Changes to the AD lit list

I was talking to my husband a couple of days ago and he asked when I was going to do the Volsung saga and the Edda. In response to this I had a look through my list and realised they weren't even on it. Then today he asked if Augustine's The City of God, I told him I was leaving the church fathers of Christianity for a separate list. He informs me that The City of God is a vital link in the development of the novel, so I may have to rethink that decision. Maybe I'll add just the City of God to this list and leave the rest of his works for a church fathers list.
The other thing this has made me think about is whether I need a separate list for the holy books of world religions or whether I should be folding them into this list. Folding them in would require quite a rewrite of the list. Not sure that is worth the trouble when I can just put together a separate list later. Of course this won't effect the BC list as they are already integrate because it is not a typed list, its a list of everything BC.

So that means I have 3 books to add to the AD lit. list and a lot more research to do to make sure there are not other additions needed.
Also I found that I can't get two of Dante's works in English so I'll have to take them off the list so that balances things up a little bit.

Look out for an updated version of the AD lit. list in the next few days!

The Upanishads: Hindu Brahma

It beat me, it totally beat me! It's not often I quit at something.

I had real trouble reading and understanding the Upanishads so, in the end, I didn’t actually finish it. To be fair, it had me stalled for over 2 years on this project, so in the end, it had to be passed over to get moving on the rest of the list. As such, this will be a much shorter post, and I will be using the power of the internet to complete my synopsis.

The Story
In a nutshell, the Upanishads is a Hindu text dealing with the concepts of Brahman, or truth, Atman, or self and the realisation of how these two can be joined into oneness or Bhakti. How this results in Karma, or our deeds, and the striving for Moksha the eternal bliss. It also introduces the concept of Om as the divine sound of cosmic energy.

Reflections
Brahma and Brahman have so many similar but nuanced meanings, you just start to get a handle on one and it changes.
Everything comes back to Brahman or Atman in the end. Every time there is a list of how things go together and what is based on what foundation, the final foundation is always either Brahman or Atman.

Comparisons
I found the Rig Veda easier to comprehend. It had fewer twists and turns. Both the Rig Veda and The Upanishads are collections of writings, that can mean the topic and the specific meanings of terms can vary slightly. And this can happen every time you change Upanishad or hymn in the Rig Veda.

Have you read the The Upanishads? If so what did you think?
Does this inspire you to read the Upanishads and succeed where I have failed? If so tell me what you think when your done!

Buy a copy of The Upanishads

Hesiod, The Shield of Heracles: That's one ornate shield

It is so hot today, its midsummer here in New Zealand. But, it is uncommon to have air conditioning at home, so I'm sitting, typing, with a fan beside me on full. My husband and I also bought a paddling pool to cool off in, even though we don't have kids.
The Shield of Heracles was a nice, short work, maybe 10 or so pages long. In some ways, that meant it was no trouble at all. There is still so much in it, even though it is so short, and even though the description of the shield goes for a couple of pages. I enjoyed seeing a bit of the Heracles myth that doesn't directly include his labors. Heracles, of course, also know as Hercules.


Edition
As I said for Works and Days, I purchased a combined edition that also included Works and Days, Theogony and the Shield of Heracles. This was not a penguin classics edition as that only had Works and Days, and Theogony; I also wanted to look at The Shield of Heracles and I didn’t want to buy two editions.


The Story
The predominance of this text is a description of the shield of Heracles, hence the name. Around that description, though, there is a short story.
In the area of Thessaly, there is a tyrant named Cycnus, who is known for killing his dinner guests as well as pilgrims on their way to sacrifice to Apollo. Heracles is traveling with his nephew Iolaus, the son of his mortal brother Iphicles, when he comes across Cycnus and Ares in a chariot going the other way. Cycnus challenges Heracles to single combat. Heracles, as expected, accepts. At this point in the text. we get a huge and glorious description of the shield of Heracles, a gift from and masterwork of Hephaestus. The shield is made of shining gold and ivory and is uncrushable and unbreakable.
Athena warns Heracles that Ares will attack after the single combat. Heracles fights Cycnus and kills him with a shot to the throat. Ares, as predicted, springs on Heracles but his blow is deflected by the shield and Heracles wounds him in the thigh. Heracles and Iolaus strip Cycnus’ armor and take it as spoils. Cycnus is buried, but the monument is washed away by a storm brought on by Apollo.

