Ancient World

800 B.C. % 400 A.D.

 Ancient Languages

 How we learned about our past:

 Hebrew
 Greek
 Latin
 Other earlier languages:
 Cuneiforms
 Hieroglyphics
 Rosetta Stone

 Found in 1799
 Key to the decipherment of Egyptian
hieroglyphs (translated in 19th century)
 Dates to Ptolemy V (205-180 BC)
 The Rosetta Stone
 Carved in 196 B.C.
 Contents:
 1 passage
 2 languages (Greek and Egyptian)
 3 different scripts used in Egypt at that
time:
 Hieroglyphic % the language used for important
or religious documents
 Demotic % the common script of Egypt
 Greek % the language of the rulers of Egypt
 The Rosetta Stone
 Deciphered by Jean Francois
Champollion in 1822.

 Lists all the good things the
Pharaoh has done for the
priests and people of Egypt.

 Recorded in all three scripts
to allow all people of Egypt to
know of the Pharaoh's
goodness.

Source: “Ancient Egypt W eb Site.” The British Museum . www.ancientegypt.co.uk

 Fertile Crescent

 Region between Tigris and Euphrates


 Modern-day Iraq
The Fertile Crescent

Source: http://www.freehomepages.com/maddie/Babylon.html
 Babylonian History

 Babylonian civilization (modern day Iraq) -- an agricultural-based
civilization located in the “Fertile Crescent,” where the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers created valleys -- Mesopotamia, Greek for “between two rivers.”

 Major Babylonian cities (Babylon and Nineveh) -- centers for administering
the irrigation systems.-- government, religious, and cultural centers.

 Uruk (major Sumerian city) -- built by Gilgamesh, who also constructed its
walls as well as a temple for worshipping Ishtar, goddess of love and
fertility.

 Already ancient when the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman civilizations were
founded, unfortunately, the Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations all but
disappeared, except for their monuments.

 “The Epic of Gilgamesh” survived, due to its being written on clay tablets (12
of them); however, it was not translated and published until the 1870’s,
when its “flood” story shocked many people.
 Babylonians, Sumerians, and Assyrians (Ancient
World People)

 Sumerians (c. 3400-2000 B.C.) in southern Iraq

 Babylonians (Semitic, c. 2000-1600 B.C.) in
central Iraq (Abraham and his family thought to
leave southern Mesopotamia c. 1900 B.C.)
 Assyrians (Semitic, c. 1200-600 B.C.) in northern
Iraq; established empire extending from western
Iran to Egypt; capital city: Nineveh (the Epic of
Gilgamesh found in library of Asshurbanipal
during excavation of site)
 Gilgamesh, 5th ruler of the first post-diluvian
dynasty of Uruk (historical king c. 2700 B.C.)
 Babylonian Mythology

 Anu, god of firmament

 Enlil, god of the wind
 Shamash (sun), god of justice and light
 Ishtar, goddess of love and war
 Ea (sweet waters), god of wisdom and friend of
mankind
 Aruru (goddess of creation)
 Ninsun (mother of Gilgamesh)
 Epic Traits
An epic

is told orally by trained story tellers

is told from an objective point of view

contains repetition (as it was orally told);

features a hero, someone of importance; sometimes part god

(Gilgamesh is 2/3 god, 1/3 man);

contains a vast setting (Gilgamesh travels to find Utnapishtim, the

Immortal);

features supernatural forces (gods and goddesses) who intervene in

the action

features heroic action, requiring superhuman strength or wisdom.

 Epic Traits continued

an invocation % where the poet invokes a muse to inspire and instruct him

 in medias res- the poet opens his narrative in the middle of things

 catalogues % lists of things (armies, warriors, etc.)

 formal speeches % by main characters

 epic similes % elaborate comparisons of two unlike objects using “like” or “as”

 Epithets % a combination of an adjective and a noun, used to describe and
name a character