ENGL 251 - Midterm (Bible, The Iliad, The Odyssey)

(Para)(noia)

Para: beside/beyond

Noia: mind

Definition: describes apprehension before adventure; fear of leaving/losing peace and comfort

Typology

Study of connections, similarities, and differences between myths

Mythos

Definition: story (greek)

Used to control and influence people; those struggling find myth more seductive; NEVER entirely true or false

Myths connect the unknown with the known

What are the greatest lies in history?

Greatest lies in history are not false facts, but what's left out and not told

Stories

All stories start with fact

FACT --> STORIES --> MORALS

Kitsch

Definition: when something is reduced to simple terms for stupidity; used to describe cheap art --> often used in politics

Primal myths

Oldest history/stories (ORAL TRADITION) before recording

Femme fatale

Women who'll bring destruction; hold all the power

Ex.) Eve (original femme fatale), Helen of Troy

(Arch)etype

Arch: original

Definition: base format of a type of character

Ex.) Tragic hero, knight of faith, victim, etc.

Jesus/Yeshua/Yahweh/El

Represents the poor; against power and greed

El --> Had a female consort (Asherah), but was later erased because Jews believed their misfortune was because they didn't just love their god

Bible (YEARS)

The gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) --> written 70-120 years after Jesus died

Asynoptic vs. Synoptic

Asynoptic: appears in only ONE gospel

Synoptic: appears in ALL the gospels (more likely to be true)

Religion & Faith

There is no religion without faith, there needs to be DOUBT and DREAD

Religion lives in the REALM OF THE ABSURD, with only reason there would be no religion

Journey to faith is a path walked alone

Religion is a projection of the mind's desires

Christian paradox/Fortunate fall theory

People don't want the fall to happen, but without it Jesus wouldn't exist --> they want Jesus

Abraham

1800 BC

Prior to Abraham is myth/pre-history --> after him is history

NOT a hero, but a KNIGHT OF FAITH

Father of Judaism

Father of Christianity

Father of Muslims

Ancestor of Jesus

Being an individual

Myth and patterns of archetypes are engraved in us, making it hard to stray from them and be an individual

Monomyth

Definition: overall stories that encompass everything

All myths are about birth, life, suffering, struggle, and death/return/rebirth

Majority are MALE myth (journey and adventure)

Minority are FEMALE myth (renewal, life, nurturing, fertility)

Theodicy

Definition: the belief that God should never be blamed; always justifies God's actions

Satan

Definition: adversarial self (God's alter ego)

Serpent represents chaos, but never lied

Used in the Old Testament

Devil

Definition: someone who is a slanderer, makes you look bad

Only used later on in the Bible, New Testament

Amoral

Definition: WITHOUT knowledge of moral sense, neither good or evil

Ex.) Garden of Eden --> fall is about being amoral

Immoral

Definition: KNOWING something is wrong and doing it

Nonmoral

Definition: a BRIEF moment when a person is not moral (as though a lapse of judgement)

The Creation

2 ACCOUNTS

J/Y ACCOUNT: written first (1000 BC), during Time of Solomon (Golden Age), Adam told to nurture and take care of the garden and the creatures in it

--> could have been written by Solomon's daughter

P ACCOUNT: written second (400 BC), during Macedonian/Greek empire (conquering/power), tells Adam to subdue and have dominion over the land

"Before everything was, I am" = Jesus response to nonbeliever, eternal and omnipresent

6th day of the Creation

P Account: humans were created, God is all-powerful/distant, God is nameless ("Lord") --> Adam is created and Eve was made from his RIB (she's not as important and has less power)

J/Y Account: God is a sculptor, he's intimate and close, he tells Moses his name ("YHWH" = most ancient Hebrew god name) --> Adam is created first and Eve from his SIDE (she's created as his equal)

The Fall

Is about eating the apple and understanding morality

Cain and Abel

Cain (FARMER) & Abel (SHEPHERD)

Ways of life: Settler vs. nomad

About not questioning God and wondering "How should we live our lives?"

