Fluent Essays

Students must choose one of the ancient Mesopotamian or Egyptian myths from class and conduct an in-depth analysis. This includes discussions of the text itself, the physical artifact the text was composed on, and background information about the historical context. The purpose of the project is to give you a chance to try out methods of analysis and interpretation using the content given in lectures, readings, as well as outside sources. It is also an exercise in exploring the context of ancient myths and understanding why it is relevant and important. This assignment requires a mix of primary and secondary sources as well as online research to find the current location of the myth artifact.Components:Title PageIntroductionSummary of mythSource StudyHistorical BackgroundSignificance, Analysis, and InterpretationConclusionBibliographyStories from class to choose from (detailed summaries at end of document):(Caveat – I have not researched these stories individually myself, so there is no guarantee enough information is available. Do some preliminary research for yourself before deciding)Mesopotamia (medium = cuneiform tablets)Sumerian King ListAtrahasisEnuma Elish (The Epic of Creation)Eridu GenesisEnki and NinmahEnki and NinhursagaEnlil and NinlilDescent of Ishtar to the UnderworldNergal and EreshkigalDeath of Ur-NammuThe Epic of GilgameshLugal-EAnzuAdapaEtanaErra and Ishum, cuneiform tabletEnmerkar and the Lord of ArattaLugalbanda and the ThunderbirdDumuzi StoriesSargon Birth legend Egypt (medium = papyrus usually)Heliopolis CreationHermapolitan CreationPyramid Texts (various, pyramid walls)Coffin Texts (various, on coffins)Book of the Dead (various – tomb walls and papyri)Ptah the Creator (Shabako Stone)Book of the Heavenly Cow (Tomb paintings/texts)Journey of Ra/Re (Book of the Amduat and tomb walls)Osiris and Isis (Plutarch text)The Man who was weary of lifeThe Story of Sinuhe (various papyrus and ostraca)The Shipwrecked SailorDoomed PrinceTwo Brothers (Papyrus d’Orbiney)Contendings of Horus and SetThe Blinding of Truth by FalsehoodThe Birth of Hatshepsut (temple walls)King Cheops and the Magicians (Westcar Papyrus)The Romance of Setna Khaemuas and the MummiesThe Adventure of Setna and Si-OsireDetailed instructions about Content:Title PagePlease include a cover page with your name, student number, date, course, and paper title including the name of the myth being studied. IntroductionStandard introductory paragraph that one would include in any writing assignment or project.Summary of MythIntroduce the myth you are analyzing and give a brief summary, in your own words. This does not need to be longer than a paragraph.Source StudyThis section is for describing the source itself that the myth was composed on. Include the following elements (when available):External description – material, size, shape, condition, etc.You can include a photo or image of the artifact if it is available.Content description – language, length, mode of manufacture (how was it made)Context of findspot – what are the origins of this item? Archaeology dig? Where was it? In a house, temple, tablet cache, etc. Black market? Unprovenanced?Current location (when available), information about its setting in this current locationSources: In this section, you are allowed to use museum websites, or possibly other online resources (use intelligent judgment to determine if it’s a good source) to find out information about the current location of the object.Historical BackgroundGive a general overview of the historical period that the text dates to. Describe the time period of the readable artifact. If a myth likely originated as an oral story earlier, but was not written down later, you can mention this, and it is up to you how much you feel it needs to be discussed. Things to think about:Date and/or time period, Place of origin, General context at the time of production (socio-economic, cultural, political, etc.)Sources: For this section, it is fine to use secondary source history books. Some are available online through the UofT library website and I have begun a list in the Scholarly Resources Discussion board.Significance, Analysis, and InterpretationThis should be the longest section of the project where you offer commentary on the significance of the myth as well as an analysis and interpretation using books and articles discussing the individual myth. Some things to keep in mind and consider for discussion in this section:What important information can you extrapolate from the text? Identification of persons, objects, symbols, gods, places, cultures etc.Use facts and data from the myth text itself and from sources to support any ideas, thoughts, and arguments you haveUse and transmission - artist/author, purpose of production, addressee/ consumer/ sponsor, use as in entertainment, explaining nature or science, for ritual purposes, ceremonial, festivals, magic, etc. Also comment on mode of transmission if available (note in most cases, we don’t know this) – read aloud? Read to self? Oral story? Recited?What was the relevance to the people living in the ancient world at the time of this myth?Offer commentary of the situations, events, uses, and historical processes identifiable.Are there any elements with an unusual or specialized meaning?Explanation of artistic or literary allusions.Additional relevance or importance for the object, other info? Other uses? Reused? Etc.What does this source tell us about the historical context in which it has been produced and/or used? How does it contribute to a better understanding of the history of ancient Mesopotamia or Egypt? What is the historical value, limits and representativeness of this specific source? etc.In this section, it is expected that you will use legitimate sources, books, book chapters, book sections, and articles (digital or paper), specifically discussing your chosen myth. ConclusionStandard concluding remarks and paragraph here that one would include in any writing assignment. Go beyond simply restating everything you’ve already said and offer insight. BibliographyUse APA or Chicago style for citations and bibliography (see below for more info)Students who wish to develop their essay-writing skills are encouraged to contact the instructor, TA, or UTSC Writing Centre (http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/welcomeLinks to an external site.). Both of the TAs and I am willing to discuss your topic, research, and outline, however, neither I nor the TA will read and correct full drafts of your paper.Refer to the PDFs in the Writing Help module for more instruction on writing.Parameters:Due Date: midnight, Saturday June 13, 2020Late Penalty: 2\% per day up to midnight June 22, 2020Absolute last day to turn assignment in, after this date, students will receive a 0\%Students unable to meet the deadline are encouraged to email the instructor for discussion. Documentation of medical conditions or serious personal issues must be provided for consideration of an extension.Assignment must be submitted online through Quercus. They will also automatically be uploaded to Turnitin.com through the Quercus submission.Value: 20\%Length: 5-7 pages content (excluding title page and bibliography)All pages should be numbered. The title page is page 0 in your page count. Microsoft Word will do this for you.Format: