Christianity's departure from ancient ideals and practices, and the relationship between Rome and the Visigoths

"In what ways did Christianity represent a departure from the ideals and practices of ancient Greece and Rome?"


      Christianity represented a departure in more ways than one.  Among them were how the Christians looked down on suicide, but it was not always looked down upon in the time of ancient Greece and Rome.

     They also looked down on the gladiatorial battles.  This is no surprise since the battles went against practically everything that the Christians stood for.  The Christian teachings are very clear that murder is a horrible sin, and murder is exactly what the gladiatorial battles were.

     There were absolutely other things that the Christians departed from, but these are a few of them to give you an idea.



"Discuss the relationship between Rome and the Visigoths."



     The relationship between Rome and the "Barbarian" people called the Visigoths was extremely interesting! I will start off with the Huns' pursuit of the Visigoths.

     One of the more warlike "Barbarian" peoples called the Huns, were regularly searching after the Visigoths.  The Visigoths as you can imagine were quite frightened by the Huns, and they begged Rome to allow them to settle there.  They were eventually allowed, but although out of the way of the Huns' wrath, they were now being subjected to quite detestable treatment by the Romans.

     They were barely given enough food to live off of, nor were they given the land that they had been told that they would receive.  Of course the Visigoths were enraged because of this, and they decided to do what most any people would do.  They revolted.  After years of fighting, the Romans knew that they must negotiate with the Visigoths, so that is just what they did.

      That about sums up the fascinating relationship between Rome and the Visigoths.


I hope that you have enjoyed this essay, and please let me know what you think!  I would love to hear from you!    

Comparison of Works and Days with The Eumenides

"How does the view of ethical cause and effect in history in Works and Days compare with the furies' view in The Eumenides?"

     In both Works and days and The Eumenides, we see a clear view of ethical sanctions.  Works and days gives instructions on how to live a good life and it also talks about the repercussions of living a morally wrong life.  The same goes for The Eumenides, although it is more so showing the negative sanctions instead of telling you about the good ones.

     One of the first similarities that I notice between these two pieces of literature is that they both have very distinct characteristics as far as revenge is concerned.  In Works and Days it talks about how it's alright to seek out revenge if the person has wronged you. The same goes for The Eumenides.  In The Eumenides, Orestes is being tried to see if he was in the right when he sought out revenge on his mother who killed Orestes' father.  This is one of the distinct characteristics that I talked about a second ago.  In this play we see that it was completely acceptable to commit murder in the name of revenge.

     Another similarity that I see is how in Works and Days it talks about finding a good wife.  It says that if you don't, then you will reap the consequences.  We can see this played out in The Eumenides.  In The Eumenides, Agamemnon's wife was Clytemnestra.  She committed adultery and then killed her husband.  In the view of Hesiod, the writer of Works and days, Clytemnestra would have been considered a bad wife.


     The furies did not see Clytemnestra as a "bad" wife.  They saw her as taking completely just revenge.  This is one of the places where the course of ethical cause and effect in Works and Days varies with the view of the furies in The Eumenides.

     We also see that both the furies' view and the view of ethical cause and effect in Works and Days agree with one another on the topic of "Honesty is the best policy".  In Works and Days, Hesiod says to be honest.  When asked to testify, the furies are honest about what Orestes did to his mother and Orestes is honest about why he killed her.  The furies in this situation agree with Works and Days because of the presence of honesty.

     Now I would like to compare the furies' view with the view of ethical cause and effect in Works and days on the subject of hard work.  In Works and Days, Hesiod says that hard work pays off.  We can see the furies' hard work paying off in The Eumenides when they became respected gods.  No, Orestes wasn't found guilty, but they did receive fame and honor from the city of Athens.

     As you can see, there are many similarities between these two works of art.  I encourage you to take a look at them yourself and see if you are able to find any more similarities/non-similarities between them.

Thank you for reading, and please let me know what you think!

"What Was Hesiod's View of the Mankind's Past and Future?" (Works and Days)

     Well, Hesiod worshiped the gods of Olympus, so his view of the past and future revolves mainly around them.

     When he talks about the past of mankind, it consists of five races of men.

1. gold: the first race
2. silver: the second race
3. bronze: the third race
4. the demi-gods: the fourth race
5. iron: the fifth race (our race)

     The past races of men were all destroyed by Zeus, and according to Hesiod, our race will be destroyed in the future as well.
   
     Another thing to keep in mind is that each one of these races are supposed to be worse than the one before them.  Taking this into consideration, I believe that his view of Mankind's past was both good and bad, because although he notes the negative qualities in "Works and Days", he also states the good.  And as far as the future goes, it can only be negative if each race gets worse than the other.

     Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think!