Digital Hammurabi

Read about the Digital Hammurabi project at Johns Hopkins here, and learn a little more about cuneiform tablets in the process.

British Museum Babylon Exhibit

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7697854.stm

Great link with 3 minute taste of the latest Babylonian exhibit at the British Museum. I think you’ll like it.

Pip, pip, cheerio, Baiba

Page from Oldest New Testament Epistles Collection

Here is the link to a very interesting page from a very interesting manuscript, P46.  Click on “Full Image” to see it up close.

Beowulf

I wrote a post earlier on another blog about Beowulf.  It lists some interesting resources for study.  Here.

My favorite hero is Beowulf

After watching Movie Beowulf looks for me as Real Hero. This is a movie made in cartoon style, and we can see two separate phases. First is when he is young, and second when he gets old. And it is a time when he gets to different conflicts with monsters. They are Grendel, Grendel’s  Mother and the dragon. In film dragon is a child of Beowulf that devastates and starts to destroy kingdom of his father. In film he is half human, but we can see how his father fights with him and dies in the end. As for me, Beowulf is a unregulated warrior with mature heroism and reliable king. There two phases of his life, divided by fifty years, written in two different models of good quality, that shows Beowulf how he get changed.

 

In his youth, Beowulf is a great warrior, characterized mainly by his achievements of strength and courage, including his fabled swimming match against Breca.  He even kills 9 sea monsters.

His defeat of Grendel and Grendel’s mother confirms his reputation for bravery and shows him fully as a hero. In first part of the poem, Beowulf matures little, as he possesses heroic qualities in great quantity from the start. Though Beowulf does not become king for many years, his ideal career as a warrior has served in part to prepare him for his the throne.

 

The second part of the epic poem shows him after fifty years, when he became a king and he is tired after all wars. For him they are bloody and cruel, because small tribes devastates against Beowulf without chances to kill him. As one of leaders wanted to kill him in the film, Beowulf took all s armor off and said kill him, but this leader of tribe could not do it. Beowulf is already dead after all that warrior career and heroic actions that he made.

 

In final episode his last encounter in life is a dragon. And as a king it shows responsibility to act like a king, for good people and not just for own glory and pride.

n the final episode—the encounter with the dragon—the poet reflects further on how the responsibilities of a king, who must act for the good of the people and not just for his own glory, and it differs from those of the heroic warrior. So, for the first time of his life Beowulf feels that he is not immortal and untouchable is it was before.  He is buried after fight with dragon as a great hero and leader, his last courageous fight is also adrenaline rash. Beowulf is my favorite hero because in last fight of his life he thought about people around them and saved his kingdom, not like other epic heroes that thought only for pride and glory.

 

 

Pride is the Curse

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.

Woodrow Wilson

 

In my reflection on the epic of Beowulf I would like to bring up the issue of consequences from being proud and honored after performing good and feat. Even though Beowulf is known for his heroism and unreal strength and power over monsters and other nature forces, his being unbeatable, defeating monsters and saving whole towns from their conquering.  His honor was never ashamed before his pride went out and led the curse of Grendel to be released on the kingdom, of which Beowulf became a new king. His union with Grendel led into a trap, which was entailed in the newly born golden monster that put to danger the entire kingdom. Defeating the monster that was Beowulf’s creation meant the need in sacrifice, which usually happens in case when one’s pride took over and the need in defeating that kind of emotion appeared.

 

Author pays our attention to the lesson that must be learnt by reader. Once bad emotion like pride or jealousy is led out of the soul a sacrifice must be done in order to be saved from the consequences of these bad emotions. No matter how strong and mighty person is, when consumed by pride and faced with temptation, chances are that he is to tempted to his desires. Sorrow will follow after all damages are done. To regain the honor, sacrifice is needed. But in real life, it doesn’t have to be that way. Usually people do not sacrifice much, but keep their sins till they die, but then they are going to pay and regret for that sin of pride and honor. Anyway sacrificing is to be made at the any point of individual’s journey in different terms and means of paying for what is done. So while you’re not yet in the pit of guilt and shame, keep your integrity to the last moment.

Back to Inferno

Throughout the ages people tend to admire epics that involve action, complicated plot and variety of different characters. Apart from these kinds of epics Dante’s Inferno consists of no much action, but the horror of different creatures and souls’ suffering made epic the most popular among readers.

 

The plot of Inferno describes circles of hell, which is the part of underworld and became the base for the funeral procedure for many ages. The description of hell is attractive to many people due to its terrible features and illustrations. Though, also the picture of hell makes people think of their lives as trial period, which is given to them for making choices as they live and than continue their path in a different world bearing the conclusions of these choices in sense of suffering in inferno or smell pleasant aroma of paradise. People are gifted with a right to choose and I think they are the ones who know or assume they know what will happen to them after they die. This feeling of desire to get into a better place after the death is the cause of tolerance in the society, which make the humanity to exist without a set of killing and destruction.

 

The uniqueness of Dante’s literature is his involvement in the epic’s plot and of different characters well known from the history, his beloved one and teachers in his journey. In hell he met people about whom he cared. He made his epic very realistic and the most valuable piece of literature as many critics admitted.

 

I cannot acknowledge the Dante’s illustrations being real. Though, I admit that the value of human life is well developed in this epic. Person is gifted a life, in which personal growth has to be achieved in face of God by fulfilling moral virtues. Human life is a valuable gift that allows human spirit to change and develop inorder to get into eternal world free of sins and seductions.