Reflections
Heracles seems to be a braggart in this story. He is so sure of his victory, even before the fight has begun. The fact that he was fighting a son of Ares didn’t seem to phase him - but then he is the son of Zeus. At first glance, he seems to get into the fight rather rashly, only needing a challenge to get his fighting blood up. We do not know if he is aware of the misdeeds of Cycnus. If he is, he has good reason to agree to single combat; if he is not, it is a rash act, but as always it goes Heracles’ way.

We see the anger of Apollo only in the dying breaths of the text, which comes as a bit of a surprise to me. I’m getting used to seeing gods take offence at small slights, but Apollo does nothing about the killing of worshipers on the way to sacrifice to him; and yet we see him call up a storm to blot out Cycnus’ memory by destroying his monument at the end.

Comparisons

The Shield of Heracles borrows from the Iliad in how it describes Heracles’ unbreakable shield. Some lines are alluded to, and others are directly copied, from the earlier text.

Again, here in the Shield of Heracles, we see Athena as the god of providence, whisking away heroes from danger and death. In the Iliad, we see this happen as one of the Trojan heroes gets too close to death.
Apollos involvement with protecting his temple pilgrims seems to be very limited (as I stated earlier) and his revenge is almost retrospective. By comparison, in the Odyssey, we see Poseidon have a long running quarrel with Odysseus and his revenge is wrought over and over again. Or by comparing it with Zeus’ revenge on Prometheus in Theogony which is ongoing torture day after day.

Have you read the The Shield of Heracles? If so what did you think?
Does this inspire you to read the The Shield of Heracles? If so tell me what you think when your done!

Buy a copy of The Shield of Heracles

I'm back for a New year of even more books!

Hello 2019, though it is a little late for new years resolutions, this is my mid January resolution. My goal for 2019 for this blog and for my self education project in general is:
Make it through to the start of Aristophanes by 2020 on the BC List
Now this might be over reaching as it goes beyond the first fifty list that I have posted, but as I have previously stated my total list is over 300 works long, though you have probably noticed by now some of those are very short.
To this end I have put in some serious time into reading Herodotus' Histories as I have been working on that work far too long and need to move on. I'm hoping to be finished reading it tomorrow and to have written its blog post by the end of the week.
I will be posting from here on on Fridays and I will stay in the order of the list.
The first week of the month I want to dedicate to the AD lit list and the other 3 or 4, depending on the month, will be the BC list. In other words my other goal for this project is:
Complete 11 works from the AD lit list by 2020
January is already half over so it will only be fore the rest of the year. This will put me a few works into Chaucer by 2020.
Again this might be over reach but it's work taking a good crack at.
So here is to a productive and focused year!

You might be wondering what happened last year that had this come to a halt, so let me fill you in. I had mentioned that I had a new job and that, optimistically, I would have time to read and write at work as it had a lot of down time. I was working on a newly opened dairy factory and as that had its teething issues and other problems my time got very fragmented and it became hard to read anything longer than an article without having interruptions.
Also the hours being 12 shifts 5 to 6 days a week there was little time outside of work to keep the reading and writing up to date.
I have since had to quit for health reasons, night shifts and I don't go together very well, and then spent December resting and getting back to my normal self.

I did some thinking before recommitting to this, just making sure this is really what I want to do and my previous reasons still stand. I still want to become more than just the Science major that I was in University. I still want to broaden my horizons and learn more about what has come before, to better understand what is now. I want to finish these list so I can move on to writing new AD lists, like Science fiction, Biography or History. This is why I continue to pursue these lists.

