Your reading for this week focuses on literature from Egypt, Israel, and Greece that illuminates social norms both within the larger community, i.e. how one should act and regard others outside the home, and within the family, i.e. how one should behave with respect toward one's relations. It also addresses larger issues like justice, and the divine sphere and its connection with proper behavior (throughout, think about what constitutes "proper" behavior). As you move from one culture to another, think about the similarities and differences in social, religious, cultural norms, keeping in mind the status, if it can be determined, of the intended audience of each work. In section we will be concentrating on Greek thought, but using comparative material will help you understand what is distinctive about Greek literature.

A. Egyptian Wisdom Literature

The Instruction of Ani.

What is the purpose of marriage? How would you characterize ideal relations between husband and wife?

How important is what others outside the home think of you?

What is the function of religious festivals as presented here?

The Instruction of Amen-em-Opet.

What attitudes toward wealth (and the rich) and poverty (and the poor) are reflected in this work? How much wealth is enough?

What is the relationship of the divine sphere to one's individual prosperity?

How is social hierarchy regarded?

Why the concern with weights and measures (note that this will come up in Proverbs as well)

What attitudes about justice and the legal sphere emerge?

B. The Hebrew Book of Proverbs.

What are proper modes of behavior toward others? What should be on the lookout for and why?

How is work viewed?

With what sorts of behavior is the Lord concerned?

Why does the Lord care about weights?

What are the consequences of individual behavior on the community?

How are speech and speaking regarded?

What attitudes toward wealth and poverty can you discern?

How are wives regarded? What makes a good wife? Does she have qualities that would be ascribed to males as well?

 

C. Hesiod, Works and Days.. This is a remarkable work of literature from the Greek world in that it takes the stance of the non-aristocratic ordinary man, rather than that of an elite who expresses the values of the rich and powerful. Your understanding of Hesiod will be enhanced by thinking about Hesiod in relation to Homer (as well as to the comparative literature from the Near East). As you read Works and Days, think about how the world depicted by Hesiod, and the values and goals of his world, differ from the world and values of the Iliad; is it a difference in time (i.e. Hesiod's poem is a little later than Homer's) or is it a difference of perspective? On the other hand, look for ways in which some of the values seem quite Homeric (hint: think about the emphasis on being the best, or aiming at fame and honor).

Opening: Hesiod is addressing his brother, Perses (compare the selections from the Instruction or Wisdom Literature from Egypt and the Hebrew Proverbs, in which a father addresses his son). Note also that he invokes the Muses at the beginning: they are giving him the inspiration to compose his poem; in a sense, he is speaking through them. How is Zeus presented? What is of concern to him? Does the emphasis on honor and dishonor remind you of anything in the Iliad?

The Two Kinds of Eris.

Eris is the goddess of Strife, but, as Hesiod makes clear, she comes in two varieties, bad and good.

Why should bad Eris be honored, especially since Hesiod says that she should receive blame from the wise man? What view of war is expressed here?

Why is good Eris good? What can you infer about the importance of reputation and competition in Hesiod's community? Does it sound Homeric at all? What is valued behavior as expressed here? What view of work and why one should do it is expressed?

The "kings" are not really kings in a strict sense; rather, think of them as heads of powerful families who have taken on the role of administering justice in the community and acting as its leaders. What does Hesiod think of them? Compare the attitudes toward one's superiors in Proverbs and in the two Egyptian instructions.

The Fable of the Hawk and Nightingale. This is the first animal fable we have from Greece (Aesop, the most famous of the writers of fables, lived in the 6th century B.C.). Hesiod is presumed to have known about the genre of fables from the Near East, where they appear in abundance and have the same purpose, of making a point or imparting a lesson to the addressee. But there is no known parallel of a hawk and nightingale fable from the Near East.

What view of power is expressed here? Does Hesiod accept or endorse it? (hint: read the section that follows)

An Exhortation to Justice.

Hybris is defined in the "Comment" to this section as "insolent violence," but it goes beyond that. It encapsulates behavior of a violent or arrogant nature that does dishonor to another, whether god or human.

The view expressed in the fable was that "might makes right;" how do you reconcile this with the view of justice expressed in this following section? Who determines what is just, Zeus or the "gift-eating men" (equivalent to the "kings")?

What are the consequences for the community of an individual's unjust behavior and what is significant about them? What do you think is significant about Hesiod's catalogue of the calamities and benefits that can befall a community? (Think again about the relationship between individual behavior and the community, and about how he is understanding the causes of disasters and prosperous times).

Does this passage from the Hebrew Bible seem similar? "If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and act on them, then I will give you your rains at the right time, and the land will give its produce, and the trees will give their fruit...And I will give peace in the land...and the sword shall not pass across your land...And I will be turned towards you, and will make you fruitful and multiply...But if you do not hearken me, and do not act on all these commandments..I will ordain upon you terror and the consumption and the fever, which ruin the eyes and consume the spirit. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it... and your land will not give their fruit... I will send plague among you, and you shall be given into the hand of the enemy" (Lev. 26.3-5)

An Exhortation to Work.

What are the goals of work? What are the consequences of being lazy?

If Hesiod were alive today, would he object to winning the lottery?

Demeter (line 301) is a goddess associated with grain and agriculture.

How would you define shame? How is shame able both to hurt and to help men?

Do humans bring prosperity on themselves or do the gods grant it?

How much wealth is enough? How much is too much and why? (Note: this can be answered by considering much of the poem as a whole.)

Advice on Being Successful and The Farmer's Calendar

Why should the gods care if humans desire gain and gain wealth inappropriately? Note that there are other views expressed in Greek literature in which plunder and piracy are regarded as natural and admirable. In Homer's Odyssey, plundering raids are an acceptable way to acquire wealth. Aristotle (who lived in the 4th century B.C.) referred to piracy, for example, as a natural mode of acquiring wealth. The historian Thucydides, writing in the 5th century B.C., speaks of how, even in his day (when people were advanced and sophisticated!) people admired pirates. So why is Hesiod so upset about the ways in which people acquire wealth?

Hesiod thinks that it is important to have at least one son (line 376); why? What is the function of sons? Why does he not mention daughters?

Is Hesiod suspicious of words (this question also can be answered by looking at other sections of the work)?

Social and Religious Advice

Here and elsewhere Hesiod refers to neighbors and friends, i.e. non-kinsmen. What does he think of them? Does their opinion matter? Is there a sense of community, going on the basis of Hesiod's opinions?

What is the right kind of relationship between husband and wife, according to Hesiod?

Is Hesiod superstitious?

Why does reputation matter?