For this unit, select and respond to one of the following writing assignments. Write a three to five-page essay for each response. Please be sure to cite all your sources. Please upload your essay to this dropbox.
1) As the hero is considered the “ideal” citizen, humanists also strove to find the “ideal” in their work. In this paper, you will need to apply Aristotle’s aesthetic views on drama, as laid out in his Poetics, to Sophocles’ Antigone. Does Antigone conform to Aristotle’s ideals? How? Give specific examples from the passages found in your Fiero textbook.
2) The earliest surviving literary work in Western civilization is The Iliad by Homer. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, composed around 800 B.C., are fundamental sources of the culture and literature of the Western world, and the oldest epics in western tradition. Discuss the characteristics of the ancient hero as seen in these readings, and define the specific features of the epic genre.
3) Discuss how the hero is personified in the carved marble figures by Polycleitus, Myron and others, as applied to the principles outlined by Vitruvius. Why are these figures “classical?” How and why did artists strive for the “ideal” human form?
4) Please select three poems from the Book of Songs (Shi jing) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. to analyze and discuss in detail. How do these poems reveal some aspect of the human experience? Can these elements of the ideal human character be considered “heroic?”
5) The teachings of Confucius reflect many social and political ideas of ancient China. Discuss his contributions in the humanities by explaining his concept of moral rectitude.