Abraham and Isaac

Abraham is told to sacrifice his heir, Isaac, at the top of Mount Moriah --> leap of faith

Needs to love God, Isaac, and the action of sacrificing his son AND believe Isaac will be returned to him in that life

Parallels: Isaac carries wood used for his sacrifice, Jesus carries the cross for his crucifixion

Ethics are temporarily suspended & Abraham returns a good father

Jonah and the whale

Written by the E author (Elohim) in 530 BC (thought to be fisherman's tale)

--> "belly of the whale" = terrible time/period of strife

Jonah told to go to Nineveh (Jonah (Jewish) doesn't want to convert others, believes only they should be in God's eyes)

He flees and God sends a storm, Jonah offers to be thrown off the boat and gets eaten by a whale --> he gets angry at God for forgiving and converting Ninevites

Can't curse God's decisions if he didn't create the world

Ways of interpretating the Bible

Morally, figuratively, literally, spiritually

Asherah & El

Part of the Canaanite mythology --> Erased from the Bible (J account)

As the transition to Jewish beliefs happened, it turned monotheistic

Believed that because they loved both El and Asherah, they had misfortune

Four levels of moral development

LOWEST

To avoid punishment, out of fear

Something is in it for you, will benefit

You recognize that they're community despite differences

Intrinsic virtue, to help others who can't help themselves

Willing to suffer/die to help others and save them

HIGHEST

Anthrocentric vs. Theocentric

Anthrocentric: HUMAN centered (Ex. Crucifixion, God sacrifices Jesus FOR MAN)

Theocentric: GOD centered (Ex. Abraham and Isaac, human sacrifices human FOR GOD)

Tragic hero vs. Knight of faith

Tragic hero: DIE/SUFFER and have NO REWARD, act through ETHICS

Knight of faith: have to be CHOSEN, cannot be understood, temporarily SUSPEND ETHICS/REASON

Apocryphal

Definition: not sacred or true

God's perspective

God CHANGES throughout the Bible

Beyond all human understanding of good

Adam and Eve (BANISHES) >> Noah & arc (GENOCIDE) >> Jonah (FORGIVING)

God evolves and is NOT PERFECT ...or... humans are evolving and God is now able to show different sides of him

Homer

Blind poet and performer --> told "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" through ORAL TRADITION

A SUBVERSIVE (challenges the beliefs of his time); gives people what they think they want and undermines it

--> Is trying to change who we make our heroes; ACHILLES is violent, ruthless and hotheaded, but the Greek's HERO whereas HEKTOR, who is honorable and able to reflect without letting his pride get the best of him, is the ENEMY

Homer's 3 political strands in "THE ODYSSEY"

Patriarchy: with Odysseus gone, everyone else is unable to move on and decide what to do

Matriarchy: all the suitors flock to Penelope and Odysseus' home, believing that if they marry her, they'll become king --> gives the WOMAN all the power

Democracy: "town meetings" are called to get everyone's opinion; first done by Odysseus and now by Telemachus before setting sail

Homer's 4 types of stories in "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey"

Adventure (Odyssey represents the ARCHETYPAL ADVENTURE)

Revenge (Achilles fighting for Patroclus)

Man trying to get back home (Odysseus' journey)

Coming of age/Bildungsroman (Telemachus becomes mature and a "man" as he makes decisions to find his father)

Bible --> Iliad

Moves from a monotheism to polytheism

"The Iliad" has no religious hierarchy, all gods appear equally worshiped

Natural religion

All gods come from and are spirits of nature

Greeks believed nature was there first, then gods (Jews believed God first, then nature)

The Iliad

800 BC --> passed through oral tradition, but recorded by Homer's followers

Anti-war epic

About Achilles' anger

Homer tells the epic 400 years after the Trojan War, he sings during the IRON AGE (struggle) about better times (plays off of nostalgia to be seductive)

--> about a place we can't get to, a fantasy (1st world experience, everything is beyond us)

Begins "in medias res" (in the middle of action) 9 years into the Trojan War

Greek gods

Anthropomorphic --> they act on emotion and act like humans

Obsessed with the humans, constantly interfering in their lives

--> obsessed with death, are immortal and can't see beauty

--> don't have empathy

Trojan War

After the war is history (1200 BC), prior is myth

(Pro)t(agon)ist

PRO: forward

AGON: bring

Definition: character who propels the story forward

Achilles

Eloquent and articulate (Homer's time didn't have social conditioning of being one quality over the other)

Tragic hero (NOT HOMER'S HERO)

-->Hubris (pride) is his fault; falls even though he has the potential to be great

Acts out of his rage --> blames his decisions on Foley, daughter of Zeus

irony

Women are possessions, yet...

