Weeks 1-6 Flashcards
Antiquity (23 cards)
- Creation, Adam and Eve, the Fall
- Cain and Abel (offerings, brother murder)
- Noah, the Flood and the Covenant (rainbow)
- The Tower of Babel (tower to the heavens, languages confused)
- The Call of Abraham; Covenant of Circumcision; given Isaac
- Abraham Pleads for Sodom and Gomorrah; destroyed wicked people; Daughters sleep w Lot
- Birth of Isaac; Hagaar/Ishmael sent away (Islam origins); sacrifice of Isaac test
- Joseph; dreams; slavery; Potiphar’s wife; jail dreams; famine; Joseph in charge; brothers return for food; silver cup; reveal and reunion
Hebrew Bible (The Old Testament): selections from Genesis
- Israel increases greatly in Egypt
- Pharaoh oppresses Israel
- Birth of Moses; basket in the Nile; Burning Bush; I am who I Am
- Moses’ staff into a serpent (miracle); Aaron to help speak
- Passover; lamb blood on doors; firstborn Egyptian sons killed
- Exodus from Egypt – Moses leads
- Mount Sinai; 10 commandments (rules); fear of God to keep from sinning
- Idols and Altars; Golden Calf to worship; plague because of Aaron’s calf
- New Covenant (Jewish rules); Moses radiant face
Hebrew Bible (The Old Testament): selections from Exodus
Origins of the Greek gods; Prometheus (eagle eats liver, trickster) and origins of Greek sacrifices; Zeus punishes humanity by stealing fire; Pandora as wicked punishment - Zeus inescapable wrath
Theogony, Hesiod (ca. 700BCE)
Origins of humanity; fuller description of Pandora creation; Zeus’ power/strife (one incites war/division, other fosters competition/hard work for benefit of man); pandora creation and jar (releases evil into mankind); no way to evade mind of Zeus
Works and Days, Hesiod (ca. 700BCE)
- The Beginning: Rome’s origins tied to myth: Romulus/Remus twins raised by she-wolf, founded city in 753BCE, Romulus becomes first king after killing Remus &established Roman institutions
- Fall of the Monarchy: Lucretia raped by Sextus, killed herself out of guilt, monarchy ended w tyranny of last king Tarquinius Superbus (son’s assault on Lucretia sparked outrage, leading to expulsion of Tarquins in 509 BCE); Rome transitioned to republic w consuls as leaders
- Heroes of the Republic: Horatius Cocles (defended the bridge against the Etrsucans,; self-sacrifice by holding enemy, roman valor) Gaius Mucius (during Etruscan war, Mucius attempted to assassinate King Porsena, killed scribe by mistake; captured burned left hand in fire “Scaevola,” Porsena impressed so he released Mucius & sought peace w Rome) Cloelia (Roman maiden taken hostage by Porsena, escaped by swimming across river w other hostages, Porsena allowed her to choose half of remaining hostages to free – chose men)
The History of Rome, Livy (ca. 17CE)
The History of the Persian Wars
Herodotus (430BCE)
The Peloponnesian wars
Thucydides (ca. 404 BCE)
- Virtue = knowing
- Apology - Socrates on Trial (Soc defends himself against accusations of corrupting youth/impiety; argues he’s not guilty & asserts that questioning/challenging authority is essential for truth/virtue; sentenced anyways to death by poison)
- Phaedo - Dualism of Body and Soul (emphasizes separation between body/soul; argues that soul is immortal and exists independently of the body; body is temporary prison for the soul, which is concerned w higher truths/intellectual pursuits)
- Phaedo – Death of Socrates (Socrates’ final moment; remains composed as he faces execution; discusses immortality of soul and Socrates’ readiness for death, believing death frees the soul to attain true knowledge)
- The Republic – Allegory of the Cave (illustrates how most people live in ignorance, perceiving only shadows of the truth; like a prisoner freed from the cave, sees the world as it truly is/must return to help others achieve enlightenment)
- The Republic – Theory of Ideas (proposes that the material world is only a shadow of higher, eternal reality or perfect “Ideas”; Ideas are abstract/perfect concepts like beauty, justice, goodness – exist beyond physical world; true knowledge is knowledge of the Forms, not the material world)
Plato (399-348 BCE)
Defining virtue and vice; final cause for humans is Happiness (thinking/acting virtuously); virtue = doing; virtue = middle between two extremes of excess & deficiency (mean); prudence = applied wisdom; practical knowledge (knowing how to find the “mean” in each situation) – “courage of a man is shown in commanding, while in a woman it is in obeying”, friendship essential
