Midterm Exam - Fall 2022 (The Mahabharata and the Odyssey)

Culture

The customs, history, art, language, and traditions of a group of people which unites them and makes them unique.

Civilization (in your own words)

The point at which an advanced society, founded upon agricultural practices, has enough wealth to afford its people leisure time and promote advanced technologies.

Can include division of labor among people, walled cities, extensive governing bodies, excrement removal technology, and more.

barbarian (in your own words)

Generally relating to "unfamiliar" or "outsider"; not seen as a part of the group calling themselves "civilized."

Can refer to people who are more violent, more tribal, or just practice extensively different cultural norms than another group.

philosophy (in your own words)

The study of thinking, knowledge, reality, and our place in the world.

Can also refer to a system of thought.

literature (in your own words)

Written works that have significant literary and historical merit and are often novels or poems.

human being (in your own words)

Separated from other animals by complex thought processes, knowledge, and consciousness. Some say presence of soul.

Contrapposto

Italian Term

Means "Counterpoise"

Use in visual arts to describe a figure standing with most of its weight on one foot: shoulders and arms twist off axis from hips and legs back into the axial plane

Two Epics in Hindu Literature

The Ramayana and The Mahabharata

Epic

Long/Formal narrative poem

Written in Elevated Style

Recounts adventures of a hero of mythic/almost mythic proportions

Hero often embodies traits of a nation or people

The Ramayana

More contemporary than Mahabharata

Single Author: Valmiki

Battle between entirely different cultures:
- Good (North India) Hero: Rama, Sita (his abducted wife) and Hanuman
- Evil (South India) Ravana

Ramayana has been used in contemporary political movements and expressions in India

The Mahabharata

Longest poem in the world

Composed between 400 BCE - 400 CE

War between family: Pandavas (sons of Pandu) and Kauravas (sons of Pandu's brother Dhritarashtra, the Blind King)

Full of philosophical asides that aren't critical to the narrative

The epic appears in Indian dancing, theater and puppet theater, and art

Varna

Hindu Castes

The idea has been challenged by multiple novels and social movements

Brahmin

Hindu priest caste

Kshatriya

Hindu warrior/administrative caste

Vaishya

Hindu farmers/merchants

Shudra

Hindu servant class

Dalits

Hindu "untouchables"

Dharma

Social Duty
(One of the four main goals of Hinduism)

Karma

Personal consequences of actions

Sati

When a Hindu woman throws herself upon the funeral pyre of her husband to die with him

Setting oneself on fire is also done as a means of protest by martyring, such as the protesters during America's joining the war in Vietnam.

Fasting Buddha

After reaching enlightenment, Shakyamuni Buddha fasts for 49 days

Shows control over his body

Sits on kusha grass

First sermon in Sarnath India

Buddha's Life

Sarnath, India (6th-4th century BCE)

Stupa

Buddhist place of Meditation

Buddhism

Life is Suffering

Founded by rich prince who renounces all material possessions

Critical of Hindu castes

Use meditation and self control to reach enlightenment

Many paths (non-doctrinaire)

Buddhism Location

Mainly NOT India

Traveled to much of China, Japan, and Eastern and Southeastern Asia

Sanskrit

Sacred language of Hinduism

Indo-European Languages

Include Greek, Latin, Celtic, Norse-Germanic, Italian, Spanish, and English

NON Indo-European Languages

Include Semitic Languages (Arabic, Hebrew), Chinese, or the Dravidian languages of South India

Rig Veda History

Oldest "book" in any Indo-European language

Only the Mesopotamian and Egyptian literatures are older

Composed by semi-nomadic Vedic people who moved into Punjab region about 2000 BCE

Rig Veda

- Hymnal
- 1028 poems/mantras/incantations which are grouped in 10 circles/mandalas
- Refuse to be preserved in writing
- Not recitec after eating meat, seeing blood/body, or having intercourse
- Women, pariahs, and non-believers excluded from transmission
- Transmitted from Brahmin father to son in a songlike manner with dancing movements so that all the words will be remembered accurately
- Rig Veda = "What is heard"

Hymns to the Cow

From Rig Veda:
Represents the movement from eating cattle for meat to domesticating them for milk (primitive agriculture to pastoralism)

Hymns to the Horse

From Rig Veda:
Discusses man's best friend, the horse:
- eats grass to the roots
- won't eat near their own feces
- warrior's beast

Primaeval Man:

Mouth = Brahmin
Arms = Kshatriya
Thighs = Commoners/fertility/producers
Feet = Servants

Taj Mahal

- Marble mausoleum
- Banks of Yamuna River in Agra, India
- Built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan
- Tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal

Fatehpur Sikri

- 1571
- Capital of Mughal Empire
- Founded by Emperor Akbar

Mughal Empire

- Ruled in India from 16th to 19th centuries
- Came from Central Asia to invade the plains of India
- Ruled loosely (no Muslim conversion)
- Establish tax collecting system

Why did the Mughal Empire decline?

