Great Books 101: Ancient to Medieval

The word “literature” comes from the Latin word that means writing. Writing is akin to reason and speech, which are distinctively human gifts: they distinguish us from other animals on earth. The phenomenon of literature is essentially human. 

A letter from John Adams to his wife Abigail, written on May 12, 1780, encapsulates this course on the great books. Adams writes that his task is to make a revolution and to be a statesman for the sake of something beyond himself, and to which he must be obedient, which is summed up in the phrase found in the Declaration of Independence: “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”

Likewise, investing the time and effort in reading great literature prepares us for something beyond ourselves. Great literature invites us to think about those times and places when our honor will be tested, and when our souls will be revealed for what they are.

Homer’s Iliad can be best understood by examining some of its major major themes: rage, desire, delusion, deception, disaster and double-dealing, death and outrage, responsibility and evasion, and ultimately, glory. The poem tells the story of the Trojan War, and of Achilles, the greatest warrior of the Greeks.

The Iliad is a poem of rage: rage is the first word of the poem, and Achilles’ rage is a major theme of the story. The Iliad is a poem of desire, especially the characters’ desires that make them who they are, but also lead to their destruction. The Iliad is a poem of delusion: the characters are constantly blaming the gods for their troubles instead of their own free will or choices. The Iliad is a poem of deception, perhaps most notably in the case of Achilles’ friend Patroclus, who dies in battle because of Achilles’ lie. The Iliad is a poem of disaster and double-dealing, especially the double-dealing of Achilles that leads to the disastrous death of his friend. The Iliad is a poem of death and outrage: Achilles re-enters the battle against Troy after the death of Patroclus and kills numerous Trojans, including Hector, dragging his body around the walls of Troy. This outrage turns Achilles’ glory from a high into a low point. The Iliad is a poem of responsibility and evasion: Achilles has been evading his responsibility, but at the same time he is responsible for the death of his friend. The Iliad ends when Zeus says he will bring the fighting to an end and grant Achilles his glory—a glory that Achilles wins not through battle, but by returning Hector’s body to his father. Achilles’ glory is to be free of his rage, which is the beginning of virtue.

Homer’s Odyssey—which tells the tale of the Greek hero Odysseus and his journey home after the fall of Troy—is one of the great works of Western Civilization. With this poem, Homer establishes the context in which the great cultural and political flowering of 5th century Athens takes place.

Though the Odyssey tells a story, it is not merely entertainment: it begins by invoking the Muse, in part because it is an attempt to discern meaning in a life that can be mysterious.  Many aspects of life are easy to discern but difficult to understand. It is also an appeal to memory, without which we lose our identity as individuals, nations, and civilizations.

The main character Odysseus is a man of many turnings, well-traveled, and experienced. Rhetorically clever, though never merely deceptive, he exhibits a deep understanding of human nature. His words and deeds provide lessons about human nature that are still applicable today.

The poem addresses timeless themes of Western Civilization—including home, order and disorder, hospitality, fidelity, and loyalty. A pattern of good and bad representations of each major theme runs through the entire work. For example, social order or public peace begins in marriage, as represented by the unmovable marriage bed of Odysseus and Penelope, and the best claim to glory is not war but home and family.

Oedipus Rex is a tragedy written by Sophocles in Athens in the 5th century BC. The play tells the story of Oedipus, who is prophesied at birth to kill his father and commit incest with his mother. As is characteristic of ancient Greek drama, the play shows a man caught in inescapable imperfection. The story of Oedipus is the story of human nature—we may think we are doing the best thing but in fact we are unwittingly doing the worst thing. Oedipus is a good-hearted leader, who loves his family and his city. Nevertheless, his every decision and act in his quest to find the murderer of Laius, the former king of Thebes, makes his situation worse. His relentless pursuit of justice pushes him headlong into tragedy. In this, the play displays a key feature of Western Civilization that has contributed to its greatness—the capacity to pursue the truth while at the same time being self-critical.

The Aeneid was written by the Roman poet Virgil in the 1st century BC and tells the story of the journey of Aeneas, legendary founder of Rome, following the fall of Troy. One major lesson of Virgil’s poem is that personal injustice has more than personal consequences. This lesson is illustrated by Aeneas’ self-indulgent dalliance with Dido, which Virgil connects to the future wars between Rome and Carthage.

Yet, if Aeneas occasionally engages in self-indulgence, he displays the vice of a man who has lost all. He is at heart a pious family man of good character, whose chief virtue is his faithfulness to his people. He leaves Dido—who subsequently commits suicide—because he has a duty to found Rome. Virgil teaches the reader the importance of doing one’s duty, even in the face of great personal cost, another major and recurring theme of the poem.

