Description
Please respond with 400 words. MLA. style We can gain insight into the artwork of a culture by better understanding the stories they tell. Additionally, we can understand a work of art by understanding its iconography. To understand iconography allow us to ‘read’ an artwork. Look for characters found in these stories which connect to the images and objects from our class (Ex. Inanna, Ishtar, Gilgamesh, Osiris).
In a cohesive academic essay, choose one of the following ancient works of literature (poetry, mythology, religious texts) to read and respond to. These are some of the oldest works ever recorded, dating to around 2000 BCE. Some elements may sound very familiar; some elements will be very strange. Most of these works are fragmentary (some parts are missing), so doing additional research (like a Wikipedia search) is crucial to understanding these works.
Include a brief summary of the work. Include a few quotes from the text, so the reader can get a sense for the flavor and content of the work. Try to connect subjects of the stories to the artworks from our class. Most importantly in your response, what do you think of this work? How does this story compare to some of the stories we tell today? Can you relate to the theme(s) presented in this ancient work of literature? Try to connect subjects of the stories to the artworks from our class.Titles of artworks should be in italics or use quotation marks. You should mention the artwork in the conclusion.
Choose one of the following literary works from the Ancient Near East and Ancient Egypt to write about in a cohesive academic essay:
Ancient Writings from Mesopotamia
The ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’ is the longest but most rewarding. An epic (the 1st epic!) filled with adventure, heroes, monsters, a bromance, and a quest for ever-lasting life.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
http://www.aina.org/books/eog/eog.pdf (Links to an external site.)
Ever lose your lover and wanted them back? Even if you had to go the realm of the dead to retrieve them? ‘The Descent of Ishtar into the Underworld’ is the story for you. The prototype for all future ‘to go to hell and back’ stories.
The Descent of Ishtar into the Underworld
http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/ishtar.htm (Links to an external site.)
Have you ever been curious about how the world began? ‘The Epic of Creation’ is the Sumerian version of the story.
Epic of Creation
http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/enuma.htm (Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.)
‘The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi’ is a story about an arranged marriage. Inanna isn’t so excited about it, at first.
The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~kdickson/inanna.html (Links to an external site.)
Did you know that the earliest known author/editor was a woman? Her name was Enheduanna, daughter to Sargon I.
Hymnal Prayers and Poems of Enheduanna
http://classicalarthistory.weebly.com/library/enheduanna-poems (Links to an external site.)
There are stories about the ‘Tablet of Destinies’, a tablet inscribed with all the things that human civilization requires. The ‘List of Mes’ is that tablet. Its incomplete but we can get insight into the required elements of ‘civilization’.
List of Mes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_(mythology) (Links to an external site.)
Ancient Writings from Egypt
Ever wonder what happens when you die? The Egyptian ‘Book of the Dead’ is a loose collection of texts consisting of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person’s journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife.
The Book of the Dead or The Going Forth By Day
http://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/saoc37.pdf (Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.)
The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor is a breezy Middle Kingdom story, which a sailor’s ship sank in a storm and how he alone survived and was washed up on a mysterious island with a talking serpent made of gold and lapis lazuli. What is the significance of the ‘lord of Punt’ described as being made of the same materials we would see in a cult image/sculpture to a god?
The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor
http://www.ancient.eu/article/180/ (Links to an external site.)
‘The Dispute Between a Man and His Ba’ can be looked at as a story of a man contemplating suicide. Think of it as the earliest version of ‘to be or not to be’.
The Dispute Between a Man and His Ba
https://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu/selections/egyptian-didactic-tale/ (Links to an external site.)
‘The Maxims of Ptahhotep’ are a set of tips for living a good life from a man who is 110 years old. Take notes.
Instruction of Ptah-hotep
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maxims_of_Ptahhotep (Links to an external site.)
‘The 42 Negative Confessions’ are a list of deeds never committed by a man named Ani. They were buried with him to let the Gods know he was a good man and that he was worthy for the afterlife. Don’t you want to know what he didn’t do?
42 Laws of Ma’at or 42 Negative Confessions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat#42_Negative_Confessions_.28Papyrus_of_Ani.29 (Links to an external site.)
