The Guide for the Perplexed

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Oedipus the King

Author:Sophocles 

Summary: Oedipus was abandoned as a baby because it was prophised he would kill his father and marry his mother. He grows up with a farmer. He kills the King Laius one day (his father) but he did not know it. Then he solved the problem of the Synphx and is now King of Thebes and wife of Jocosta (his mom). Thebes is under a plague because of the person who murdered King Laisus. They call in Tiresias a blind prophet who responds cryptically. Oedipus wants to know now. Tiresias just talks about how the murderer will be both father and brother to his own children, and the son of his own wife. Odeipus is angsty he swaps stories with his wife Jocasta. They call in the Shepard who raised him and they finally realize that he is the murderer, who killed his own father and has had kids with his own mother. They are disgusted. Jocasta hangs herself. Oedipus gouges out his eyes and Creon takes away Oedipus's kids/siblings.

Notes:

This is a drama not a narrative, the deeds must proceed from the charecters not the narrative. There wasn't a division between secular and state. As the story 

It is by the death of mortals that the divine work through them. The more divine there is in you the more it eats through you. You must die to reveal the god inside. 

The opposed moving principles are

Oepipus: Believes he has control -> active

Tirsius - > accepts that he doesn't have control -> truth -> receptive

Oedipus is self moved he moves by logic.But he treats reason like an instramaunt which can be used to bring about progress.

The greeks knew the limits of reaspm amd feared it. 

Tirsius: Has Apollos vision and here he acts as the 

The goal is not to become a master over reason and use it, the goal is to become like Tyrseus and be receptive. In seeing it all he misses the details. It is a terrible thing to see the truth. 

Aristotlian Tragedy: Brings about pity 

The play is about the conflict of the good within itself

Truth is receptive to everything and also foundational to everything.

Being is interchangeable with nothing.

Being that is also the same as nothing because it is no particular. This is also a kind of ignorance

We brought nothing into the world we only receive

You need both activity and receptivity

The tragic hero must be in between great virtue and great evil and his fall must be the consequence of a a hamartia - missing the mark.

Vocab:

Hamartia: missing the mark

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Antigone

Author: Sophocles 

Summary: Antigone's brothers killed each other, one was a traitor and is being denied burial. She wants to bury him anyway, she tries to enlist her sister Ismene who is not down for midnight burials. Antigone does it anyway. Creon the king finds out and gets mad. Antigone defends her case. Creon gets progressively more angry. Until even his son (who is engaged to Antigone but Antigone could care less about him) pleads for Antigone. Oh and Ismene decided she wants to take some credit as well but Antigone with have none of either of them. She will die for this herself. Creon locks her in a cave, she hangs herself, Hameon stabs himself, and Creon cries.

Greek Tragedy was written to be performed at the religious festival to Dionysus. This was both a political and a religious event. They came together as a community to collectively deliberate about how the polis is run. The plays were concerned with two things

-How to be pious to the gods 

-How to live in community

Vocab: 

patei mathos: wisdom through suffering

Notes: Creon and Antigone do not recognize each other  

There is in this play behind the scenes a divine totality and a political totality which moves the scene without ever having to appear.

Duty to City vs Duty to Family

We are limited but justice is of the unlimited we cannot have it all: we cannot have both the city and the family.

Passing of time is the gradual paying of justice over a long period of time by hands of the limited onto each other.

Creon and Antigone limit and oppose each other

Antigone: Pluto's girl, obsessed with death(burial rights), wants the family over the city

Creon: The laws of the city must be respected or the city will be destroyed. Zeus's boy, obsessed with city. 

But both Creon and Antigone are defined by each other. Creon is patronly, Antigone a political lobbyiest. In their extremes they destroy themselves.

Absolute rule which listens to no-one leads you to rule onver no-ne except yourself. Creon rules nothing but a dessert island

Antigone, dies alone in a cave, without ever attaining the family she fought for.

