Ancient Worlds

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Ancient Worlds

• 3000 BC- AD 1400

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Archetype The Heros Quest

• archetype a basic plot, character, symbol, or
  idea that recurs in the literature of many
  cultures.
• An Archetypal heros quest
• A plot in which an extraordinary person goes on a
  difficult journey or mission.
• The hero may search for
• a person, place, or object of value
• the answer to a problem or puzzling question
• Or some other kind of special knowledge.

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Joseph Campbells Hero w/ 1000 faces

• Stages of a hero
• Stage 1the calling
• Stage 2helper
• Stage 3tests
• Stage 4Belly of a Whale or Abyss
• Stage 5 Final struggles
• Stage 6Elixir
• Stage 7flight
• Stage 8return home

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Examples of the notable hero quests

• Odysseus in the Odyssey
• Searches for the Holy Grail (Arthurian legends)
• Star Wars
• Superman
• Batman

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Historical Background

• About 5000 years ago, several major civilizations
  developed in the fertile river valleys of
  southwest Asia.
• Mesopotamia (Greek name meaning the land between
  two riversThe Tigris and Euphrates) was one of
  these sites.
• Mesopotamia (ancient Sumer) lies in modern day
  Iraq.

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Sumerian civilization

• As founders of Mesopotamian civilization
  (Babylonians and Assyrians would subsequently
  follow) the Sumerians have many firsts to their
  credit
• The regions earliest form of writingcuneiform
  (wedge shaped characters)
• From Latin cuneus for wedge
• A number system based on sixty that led to our
  60-second minute, 60 minute hour, and 360-degree
  circle
• The first wheeled vehicles
• And the earliest city-states

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Cuneiform on clay tablet
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Cuneiform
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Sumerian Literature

• The Sumerians placed great value on literature
  and writing. King Shulgi (2100 BC) wrote
• Now, I swear by the sun god Utu on this very
  dayand my younger brothers shall be witness of
  it in foreign lands where the sons of Sumer are
  not known, where people do not have paved roads,
  where they have no access to the written
  wordthat I, the first born son, am a fashioner
  of words, a composer of songs, a composer of
  words, and that they will recite my songs as
  heavenly writings, and that they will bow down
  before my words

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A Later culture discovers Sumerian writings

• The most impressive surviving literature of the
  Sumerians are their epic poems recorded on clay
  tablets concerning the career and discoveries of
  a legendary king named Gilgamesh.
• The Epic of Gilgamesh is said to embody the
  values and aspirations of the Sumerian people.

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The Epic of Gilgamesh

• A long, narrative poem named for a Sumerian king
  who lived between 2700 and 1500 BC.
• Universal themes
• How to become known and respected
• How to cope with the loss of a dear friend
• How to accept ones own inevitable death
• It is also packed with
• Battles, gods goddesses, heroes, tests of
  strength and wisdom, and arduous journeys.

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Interesting Facts about the discovery in Ancient
Sumer

• Translation ours is in prosethe original epic
  was in long, unrhymed lines of poetry, divided in
  half by a caesura, or a pause.
• After being lost for centuries, archeologists
  excavated Assyrian king, Ashurbanipals library
  in the mid-1880s. They discovered the poem on
  clay tablets in cuneiform.
• Considerable archaeological evidence suggests
  that Gilgamesh did exist. Two historiographic
  texts of the 21st or 20th centuries BC did
  mention Gilgamesh as a king of the city of Uruk
  during the second Early Dynastic period of Sumer.
• The same texts site him as a contemporary of two
  other Sumerian kings, Enmebaragesi of Kish and
  Mesannepadda of Ur.the existence of these kings
  has been confirmed.

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Archetypal quest in Gilgamesh

• A heroic king searches for the secret of
  immortality.