marriages were common at certain periods
in Egyptian history.

Isis and Osiris have an evil brother named Set. Set is jealous of them and so he locks Osiris in
a box and throws it into the Nile. Isis embarks on a long, arduous journey to fi nd his body.
 She finds it, but Set steals it again, chops Osiris into 14 pieces, and scatters them throughout
the land.
Isis embarks on an even longer and more diffi cult search. She manages to fi nd 13 of the 14
pieces and magically puts Osiris back together, creating the fi rst mummy. He attains eternal
life, becoming the lord of the underworld. This myth became a central metaphor for the
Egyptians: Isis’s long, diffi cult journey that ends in immortality represented the long, diffi
cult journey of life, and everything went right, humans also had the hope of eternal life. Osiris’s
life, death, and resurrection mirrored the sequence of life, death, and rebirth that the Egyptians
observed in the sun, the Nile, and the seasons.

3. 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧

Historical Background: The Indus Valley Civilization was one of the world's earliest urban
cultures, flourishing around 2600-1900 BCE in what is today Pakistan and northwest India.
Known for its advanced cities like Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, the civilization developed early
forms of writing, architecture, and social organization. After the decline of the Indus Valley
Civilization, the region saw a series of empires and invasions, including the Maurya and Gupta
Empires, and later the Islamic Caliphates. In 1947, following the end of British rule in India, the
region became the independent state of Pakistan, a name that reflects the Islamic identity of the
new nation.

4. ANCIENT INDUS VALLEY

The Indus Valley Civilization was lost to human history from its collapse around 1500 B.C. until
the late 19th century, but it was a culture of remarkable complexity and achievement. Like the
Mesopotamians, they built extensive irrigation systems and constructed large cities of mud brick,
but all of their construction shows a remarkable amount of uniformity, planning, and civil
engineering. The Indus Valley people kept records on clay tablets, but scholars have yet to
decipher the symbols, and thus without textual support, it is diffi cult to interpret some of the
physical remains.

The geography of the Indus Valley is much like that of ancient Mesopotamia. Large rivers flow
from a mountain chain in the north down through broad mudfl ats. These rivers bear a rich load
of silt, facilitating agriculture, and can be canalized to provide extensive irrigation.

The single most impressive aspect of Indus Valley cities was their skillful management of water.
Like other early flood plain civilizations, they learned to dig canals and irrigate their fields. But
at Mohenjo-daro, for example, all the streets had graded drainage systems that included
underground pipes. Individual houses were often equipped with running water and specialized
rectilinear structures that have been labeled bathing platforms.

There is also evidence of public water facilities. At Mohenjo-daro, a structure labeled the Great
Bath by excavators has been called the earliest public water tank in the ancient world. Scholars
think it was a place for ritual bathing.
The Indus Valley Civilization seems to have had a system of writing. More than 4,000 clay tablets
and seals have been found containing a unique set of 400 distinct symbols. These symbols have
also been found on pots and other objects. Scholars have thus far been unable to translate or
interpret this script.

One common find is large numbers of small clay toy figures. Among these are tiny carts and oxen,
some of which even have movable parts. There are also models of ordinary household objects
such as pots, dishes, beds, and tables; spinning tops; whistles; marbles; and dice.

The cities had distinct neighborhoods, some of which seem to have specialized in various crafts
or professions, such as shell and agate workshops and coppersmithing. A few fragments of cloth,
including several of dyed cotton, hints at the clothing of these cities’ inhabitants. The Indus Valley
Civilization engaged in thriving and far-flung trade. Harappan goods have been found as far as
Mesopotamia. Mesopotamian records list Indus Valley goods including hardwoods, metals,
carnelian, shell, pearls, ivory, and animals. On the Indian coast, the port city of Lothal testifies to
a high volume of maritime trade.

The Indus Valley Civilization was followed by the Aryan and Vedic eras, for which we have
little archaeological but a great deal of textual evidence. Our main source for this period is a
huge body of poetry written in Sanskrit, consisting mainly of religious prayers and hymns, as
well as several lengthy epic poems relating the deeds of gods and heroes. The writings are known
as the Vedas, thought to have been composed between 1500 and 600 B.C. The oldest and most
important is the Rig Veda (literally, “the verses of knowledge”), 1,017 Sanskrit poems mostly
addressed to their gods.

5. Mystery Cultures of Early Greece

Two cultures dominated the Greek and Aegean world before the classical Greek culture with
which we are familiar: the Minoan and Mycenaean. The Minoans were an island-based culture
that appeared to have a strong naval and trading empire; the bull imagery found throughout their
art may have religious significance. The Mycenaeans were a collection of citystates scattered
across the Peloponnese. Their imposing architecture and the battle scenes that dominate their art
imply a warlike culture. Both civilizations had fallen by about 1100 B.C., leading to the prolonged
Greek Dark Ages.

The term “Mycenaean” (Mainland Warriors) gives the false impression of one nation. In
reality, this civilization comprised dozens of small, independent kingdoms that shared a similar
culture and language, of which Mycenae was the largest.

Homer’s epics and Vedic poetry form the cornerstones of classical Greek and Greek and
Indian civilizations, respectively. As such, it is perhaps not surprising how much these sets of
texts have in common: Both were originally part of oral traditions that looked back to a bygone
golden age. Both were concerned with military matters and the acts of gods and heroes. But there
are important differences between these bodies of work; most importantly, while Homer’s poems
touch on ethics, only the Vedas are considered scripture.
Some of these oral epics were written down after the rediscovery of writing around 750 B.C. The
two most important were the Iliad and the Odyssey, which are traditionally ascribed to a poet
named Homer. Whether Homer was a real individual or a composite of different storytellers is
debated.

