Transcript Lecture 2_Mesopotamia_BEL_20161219113951x

Backgrounds to English
Literature
Lecture 2: Mesopotamia
How to approach the facts
-To encode: the facts are encoded
-To decode: we need to decode them
Mesopotamian Civilization
=Location
-Mesopotamia: an ancient region in the eastern Mediterranean
bounded in the northeast by the Zagros Mountains and in the
southeast by the Arabian Plateau, corresponding to today’s Iraq,
mostly, but also parts of modern-day Iran, Syria and Turkey.
-From Greek, “between two rivers” (Tigris and the Euphrates rivers)
-Importance of the location: particularly the southern part of
Mesopotamia had the fertile soil, which provided a surplus of food ->
settlements of the people -> Increase in the population ->
Interactions among the people (divisions of the labours, formation of
the social classes)
=History of Mesopotamian civilization
-Sumerians (2900 – 2004 BC)
-Babylon: the First Babylonian Dynasty, Amorites (1900 -1600 BC)
-The Hittites (1595 BC)
-The Kassites (1600 -1154 BC))
-The Assyrians (1000 - 612 BC)
-The Last Babylonian Dynasty or Neo-Babylonian period (625-539
BC)
=Main features of Mesopotamian civilization
-Various groups of people ruled the area
-Each period had contributed to the establishment of the
Mesopotamian civilization
-Sumerians (2900 – 2004 BC): CUNEIFORM ("wedge-shaped")
system of writing / The Epic of Gilgamesh
-Babylon: Image of Babylon / The Code of Hammurabi
Writing in Mesopotamia: CUNEIFORM ("wedge-shaped") system of
writing
-No single individual invented writing, nor was writing developed so
that people could write down their histories.
-Tokens: starting about 8000 years ago, the earliest forms of writing
were developed to record business transactions. As trading and
agricultural activities increased it became difficult to keep track of
who owed how much to whom. As a result, sometime in the Neolithic
period, about 6000 BC, small clay objects called "tokens" began to
appear in the archaeological record.
-Clay balls: in 4000 BC, merchants and traders began to place the
tokens into a sealed clay envelope shaped like a ball.
=The importance of the Gilgamesh Epic
-The Gilgamesh Epic is one of the oldest stories to come out of the
ancient world. Centuries older than the Bible, or the works of
classical writers such as Homer or Virgil.
-Its close link to the Bible: a portion of the epic had close parallels to
the Noah/Great Flood story
-The themes: The underlying themes are the universal ones that
connect modern readers with the past
=A brief plot summary
-Gilgamesh: the son of a man and a goddess, is king of the ancient
Sumerian city-state of Uruk. He is the strongest and most handsome
man in the world. But he is a bad king
-After hearing from the people, the god Anu commands the goddess
Aruru to create another human who will be a match for Gilgamesh,
Enkidu, who begins to live in the woods
-Shamhat entices him to sleep with her, and Enkidu cannot live in the woods any
longer. Enkidu goes to Uruk and faces down Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh wins, but
there are no hard feelings, and the two warriors become best friends.
-One day, Gilgamesh and Enkidu decides to go to the distant Cedar Forest and
kill Humbaba. The friends cut down the tallest tree in the forest, which Enkidu
plans to dedicate to the god Enlil.
-Enkidu dreams that the gods have decided that, for killing Humbaba, chopping
down the cedar, and killing the Bull of Heaven, either he or Gilgamesh must die—
and that Enlil picked Enkidu, who falls mysteriously ill, and dies after much
suffering.
-After the dreadful death of his best friend, Gilgamesh set out a journey to
search for immortality. He met Utanapishtim and his wife, who got immortality
after the great flood. The gods were not happy with the humans, so Enlil, the
most powerful of all the gods, decided to exterminate the humans by sending a
great flood that would drown them all. But the god of wisdom, Ea, warned
Utnapishtim of the impending disaster. Ea told him to tear down his house, build a
great ship, and bring his family and a few animals with him in order to survive the
flood.
