Essay One:

Please craft a well-developed essay of 2-3 pages on ONE of the topics listed below. Use textual evidence where appropriate to help support your claims. The texts for this unit are The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, and various creation stories and flood narratives.

1. In the epics, we have discussed female characters and the social power they do or do not possess.  Who is the one female character you found to be either the most powerful or weakest in our study so far?  From where does she get her power and what is the extent of her influence in her culture?  Be sure to consider her character and/or actions in terms of what her culture most values.
2. Compare and contrast (mainly contrast) aspects of Sumerian (or Mesopotamian) and Ancient Greek religion as conveyed in the epics. What can we learn about or assume about these cultures based on their respective epics? How do Gilgamesh and Odysseus represent the ideal hero to each of their cultures? You might consider bringing in creation stories or flood narratives here to help illustrate your points, but you do not have to.
3. Select from one of the epics one feature of either ancient Greek or Sumerian culture and discuss how it is either alien or familiar to our understanding and values today. It may be both! You might consider concepts we’ve discussed such as xenia (related to our modern word xenophobia), guest/host relationships, what makes a good leader, how humans relate to the world around them, or any other ideas you find in the text that resonate with our modern culture.
4. Please select a topic of particular interest to you. Talk with me if you go this route.

Please submit this essay to the appropriate CourseDen dropbox by 11:59pm on Friday, Feb 14^th. Your essay will be graded according to the holistic rubric found in CourseDen.