ANTH 101 Lecture Notes - Latin Literature, Middle Ages
Document Summary
Lecture 3 historical background & cultural context. Herodotus: although myth can exist outside religion, myth is heavily intertwined with religion. Ancient greeks believed they were superior in intellect to the romans, but difficult to say this after the romans conquered the greeks. And romans believed the romans to be more thinkers than doers: this is reflected in religion. Much of romans religion was greek and many roman myths were romanized version of greek myths. By the 1st c. bc almost everyone spoke greek and latin (latin in west and greek in east). Through the foundation of a series of colonies around the. Mediterranean and various series of conquest, the greeks spread their culture everywhere. Greek became the language of everything in terms of literature (history, prose, drama): a good modern comparison is the language of science. Anything in science must be written in english: the romans composed a native literature for themselves (latin literature).
