Literature
Literature (from the Latin Littera meaning 'letters' and referring to an acquaintance with the
written word) is the written work of a specific culture, sub-culture, religion, philosophy or the
study of such written work which may appear in poetry or in prose. Literature, in the west,
originated in the southern Mesopotamia region of Sumer (c. 3200) in the city of Uruk and
flourished in Egypt, later in Greece (the written word having been imported there from
the Phoenicians) and from there, to Rome. Writing seems to have originated independently
in China from divination practices and also independently in Mesoamerica and elsewhere.
The first author of literature in the world, known by name, was the high-priestess
of Ur, Enheduanna (2285-2250 BCE) who wrote hymns in praise of
the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Much of the early literature from Mesopotamia concerns the
activities of the gods but, in time, humans came to be featured as the main characters in such
poems as Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta and Lugalbanda and Mount Hurrum (c.2600-2000
BCE). For the purposes of study, Literature is divided into the categories of fiction or non-
fiction today but these are often arbitrary decisions as ancient literature, as understood by
those who wrote the tales down, as well as those who heard them spoken or sung pre-literacy,
was not understood in the same way as it is in the modern-day.
The Truth in Literature
Homer's soaring odes to the grandeur of the Grecian fleet sailing for Troy or Odysseus's
journey across the wine-dark sea were as real to listeners as his descriptions of the
sorceress Circe, the cyclops Polyphemus or the Sirens. Those tales which today are regarded as
myth were then considered as true and sacred as any of the writings contained in the Judeo-
Christian Bible or the Muslim Quran are to believers. Designations such as fiction and non-
fiction are fairly recent labels applied to written works. The ancient mind understood that,
quite often, truth may be apprehended through a fable about a fox and some unattainable
grapes. The modern concern with the truth of a story would not have concerned anyone
listening to one of Aesop's tales; what mattered was what the story was trying to convey.
Even so, there was a value placed on accuracy in recording actual events (as ancient criticism
of the historian Herodotus' accounts of events shows). Early literary works were usually
didactic in approach and had an underlying (or often overt) religious purpose such as in the
Sumerian Enuma Elish of 1120 BCE or the Theogony of the Greek writer Hesiod of the 8th
century BCE.
One of the earliest known literary works is the Sumerian/Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh from c.
2150 BCE which deals with themes of heroism, pride, nationality, friendship,
disappointment, death, and the quest for eternal life. Whether what happened in the tale of
Gilgamesh 'actually happened' was immaterial to the writer and to the listener. What mattered
was what the audience was able to take away from the tale.
Examples of Ancient Literature
The Pyramid Texts of Egypt, also considered literature, tell of the journey of the soul to the
afterlife in the Field of Reeds and these works, unlike Mesopotamian Naru Literature,
presented the subject as truth. Egyptian religious culture was based on the reality of an
afterlife and the role the gods played in one's eternal journey, of which one's life on earth was
only one part. Homer's Iliad recounts the famous ten-year war between the Greeks and the
Trojans while his Odyssey tells of the great hero Odysseus's journey back home after the war
to his beloved wife Penelope of Ithaca and this, like the other works mentioned, reinforced
cultural values without a concern for what may or may not have happened concerning the war
with Troy.
The story told in the biblical Book of Exodus (1446 BCE) is considered historical truth by many
today, but originally could have been meant to be interpreted as liberation from bondage in a
spiritual sense as it was written to empower the worshipers of Yahweh, encouraged them to
resist the temptations of the indigenous peoples of Canaan, and elevated the audience's
perception of themselves as a chosen people of an all-powerful god.
The Song of Songs (c. 950 BCE) from the Hebrew scripture of the Tanakh, immortalizes the
passionate love between a man and a woman (interpreted by Christians, much later, as the
relationship between Christ and the church, though no such interpretation is supported by the
original text) and the sacred aspect of such a relationship. The Indian
epic Mahabharata (c.800-400 BCE) relates the birth of a nation while the Ramayana (c. 200
BCE) tells the tale of the great Rama's rescue of his abducted wife Sita from the evil Ravna. The
works found in the Assyrian King Asurbanipal's library (647-627 BCE) record the heroic deeds
of the gods, goddesses and the struggles and triumphs of heroic kings of ancient Mesopotamia
such as Enmerkar, Lugalbanda, and Gilgamesh. Scholar Samuel Noah Kramer points out that
the early Sumerian works - and, indeed, Sumerian culture as a whole - resonates in the modern
day on many levels and is especially apparent in literature. Kramer writes:
