Notes

Introduction to the Course

classicus= a member of the superior group (Latin)
classical
Classicist
classify
classification

b.c.e. = before common era
c.e. = common era

primary sources
secondary sources

What is Myth?

1. the meaning of the term myth
2. myth contrasted with history, legend, and fiction
3. myth in Hesiod’s Theogony
4. the importance of myth for MMW 2

Hesiod — 8th century BCE

Theogony
Works and Days

myth

(singular – mythos
plural – mythoi)

theos = god
Cronus
Cottus
Zeus

anthropocentric

Death and its Discontents

1. knowledge, truth, and myth revisited
2. introduction to Sophocles’ Antigone
3. the importance of burial in ancient Greece
4. Creon’s pride: lawgiver as mythmaker
5. Creon’s realization: human limitations and divine law

Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE)

Oedipus Rex (performed in 429 BCE)
Oedipus at Colonus
Antigone [written 442-1 BCE]

Oedipus
Polyneices
Eteocles
Ismene
Antigone
Creon
Haimon
Teiresias

Thebes

Charon
psyche
Hades
Acheron
obolus

hubris

tyranny
democracy

stipulative definition vs. lexical definition
falsifiable / falsification

Athens and Sparta

1. Creon vs. Antigone on law
2. The Greek polis
3. Athens as polis
   a. the prehistory of Athenian democracy
   b. Pericles and the Athenian self-representation
4. Sparta as polis
   a. the making of a Spartan warrior

Periods of Greek History
Mycenaean civilization (c. 1800-1150 BCE)
Dark Ages (c. 1150-800 BCE)
Archaic Age (c. 800-500 BCE)
Classical Age (c. 500-300 BCE)

First Peloponnesian war (461-446 BCE)
   (Antigone, 441 BCE)
Second Peloponnesian war (431-422 BCE, and 413-404 BCE)

hubris
Teiresias
barbarian

polis (plural = poleis)
autocrat
monarchy
oligarchy
democracy
archon
metic

Solon (630-560 BCE)
Pericles (c. 495-429 BCE)
Attica
Peloponnese
Thucydides [c. 460-400 BCE]

allegory

Reason in the Public Sphere

1. Athens and Sparta revisited
2. Socrates in the Spartan context 

3. Socrates the man 

4. Socrates the thinker
5. Logos Unleashed: Socrates the monster

Classical Age (c. 500-300 BCE)
480-404 [BCE] High point of Athenian culture 
   
431-404 [BCE] Peloponnesian war 
   
404-403 [BCE] Government of Thirty 
   
403 [BCE]  Athenian democracy restored 
   
399 [BCE]  Death of Socrates

Xenophon (c. 431-355 BCE)
 Lycurgus

Laconia

Lacedaemonian

helot
ephor

Aristophanes, The Birds, 414 BC

E

Socrates (c.470-399 [BCE]) 

Plato (428-348 [BCE])
Aristotle

Alcibiades
Critias

demos

The Academy
Platonic dialogue

philosophy

logos
sophia

Sex and its Discontents

1. Socrates the thinker
2. Logos Unleashed: Socrates the Monster
3. Intro. to Euripides’ Bakkhai
4. Dionysus, the god and his cult

Delphic Oracle
piety
wisdom
philosophy
sophia = wisdom as insight into “truth”
phronesis = wisdom as practical application of understanding and knowledge
Platonic Idea
logos vs. mythos
Supreme Natural Powers
monstrum comes from monere [Latin: to admonish, warn]

Euripides (c. 484-406)
The Bakkhai (407)
baccheia

Aristotle (Ars Poetica 1449a9-13)
Sacer Ludus
dithyramb
satyr

Dionysus
Bacchus
bacchant
maenad
Pentheus

Dionysus’ ambiguities
      divine / human
      Greek / foreign
      male / female
      loving / cruel
      sobriety / intoxication

