ARU Art Readings to Contextualize Cultures Essay

We can gain insight into the artwork of a culture by better understanding the stories they tell. Additionally, we can understand a work of art by understanding its iconography. To understand iconography allow us to ‘read’ an artwork. Look for elements found in these stories which connect to the images and objects from our class (Ex. The Trojan War, the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the Sutton Hoo boat burial).

Ajax and Achilles Playing a Game depicts two great Greek heroes from Homer’s Iliad.

In a cohesive academic essay, choose one of the following ancient works of literature (poetry, mythology, religious texts) to read and respond to. Some elements may sound very familiar; some elements will be very strange. Most of these works are fragmentary (some parts are missing), so doing additional research (like a Wikipedia search) is crucial to understanding these works.

Include a brief summary of the work. Include a few quotes from the text, so the reader can get a sense for the flavor and content of the work. Try to connect subjects of the stories to the artworks from our class. Most importantly in your response, what do you think of this work? How does this story compare to some of the stories we tell today? Can you relate to the theme(s) presented in this ancient work of literature? Try to connect subjects of the stories to the artworks from our class.Should. be in MLA. Style.

Choose one of the following literary works from the Ancient Near East and Ancient Egypt to write about in a cohesive academic essay:

Ancient Writings from Greece

Homer’s Iliad

The ‘Iliad’ is an ancient Greek epic poem, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.

http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html (Links to an external site.)

Homer’s Odyssey

The ‘Odyssey’ is, in part, a sequel to the ‘Iliad’. Scholars believe the Odyssey was composed near the end of the 8th century BCE, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia. The poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus (known as Ulysses in Roman myth), king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the fall of Troy.

http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.html (Links to an external site.)

The Love Poetry of Sappho

Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BCE) was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by a lyre. In ancient times, Sappho was widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets.

https://www.uh.edu/~cldue/texts/sappho.html (Links to an external site.)

(Links to an external site.)

Aesop’s Fables

‘Aesop’s Fables’, or the ‘Aesopica’, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE.

http://classics.mit.edu/Aesop/fab.1.1.html (Links to an external site.)

The Delphic Maxims

The Delphic maxims were a set of 147 aphorisms inscribed at Delphi, in ancient Greece. Originally, they were said to have been given by the Greek god Apollo’s Oracle at Delphi and were therefore attributed to Apollo himself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphic_maxims (Links to an external site.)

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

The Greek philosopher Plato expresses his skepticism about art and reality in his work ‘The Allegory of the Cave’. The original text is a bit dense but is an essential read for anyone involved with art and visual culture. Are Plato’s concerns relevant in today’s culture?

eyer__allegory_of_the_cave_translation_TYPESET.indd (harvard.edu)Links to an external site.

Aristotle’s The Poetics
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1974/1974-h/1974-h.htm (Links to an external site.)

Ancient Old Writing from Medieval Europe

Beowulf

Monsters, dragons, and Viking boat burials!
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. Translated by Seamus Heaney. Norton, 2000.

‘Le Morte d’Arthur’ is a Middle English reworking by Sir Thomas Malory of existing tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the mystical Knights of the Round Table—along with their respective folklore.

Ackroyd, Peter, and Thomas Malory. The Death of King Arthur: Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’arthur : a Retelling. New York: Viking, 2011.