They both forgot about marriage. Marriage joins together the family and the state. The painful lived knowledge of suffering is caused by what they did not recognize.

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Thucydides: The Peloponnesian Wars

Thucydides was held up by 19th centuary German historians because of his supposed objectivity. He seems to be objective and only showed the true hard facts. Very anayltic in style wants to see the whole thing. The problem is that he isn't very good at citing sources (ie. he would not make it in fyp). He was a general in the  Peloponnesian War and told a v biased version of history. The Peloponnesian war happened between Athens and Sparta and concludes with Sparta absolutely crushing Athens. This is what Thucydides documents in a rather tragic fashion.

Summary:

It starts with an account of Nicias vs Alcibiades debating about whether they should go to war. Nicias is old and responsible it is to much money, war would be foolish. Albibiades is young and enigmatic. He offers promises and flatters the people, ultimately convincing them to go to war. They attack and were totally annihilated. When they retreat they are absolutely slaughtered in the river. Albicais turns out to be a traitor and Nicias has to pick up the pieces.

Notes: If we do not rule others they will rule us. An imperial empire must expand and continue to conquer This isn't sustainable it will collapse. It is tragedy. Athens brought this defeat upon herself. And Peloponnesian war leaves a recurring tragic mentality on the city of Athens.

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Herodotus

Little is known about Herodotus's own life, except that he wrote histories and lived after the Persian Wars. When he recorded history he acknowledge many sources not just those that seemed plausible. So there were all sorts of crazy stories, my particular favorite is the one about the dolphin who swims a man across an ocean after he wins a singing competition. He included everything no matter how bizarre.

For the greeks history is shaped by tragic patterns.

Summary:

Begins with the story of Gyges the King of Lydia. The king before him wanted Gyges to watch him having sex with his wife. The wife found out and got mad. She then forces Gyges to either commit suicide ot to kill the king and marry her making Gyges king.

Then the story of King Croesus. He is very rich and wants somebody to tell him, enter Solon a wise ruler of Athens who set up a legal system there and then left for ten years to see how it would turn out. Solon tells Croesus that he isn't the happiest person on earth because you can't know how happy a person is until you know how they died. Wealth has nothing to do with how happy we are. Luck can turn against us or for us at any moment. Croesus is angry because he thinks he's happy. Then Croesus dreams about how his son Atys will die of a wound. When getting ready for Atys' wedding a guy named Gordias shows up. Gordias accidentally killed his  brother. Croesus cleanses him and takes him into the family. Then Atys wants to go on a bull hunting trip. Croesus says no but finally relents when Gordias says he will protect him. But tragedically strikes and Gordias accidentally kills Atys with a spear instead of the bull. Croesus cries, buries his son, and banishes Grodias. Tragedy sucks.

Vocab: 

Olbios: Happy blessed prosperous

Tragedy: By our own feathers we are slain.

The reversal of fortune 

-Don't realize it until it happens

-It happens when everything seems to be good.

It will happen again it is the pattern of history it is the way things are.

Notes: "His purpose is to prevent the traces of human events from being erased."

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Th Odyssey

Author: Homer

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/odyssey/summary.html

In Greece ther was no central imperial government, rather it was composed of many city states called polis'. Homer wrote two poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. Both are historically inaccurate with the time they were written but reading this type of historical fiction is a way to learn about the present through the past.

The poem is not told linearly it jumps around. It is delivered through Muses who are divinely inspired. When Odyseus finally becomes his own bard it shows his rebirth

Hero:

Centered around a hero who is journeying towards home. They believed themselves to be between the gods and nature.

How does the hero reconciles desire with:

-gods,

-other humans (alive and dead)

-nature

For Odysseus reason is his weapon (polytropis). But he learned the limits of his own mortality and justice by using it because reason come into conflict with emotions, nature, and others

Heroic Code:

-Pursuit of Honor

-Virtue is recognized -> Glory

-Piety

-Hospitality: is a human in their place in the polis, it is regularized and ritualized. Belongs to Zeus when you violate it you violate him

nature [humans] gods

There was a difference between mortality and immortality, even though they couldn't change it.