Between the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Iliad was the more important poem to the Greeks,
the cornerstone of their literature and culture. Set during a great war in which all the Greek city-
states joined to attack the city of Troy, it may be based on a historical conflict that took place
around 1200 B.C.

While today we focus on Homer’s complex characterizations or the moral questions his works
explore, the Iliad is first and foremost a war poem. Long stretches of the text are devoted to
describing battles in graphic detail. The Iliad also provides a lot of information about Greek
religion. The gods are not morally superior to humans. They are neither omnipotent nor
omniscient, and they possess all the same emotions and behaviors, good and bad, as humans.

The Iliad offers models for how to interact with the gods. The Greek gods intervene in
mortal affairs. They manipulate events, causing weapons to hit or miss their targets and saving
favored humans from certain death. They impersonate humans and even engage in battles.

The Iliad, a story about the bitter war between the Greeks and Trojans over the capture of the
Spartan queen Helen by Trojan prince Paris, is a prequel to The Odyssey and The Aeneid. The
Odyssey tells of the Greek warrior Odysseus’s adventurous journey home after the Trojan War.

Many words and expressions that we use every day come from these ancient stories. For example:
“Achilles’ heel” (a person’s weakness and a prime spot for an enemy’s attack), a “Helen of Troy”
(an extraordinarily beautiful woman), “beware of Greeks bearing gifts” (refer ring to the Greek
army’s deadly “gift” of the Trojan horse), “a judgment of Paris” (a tough choice), an “odyssey”
(a long journey full of many adventures), and “spartan” (something aus tere, rigorous, and mostly
uncomfortable).

Here are three firsts: Homer is often referred to as the first European poet, Achilles the first hero
in western literature, and The Odyssey the first adventure story in western literature.

6. Ancient China

There is a good bit of truth to this stereotype, since China was indeed the originator of systems of
agriculture, writing, philosophy, literature, politics, social institutions, and art forms that had a
huge impact on the other civilizations of East Asia. Even when the Chinese gained an awareness
of other countries, they regarded them as fringe regions, the wild edges of civilization.

China’s most internal significant feature is its strong natural northsouth divide. Each of these
zones centers on one of two great rivers: the Yellow River to the north, and the Yangtze River to
the south.

The first dynasty for which there is solid archaeological evidence is the Shang Dynasty, which
arose around 1600 B.C. along the Yellow River floodplain. Perhaps their greatest contribution to
China was their writing system, which had over 3,000 known pictographic characters, a number
of which are still used today.

The Chinese were the only culture in East Asia to create an original written language, and it in
turn was either copied by or became the inspiration for the written languages of other Asian
civilizations.

Most of Shang writing is known from its appearance on thousands of surviving oracle bones. Over
200,000 of these oracle bone fragments are extant.

Around 1150, the Shang Dynasty was supplanted by the Zhou, which would prove to be the
longest dynasty in all of Chinese history, lasting until 221 B.C. Under the Zhou, the Chinese
developed the concept of the king ruling by the “Mandate of Heaven.”

Confucius

During China’s Warring States period lived a man named Kung who would eventually became
known as Master Kung, or in Chinese, Kung-fuzi, which was later Latinized by Jesuit missionaries
into Confucius.

Confucius was born into a low-level aristocratic family that had fallen on hard times. He pursued
a career as a political advisor and spent most of his life traveling from court to court, seeking a
ruler who would put his ideas into practice. In this career, he was a failure, but he recorded his
thoughts in the Analects, and after his death, his teachings became hugely influential. Confucius’s
personal disappointments seem paralleled by his dissatisfaction with the time in which he lived.
He witnessed much inhumane behavior that distressed him but perhaps also inspired him to
encourage others to become more moral and to do good.

A key concept of Confucius’s philosphy was ren, roughly “civility,” “goodness,” or

“humaneness.” If only everyone cultivated ren, then the result would be a tranquil, orderly, and
happy society. Confucius urged always maintaining an attitude of modesty, loyalty, and respect,
as well as keeping one’s emotions firmly under control. Several times in the Analects, Confucius
advocates versions of the Golden Rule as a useful guide to proper behavior.

Lao Tzu/ Lao Zi

The name Daoism derives from dao (literally “the way”). Confucius used the concept of dao to
talk about behavior and ethics; in Daoism, the dao acquires a more abstract, metaphysical sense
separate from the actions of humankind; it is the Way of the Universe or the Way of Nature. In
Daoism, everything in the universe springs from the dao. It is mysterious, formless, beyond words,
nameless, and impossible for humans to comprehend fully. In it, opposites are reconciled. One
cannot understand the dao intellectually, so the goal is to feel it intuitively.

An individual can only achieve oneness with the dao by cultivating a state of emptiness, inactivity,
silence, and receptivity. Rather than actively searching, one should “let go” and allow oneself to
“go with the fl ow,” pursuing and striving for nothing. As you can imagine, the Daoists often
looked on the Confucianists as uptight, always trying to shape and improve on life rather than
letting it take its course.

Daoism is traditionally traced to a fi gure known as Lao Zi (“Old Master”), about whom practically
nothing concrete is known. He advocated withdrawal from the corrupt, chaotic society of his time,
rejecting human institutions (such as government) as unnatural, and advocating living in harmony
with nature.

Over time, Daoism split into two strands: the original system of philosophical Daoism and an
offshoot, religious Daoism. The latter, more popular form acquired many of the trappings of
religion, such as priests, temples, monastic orders, and a pantheon of many gods.

Compiled by:

Ms. Dolly Mae F. Villaruz

References:

https://www.fortbendisd.com/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=178567&datai
d=105807&FileName=3850_HistoryAncientWorld.pdf

https://www.BensonIlliad_Odyssey_Epic_Plays.pdf