Aeschylus, Agamemnon; Reception on returning from Troy

Greek tragedy is plentiful in this list and in some ways it gets a little repetitive but on the other hand they are easy to sit and read in one afternoon so while it can be a little tiring reading a whole heap back to back at least they go by quickly unlike some texts (*cough* Herodotus *cough*).

The Story
Agamemnon returns home form the Trojan war and is greeted by his wife who notices the concubine in his chariot and has him come inside, he is cold to her. His wife, scorned, plots to kill her husband, with her lovers help. The murder of Agamemnon is successful. His wife and her lover then take over the governance of the kingdom. (Wow! That's a short synopsis, but it is a short play...)

Reflections
What a tragic thing to come home to after many years away at war. I can understand his wife having an affair but it is the conspiracy to kill him that struck me as really off. Thankfully, she does not succeed in killing their son and Agamemnon's heir in the process. This sets up the rest of the group of plays, called "The Oresteia", with his son still alive to take vengeance.

Comparisons
It is interesting to see another story after the Trojan war and after the Iliad. This one is a triumphant king come home to disaster. By contrast, the Odyssey is the extended trip home of one of the other kings and he does eventually reunite with his family and all is happy, eventually.

Have you read Agamemnon? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read Agamemnon but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
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Sappho, Poem Fragments: Stung with Love

Trying to get a bit ahead on this project is proving a little more challenging than I was expecting. It didn't take to long for me to be bogged down in a book again. This time it is Augustine's City of God from my AD lit list. Its not that it is difficult, its rather well put together, its just over 1000 pages long.

Synopsis
It is a little hard to write a synopsis of such a fragmented collection of work, but I will try.
Sappho's work is about love and loving and is generally dedicated to Aphrodite and or Eros, the Goddess of love and the God of sexuality, respectively. Sappho was a composer of short works, often written to be sung. Within this collection there are also songs about marriage and of her girls at the school she ran. She even penned a few of Troy, though she is no epic poet.

Reflections
Maybe I'm just naive but I totally missed the gay elements that are supposedly in this text. I either didn't notice or just didn't render the innuendo or maybe the gay elements are more a modern reading on an older text. Then again, it could just be that her work is so sexualised in it's form, which it most certainly is.

Comparisons
This is the first collection of short poems I have read in this project. So far, there isn't much to compare it to. I do think it will provide a good foil to compare future poems to.

Have you read Sappho If so what did you think of it?

Want to read Sappho but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
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Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching: Taoisms heart

NZ is playing India at cricket this afternoon and it's on free to air TV for a change. So, that is in the background, distracting me as I write this. Its only just started though, so the interesting stuff isn't on until later. If you are unfamiliar with cricket, it's a slower game so you can kinda half watch it and half do other things without missing too much. I say that and then there is a wicket in the second over... make that two by the fourth over... this game may not go New Zealand's way at this rate...

Synopsis
Lao Tzu is a contemporary of Confucius, though the name literally means Old Man and so does not, to the modern reader, evoke the image of being a specific man. There is also some question as to whether it was written all at once or added to over time.
The central idea in the Tao Te Ching is the idea of Tao or “the way”, as it is generally translated.Though it covers more than the translation suggests. The way is almost an organic thing, encompassing the idea of an eternal, or high, way to go and of an entity in its own right.

The Way includes pushing away desire and embracing nature and the natural order of things. Being okay with the loss of things and people, to death, as a natural part of life. To pursue Tao, is to pursue non-action and stillness.

It is in the Tao Te Ching that we first see the concepts of Ying and Yang, of balance of positive and negative energies, and the idea that we should strive for that balance in our lives and beings.

Reflections
I can see how the Taoists gave birth to the Tai Chi movements and the like. Their focus on contemplation, and being free of desire, also reminds me of what little I know of Buddism. Tao is a slippery concept in this text as it almost has a life of its own; not being just the path, as I said before, but the whole person becoming more like the way.

It also advocates applying knowledge more than gaining knowledge and I think this seems to suggest that the author is aware of how too much 'head knowledge' can get in the way of practice of the things taught in the Tao Te Ching.