Odyseus' wisdom has come from a long journey. Wisdom comes through suffering. His journey home is an opportunity to become king again.

  The Odyssey:

Post War World. Odysseus is a king and the last Greek to return home.Home is both geographical and metaphorical Home is the ideology of the polis.

The Odessy is not simply human it is told through a muse who has divine insight. 

Charecters and Places:

Ithaca: Odyseus home

Athena: Goddess of Wisdom

Poisdien: God of Ocean and horses

Zeus: God of hospitality and king of the Gods

Antonious: Nasty suitor

Penelope: Odyseus wife who is very cunning she demonstrates this by weaving

Telemakos: Odysseus son (insert Lion king song "Im gonna be a king one day!") Also his experience of the world is a microcosm of his father journey.

Kirke: Primative non-Olympian godess. She turns people into pigs also helps Odyssey to get to the underworld.

Eurichlaya: Is both ODyseus and Telemakos' nurse and an all round awesome persona to have on your side. She discovers 

Kalypso: Beautiful Goddess. Odysseus is trapped on her island at the beginning.

Vocab:

Polis: City state

Nostos: Home Coming

Oikos Home

Polytropis: Cunning, truning, shifting

dikay: justice shared by the gods and the greeks

cosmos: universe 

Theodicy: The gods desire, if not require, that men realize the gods rationally

Hospitality: 

Thumas: the will to kill!!!!!!!!!

Half Truths: encorperates elements of truth in falsehood

Double Motivation: Divine intervention actualizes something already within the human in context of a larger context.

Hero: An exemplary individual, who's experience is measured against the cosmos. They are the best of mortals.

Greek God's:

The God's and the greeks shared justice and reason . The Gods yearn for men to adhere to the gods. They accomplish this through double motivation. The gods can help humans but they can not do the work in place of the human

The journey:

Odyseus' journey is pysicic (of the soul), one that Odysseus tells through experience, it tests his humanity compares it with the divine and shows there is no humanity without community.

Once Odysseus returns to the polis he must work to restore the social and democratic order. But he can't establish hospitality without going to the depths of the social class.

Odysseus teaches us that even the greatest of human accomplishments are subject to the limits of the human condition.

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Exodus

The Israelite are enslaved in Egypt. Pharaoh decides to kill all the first born  male babies by throwing them in the Nile. Moses' mother and his sister Miriam save him by putting him in a basket in the river. Pharohs daughter finds him. He is raised in the palace. When he's grown up he get's angry at someone beating a jewish slave and murders him. He runs away to the dessert where he's a shepard for 40 years. Then one day he encounters God in a burning bush. He is sent back to Egypt to set God's people free. Moses is scared because he stuters so God agrees to have his brother moses help. Pharoh and Moses go back and forth negotiating for the Isrealites freedom. God inflics 10 plagues on Egypt 

1. Water to Blood

2.Frogs

3.Lice

4.Flies

5. Live stock diesed

6.Boils

7. Thunder and Hail

8. Locusts

9.Darkness

10, Death  of First borns 

Pharaoh finally lets the Israelites go, the wander in the dessert get to the red sea. Moses parts it. Pharaoh changes his mind chases after moses and dies in the process.

Charecters:

YHWH: God

Moses:

Arron: Moses' Brother

Miriam: Moses' sister

Notes:

Moses turns his face away from God because he see's himself as unworthy. Noahs ark -> to Moses in the -> Moses means the one who was born in the womb and the one who was drawn out of water

Moses will command Arron will do

Hardening of Pharaoh's heart: The hear is concerned with understanding and intention. Hardening means strengthening. Pharaoh is Manifesting his own heart. God refuses to recognize other divine authorities. Judaism is monotheistic.