Americans today should read the Aeneid for the timeless lessons it offers. Above all, Aeneas inspires us to do our duty, to persevere in the face of opposition—from without but also from within—when we lose the things we love.

David is one of the most well-known figures of the Old Testament. The story of David’s life is not only a spiritual narrative about the triumph of righteousness and tragedy of sin, but also a great literary masterpiece concerning human nature, family relationships, and the anguish of the soul. David is introduced to the reader in a humble setting—as a shepherd—an image that is very important to the narrative. Years after the shepherd boy David famously defeats Goliath, the prophet Nathan, who delivered many heavenly promises of glory and greatness to David, is sent by God to condemn David and his household for his grave sins of adultery and murder. What follows is a tragedy that ravages David’s family and kingdom, and culminates in the near-overthrow of David’s kingdom by his own son, Absalom. The story of David teaches us about the importance of living up to our potential and about the effects that our choices, even seemingly private choices, have on others.

The story of Job interrupts the Old Testament historical sequence found in Genesis through Esther. A literary and theological masterpiece, the Book of Job is the first of the “wisdom books.” Wisdom is a common characteristic of the righteous throughout the Old Testament, and it is a sign of God’s favor. Job is introduced as the greatest man in the East, who lives a righteous life, has great wealth, and is favored by God.

Job’s life is turned upside down in one of the most famous Biblical trials of faith. His family and property are either taken or destroyed, and he is scourged with boils from head to toe. In a show of unshakable faith, which challenges the conventional wisdom, Job does not blame God for the evils that befall him. Accused of impiety and wickedness, Job bears witness to a living Redeemer, who will be the arbiter between man and God. A careful reading of the Book of Job reveals a hope for all mankind in the emergence of a new kind of wisdom.

Saint Augustine’s Confessions, written over 16 centuries ago, remains one of the great books of the Western tradition. In Confessions, Augustine—a master rhetorician and diligent student of philosophy and literature—takes the reader on a prayerful journey of edifying penitence, during which he considers the nature of man and his relationship with God. Interwoven throughout Confessions is a cycle of falling away from and returning to God. This return or ascent to God is the proper end of man, and Augustine, through an examination of his own cyclical journey, exhorts the reader to fulfill the measure of his creation.

According to T.S. Eliot, only Shakespeare is the equal of the Italian poet and statesman Dante, whose most famous work is the Divine Comedy. Dante’s Inferno, the first of the Divine Comedy’s three parts, occurs just before a great crisis in Dante’s life, a crisis which would lead to his exile from Florence. Dante prods the reader to take a journey of necessity through hell for the sake of gaining self-knowledge. During this journey, Dante is struck with the realization that both love and freedom can prove to be one’s undoing.

Escaping from the inferno, Dante proceeds to Mount Purgatorio, and in so doing takes the reader to a place of beauty and virtue. He reveals a concept of God much different from the one found in the dark tragedy of the Inferno. In Purgatorio, Dante dispels the idea of God’s apathy or even hostility toward man, and God’s desire is united with human love. The kind of desire described in the Inferno is transformed—through education and experience—from an uncontrolled passion into a well-ordered love.

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories told by 29 fictional pilgrims who are traveling to worship at the Shrine of Canterbury, is a work of immense intellectual intricacy. A master at introducing and manipulating multiple frames of reference, Chaucer develops “The Knight’s Tale” in part through a transformation of works by Boethius and Boccaccio. One of the most famous of The Canterbury Tales, “The Knight’s Tale” is a story of two cousins who are torn apart by jealousy over a woman with whom neither can develop a legitimate relationship. By showing the reader the tragedy that results from unchecked passion, Chaucer reveals both the difficulty and the necessity of developing virtues such as courage and prudence which in turn allow us to govern ourselves.

Written by an unknown author, the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the finest chivalric romances in the English language. The poem is set at Christmas time in the fabled kingdom of Camelot. During a royal festival, King Arthur and his knights are suddenly interrupted by a seemingly noble visitor, the Green Knight. The Green Knight disparages Arthur and his knights and issues a challenge. Sir Gawain steps in for King Arthur and decapitates the Green Knight. The royal court is stunned when the Green Knight retrieves his head and bids Sir Gawain to find him in one year. The poem considers many questions of courage, honesty, fellowship, and penitence, as Sir Gawain seeks to fulfill his promise.