Comparisons
Because of the fluidity of the concept of Tao, the Tao Te Ching is a little more fluid to grasp than the more concrete work of the Analects. You can tell that Confucius and Lao Tsu are contemporaries because of the cultural similarities that we see in the society they are writing in and trying to have input on.  In saying that, they come at the issues of the society in two very different ways: Confucius' message is to improve yourself and you can improve the things around you. Lao Tzu's message is more, to find the Tao, or spiritual path, and the rest won't matter because you are so in touch with Tao.

Have you read The Tao Te Ching? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read The Tao Te Ching but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
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The Saga of Burnt Njal; The Spiraling Blood Feud

It's so hot! I'm writing this in the middle of a heat wave. it will be March before this posts but right now, it's a scorcher. We had 32 degrees yesterday and it's 30, so far, today. Because of this, I am hiding out in the local library. Air conditioning is a lovely invention.

Story
The Burnt Njal starts off with a small squabble between a pair of best friend's wives. This squabble leads to the first killing. This killing starts a slowly intensifying blood feud. This feud first consumes the living moments of Gunnar, who is one of the major players of the book (his wife is one of the original arguers), and eventually is his death. After every killing, the perpetrators and the family of the slain meet at the Thing, which is some kind of clan meeting, and is where the law court was held. At the Thing, both sides agree to a blood price for each person killed and pledge their peace to each other. Though this is meant to stop blood feuds, in this case the fight is taken up again and again, often by someone more tangential to the giving of peace. This feud, after the death of Gunnar, spreads to Njal's sons, and eventually to Njal himself. A large group of men come to his house and burn it with him and his household inside. One man escapes, Kari, the rest of the work then describes his revenge on those who did the burning. Eventual peace with the leader of the group  is achieved but only after all other perpetrators have been killed.

Reflections
The most interesting side track, to me, was the arrival and adoption of Christianity to the Icelandic shores and people. A group of men return from overseas in Norway that have converted. They, in turn, convert about half the island. It eventually comes to the hill of laws that they cannot have two laws for the land, so it is eventually decided that they should all become Christian. While this is an interesting addition to the life and times of the Icelandic people, it has little influence on the law proceedings themselves. Though it does change the priesthood and who had those honours.
It is notable just how broad the scope of the work is, starting right back with the original rivalry and fight between the two wives and not ending until the final man who did the burning was atoned for. I spent a lot of the work wondering where the burnt came from in the title as Njal was no more than a side character for much of the work and the burning itself is within the last 10% of the book.

Comparisons
Both The Burnt Njal and Beowulf are full of daring heroes doing daring things. The thing that sets them apart is that, in the Burnt Njal these heroes are fighting each other, not monsters. The Burnt Njal also gives more insight to the little day to day life things than Beowulf, or even than The Neibenlungenlied.
As a saga, the Burnt Njal, like the Iliad, is set mainly in one place; though we do occasionally see people traveling out of Iceland. The Iliad is also an epic that focuses on hero versus hero but it focuses on one action in a war, compared to the many individual actions in the Burnt Njal.

Have you read The Burnt Njal? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read The Burnt Njal but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
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Confucius, The Great Learning: The great ordering of controllable things

I have spent a chunk of this evening moving furniture around with my husband as we convert our spare room into an office and moving our computers out of the lounge. It will be a big change for us as it will be the first time we have committed to having that room "empty" and not getting in a boarder. Also, it will be the first time since we got married that the computers will not be in the lounge.

Synopsis
The Great Learning is comprised of two parts. The first is only a single page long and it is the text attributed to Confucius. The Second is the annotation of Tsang which expands upon the ideas given in the first. The First part was taken from The book of Rites which is more about ritual and is left to stand alone as a moral or philosophical work.
The main text lays out the foundations and ties the proper running of the state to knowledge. Knowledge allows sincerity of thought, allows rectified hearts, allows cultivation of the person, allows well regulated families, and allows states to be rightly governed. If any one fails the next level can not be attained.

