Classical and Biblical Backgrounds to Western Literature

by Brother Anthony, of Taizé

Sogang University Press, CPO Box 1142, Seoul 100-611, Korea



Contents

 Introduction  7

 1  Mesopotamia 13
           Sumerian Culture 14
      The First Assyrian Empire 15
      Mesopotamian Mythology 15
           A summary of Gilgamesh 16

 2  Egypt 21

 3. Israel 25
          Early History: The Patriarchs 26
          Moses and the Exodus 26
          The Jerusalem Kingdom 27
          Exile and Return 28

 4  Greek History 31
  Early Greek History 32
           Crete 33
           Mycenae 33
           The Dorians, Ionia, and Heroic Legend 35
   The First Named Poet : Homer 36
        The Iliad 37
        The Odyssey 48
   Hesiod 55
        From the Theogony 56
   The Phoenicians, the Greek Alphabet 58
  Greek Colonies 59
  The City-State 60
  Social Change 61
  Sparta 61
  Athens 62
       The Persians 64
       Victory at Salamis 66
  From 480 until the Fall of Athens 69

 5  Greek Philosophy 73
  The Early Greek Philosophers 75
       Quotations from Xenophanes 78
       Quotations from Heraclitus 80
       Quotations from Parmenides 83
       Quotations from Zenon 83
  The Sophists 85
  Socrates 88
       From Socrates' Defense 89
       The Death of Socrates  91
  Plato 93
   Plato's Teaching 94
       Texts from Plato 95
            The Image of the Cave 95
            Diotima's speech 97
  Aristotle 99
       Aristotle on Tragedy 101
  Later Philosophy 102
       Quotations from Epicurus 102
       Stoicism 103
  Hellenistic Philosophy 104

 6  Greek Drama & Poetry 105
  Aeschylus 106
       Agamemnon 107
       Coephori 113
       Eumenides 118
       Prometheus Bound 119
  Sophocles 125
       Oedipus the King 125
       Antigone  134
  Euripides 136
  Greek Comedy 136
       Aristophanes 136
  Greek Lyric Poetry 138
       Archilochus  138
       Sappho 139
       Anacreon 141
       Pindar 142

 7  Alexander and Hellenism 145
  After Alexander 146
  The Culture of the Hellenistic Age 147
  Asia Minor and Israel 149
  The Greek Novel 151

 8  The Gods of Greece and Rome 153

 9  Greek Mythology 165
  Hercules 167
  Perseus & Theseus 169
  The Trojan War 170
  The Argonauts 173
  Ovid's Metamorphoses 175
   Daphne 175
   Deucalion 176
   Pyramus and Thisbe 177
   Baucis and Philemon 179
   Echo and Narcissus 181
   Icarus 182
   Pan and Syrinx 183
   Diana and Actaeon 184
   Pygmalion 185
   Venus and Adonis 186
   Hero and Leander 186
   Orpheus and Eurydice 187

 10  Rome and the Roman Empire 189
  Early Roman History 189
  The Civil War 191
       Plutarch : The Death of Julius Caesar 193
  Augustus 195
  Literature 196
       Cicero's De Officiis 197
       Lucretius: De Rerum Natura 199
  Augustan Literature 200
       From Virgil's "Pollio"  201
       The Aeneid 203
  The Emperors after Augustus 212
  Literary Figures of the Post-Augustan Period 214
  The Later Empire  216
  The Writers of the Silver Age 217
  The Decline and Fall 220

 11  The Bible: The Old Testament 223
  The Text of the Old Testament 223
  The Books of the Old Testament 225
       Genesis 226
       Exodus 240
       The Rest of the Pentateuch 242
   Early History of Israel 243
   Kingship 243
   Poetry: Wisdom Literature 245
   The Prophets 253
        Isaiah 254
        Jeremiah 256
        The "Minor" Prophets 257
        The Social Vision of the Prophets 258
   Conclusions 260

 12  The Bible: The New Testament 263
  The Four Gospels 266
       Matthew 268
       Mark 269
       Luke 270
       John 280
   The Acts of the Apostles 283
   The Epistles 285
   Revelation 290
  English Translations of the Bible 292

 13 The Early Christian Church 295
  Persecutions and Martyrdom 299
  Early Christian Thinkers 303
  Persecutions and Victory 304
  The Teaching Church 305
  Ambrose and Augustine 307
       Augustine's Conversion  308
  Into the Middle Ages 312

 Major Dates 319

 Index 325