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Description of  The Teaching Company: Ancient Near Eastern Mythology 12 Audio Cds with Course Outline Booklet (The Great Courses)

The ancient myths of the Near East are the foundation stones of both Western and Middle Eastern cultures. These stories originate in the period before the development of writing systems and tell how people made sense of the world through tales of gods, animals, men, women, and combined human/divine beings. These myths—among them the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Descent of Ishtar to the Netherworld, the Babylonian Creation Epic, the Tale of Innana—have great literary merit and reveal much about the development of historical writing and the evolution of religious systems. You study the myths and cultures of Egypt, Sumer, the Hittites, Ugarit, Assyria, and Babylon. You concentrate on the relationship between Ancient Near Eastern myth and biblical accounts. [hide=Course Lecture Titles] [list][*]1 Studying Ancient Near Eastern Myth [*]2 The Emergence of Civilization in the Near East [*]3 Hittites and Canaanites [*]4 Archaeology, Science, and Ideology [*]5 Principles of Writing Systems [*]6 Literary and Religious Aspects of Myth [*]7 Ancient Near Eastern Myths and the Bible [*]8 The Ancient Gods - Egypt and Mesopotamia [*]9 The Ancient Gods - Syria/Canaan [*]10 The Creation Myths of Egypt and Mesopotamia [*]11 Epics of the Gods - Syria/Canaan [*]12 The Epic of Gilgamesh part 1 [*]13 The Epic of Gilgamesh part 2 [*]14 Myths of Death and Destruction part 1 [*]15 Myths of Death and Destruction part 2 [*]16 The Individual and Society - Legal Texts [*]17 The Individual and Society - Myth and Legend [*]18 Love Lust and Poetry [*]19 Marriage Divorce and Other Arrangements [*]20 Kingship and the Gods [*]21 Royal Historians Poets and Artists - Mesopotamia [*]22 A Royal Couple - Myth and Reality [*]23 Royal Historians Poets and Artists - Egypt [*]24 Wisdom Literature; Conclusions.