WORLD LITERATURE I (ENG 251)
Activities for The Aeneid, the
Bhagavad-Gita,
and the Ramayana
Dr. Diane Thompson, NVCC, ELI
Please read through all of these Activities before making your
selection. Make a copy of the Activity question to begin your response.
Several of these are worth double credit, because they involve reading two
or more new and substantial text selections. Post your Activity
to the
Blackboard Activity 5: Aeneid/ Bhagavad-Gita/ Ramayana Forum.
NOTE: Most of these Activities are potentially for double
credit, because they include reading and thinking about TWO new, substantial
texts.
| Read the entire Book VI of the
Aeneid on the
www. (The section in the text cuts out most of this important book.)
There is a section in
this Book that deals with the cycle of souls, from death to purification to rebirth.
Compare this to the concept of rebirth in the Gita (in your
textbook or see online link on Course Material Table on Course Home Page). What
similarities do you find? What
interesting differences? And, so what? Use examples from both texts to support your ideas.
(Worth double credit if very thoroughly developed and well-done.Be
sure to post the Activity question AND the request for double credit at
the top of your essay.) |
| Read the entire Book VI of the
Aeneid on the
www and read the Gita (in your textbook). Aeneas discovers the purpose of his actions and destiny in this Book. Compare what he
discovers to what Arjuna learns about the purpose of his actions and his destiny.
(Worth double credit if very thoroughly developed and well-done. Be
sure to post the Activity question AND the request for double credit at
the top of your essay.) |
| In the Ramayana
(see link to etext on the Course Material Table on the Course Home
Page), Rama is
presented as the ideal king and hero of Indian literature. Like
Aeneas, he is descended from a god; like Aeneas, he suffers adversity and travels through
the wilderness. Rama always does what he is supposed to do, promptly, cheerfully and with
kindness for others. Compare/ contrast Rama's calm acceptance of adversity with Aeneas'
moans and groans about the "tears of things." Which hero seems more
"real" to you? Why? Develop your ideas using specific supporting examples from
both texts. (Worth double credit if very thoroughly developed and
well-done.Be sure to post the Activity question AND the request for
double credit at the top of your essay.) |
| In the Ramayana
(see link to etext on the Course Material Table on the Course Home
Page), the forest is presented as "a place of
pain," where people go into exile to live as ascetics. This forest is contrasted with
the pleasures and safety of life in the city. Think back to Gilgamesh and Enkidu and the
complex relationship between city and wilderness in that story. Compare/contrast these two
visions of wilderness and civilization and make some interesting point about them. Use
examples from both texts to support your ideas. |
| In the Ramayana
(see link to etext on the Course Material Table on the Course Home
Page), Rama's wife Sita is the perfect woman. She loves and obeys
her husband, follows him cheerfully into the wilderness, and never questions her role.
There is no perfect woman in the Aeneid, but there are
quite a few imperfect ones, both human
and divine, who stir up a lot of trouble. There are also some imperfect women who make
trouble in the Ramayana, including the hunchback who provokes Kaikeyi to demand Rama's
exile. Compare/contrast some of the women in these two epics and come to some interesting
conclusion. Support your ideas with specific examples from both epics.
(Worth double credit if very thoroughly developed and well-done. Be
sure to post the Activity question AND the request for double credit at
the top of your essay.) |
| In the Ramayana, Rama insists that right action is obedience
to his father. Right action for Sita, Rama's wife, is to obey her husband.
Compare/contrast this clarity of knowing what is right with the fog Aeneas seems to wander
in, never quite knowing what he is supposed to do, except in brief moments when a god
intervenes, such as Mercury telling him to leave Dido. Support your ideas with specific
examples from both texts. (Worth double credit if very thoroughly
developed and well-done. Be sure to post the Activity question AND the
request for double credit at the top of your essay.) |
| Read the entire Book VI of the
Aeneid on the
www. Aeneas has lost his homeland and must trudge onward to fulfill a destiny
that is not of his choosing. He is somewhat consoled in the underworld (Book VI) by a
vision of the future destiny of Rome and his descendents. In the Gita, Arjuna grieves
because the coming battle will pit friends and relatives against one another, but Krishna
teaches him that it does not matter, because every soul is eternal. Duty must be done, but
with a pure, detached attitude. Compare/contrast these two very different notions of
destiny and why a hero must act as he does. Support your comments with examples from both
texts. (Worth double credit if very thoroughly developed and well-done.
Be sure to post the Activity question AND the request for double credit
at the top of your essay.) |
| Read the Book of Job (71-82
in your textbook or online --see link to Hebrew Bible
on Course Materials Table on the Course Home Page) and compare/contrast Job's
vision of the unknowable God with Arjuna's vision of Krishna's totality. Do you see
interesting similarities? Differences? And, so what? Use specific examples from both texts
to support your ideas. (Worth double credit if very thoroughly developed
and well-done. Be sure to post the Activity question AND the request
for double credit at the top of your essay.) |
| If you are interested in reading the
entire Gita (there is only an excerpt in the textbook), it is on
the www at The Bhagavad-Gita.
Explore the character of Arjuna and compare/contrast him in some depth to the
character of Aeneas. Support your ideas with examples from both texts.
(Worth double credit if very thoroughly developed and well-done. Be
sure to post the Activity question AND the request for double credit at
the top of your essay.) |
| Consider all that Aeneas has to give up, including his wife,
Creusa and his lover, Dido. Can you see similarities between the many losses that Aeneas
suffers on the way to founding Rome and the Gita's doctrine of discipline? Can you see
interesting differences? So what? Support your ideas with examples from both texts.
(Worth double credit if very thoroughly developed and well-done. Be
sure to post the Activity question AND the request for double credit at
the top of your essay.) |
| The ending of the
Aeneid is very bitter--Aeneas kills
Turnus, his violent enemy and the poem ends abruptly. Clearly there is no hopeful future
for Aeneas, although Rome is promised to his descendents. Some people have commented that
Roman paganism offered no "solutions," to the problems of loss and death, which
paved the way for the solutions offered by Christianity. Do you see any
"solutions" for these problems in the Gita? If so, what, exactly, are they?
Develop and support your ideas with examples from both texts. (Worth
double credit if very thoroughly developed and well-done.Be sure to
post the Activity question AND the request for double credit at the top
of your essay.) |
| Read the Sermon on the Mount and compare/contrast
its message with that of the Gita. Each offers a "solution" to the loss and pain
of human experience, but in very different ways. Develop and support your ideas with
examples from both texts. |
| Aeneas (Aeneid), Rama (Ramayana), and Arjuna
(Gita) all learn what their
heroic duty is, and all finally accept it. However, the "duty" each learns is
different in interesting ways. Compare/contrast the different kinds of duty two
of these heroes learn, and support your ideas with examples from the texts.
(Worth double credit if very thoroughly developed and well-done. Be
sure to post the Activity question AND the request for double credit at
the top of your essay.) |
Arjuna (Gita) and Isaiah (Hebrew Bible): Encounters with God. Read
Isaiah 6 and compare/contrast his vision of the unknowable God with Arjuna's vision of Krishna's totality. Do you see interesting
similarities? Differences? And, so what? Use specific examples from
both texts to support your ideas. (Thanks to Sandra Del Cid for this
question.) If you want to expand this question to include other
examples from the Hebrew Bible, this can be worth double credit if
very thoroughly developed and well-done. Be sure to post the Activity
question AND the request for double credit at the top of your essay.)
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(c) Diane Thompson: 8/319/98; updated:
01/28/2011
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