Hesiod, Theogony: The Origons of the Greek gods

My husband read my blog so far and called it clinical, which wasn’t my intention. Today, I’m writing at work. I get a lot of down time, where I can do what I like while waiting for trucks. I test milk before the milk tankers pump it into the factory for processing. Today, I have an unexpected redirect of 25000L of milk, which, seeing as I was scheduled none but have to be here anyway, is a nice change.

Edition

As I said for Works and Days, I purchased a combined edition that also included Works and Days, Theogony and the Shield of Heracles. This was not a penguin classics edition as that only had Works and Days, and Theogony and I wanted to also look at The Shield of Heracles and I didn’t want to buy two editions. Heracles of course being also know as Hercules.

The Story

Theogony is an overview of the Greek creation story and the creation or birth of the gods. It starts with the god Chaos and then Gaia. From these two, come all the gods right down to the Olympians. First comes the likes of Night, Day, Space and Love. These are not the gods of love and space etc. But rather, these are the embodiment of the concept; so this is the creation of space and love etc. After that comes the Titans, the youngest of which is Kronos. After some monsters are birthed from Gaia and are hidden away from her. Kronos kills his father Ouranos and his blood gives birth to the Furies. He is killed by chopping off his genitals and through them in the ocean from this was birthed Aphrodite. More gods are born, mainly of physical features of land like rivers and also Poseidon. The Olympian gods are born, many of which are the children of Kronos and Rhea. Those that are not are given new jobs and titles when Zeus overthrows Kronos.

Pandora is a gift to men from Zeus who holds a jar that, when opened, gives to men all suffering but she manages to keep hope inside it.

Prometheus angers Zeus by stealing fire and giving it to man. To punish him Zeus chains him to a rock and has a bird come and eat out his liver, which regrows, daily.

Reflections

The first thing that really struck me is just how complicated the “creation”, or birth, of the gods is. There are multiple generation of, not just the gods, but also of men. There is a series of kings of the gods and they are killed by their sons; first Kronos kills Ouranos, then, in time, Zeus kills Kronos in the war between the Olympians and the Titans.

The second was, that I was unaware Kronos is a Titan. I knew he was Zeus’ father but did not realise his place in the greater scheme of things.

Not all of the Olympians are from the same generation, e.g. Aphrodite is in the same generation as Kronos not Zeus. Zeus raises all those who fight on his side in the war with the Titans to new positions in his court with new responsibilities, in so far as the Greek gods have responsibilities.

Zeus’ anger at Prometheus seems extreme, though in character with other things we see from Zeus, for it to have no specific end does not mean it will be truly endless. We see in later texts that Prometheus is killed ending his suffering. Prometheus is a very sympathetic character because of his love for mankind.

Comparisons

The creation story presented in this text is rather chaotic, with gods waring with each other. Compared with the Rig Veda which, while still pantheistic, is more ordered; we do not see power struggles. In contrast again, the Bible’s Old Testament is monotheistic and we see even more unity with God and his spirit working to make creation, though I guess it is a little hard to go to war with yourself.

While the Rig Veda is still pantheistic, it does not detail even half as many gods as Theogony lays out for the Greek. It seems, with the Rig Veda, like the amount of gods increase in later texts, where as Theogony is more of a definitive list and accounts for even the creation of the fates.

Have you read the Theogony? If so what did you think?
Does this inspire you to read the Theogony and succeed where I have failed? If so tell me what you think when your done!

Buy a copy of Theogony

Hesiod, Works and Days: An agricultural memo

Edition

For Works and Days, I purchased a combined edition that also included Works and Days, Theogony and the Shield of Heracles. This was not a penguin classics edition as that only had Works and Days, and Theogony and I wanted to also look at The Shield of Heracles and I didn’t want to buy two editions. Heracles of course being also know as Hercules.

