I spent about 6 and a half hours on Greek Literature his week. This weekend I reviewed previous notes for about an hour and half (Sunday from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m-right before The Walking Dead comes on). I like to do this to keep a timeline of events and make sure I am following the line of succession. We went from Candaules to Croesus to Cyrus Cambyses to Darius. I think my favorite out of all of them was Cambyses, only because he made the book pretty entertaining. I also enjoyed discussing Egypt in correlation to Greek and Persian rule. On Monday I spent an hour and fifty-five minutes reading and listening to the first half of the Herodotus Book 4 Audiobook. It’s been much easier to determine how much time I spend ready my this way. After that I spent about an 45 minutes organizing my notes from that chapter. There were many geographical locations, people, and nomoi covered in this book.

In Class we discussed Otanes’ argument which I thought was beneficial if you needed to work on your vocabulary. It’s interesting to see how Latin and Greek Language correlate or influence the English language. In my mind while we were going through this information I kept think where was this when I needed it for the SAT. We reviewed the following words:

Phy — nature

Mounarchie — monarchy

Poieen — poet

Ariston — best

Andron — man

Pantron — all

Noematon — thoughts

Agginetai — genesis

Ubris — outrage/insolence

Afterwards, we discussed how the Smerdis conspiracy was similar to the Kim Jong Un assassination.

I find all the information I gained in this course interesting. I also am taking and African film course this semester and both courses discuss the humanity of people. On one end I review and learn the culture of Greeks on the other end I review and learn about Africans. Reading about how the Greeks and Persians fought over lands and conquered various areas reminds me of colonialism in Africa. the stripping of culture in Herodotus where I believe it was Cyrus who was instructed to make man feel like women and make them Shopkeepers reminds me you of the small African groups the colonist left in charge. For instance, we watched Sometimes in April, a movie about the Rwandan Genocide. Colonist took the two culture groups (Hutu and Tutsi) elevated the smaller group (Tutsi) while they demeaned the larger group (Hutu) to maintain order. This ended up causing one of the largest genocides in history.

It just makes me reflect on what extent leaders will go to to hold on to their power.

After that class, I went home and re-read the first half of Book 4. I read how Darius stopped the Smerdis revolt, Babylon rebellion, conquered the Samos, and was on his way to overtake the Scythian tribe (which is current day Ukraine). I also read how Mandrocles created a bridge that pleased Darius so much he was rewarded and Darius travels to Europe.

Then they discussed the seven rivers and how the Scythian came from Heracles because the youngest son completed a task that his other two could not. Herodotus then describes the various types of men such as the Agathyrsi, Melanchaeni, Budini, and Oir.

I only read the first half. I also had jury duty on Wednesday and had expected to read the rest of the book. I did read the Article from Professor Sandridge about why facts don’t change our minds. After becoming one of the 12 jurors and reading the article I found it funny (is this where I use ironic? I’m still a little confused on how to use that word) that after being given circumstantial evidence 12 people were suppose to determine if a man was guilty. While I was in the room we had twelve different viewpoints and everyone thought they were right about what the man should or shouldn’t be guilty of. We all had to push aside our differences look at the evidence given to us and work together to come to a consensus despite what we thought was right or wrong. It also made me think about the arguments from Otanes, Megabyzes, and Darius and how each individual believed their form of government was the right form, not once did they tried to the blend the ideas; although, they did use democracy to determine a monarchy.

Anyways, I spent an hour reading and processing that article and wondering why Professor Sandridge sent us that article and how it relates to my life. Greek Literature has been enlightening, I wish I could participate in Slack more often, but it’s been very difficult for me. I think it’s because I don’t have my notifications on. Also, usually social media platforms are quick and easy to respond to, and the prompts in this platform require in-depth analysis, it’s not something you can just jump into. Hopefully, I get a hang of it.