Tiny Sample of a Great Tradition
[For Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, June 2003]
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A very short sampler
of a very long & rich tradition, known as bucolic
(Greek) or pastoral (Latin) but
rooted in the way of life developed in the ancient lands just to the East
from the Mediterranean Sea, where cattle, sheep, & goats were domesticated
& cities developed..
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Cultures & Dates
[ca=circa (Latin) = around, about]
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As you read, look for sets of motifs that recur in different contexts
& how they resemble yet differ (similarity yet difference)
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In order to make comparisons
with other cultures, practice seeking out motifs of time & place
(lay of the land, the hills, springs), kinds of work (special roles in
country & in city, e.g. weaving, herding, ruling the unruly), the
arts (song which joins poetry & music)
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Sumerian culture
[ca 3000-2000 BCE]
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Goddess Inanna of the city of Uruk
& her herdsman king, Dumuzi (sacred marriage) [search on Uruk+bulll+sheep]
[museum visit to Inanna Portrait]
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Inanna's Wedding
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Hebrew culture
[ca 1300 BCE]
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Bible, Exodus:
Moses as herdsman hears God in burning bush
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Moses' vision on the
mountain
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Greek culture
[ca 550-320 BCE]
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Homer, Iliad, from book 18:
shield of Achilles (city, farming, herding: model
of early mapping)
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Achilles' shield (model
of Mediterranean culture)
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Greek culture
[ca 550-320 BCE]
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Homer, Odyssey, from book 9:
Cyclops: monster herdsman
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Odysseus meets the shepherd
Cyclops
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Greek culture
[ca 300-250 BCE]
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Theocritus, Idylls, idyll
eleven:
Cyclops as young lover frustrated
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Cyclops imagined as singer
(poet) in love
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Roman
culture
[ca 750 BCE-ca 500 CE]
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Virgil, Bucolics, eclogue two:
Herdsman as young lover frustrated
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Another
herdsman singer
in a different love
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American-English culture [1913-1914]
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Robert Frost selections:
poet lover domesticated (married life)
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An American venture into
love & woods
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