Greek Lit Journal Entry 6
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Class: 8:10 am–9:30 am, Locke Hall
This class was more of a group activity class. We got into groups and we had to “decode” Greek. There was this passage of Herodotus in the original language it was written in (Greek), and we had the symbol translation into english letter and in our groups we decoded certain words within our assigned sentences. Then we had to decipher what they meant. The passage was from Otanes’ argument for a democracy. Soem of the words my group deciphered was Otanes, Meson, Persesi, Pregmata, Mounarchon, Genesthai, Edn, Agathon, Eidete, Kambuseo, Nbrin, Agou, and Nbrios. These words meant (in the same order), Otanes (same name haha), middle, Persian, affairs of teh state, monarchy, genesis (or coming to be), sweet/pleasant, good, saw/see, Cambyses, outrage, magus, and outrage (again). Okay it wasn’t decoding, it was translating Greek to English. It was not a very easy thing to do, but I’m sure it would be easier for someone who speaks both languages. One of the points taken from Oanes’ argument wa sthat if you surround someone with luxury or comfort, they are bound to do or commit outrages things and their envy and jealousy will increase.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Reading: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm, A Restaurant/My Apartment
I thought it was interesting How the Scythian’s got their land back from their slaves children. The way that they used whips instead of weapons to get them to stop fighting. It was a mind trick used to get them to feel as though they were not on their level. I’m surprised that worked. Although it would have been weird to see people coming at you on horses with whips. Also, I did not fully understand the reasoning behind blinding the slaves. I wonder how they blinded them. Did they remove their eyes, or pour something onto them to blind them. At first I though it meant a temporary blindness, but later in the book, it referred to them as the blind slaves. I also never really realized that when the men were off at war and conquering, the women and children were left behind for long periods of time. I mean it makes sense, even now, when people go off to war, they are gone for a while..but not years. The children of the slaves had to grow into to men to be able to fight, so they were gone for many many years.
Monday, February 20, 2017
Reading: 3:30 pm-6:00 pm, My Apartment
I would not want to work for a King in Scythia. I would never want to be their cup bearer or their concubine or their messengers…nobody close to them. Basically, when the king dies, you die, and his horse. Poor horse. That’s crazy though. The sup bearer and concubine and servants and what not all get strangled to death when the king dies so that they can be buried with him. Also, the whole thing with killing 50 of his men and 50 horses, then proping them up when the men on the horse backs….oh.my.goodness. If I saw that, I don’t know. People are… I don’t want to say crazy, because that was their customs, but they were crazy. I don’t know how someone could see that and be okay, or even happy. …well, there are things that I do that other may think crazy…which is eating meat. Its a grey area I guess…whats crazy and what isn’t. Whats wrong and whats good. Morals and what not. In this nation today, it’s hard to say anything without offending someone. You can’t really say anything bad about someones practices or customs without backlash, which, to some degree, I can understand. Now, the strangling of the kings men is murder and wrong, but to them in their time, it was just their customs. In the world, there is no standard of good and bad, of right and wrong. It all changes depending on the time and season and culture. I now understand what my friend was talking about before when he was saying that good and bad is a social construct. When he was talking I thought he was crazy, but now I understand what he meant. He felt that people can be “bad” or “good,” but that it wasn’t really “bad” or “good” because they don’t exist. I believe that there is good and bad/evil in the world, but my standard of what is good and bad is different than others. whose opinions are different than others. So, then how are people to judge people on what they did that was good or bad, if good and bad are different everywhere. One would say that killing someone would be a universal “bad,” but here in the book about Scythia, it wasn’t. I don’t even know what I was trying to say anymore.
There is just a lot of human sacrifice in this book. I was just thinking about how the names of the people in different lands were names that described them, the “man eater” and the “black cloaks.” Also, in other countries and cultures, the names of the people have meaning in their own language where in America, most just picky “pretty” names. I have a friend from China. Her American name is Emma, but her name in her language is something I cant pronounce or type, but it means “New Moon.” Her name is literally “New Moon” in her language. This is also similar to the names given to people in Native American tribes. I was named after women who had attributes my mom liked. My two names, ‘Lydia’ and ‘Deborah.’ Lydia was a business owner who prayed and worshiped God. Deborah was the only female Judge of her time and the only woman who who go out to battle in her time as well. I like my names. When I was younger, I didn’t really are for the name Lydia. I wanted the name Hannah, like ‘Hannah Montana.’ Now, I am quite grateful for my name and I think it is lovely.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Class: 8:10 am–9:30 am, Locke Hall
We continued on with translating Greek to English. We began to discuss monarchy and democracy. It was aid that is you wish to have many secrets, a monarchy would be best, for a democracy requires transparency. I know that in America, democracy is highly valued. I like democracy, but I see the value in a monarchy. There are times when I feel that people should not rule themselves, in that, all people should make every decision as one. America is not a complete democracy, which I think is good. I feel as though people can be quite selfish in their decisions, not everyone, but many. Having everyone making decisions on everything seems sort of chaotic. Then again, with one person in charge, that person could be selfish as well in their decisions. Having a ruler in general seems complicated. I would say having wise leader would be good, but then the dilemma would be, who was wise. What values would that person have. People don’t really tend to agree, which is why there is a Republican and Democratic party with different views on how things should be. Everyone has different opinions and different ideas.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Reading: 9:00 pm–11:00 pm, My Apartment
This class requires so much of my time. Hours of reading and hours of writing. This book gives me a bit of insight into what ancient Greece was like and the people in the nations around them. I find it interesting, but I am not seeing its necessity in my life. I feel like what I am learning in this class is how to handle doing a lot of reading and a lot of work. Same with other classes that I take as well. What will this knowledge of the flawed history of Herodotus going to do in my life. its interesting, sure, and its provides some knowledge, but why should I be tested and graded on by ability to memorize the work of this man. It will not save my life, nor make me more prosperous. I don’t see a connection of this to a future career. Not everything I do or read needs to “save my life” or make me prosperous, but if I do it, it should be out of a pure desire for the knowledge or just in the pleasure of reading or doing so. I’m not saying that reading Herodotus is pointless, but that I don’t like the idea of being graded on the memorization of its content. I know that last year in the leadership class, it was said that this was tested so that we learn to pay attention to little details. Sure, I can get that, but this is not a leadership class. Maybe I’m just tired. When I am tired, I don’t see the point of a lot of things because I just want to sleep lol. But I’m am still partly serious. I wish we could go back to the days of apprenticeship. There could be basic school up to high school, then apprenticeships. If there is a career we are interested in, we go and work directly under someone who is in that field and we learn on the job and in training. There is someone at my job who has a degree is hospitality…doing the same exact job as someone who didn’t and learned while they were there. One person spent a lot of time and money just to do the same thing as someone else who didn’t. There’s a quote that says that the mind is a terrible thing to waste..but so is time.