Hell-Expression of Love.

The question was raised in class:

how would you explain that hell could be an expression of love from God?

I had to think about it for a good while before i could figure out and have my own stand point on this matter and now as i have done i will gladly share with some of my thoughts and insights that i have gotten.

Firstly to begin with i have to say that i definitely agree that hell, indeed, is as an expression of love from God. He has created a place for those who qualify for nothing more than that. I have heard somewhere that God doesn’t hate sinner but the seen he hates.

All those who are not worthy to live in the Kingdom of God in His presence, wouldn’t want to be there in the first place. Because i think they couldn’t stand His glory, and they would have a sense of guilt for what they had done on earth. They would have a clear knowledge of their wrong doings and they would know that they are not worthy to be there.

It is like going to party where you have not been invited too. Or showing up at the party and not have appropriate outfit for it. It still is a great party, but no one would feel comfortable being there.

Everyone is invited but very few are choosen

Who are the chosen ones? Those who keep all the commandants and live that kind of a life that reflects teachings of the Gospel. I don’t think people will be or are forced into Heaven, definitely not by God. It has to be a choice, desire and goal that person makes in order to be and live with God.

Differences I Would Have with Dante

Reading The Inferno makes me think a lot about the afterlife.  I am not sure whether this would count for an actual post, but this is what has been on my mind concerning The Inferno.  I have three main aspects that I would consider to be rather big differences with Dante’s view of Hell.

We discussed in class that Dante’s views were very much associated with church teachings of the time.  Part of this teaching was of Purgatory.  Like many other Protestant Christians in today’s world, I do not subscribe to the doctrine of Purgatory.  Here is my reason.  If Purgatory was meant to refine people to be ready for Heaven, then what was Christ’s sacrifice for?  Also, being refined is what this life is supposed to be about.  All over Scripture we get the picture that Christians are supposed to be increasing their faith and refining their character throughout their lives.  This process of perfecting our faith is not to get ready for Heaven, but to be transformed into the image of the One who created us.  We are to continue growing in Christ-likeness.

Another difference I would hold with Dante concerning Hell is that I would not have a place for people who died before Christ came.  Or at least I do not believe there is a provision for that.  The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament.  One of the aspects of this God is that He is not held to our standards of time.  God completely transcends time.  My personal view is that just because someone dies on earth on one certain day does not mean it is that same day in the afterlife.  The timeline of eternity is not held to the same boundaries as earth’s timeline.

My final difference with Dante concerns his different levels of punishment.  At this point in my understanding of sin, I would not believe there are different levels of punishment which go from bad to worse based on the sin.  I do, however, like Dante’s portrayal of the punishment being ‘cantro passot’.  If I were to present it, I would likely have everyone on the same plain because all have sinned.  From my perception, the root of sin is the heart beating for something else more than it does for God.  God embodies everything good and pure.  One could say, therefore, that making the ultimate decision of something else over Him results in the absence of anything good and pure which would be Hell.  Also, everyone has a laundry list of sins we deal with and have dealt with in life.  How does one decide which sin counts for more?  If I have rejected God and must then end up in Hell to be punished for sin, which sin defines my life?  Which sin is the biggest?  Even if God had an opinion on which sin was worse, why would that count for any merit when I have rejected Him?

When it comes to the idea of spending some time in Hell then being allowed to enter Heaven or being destroyed, I have an issue, again based on the time concept.  How much time can you spend in a place where time simply does not exist?  The years of eternity will not be counted.  It’s eternity.  Who is keeping track?

I hope this was not incredibly confusing or even seen as unnecessary, but there it is. 

Similarities of the Iliad and Books 7-12 of The Aeneid

Virgil had the intent of making the last half of his epic resemble the Iliad.  Aside from the obvious war and battle settings, the Aeneid has some major similarities to highlight.  Knowing that this was the intention, the fact that the two stories have similarities are obvious.  I simply wanted to share the similarities I found interesting.

As discussed in class, the first similarity to highlight is that both Achilles and Aeneas have a pivotal friend in who dies in battle which causes a similar reaction in each of them.  Achilles’ dear friend Patroclus died at the hand of Hector which caused Achilles to emotionally react in a way so as to not respect Hector as a worthy enemy on the battlefield.  Aeneas’ friend, and son of the King who treated him so kindly, Pallas was killed at the hands of Turnus.  We see at the ending of the Aeneid that Aeneas has the same type of reaction that Achilles had toward Hector.

Another interesting similarity to note is that both stories have a point in their war where the fate of either side is to be decided by a single battle between the two pivotal people.  The two pivotal people are also both fighting over a woman (more so in the Iliad than in the Aeneid).  However, both of these fights in both of these stories is thwarted by the gods.  In the Iliad, we have Paris and Menelaus fighting over Helen and Aphrodite brings Paris back to his room to keep him safe.  In the Aeneid, we have a potential battle between Aeneas and Turnus, but when the two parties are making sacrifices, a goddess (I believe a nymph) stirs the hearts of the warriors and the battle continues.

A final similarity to note is that both stories end with the main character not actually reaching his ultimate destiny.  The Iliad ends with Achilles asleep next to his Briseus, but we know that this is now how he is fated to end up.  A glorious death is in store for him.  The Aeneid ends with Aeneas killing Turnus, but we know that he is fated to be the founder of Rome.  We do not see either of these fates actually accomplished in the story.

As stated earlier, these two stories were meant to be similar, as Virgil planned it that way.  I just thought that sharing these would add to the value of the two stories.