-Gilgamesh found the plant that will restore the youth of whoever
eats it. On his way back home, Gilgamesh takes a bath and leaves the
flower on the ground. A snake comes by and eats the flower.
=Similarities between the story of the great flood in Gilgamesh Epic
and the Noah story in the Old Testament
-Both stories state that the divine powers were unhappy with the
behaviour of human beings, and wanted to destroy them. In each
story one man and his family were commanded to construct a large
vessel of wood that could withstand the coming deluge.
-The Bird episodes: Utnapishtim sent out a dove, a swallow, and a
raven, in that order, before descending from his ship. Yet Noah first
sent a raven and later three doves
-Many of the stories in the Old Testament of the Bible were
borrowed from, or in some way influenced by, non-biblical sources,
and the flood story from the Gilgamesh Epic is a clear example of this.
=Gilgamesh’s failure of his quest for immortality
-Gilgamesh’s failure of his quest for immortality suggests that the
humans need to accept the limit.
-To be human is to be mortal: to have a beginning and an end to our
time on earth. Any attempt to modify things only offends the gods
and brings down their wrath.
- In the end Gilgamesh accepted the finite limits of his life and
turned his energies to the lasting things he could do in his role as the
king of Uruk. This is symbolized in the story by Gilgamesh’s greatest
accomplishment -the massive and enduring wall of Uruk, 8m high
and 9km long - to which the story returns.
=Nature and Civilization
-Gilgamesh as the great builder of the city represents civilization,
and Enkidu living in the forest with animals represents nature
-The process of Enkidu’s being civilized: by sleeping with the woman,
consuming human food and drink, wearing clothes, and following the
customs of the land.
-In their first encounter, Gilgamesh (civilization) defeats Enkidu
(nature).
-Gilgamesh and Enkidut entered the woods and killed Humbaba and
cut down the tree in order to build the temple
-The division between the civilization of farmers, who tilled the land
and lived in houses grouped together in villages or cities, and herders,
who lived in tents and followed a nomadic way of life
The City of Babylon
-Babylon is the most famous city from ancient Mesopotamia
-The city has both a historic role and a theological role in the Bible
-Historical importance: Its impressive walls and buildings / its
reputation as a great seat of learning and culture / the formation of a
code of law which pre-dates the Mosaic Law / the Hanging Gardens
of Babylon which were man-made terraces of flora and fauna,
watered by machinery, which were cited by Herodotus as one of the
Seven Wonders of the World.
-The Seven Wonders were first defined as themata (Greek for 'things
to be seen’ or 'must sees’ in English) by Philo of Byzantium in 225 BC,
in his work On The Seven Wonders (the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt
/ the Hanging Gardens of Babylon / the Statue of Zeus at Olympia,
Greece / the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus / the Mausoleum at
Halicarnassus / the Colossus of Rhodes / the Lighthouse at
Alexandria, Egypt)
-Theological importance in the Bible: The city owes its fame (or
infamy) to the many references the Bible makes to it; all of which are
unfavourable (Daniel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, among others, and, most
notably, The Book of Revelation)
-It was these biblical references which sparked interest in
Mesopotamian archaeology and the expedition by the German
archaeologist Robert Koldewey who first excavated the ruins of
Babylon in 1899.
-The Chaldeans conquered Jerusalem in 597 BC, and around 10,000
Jews were forced to relocate to the city of Babylon, the capital of the
Chaldean empire. Since then, Babylon was described as the images of
pride, idolatry, cruelty, and greed. Centuries later, this negative
image culminates in the Book of the Revelation as “mother of
prostitutes” (17:5)
-Babylon has transcended its historical significance to become
synonymous with sin and pride in Western art and literature.
Hammurabi and the Code of Hammurabi
=Who is Hammurabi?