--> Trojan War was started because of Helen

--> Paris and Menelaus fought over Helen, Agamemnon and Achilles fought over Briseus

--> 3 blind women, the fates, control everything

Tithonus and Eos (goddess of dawn) fall in love, ask for immortality

--> He doesn't ask to stop aging, lives forever while growing old

Comitatus

Bonding between man and man that saves the world; a love between men --> can only take place between equals

In Homer's world, love is only between men since women are of inequal status

Curse of the line of Atrius

Curses have to be passed by blood

ATRIUS & THYESTES (sons of Pelops) fought --> Atrius killed and cooked Thyestes sons and fed them to him

--> Thyestes cursed Atrius and his generations before he was killed

Agamemnon (son of ATRIUS) sacrifices Iphigenia, his daughter --> Clytemnestra (wife) curses him and sleeps with Aegisthus (his cousin)

--> they later kill Agamemnon

Book 22

Homer's message to his audience about why HEKTOR is better

Achilles acts through anger, passion, and revenge WHEREAS Hektor can put his anger and fear behind him

Hektor...

--> Understands he has to reason for good, despite Achilles being the enemy

--> Wants to give back Helen, give 1/2 of Troy's riches, and share with the Greeks; can't because of Achilles

--> Can REFLECT and realizes the war is a mistake

Book 24

Question: Was it truly possible for Achilles to change from brutal to merciful?

Achilles and Priam reach an understanding and cry together --> Achilles mourns for Patroclus and Priam for Hektor

Achilles turns kind and capable of sympathy; Priam (usually calm and patient) becomes angry and lashes out at his sons

Achilles personally bathes, oils, and preps Hektor's body to give to Priam and invites him to stay for dinner and the night

--> Achilles butchers the sheep himself and attempts to protect Priam from Agamemnon

--> Priam doesn't want to stay and leaves during the night under Hermes' protection

Iliad ends with Achilles' anger fading and him gaining empathy and humanity

Homeric simile

Homer making comparisons in his story to catch his breath when he's singing

Epithet, Epigram, Epigraph, Epitaph

Epithet: description that represents a person

Epigram: witty statement to teach a lesson/moral

Epigraph: quote at a beginning of a book

Epitaph: line/saying on a gravestone

Threnody

Song/poem of great sadness and loss to mourn somebody

Epic

Long, complex narrative tale

Characters have to be beyond the world and normal we know

Always about basic, eternal problems

Has to be about an entire epoch of a civilization to embody the natural, cultural, and religious views (harder to create an epic in the modern world because of mixed cultures)

Tragedy vs. Comedy (Iliad vs. Odyssey)

Tragedy: failure is inevitable; ORDER --> CHAOS; about people being alone, their loneliness exalts them; they're an individual; about PATHOS (emotional suffering)

--> people are REBELS

Comedy: failure is NOT inevitable, we can WIN; CHAOS --> ORDER; heroes never learn anything; about stereotypes and ETHOS (culture and values)

--> people act rebellious, but will COMPROMISE

The Odyssey

About ethos, love, and death

2nd world experience where life is more tangible and achievable

Telemachi: first four books since Odysseus doesn't appear until later, all about TELEMACHUS

Takes place 10 years after the Trojan War, Odysseus has been gone for 20 years

--> Odysseus is on Ogygia with the nymphs, becomes a sex slave (he conquers) but doesn't leave for a year

--> Calypso takes over and makes him her slave again

(Irony that women were possessions, but now he's controlled by them)

Odysseus

"Man of all occasions"

"Hero of time"

--> knows exactly when and how to act despite circular wheel of time

"Most clever of men"

(Ompha)lo(skepsis)

Definition: naval gazing --> to think about life and see it widely

OMPHA: naval, center

SKEPSIS: to see widely and contemplate

Monocular: to only see one way, be stupid and incapable of seeing widely (ex. cyclops)

Time

Linear: things eventually get better, always looking forward

Circular (Wheel of time): people never learn from their mistakes, history repeats itself and mistakes are done