Other notes: Plagues were an education for the future nation of Israel. God is a God of history.  Same verb is used for strengthening as for going out. 

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The Ten Commandments

You shall have no other gods before Me.

You shall not make idols.

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Honor your father and your mother.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet.

Notes: The 10 commandments are the clearest and most pwerful expression of God's love. Hebrew word for Justice is the same as the word for charity.

God's love is expressed through law.

Law: the means by which the Nation of Israel will experience the faces of God in the faces of their neighbor.

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Genesis

Quick Synopsis: God creates the heavens and the earth (see list of days below). Adam is created on the 6th day....On the 7th day God rests. Everything is good except Adam is lonely. God creates Eve out of Adams rib. Adam and Eve walk with God in the garden, they name things (intellectualize ect,) The only thing they cannot do is eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve is tempted to eat the fruit by the snake, Adam has some as well. God gets angry and banishes them from the Garden They are cursed to have painful child-birth and hard work. Humanity is separated from God and they are banished from Paradise.

Notes: God's name is YHWH which means, I will be who I will be. God's name forewarns us of trying to comprehend predict of calculate god's presence. The proper name of God is not to be spoken. No human can see God in his full Glory but his ethical intentions can be known . We can't see his face or essence but we can know him by his ways. We discover God's way in the created whole. Human reason has an elevated position. It is by rational observations that we come to know God in our finite ways.

Things to keep in mind:

-God's unpredictability

-God's Grace

-Account 1 = something commanded

               2= something restricted

Account 1:

God creates the world. In the beginning he is talking to himself not about himself. "Let there be light" is not a command it is said and it is.

1st day Light

2nd day Heaven

3rd day Dry Land and seas

4th day Sun Moon and Stars

5th day Water Sea Life and birds

6th day land animals and man

The story of creation moves in ascending order from lesser to higher. Only men can change his ways. We are the pinnacle of creation

Man is created in the image of God. Our rational intellect gives us the image of God.

Second Creation Account (not rival but sequel):

In paradise Adam and Eve rationalized (perhaps Adam was the first philospher?). Adam and Eve existed above the distinction of good and bad.

Fruit is forbidden snake tempts them Adam and Eve eat fruit. They are taken away from truth and given to passions. Instead of good and bad there is good and evil.

When God finds out he goes into a rage! But then he gives them clothes - he cannot be predicted. It is wrong to single out single episodes. We must live with the co-existence of all his ways.

Characters:

YHWH: Transcendent God (utterly outside of and other than and before world)

Adam: generic term for person or earth bound human 

Eve: Was made out of Adams rib

Serpent: Is a liar

Notes: The Hebrew bible was understood to have divine origins. The torah (the five books of moses) was communicated through Moses to the People

Terms:

Image: (is not a shape of configuration) it is the true reality of a thing

Eloyhim: is earthly ruler or "god"

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The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 

In the  Epic of Gilgamesh world dreams where considered facts, poetry was not considered subjective , and there was no distinction between words and what they stood for. Humans were passive and perceptive. Priests were bridges. Idols were gods, not just an image of a god. Water brought life and death it must be subdued yearly in a ritual. They feared the motion of the waters. It was both a blessing and a curse. Wisdom sets ups above the beast but it also gives us knowledge of good and evil. When Gilgamesh crosses the waters he conquers death. 

Random Gilgamesh notes:

-Gilgamesh resents the gods. Why should the gods rule, why can't man rule? 

-Gilgamesh doesn't fear death he will live forever in fame

-Humans are born out of blood and death

-Gilgamesh see's his own reflection in Enkidu

Developments: Humans have worth and responsibility. The city is a human creation. Man is becoming aware of his creation. Gilgamesh is a human story, by a human for humans.