- Stagnation
- Decadence
- Excessive Taxation/Exploitation
- Rise of European Technology (British East India Company)

Four Main Goals of Hinduism

Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha

Artha

Activities, Career, Financial Security
(One of the four main goals of Hinduism)

Kama

Desires, Wishes, Passions, Love (both with and without sexual connotation)
(One of the four main goals of Hinduism)

Moksha

Emanipation, Liberation, Release
(Buddhist Nirvana)
(One of the four main goals of Hinduism)

8 Fold Path of Righteousness

Right:
- view
- resolve
- speech
- conduct
- livelihood
- efford
- mindfulness
- samadhi (meditative awareness/union)

FROM EPIC: Sacrifice, study, charity, truth, forgiveness, mercy, and contentment

Wheel of Time

- On the flag of India, is actually a callback to Ghandi's independent textile production in rebellion against the British
- Dhritarashtra says "I am tied to the wheel of time" (128)

The Bhagavad Gita

Krishna's monologue to Arjuna in the Mahabharata about fighting without passion

Goal: Moksha, release from Samsara, eternal cycle of death and rebirth

Tries to accommodate rising religions (Buddhism and Jainism) as well as Vedas and Upanishads

Influences many future activists including
- Henry David Thoreau
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Ahimsa

Sanskrit for "non-injury"

Upanishads

- MOST composed 7-5 century BCE
- SOME composed as late as 15 century CE
- 112 hymns in sanskrit
- "Second Urbanization" - rice paddy cultivation, forest retreats
- Less brahmin control, more kshatriya run states, more individuality/less caste
- Upanishads = "What is remembered"
- Shift to common speech
- No unified philosophical system
- Seen as interpreting and completing the Vedas
- Atman is Brahman = Self is world = "You are that" = Purpose of life is to recognize that connection

Om

"Sound of the Spirit" / Meditative Sound

Clytemnestra and Aeschylus's Oresteian Trilogy

- Based on Trojan War
Book 1:
- Agamemnon (Greek Leader) has no wind to get to Troy
- Sacrifices his daughter to start winds
- Is killed by his wife (and her lover, who is also her son) in the bathroom when he returns
Book 2:
- Son Orestes avenges his father by killing his mother and her lover
Book 3:
- Third son is chased by wrath of female gods but is determined not guilty (establishes patriarchy)

Cyclades

- String of Greek Islands
- Had a minimalist/abstract sculpting style (Picasso borrowed from this)

Polis

Greek City State
Greece had a very island based culture

Ithaca

Homeland of Odysseus

Thebes

Related to the tale of Oedipus

Delphi

Where the Oracles are (North of Athens)

Athens

Center of the Greek Empire
("Golden Age" age of Pericles, 450-400 BCE)

The Peloponnese

- Large peninsula off mainland Greece
- Less populated/ "cultural backwater"
- Contains Argos and Sparta

Sparta

Warrior city-state that becomes the biggest opponent to Athenians (and leads to the downfall of Athens with non-Greek allies)

Crete

King Minos (The bull, the labyrinth, Daedalus, Ariadne, Theseus)

Troy

(Myth) War fought here to save Helan, the stolen wife
(Historically) May have been a geopolitical war since Troy was a very strategically positioned city
The Trojan War takes 10 years

Lesbos

Island below Troy
Home of Sappho, great lyric poet

Samothrace

Remote Island near Troy

Aspects of The Odyssey

- Sequel to Iliad
- Odysseus returns home after 10 year war with Troy
- Hospitality is important
- Hexameter, improvisation, bards

Define Odyssey

A long and eventful or adventurous journey/experience
For the Greeks, the story of Odysseus

Traits of Odysseus

Crafty, deceitful, good talker

Agamemnon

Man who sacrificed his daughter to start winds and then was killed when he returned by his wife Clytemnestra (who was in love with her son)

In Medias Res

"In the middle of the action"
The Odyssey opens directly in the middle of the action
The Mahabharata opens with historical background (not in medias res)