Divinity and its Discontents

1. Dionysian wisdom
2. Quotidian satisfaction
3. Women in the oikos
4. Pentheus’ misogyny
5. Expectation of complexity, acceptance of chance, IS the law

tragedy = trag(o)-aoidiā = “goat song” from tragos = “goat” + aeidein = “to sing”

genre
misogyny
Pandora
quotidian

Myth Revisited, The Babylonian Enuma Elish and the Biblical Creation

1. How does the Hebrew Bible (HB) differ from the Theogony
2. The HB in its Mesopotamian context
3. The Enuma Elish
4. Genesis 1:1-2:4a, parallels to the Enuma Elish
5. Genesis 2:4b-3, differences from the Enuma Elish

epistemology = the study of knowledge
philology

Tanakh [Hebrew Bible]
      Torah
      Nevi’im
      Ketuvim

Pentateuch
The Exile (586-539) BCE
Zohar
Moses
Israel
YHWH
creatio ex nihilo

Tiamat
Apsu
Mummu
Marduk
tiamat (Akkadian) = tihom (Hebrew) = “the deep”

King Josiah’s God & the Ideology of Covenant in the Formation of Biblical History

1. King Josiah and Deuteronomic History
2. The Documentary Hypothesis    
      What is a hypothesis? Why are some hypotheses better than others?
3. “Covenant” as the organizing principle of Biblical myth
4. Covenant from Adam to Abraham

King Josiah (c. 640-609 BCE)
YHWH
Assyria
Egypt
Babylon
Canaan

Adam / Eve
adamah = earth/dirt
Cain and Abel
Noah
King Nimrod (Tower of Babel)

Patriarchs (c. 1900-1600):
      Abraham
      Isaac
      Jacob

covenant

Torah
      Genesis
      Exodus
      Leviticus
      Numbers
      Deuteronomy

Documentary Hypothesis
      J – Yahwist
      E – Elohist
      P – Priestly
      D – Deuteronomist
      R – Redactor (post 538 [BCE])

thesis / hypothesis
falsifiability

Human Partnership with God and the Idea of a Holy People

1. Covenant from Adam to Abraham
2. The story of Moses and the Mosaic covenant
3. “a priestly kingdom and holy nation” — the logic of Leviticus

circumcision

Exodus (c. 1600-1250 BCE)

holiness
Laws of Kosher
Mt. Sinai
Jew vs. Hebrew vs. Israelite

Pharaoh

Who Were The Israelites? Archaeological Hypotheses And Biblical Myths

1. “a priestly kingdom and holy nation” — the logic of Leviticus
2. Archaeological evidence and the problems of Biblical history
3. The story of Joshua
4. The Ritual Construction of Israel
5. The mixing of the gods: El, Yahweh, Ba’al, and Asherah
6. The Beginnings of Israelite Monotheism

holiness
abomination

Functionalism

biblical archaeology
scholarly consensus
material culture



Merneptah Stele (c. 1230 BCE)

Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000-1550 BCE)
Late Bronze Age (c. 1550-1200 BCE)

Joshua
Gideon
Caanan
Caananite
Jericho
Israelite

monotheism
El
Elohim
Asherah
Ba’al
YHWH
Ark of the Covenant

THE MONARCHY: PROPHETS AND KINGS

1. The mixing of the gods: El, Yahweh, Ba’al, and Asherah
2. The Beginnings of Israelite Monotheism
3. The Period of Judges
   a. political organization on the model of the family
   b. the role of the Judge4. Factors leading to a monarch
5. The monarchy under Saul6. The monarchy under David
7. The monarchy under Solomon

1200 – 1020	Period of Judges
1020 – 1000	Beginning of Israelite Monarchy (Saul)
1000 – 961	David
961 – 922	Solomon
************************************************************************
922 – 587	Divided Monarchy (north = Israel // south = Judah)
722	Fall of northern kingdom
587	Fall of southern kingdom to Babylonian exile
587 – 538	Exilic period
538	Return from exile