Gilgamesh - King of Uruk 2/3's god

Enkidu - created by the Gods to be a match for Gilgamesh

Ishtar - Angry Godess of Love

Enlil - God of earth and wind protector of Gilgamesh

Utnapishtum - They guy who survived the flood

Plot Summary: Gilgamesh King of Uruk is 2/3's god, kingly, beautiful, and strong. Lorded over people by stealing virgins the night before their wedding The people complained to the Gods so the gods sent Enkidu to be a match for him. At first Enkidu ran wild and free like an animal in the forest until Harlot entices him with sex and food. Enkidu is civilized now and can't return to the animals so he goes to fight Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and Enkidu grapple breifly before they begin to love each others...like brothers? Gilgamesh wants to fulfill his destiny so they go off to the Mountain to cut down the cedar forest. They kill the demon Humbaba with the help of the winds which were a gift from Enlil. When they come back Ishtar falls in love with Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh tells her off. Then angry Ishtar gets her father to send a bull (7 years of drought) Enkidu and Gilgamesh win! Enkidu proceeds to throw the thigh in Ishtar's face. The punishment for this is that one of them must die, the gods decide it will be Enkidu. Enkidu suffers and shares a vision of the underworld, which is dusty and depressing, finally he dies and Gilgamesh cries. Gilgamesh won't stop greiving, he puts on animal skins, and goes out to seek immortality. He goes on a journey to find Utnapishtim, who survived the flood and lives on the other side of the mountain. He travels through total darkness, he travels over the sea with the boatman Urshanbi, finally he finds Utapishtim. Utapishtim says if you want immortality he must stay awake for a week. Ushpishtim tells the story of the flood and Gilgamesh falls asleep. Lucky for Gilgamesh Ushpishtims wife convinces him to give the cup of youth positon to Gilgamesh anyway. Unfortunately a snake steals the youth potion and Gilgamesh returns home empty handed. But on the brightside he has now reconciled with his mortality. He's going to die, but the city is a pretty great place to be, he goes on to be a good king and dies of old age after a long successful reign and of course carving his story into stone so at least his name will live on forever. 

Notes: Gilgamesh is a problem because he is to big - he doesn't fit in a city. Mesopotamians worked in a system, know yourself, know where you belong and it will all be ok. Harlot teaches us that there are pleasures outside of nature found only in civilization. Sleep and death are the human condition.

Vocab:

Mountains: Symbolic of Death

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Akkadian Creation Story

The Mesopotamian Culture had no conception of the self outside of nature. They did not value logical coherent objectivity because there was no distinction between themselves and the world around them. The Creation story is not a retelling of a narrative as we conceive it rather it was a form of enlightenment that brought order to chaos. Their mode of thinking was drawn from metaphysical imagery. Everything was a complex system of signs that could be read and interpreted. There is no supra-natural creator - nature propagates itself, nature is the living presence of the Gods. 

Tiamat - Goddess of the Ocean/Water

Apsu - God

Ea- God of wind

Marduck - Young God who triumphs

Summery: Tiamat and Apsu are the primevil gods the noise of the older gods is annoying them. Apsu wants to kill the young gods but Tiamat watns Ea and his brothers. Ea puts Apsu in a coma, kills hi, and becomes king. Ea has a son Murduk who likes to play with wind. When Murdock plays with the wind Tiamat can't sleep, so after some persuasion Tiamat decides to avenge her husband. She creates11 monsters and they win the battle over the younger Gods reinstating Kingu as her new husband. Marduck challenges Tiamat and destroys her. Afterwards Marduk rips Tiamat's body in half to create the earth and the sky. The gods who liked Tiamat are enslaved until Marduck kills Kingsu and makes humans out of his blood to do the work of the Gods.

Note: The Creation story was treated symbolically and was reenacted every year. This reenactment was not a representation of the event rather it was believed to actually be the creation story. There was not certainty from one year to another that Tiamat and the waters of the nile would be surprassed. They were not observoring nature they were a part of it.

Vocab:

Delfi- Womb

Gaia- Earth