-One of the most remarkable ruling families in the long history of the
Near East was the First Babylonian Dynasty, which lasted from the
19th to the 16th centuries BC. Its most famous king was Hammurabi
(1792- 1750 BC)
-He inherited a small kingdom from his father, Sin-muballit, about
100km long and 50km wide, but by the end of his 42-year reign he
had extended his control over much of Mesopotamia, from the upper
Tigris-Euphrates river valley to the Persian Gulf.
=The Code of Hammurabi is the oldest?
-At one time it was thought that the Laws of Hammurabi were the
oldest in history, but it is now known that there were several older
collections of laws written a few centuries before his time such as the
Laws of Ur-Nammu
=The Stele of Hammurabi
-The Laws of Hammurabi arc inscribed on a stele 2.25m high made of
polished black basalt
-282 legal decisions or laws arc inscribed in vertical columns.
-The top portion of the stele contains a low-relief sculpture showing
Hammurabi with one hand raised in an attitude of prayer typical of
this period, standing before Shamash, the god of justice, who is
seated on a throne.
-In the 12th century BC the Elamite king, Shutruk-Nahhunte,
conquered the city of Babylon and part of the booty that he took back
to his capital at Susa was the King of Justice stele containing the
Laws of Hammurabi. Three thousand years later, in AD 1901, French
archaeologists rediscovered the stele and took it to the Louvre
Museum in Paris.
=Main characteristics of the Code of Hammurabi
-Why laws?: The people had to deal with the arbitrary reality caused
by the gods and the human relationship. They tried to relieve such
anxiety by developing the arts of divination and establishing codes
that regulated their relationships with one another
-Lex talionis: One legal concept found in the Laws of Hammurabi is
the wronged person's right of retaliation. In the Old Testament (an
eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth). This principle was so strict in
order to avoid blood feuds among families in conflicts.
-Three social classes: an upper class of nobles (government officials,
priests, and warriors), the class of freemen (merchants, artisans,
professionals, and wealthy farmers), and a lower class of slaves. An
offense against a member of the upper class was punished with more
severity than the same offense against a member of a lower class.
For offenses against members of the lower classes, a money payment
was made instead.
-The Code covered virtually every aspect of an individual's life:
burglary, the responsibilities of all public officials, the responsibilities
of the builders, slavery, land and commerce, marriage and family,
sexual relations, etc.
1. Burglary: If a person stole goods belonging to the temples, he was
put to death. / If the private property of an individual was stolen, the
thief had to make a tenfold restitution. If he could not do so he was
put to death. / An offender caught attempting to loot a burning house
was to be "thrown into that fire."
2. Public officials: The officials were expected to catch burglars. If
they failed to do so, public officials in which the crime took place had
to replace the lost property. / If murderers were not found, the
officials had to pay a fine to the relatives of the murdered person.
3. Builders: If a house collapsed and caused the death of its owner,
the builder was put to death. / Goods destroyed by the collapsed must
also be replaced and the house itself rebuilt at the builder's expense.
4. Family relationships: Crimes such as striking one's older brother
and kicking one's mother were punished by condemnation to slavery.
/ A man could pay his debts by selling both his children and wife into
slavery for a specified length of time. / If a son has struck his father,
they shall cut off his hand. / If a son committed a serious enough
offense, his father could disinherit him. / Incest was strictly
forbidden.
5. Husband and wife: Parents arranged marriages for their children.
Without signed contract, no one was considered legally married. / If
his wife tried to leave the home in order to engage in business, her
husband could divorce her and did not have to repay the dowry. / If
his wife was a gadabout and neglects her house and humiliates her
husband, she could be drowned. / Husbands, but not wives, were
permitted sexual activity outside marriage. A wife caught committing
adultery was pitched into the river. / If a woman was divorced
without good reason she received the dowry back.
=Idea of justice
-The Code of Hammurabi provides us an important glimpse into the
values of Mesopotamian civilization.
-It should be noted that there is a gap between the Code and the
practice in the society
-What is the idea of justice in the Mesopotamian civilization?