Reflections on a Year of Reading Greece Literature
Books: Oedipus the King,Oedipus at Colonus,Antigone by Sophocles,Eleni by Nicholas Gage,The Odyssey by Homer and Plutarch’s Lives Volume I by Plutarch
Word Count: 589
General Reflections In this year of reading and writing blogs about my reading I learned a lot more about Greece then I had known. In their writing there was a lot of monologues in there which in that was the life lessons that the character. So in this case Greece as known is/was full of philosophers. Greece in all of their books,when the authors write they always include their religion whether they worshiped the Gods of Greece or if they were Catholic. They always thought that in the end that religion may kill them like Odysseus or that it would save them in the end. Greece writing has dealt with political issues and have included that in their writing. I’ve read that somewhere that Greece is “mother to Western literary traditions.” (quora) In the beginning of writing, where literature was born there were no examples or ideas to copy off they just wrote. Thus this being the most common element of Greece literature: their originality. That was what made their writing so real and unique. They had no one to say that their writing was wrong but that it could be written because they could! Finally they developed women heroes but that they didn’t have the “men qualities” many met their deaths like Antigone. In the end many were also sacrifices to the gods to fulfill destiny. Them being more to inspire the male heroes rather than be heroes themselves.
Life Lessons In these books I have learned about life in these Greek books.For instance in Oedipus’s stories I have learned that in the end fate is inevitable, Oedipus’s parents thought that could avoid a prophecy that their son would kill the father so they left him with a servant to grow up somewhere else thinking that the prophecy died. Sadly that did not happen fate worked its ways and Oedipus unknowingly killed his father and then committed an even worse crime: marrying his mother and then having children with her. The next book Eleni taught me about that family is everything and its what holds everything together. In this book World War II was going on in despite that family was what it mattered their love of trying to stay together no matter what. In The Odyssey is that heroes are never to be honored but to be studied,Odysseus was a hero a prophecy that was told that he would be born. Also that true love can exist,he went through oceans and oceans to find his wife,despite not seeing her for 20 years he still wanted to go back to her. In the little of Plutarch’s lives I have learned that yes heroes can learn from others and that humbleness exists to them.
What I Learned About Myself In my year of this I have learned about things about myself as well. I always have loved reading myself so reading 15 pages Monday-Thursday and posting a blog about was really no problem for me. This reading year taught me to expand the themes of books that I read. I’ve always read about fiction and a little of historic non-fiction but now I was reading The Odyssey. It’s language was quite confusing sometimes but in the end I did understand that to enjoy it in the end. Also to know that again family is everything,in Eleni I am reminded of the stories that my mother’s parents have told of Italy during World War II that to them as well family is everything. That in the end you will survive.