Pediment

Triangular shape above a building (between roof and building
In Parthenon, naturalistic human sculptures were shaped to fit inside
Athens also had many other noteworthy works like the Parthenon Frieze and the Acropolis, which held the Parthenon

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin (1766-1841)

Stole statues from Greece during war between Turks and British
Stole to save them from bombshelling
These works are in the British Museum and are still controversial today

Hellenistic Art

- After Pericles/Parthenon time
- Movement towards having more passion in Greek Art (which had been avoided in earlier times

Hellenistic Period

- After death of Alexander the Great (323 BC)
- Power shifts to Western Mediterranean (Rome is rising)
- Emphasis on drama/plays done for Dionysus (god of wine)
- Build theaters with natural acoustics

Parts of Greek Theater

Skene, Parados, Orchestra, Theatron

Didaskaloi

Playright, teacher, educator, director

Parados

Place for chorus

Orchestra

Place for dancing

Skene

Stage with tent

Aristotle's Poetics

- Only Tragedy and Comedy plays existed at this time
- Genre studies emerge from this writing
- Believes that:
- Historians write what has happened
- Poets write what could have happened
- Therefore poetry is more philosophical/significant than history

Mimesis

- Copying/representation of things
- From Aristotle's poetics
- Humans are the most imitative of all beings (we want to learn)

Definition of Tragedy (5 parts)

- (1) Imitates noble and complete action (beginning, middle, and end)
- (2) Has proper magnitude (falling from grace/high status into low status)
- (3) Enhanced/Embellished poetic language used in tragedy
- (4) Dramatic (acted out) not narrative (told/explained) form
- (5) Represents pitiable and fearful incidents to achieve catharsis by those incidents

Parts of a Tragedy (6 Parts)

- (1) Plot = story
- (2) Character = people
- (3) Diction = elevated word choice/beauty of speech
- (4) Thought = Language imbued with philosophical ideas
- (5) Spectacle = Acting/Special Effects, performance, larger than life
- (6) Melody = Soft/flowery song, associated with women, melodrama (inferior/over the top drama)

Recognition in Drama

A change in the plot/main hero from ignorance to recognition which changes the state of the play

Transition from Roman Republic to Roman Empire

- Power decreases in Greece and moves towards Rome
- Republic (509-27 BCE): Was some form of Democracy
- 27 BCE: Octavian takes over with unprecedented power
- Empire: Emperors now in charge of land extending into Africa and Asia. Rome becomes the largest city in the world (peak in 117 AD

Flavian Dynasty

- Short Dynasty following the abusive reign of Nero
- Spent their rule giving back to the city (Includes Colosseum)

Virgil's Aeneid

- Roman competitor to Homer's epic poems
- Founding narrative of Roman people
- Story: Trojans are defeated by Greeks and migrate to Italian mainland, defeating the Latins and forming the Roman empire
- Hero: Aeneas (stoic, duty filled) Antagonist: Dido, queen of Carthage
- Virgil = Dante's guide in The Inferno
- Main theme: Stoic Duty

Stoicism

- Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens
- Stoic person can endure pain/hardship without showing feelings/complaining
- Aeneas vs Odysseus

Roman Rhetoric

- Art of Persusion, Departure from Plato's Notion of Truth
- Cicero (106-43 BC)
- Disbelief in truth and Belief in being able to argue your own point
- Cynicism about politics

St. Augustine (354-430 CE)

Led to Rise of Christian Sects in Rome

Emperor Constantine (272-337 CE)

Roman emperor who converted to Christianity and impacted Rome because of that

"Confessions" (397-400 AD)

"I came upon a book by a certain Cicero, whose tongue almost all men admire but not his heart"

Roman Advancements to Civilization

- Cities were built in grid
- Easier to police
- Economic efficiency
- Aquaducts

Jacques Lacan (1901-1981)

Said that a waste disposal system was a sign of great civilization

Colosseum

Build by Flavian Emperors as a place for sports and the community

Pantheon

A Roman version of the Greek Parthenon (similar but not a direct copy

Socrates

- Pursued truth through questioning
- Valued self understanding as the beginning of knowledge
- "The unexamined life is not worth living"
- Street teacher in Athens

Plato

- Follower of Socrates
- Wrote down all of Socrates' teachings (Socrates wrote nothing down)
- Views Socrates as an intellectual hero

Allegory of the Cave

A parable by Socrates showing that it is hard to see the truth/come into another way of thinking

When a person does come into this new way of thinking, those still dedicated to past ways of thinking reject them because of what they now believe

Once you find a new belief you realize that those you left behind are fools, and those you left behind hold that new belief against you