The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (350 BCE)
emphasizes importance on the POLIS in enabling humans to flourish; offers pragmatic analysis of governance and citizenship
The Politics, Aristotle (ca. 350 BCE)
semen is potent, women have menstrual fluid not semen, women provides the body (the material), men provide semen (the form), tries to explain reproduction, theory of soul: animals have different types of souls based on complexity, humans have rational soul for intellect/reason, females mature first (weaker/colder by nature), females die first (due to weakness and coldness, female state as “deformity”, only men supply seed for conception ; misogyny
On the Generation of Animals, Aristotle (ca. 350 BCE)
slavery as natural institution/necessary part of society; soul rules the body w authority of a master; male sex is superior (therefore they rule over women); slaves as non-rational; slavery as mutually beneficial (each person fulfilled role according to their nature); slaves better off serving masters as they can’t serve themselves; not all slavery natural (people need to be enslaved because of “natural” inferiority, not war/force)
“On Slavery”, Aristotle (ca. 350 BCE)
explanation of how the Romans, not the Greeks, came to dominate the world through political stability/balanced governance; Why Romans rule the world and not Greeks
The Histories, Polybius (117 BCE)
Lucius Catiline – ambitious/morally corrupt Roman senator; highlights decay of Roman virtue due to greed/luxury, which ___ sees as root of Catiline’s rebellion; conspiracy as broader symptom of Rome’s inevitable decline
“Catiline’s Conspiracy”, Sallust (54BCE)
- Natural law as foundation of human governance; true laws are based on reason & universal nature, transcending human-made laws
- Natural law is linked to divine will; just laws are a reflection of a higher, divine order
- Laws should promote virtue/moral living, aligning w common good
- Insight into ___ vision of an ideal state where law serves as a moral guide
On Laws, Cicero (43 BCE)
There’s no afterlife; fear of death is irrational; death is natural and inevitable; fearing death causes unnecessary suffering in life; death as a natural conclusion rather than punishment
On the Nature of Things, Lucretius (ca. 55BCE)
- on Augustus’ New Empire
- describes a system where power is centralized under the emperor but structured to balance the needs of various societal classes – this is “true democracy” contrasting it w chaos of Roman republic’s populism/mob rule
- Offers defence of Roman imperial system, as if it’s a practical/orderly solution to instability of earlier democratic experiments
The Roman History - Dio Cassius (ca. 200CE)
counter-narrative to Rome’s triumphalism, showcasing cost of imperial ambition; critique of Roman imperialism from the perspective of a native resisting conquest (Calgacus, Caledonian chieftain); “they create a desert and call it peace”
Agricola, Tacitus (100 CE)
Nero’s murder of his mother; theme of female villainy; fear of female ambition
“The Death of Agrippina” - The Annals, Tacitus (100 CE)
- Only what’s internal to ourselves – our thought, feelings, desires, attitudes – is “up to us”, all external events are the work of fate/divine; happiness which is virtue consists in accepting all that happens and now allowing inner self to be affected by exterior world
- stoicism = virtue is the highest good, we should aim for inner peace, focus on what we can control and accept what we cannot
The Handbook, Epictetus (125 CE)
New Testament as primary source for teaching of Jesus (crucified by the Romans around 30 C.E); pacifistic christian beliefs about love, Sympathy, forgiveness, nature of the Kingdom of God
Paul’s Epistles - letters from Paul about Jesus death/resurrection, spreading teachings of Jesus about salvation
The New Testament (Gospel and Paul’s Epistles) (ca. 90CE)
To highlight the moral values/sense of destiny considered to be at the heart of the Roman Republic’s greatness; philosophical dialogue
The Dream of Scipio, Cicero (54 BCE)
Christian martyrdom, emphasis on strength of faith and divine support, Christian persecution from Romans
Martyr Acts: Lyons (177CE) Perpetua in Carthage (202CE)