Joshua
Gideon
Caanan
Caananite
Jericho
Israelite

El
Elohim
Asherah

Ba’al
YHWH
Ark of the Covenant

monotheism
monolatry

Hittites
Philistines
Judah
Jerusalem
moshiach = messiah

EXILE AND RETURN: THE FORMATION OF JUDAISM

1. The importance of Solomon’s temple
2. Events — from Solomon to the Babylonian Exile

3. The role and importance of Prophets in transforming the Israelite religion

4. The parallelism of Biblical history and Biblical prophecy

5. What happened in exile

6. The Return and Birth of Judaism: A people and their Book

synagogue

theocracy

10 lost tribes

Jerusalem

Ark of the Covenant

Holy of Holies


Assyria

Babylon

Persia

Nebuchadnezzar

Cyrus the Great

Nimrud Prism

Samaria


Jeremiah

Ezra

Nehemiah

THE EARLIEST TRADITIONS: SHANG SETTLEMENTS, ZHOU STATES, AND THE SEARCH FOR ORDER

1. myth and representation in Greece, Israel, and China
2. culture heroes and the Xia Dynasty
3. the Shang Dynasty
4. changing ideas of divinity and nature in the early Zhou

Xia Dynasty
Shang Dynasty c. 1700- 1045 [BCE]
Western Zhou  1027-771 [BCE]
Eastern Zhou 772-256 [BCE]

Wade-Giles = Peking, Tao, Lao Tzu
Pinyin = Beijing, Dao, Laozi

orthodoxy
orthopraxy
representation
objectify

Yellow River (Huang He)
Yangzi River


culture hero  
Emperor Yao
Emperor Shun
Hou Chi

Shang Di

King Wen
King Wu
Duke of Zhou
Tian

Mandate of Heaven


pictogram

divination

MORALITY, HIERARCHY, AND SOCIAL ORDER

1. Brief history of Zhou Dynasty
2. Who is Confucius
3. Confucius’ Teaching in a nutshell
4. Cracking the nut: the significance of tao / zhunzi / ren / li / xiao

Western Zhou – 1027-771
   Xian [capital of western Zhou]

Eastern Zhou – 772-256

   Luoyang [capital of eastern Zhou
      Spring and Autumn Period - 722-481
 
      Warring States Period - 403-221

      Age of 100 Philosophers - 551-233

Society will become orderly if its members follow the TAO

and thereby become ZHUNZI,

by individually embracing the ideal of REN

and acting according to LI,

the most perfect expression of the relationship between ren and li being found in XIAO

King Wen
King Wu
Duke of Zhou

shi

Tian

Mandate of Heaven

Kong Fu Zi - 551-479


Analects

Five Relationships
      father – son
   
      elder brother – younger brother
   
      husband – wife
   
      ruler – subject
   
      friend – friend

Five Classics
 
      Book of Changes
   
      Book of History
   
      Book of Poetry
   
      Book of Rites
   
      Spring and Autumn Annals

ORDER IS DISORDER, EXCEPT FOR WHEN DISORDER IS ORDER, OR MAYBE NOT: THE TAOISTS

1. yin/yang as symbol of dynamic harmony
2. Laozi and the Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing)
3. Zhuangzi

Laozi (older contemporary of Confucius)
Zhuangzi (c. 369- 286 BCE)
The Tao
Taoism
wu wei
the 10,000 things











yang	yin
male	female
heaven	earth
light	dark
active	passive

AUTHORITY AS ORDER IN THE QIN

1.The rise of the Qin [Qin = Ch'in, just different transliteration]
2. Shi Huangdi
3. 3. Legalism and Qin Order

Eastern Zhou 772- 256
      Warring States Period 403-221
Qin Empire 221-206
Han Dynasty 206 BCE – 221 CE

Sinicized = Chinese-ified

Chao Cheng (259-210 BCE)
Qin Shi Huang-di [title of Chao Cheng, as "First Emperor," who reigned 221-210 BCE]