Reflections
I find the order of foundations, from self cultivation down to Knowledge, a little different from how I see them. I would have gone with; sincerity allows knowledge, allows rectified hearts. But that is just a gut feeling. The annotation seems to just state the same thing over and over, which is the prerogative of an annotation, but I don't feel it had much to add. It also makes a lot of references, mainly to "The book of Poetry" which, from my research, is most likely to be the "Classic of Poetry" in the five classics that support Confucian thought. These references expand the length of the annotation but give very little substance.

Comparisons
I don't really feel I can draw any meaningful comparisons from such a short text and annotation.  It is clear though that the original text is likely to be of Confucius or one direct disciple but that the annotation was most likely written later.

Have you read The Great Learning? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read The Great Learning but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
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Confucius, The Doctrine of the Mean: A pillar text

So, I originally read this in February of 2017. No wonder I'm having a little trouble calling it to mind. Thankfully it is only 17 pages, so I can skim read it. This is going to be an ongoing challenge as I work through these backlogged texts.
My husband starts a new job tomorrow, which is super exciting. He's a truck driver and is going to be delivering roofing iron.

Synopsis
The Doctrine of the Mean is comprised of three real threads to the way of the Mean to be the Superior man.
Self cultivation, through self-education, self-discipline, and self-questioning. The idea that the self must grow, in order to walk the course of the Mean.
Understanding and forbearance of others, based on reciprocity. The idea that you serve the one above you as you would expect the one below you to serve you.
The development of Sincerity in your own character and to be an example of sincerity to those around you. And that being able to do that, you can then extend Sincerity to the animal and natural world.

Reflections
The use of the word mean in the English translation is a little tricky here because you must strive to follow the course of the Mean but the superior man is the one who follows it and the mean man is the one who does not.
Self-cultivation is something I can really get behind. Take this project for example, learning for learning's sake. In my case, not in order to follow the Mean, but to follow a more fulfilling journey.

Comparisons
The only thing to really compare this to is the Analects. Both use the idea and wording of the Superior man, and idea that is suggested should be striven for. The doctrine of the Mean seems to spend a little more time on the mean man, or the non-Superior man. But the basic ideas that are central to the Doctrine of the Mean are, though more subtlety, still there in the Analects.
Being a doctrine rather than a series of collected sayings of the master, the doctrine of the Mean is more structured and more linear than the Analects.

Have you read The Doctrine of the Mean? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read The Doctrine of the Mean but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
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Confucius, The Analects: Chinese thought on how to live

So I have had an in depth look over my plan today, and Herodotus, that I've just finished reading, is not scheduled to post until the ninth of August. So there may be some slight changes to the plan coming. I'm not sure exactly what they are yet but it might be as simple as posting more often while we get through the back log. Nothing is set in stone yet and I have a lot of writing to do in the mean time. Watch this space.

Synopsis
The Analects is a brief collection of sayings and writings from Confucius and his disciples. It centers around the Superior Man and how he interacts with society around him. The focus is on "The Way" or the moral and good way under Heaven. The Chapters are told as conversations between the master and his disciples and are considered to be written by the disciples after Confucius' death. It covers, as part of "The Way", Virtue, Ritual and Goodness and how they enrich the Superior Man.

Reflections
We know that the Chinese have taught Confusionism and it shows. I found this an interesting window into why the Chinese are so big on respecting their parents. This text teaches that to do as your parents instruct is part of "The Way" of the superior man.
It is also interesting to see the basic threads of "keeping face" starting to tie themselves together, with its emphasis on acting the part no matter what. This is something we see strongly in a lot of Asian cultures, to differing degrees. There would be nothing worse than to bring dishonour on your family. It remind me a little of Mushu in Disneys Mulan "Dishonour on you, Dishonour on your cow, dishonour on your whole family".

Comparisons
There is not a whole lot to compare the Analects to as it is both my first text from an Asian view point as well as the first philosophical text. We won't see any western philosophy for quite sometime yet. The one way we can compare it is if we consider it a religious text. It has definitely been follow like a religion at times but it does not have a higher power  of any type or heaven. but like a lot of religious texts it does spend a lot of time on how you should live. It focuses on the morality of the Superiour man, while the advice itself is different it is similar to the book of proverbs in the bible in its short pithy statements on how best to live.

Have you read The Analects? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read The Analects but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
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