The Story

The story is written in the style of a letter from one brother to another, to emplore him to work hard to gain riches.

It details the five generations of man; The first, the Golden, who lived in the time of Cronos. The Second, the Silver, who Zeus made but destroyed because they woul not sacrifice to the Olympians. The Third, the Bronze, they made everything from bronze including their houses. The Fourth, the Heros and demi-gods (Heracles, Arcillies etc.), who died in battle. The Fifth, the Iron, the current state of man. The ones who make iron tools and toil at hard labour.

Works and Days also spend a great deal of time on how to tell the seasons and what agricultural work should be done in each season. This includes when to plant and when and how to harvest. Simple hints like first shapen your sickle are sprinkeled throughout. There is information on the times of year to sail as this pertains to the seasons. Finally, there is a count of the days of the month and which of them are good for what, including, which ones are holy days and feast days.

Reflections

Works and Days is an interesting insight into the agricultural realities of the ancient Greek world and while it is not a definative “How to”, as we would understand it now, it is full of tips and tricks, to make the process easier on the brother.

There is no seperation between things that are agricultural in nature and those that are religious but rather the religious, because it permeates everything, is seen as a natural part of wisdom in how to have a good life and be prosperous.

It seems to be a more natural accounting for time and season compared to our modern day clocks and calanders. You will know when to do things by the signs of the seasons rather than by painstaking counting of time and yet it still numbers the days of the month and their usage.

Comparisons

The one comparison I can make with this text is: Works and Days expands our understanding of the Greek gods and how they interact with the everyday business and in agriculture. It shows us a gentler, in some ways, side of the gods. By contrast, the Iliad and the Odyssey give us a base of how the gods interact with battle and great acts. There is still sacrifice for the appeasement of the gods but we do not see them drowning shipsful of men, because they are angry, as we see in the Odyssey.

Have you read the Works and Days? If so what did you think?
Does this inspire you to read Works and Days? If so tell me what you think when your done!

Buy a copy of Works and Days
Read my post on The Iliad and The Odyssey

The Rig Veda: Early Hindu Hymns

Synopsis
To be clear, when I say Rig Veda I refer, as in the western traditional way, to the Rig Veda Samnita.
The Rig Veda is a collection of religious hymns and are the oldest, in what became, the Hindu religion. They were originally written in Sanskrit. It is broken into 10 Mandalas, or chapters, each containing a collection of hymns.
These hymns cover a multitude of subjects including:

• Creation by an unnamed creator
• The dividing of humans and the start of the caste system
• Death and Yama king of the dead
• Agni as the first human
• Introduction of the hallucinogen Soma
• Introduction of Indra the king of the gods
• Hymns to:
• storm gods
• sun gods
• sky and earth
• The place of women
• Spells and prayers for giving birth and for healing sickness.

Reflections
The Rig Veda showed me that Hindus revering cows goes right back to its infancy. One of the reasons they have such a view on cows, is that it relates to their creation myth and to one of their gods.
They also seem to have a very high place for heat and fire with it receiving direct praise in at least one of the hymns.
It seems a little odd to me that the last mandala deals in spells and invocations, as this feels like a tangent to the rest of the mandalas. These are focused around the gods and setting everything in its place where as the spells and invocations are more about what a human can do to try to achieve certain outcomes.

Comparisons
Reading the Rig Veda made me realise just how readable the Old testament of the Bible is. The Rig Veda took a fair bit of puzzling out and there were passages, I note, that even the translator didn't understand what was going on.
It is interesting to see a different creation myth and to see that both the Rig Veda and the Bible have an active creator. However the Rig Veda has an unnamed creator that is next to never mentioned, after the creation account.

Have you read the The Rig Veda? If so what did you think?
Does this inspire you to read the The Rig Veda? If so tell me what you think when your done!

Buy a copy of the Rig Veda