The Great Wall
Li Ssu
Lord Shang – d. 338 BCE
Han Feizi – d. 233 BCE

Legalism
   shih – power and position
   shu – methods
   fa – law

NATURE AND CIVILIZATION AT THE BEGINNING OF INDIAN HISTORY

1. The Aryans in 19th and 18th century European thought

2. The Aryans in the Vedas

3. The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC)

4. The IVC and the Aryans in contemporary Hindu Nationalist thought

Count Joseph Arthur [de] Gobineau – (1816-1882)

Sir William Jones – 18th century– (1746-1794)
swastika [word and symbol]

miscegination

Orientalist / Orientalism

Aryan

Sanskrit

Veda

Indo-European Language Family













Sanskrit	English
mātṛ	mother
bratṛ	brother
tri	three
deva	divine
ārya	Eire (Ireland = Land of the Aryas)

 

Indus Valley Civilization (2500-1750 BCE)

1921 John Marshall [discovered Harappa]

Harappa / Mohenjo Daro

The Great Bath

Indus Valley Seals

Indus Valley Script
www.harappa.com

PLAYING WITH AGNI’S FIRE: THE BRAHMINS’ RITUAL COSMOGONY

1. Who were the Aryans and what were their Vedas?
2. The Vedic Gods
3. Brahmanization
4. The “Puruṣa Sūkta”

c. 2500 B.C.E. — Āryans begin to migrate from their homeland
c. 1500 B.C.E. — Āryans begin to enter the Indian subcontinent
c. 1200-1000 B.C.E. — The four Vedas are compiled

rāja
brahmin
Vedic religion


Proto Indo European

Four Vedas
      Rig Veda
      Sama Veda
      Yajur Veda

      Atharva Veda

Vedic Sacrifice

yajñā
Brahmanization

deva

33 gods (devas)
      11 of heavens
      11 of amtosphere
      11 of earth

Puruṣa Sūkta
 Indra
Varuna
Agni

Soma

ṛta
Vritra

PLAYING WITH INNER FIRE: THE SAGES’ INNER REALITY

1. Brahmanization and the “Puruṣa Sūkta”
2. Karma and Saṃsāra; The New Cosmology
3. Upaniṣads and the Search for Fundamental Truth
4. The Rishi: A Man of Inner Fire

brahmanization
Puruṣa Sūkta = The Hymn of Man
Nāsadīya = The Creation Hymn

deva
rishi
yoga
tapas



Vasishta
Viswamitra

4 Varṇas
      Brahmin (priest)
      Warrior
      Commoner
      Servant



reincarnation
karma
saṃsāra
Upaniṣads
Brahman
Ātman
ātman = brahman
tat tvam asi

Ganges River

DHARMA AND ITS DISCONTENTS

1. The Rishi: A Man of Inner Fire
2. India and the Myth of Power
3. Introducing the Bhagavad Gītā
4. Dharma
5. “Vedic Religion” vs. “Hinduism”

c. 2500 B.C.E. — Āryans begin to migrate from their homeland
c. 1500 B.C.E. — Āryans begin to enter the Indian subcontinent
c. 1200-1000 B.C.E. — The four Vedas are compiled
c. 600-300 B.C.E. – Upaniṣads are written
c. 400 B.C.E.-200 C.E. – The Mahābhārata is composed
c. 200 B.C.E. – 200 C.E. – The Bhagavad Gītā

Dharma

varṇa-ashrama-dharma
      varṇa = class
      ashrama = stage of life

4 varṇas
      brahmin
      warrior (kṣatriya)
      commoner (vaiśya)
      servant (śūdra)

4 ashramas
      student
      householder
      forest dweller
      renunciant

Upaniṣad
brahman
ātman
neti neti
tat tvam asi
yogic tapas
Vishwamitra
Vasishta
rishi
power = posse

Mahābhārata
Bhagavad Gītā
Paṇḍavas vs. Kauravas
Krishna
Arjuna 

YOU BETTER WATCH OUT, YOU BETTER NOT CRY, YOU BETTER NOT SHOUT, I’M TELLING YOU WHY: KṚṢṆA LOVES YOU

1. Dharma revisited
2. Krishna’s solutions to Arjuna’s dilemma: the discipline of knowledge
3. Krishna’s solutions to Arjuna’s dilemma: the discipline of action
4. Hindu theology and devotion
5. Krishna’s solutions to Arjuna’s dilemma: the discipline of devotion
6. summary for India, part 1: The Myth of Power

bhakti
līlā
avatāra
10 avatāras of Vishnu
context sensitive [Dharma]
svadharma (personal dharma)

Three Yogas (disciplines)
      jñāna yoga (discipline of knowledge)
      karma yoga (discipline of action)
      bhakti yoga (discipline of devotion)

Hinduism’s Cosmological “Trinity”
      Brahma
      Vishnu
      Siva

LIFE OF THE BUDDHA

1. Hindu theology and devotion
2. Krishna’s solutions to Arjuna’s dilemma: the discipline of devotion
3. summary for India, part 1: The Myth of Power
************************************
4. What is a Buddha?
5. The Life of Shakyamuni Buddha

Buddha
Siddhartha Gotama
Shakyamuni Buddha (c. 566-486 BCE or c. 488-368 BCE)
muni
orthodox vs. heterodox

Dipankara Buddha
jataka tale
bodhisattva
Tushita Heaven

Mahamaya
Shuddhodana
the four sights (sick man, old man, dead man, renunciant) 
Mara
bodhi
nirvana

Lumbini
Bodh Gaya
Sarnath

EARLY WISDOM: DESIRE AND ITS DISCONTENTS

1. The Life of Shakyamuni Buddha
2. What the Buddha Didn’t Teach: Discourse to Malunkya
3. What the Buddha Did Teach: The Turning the Wheel of Dharma Sutra
4. The Four Noble Truths

Dipankara Buddha
jātaka tale
bodhisattva
Tushita Heaven

Mahamaya
Shuddhodana
the four sights (sick man, old man, dead man, renunciant) 
Mara
bodhi
nirvāṇa

Lumbini
Bodh Gaya

Sarnath

awakening / enlightenment

Dharma

The Middle Path

NIRVANA AND ITS DISCONTENTS

1. The Four Noble Truths

2. The Problem with Nirvana

3. Gift-giving and Buddhahood

Mara
bodhi
nirvāṇa

Lumbini

Bodh Gaya

Sarnath

awakening / enlightenment

Dharma

The Middle Path

The Three Jewels
      Buddha
      Dharma
      Saṅgha

anātman = no-Self

The Four Noble Truths
      1. duḥkha
      2. cause of duḥkha
      3. cessation of duḥkha
      4. path of truth to the cessation of duḥkha

The Three Poisons
      desire
      hatred
      ignorance

The Three Characteristics of Saṃsāra
      unsatisfactory (duḥkha)
      impermanent (anitya)
      insubstantial (anātman)

sūtra
The Turning of the Wheel of Law Sūtra
Dharmacakrapravartana Sutra

anātman = no-Self
      an = no + ātman = self, soul

Karma = cetana
karma is fundamentally a matter of will; desire

MAHĀYĀNA WISDOM: REALITY AND ITS DISCONTENTS

1. The Problem with Nirvāṇa
2. Making the nirvanized Buddha accessible in the Legend of Aśoka
3. The bodhisattva and the origins of the Mahāyāna
4. How the Mahāyāna differs from early Buddhism



Merit
Field of Merit
Emperor Aśoka (c. 304-232 BCE)
Aśoka’s gift of dirt
stūpa
Upagupta
Māra
Aśoka’s 84,000 Stupas

Buddhology

Mahāyāna sūtra
Hīnayāna
Great Compassion
buddha-field
expedient means

bodhisattva vow


For Early Buddhism:
      Saṃsāra: suffering, impermanent, based on causes [karma], not free
      Nirvāṇa: blissful, eternal, uncaused, free
For Mahāyāna Buddhism:
      saṃsāra = nirvāṇa