typed, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, normal 1-inch marginsSources: Minimum of 5, only 2 can be course readingsDigital books and articles may be used, however, random websites are NOT acceptable scholarly sources for university level essays nor are course lectures.Citations: The paper must include proper in-text or footnote citations, your choice, and a bibliography following Chicago style or APA style guidelines.Sources:The quality of sources that you choose for analysis constitutes a large part of your essay. For this paper, you must use at least 5 sources, of which only 2 may be from the course readings. Things to keep in mind when choosing sources:The sources are academically accredited. That means no Wikipedia or other non-academic websites including History.com and Ancient.eu or other similar sites which are NOT scholarly, they are directed to the general public. Online books and journals are fine – those are digitized publications, not random websites. Nonetheless, remember to check your sources for credibility. The sources are up-to-date. Unless dealing with primary source information, secondary sources should always be up-to-date. Information is constantly changing in the academic world. Sources that were useful in the 19th century, may not apply here. Hint: Try to choose sources that are not much older than your parents.Do your own background check on authors. Some authors write only for the popular audience. Make sure that the sources you choose are from authors that are well-known in your area of study.The professor is not a source! Do NOT use course lectures or lecture notes as sources in your paper. Find the original information which is likely your course textbooks.Primary and Secondary SourcesWhen using sources, it is important to differentiate between primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are the original source material. This includes the texts, images, and archaeological materials that were produced by the ancient people themselves. They also include original research done by scholars such as excavation reports. Translations found in literature books are considered to be Primary sources. You do not have to do your own translations. For your essay, you will be employing a number of primary sources, as the myths themselves are primary in nature.ExampleSimpson, William Kelley, ed. The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry. 3rd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, 3rd ed., Revised.Secondary Sources are books or articles where the author has usually used primary material to express their own interpretation or opinion.Secondary sources are useful when trying to develop your own thesis. Read through different secondary sources critically. Question the author’s opinions and see if there are any holes in their argument. Be aware of and engage with different critical opinions. Be careful of over-relying too much on one secondary source. REMEMBER: You are entitled to reject or accept the different opinions expressed in secondary sources. Example:Karahasahi, Fumi. Fighting the Mountain: Some Observations on the Sumerian Myths ofInanna and Ninurta. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 63, no. 2 (2004): 111-118. Referencing: You must reference all ideas that are not your own. While there are several methods of referencing, this essay specifies you to apply the Chicago or APA Styles. The Chicago and APA styles are often used in the Humanities and Social Sciences, it is your choice whether to use footnotes or in-text citations. These are preferred because they include the year of publication in the citation. Do NOT use endnotes. For in text, you may also use the author, year, page format (author year: page), e.g. (Spurrier 2017:56).Please refer to the following website where you can find the Chicago Style Manual as well as APA online as well as online referencing programs: http://guides.library.utoronto.ca/content.php?pid=380993&sid=3121893Links to an external site. Important!!!PLAGIARISM is considered a serious offence and will result in a trip to the Dean’s office as well as a zero grade on the essay and a mark on your transcript. Information about the offence of plagiarism can be found in the University’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Affairs at http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htmLinks to an external site.More to the point, read “How Not to Plagiarize” at http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarizeLinks to an external site. on how to ensure that you get credit for choosing and analyzing your sources, and see also “Standard Documentation Formats” at https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/using-sources/documentation/Links to an external site. You will be required to submit your Essay to Turnitin.com for a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. This happens automatically through your Quercus submission. In doing so, you will allow your essays to be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the Universitys use of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com web site.Resources:http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/Links to an external site.The University of Toronto Writing Centre Website is where you can locate several helpful articles and information on how to write an effective essay.https://utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/Links to an external site.Book an appointment with the UTSC Writing Centre. Here, you can find knowledgeable individuals who can help with any part of the writing process.http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ (Links to an external site.)Another great website that houses writing resources and instructional material.List of stories from class with summaries (in order of lecture): The Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish)Family trouble? Murder must be the answer. Older gods get annoyed at how noisy and annoying the younger gods are, so they plot to kill them. Younger gods find out, kill one older god, then find a hero to battle old grandma god and her accomplices. Then Marduk creates the world from the corpse of a dragon saltwater goddess.Atrahasis (alternative Eridu Genesis story)The gods are tired of working, so they create man to work for them. But then mankind is loud and annoying, so they decide to just kill them all, in many ways, over many millennia, and eventually there’s a flood. The Birth of Man (Enki and Ninmah)Enki and Ninmah compete to see which god is better at creating fates for mankind.Enki and NinhursagaEnki seduces many young women in the marshes, one after the other. He is eventually punished when he eats poisoned plants that infect various body parts. Gods and goddesses are born from the ailing areas.Enlil and Ninlil Older god Enlil seduces underage, and at first defiant, Ninlil who then falls for her abuser and follows him on his journey of exile from Nippur. Egyptian Creation Stories Heliopolitan (Atum and the Ennead) – Atum creates himself! Then he spits and sneezes his children Shu and Tefnut who beget Geb and Nut who beget Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and SethHermopolis (the Ogdoad) – Eight frog and snake headed gods and goddessesMemphis (Ptah) – Ptah creates the world through his mind and heart using intelligence and speechElephantine (Khnum) – Khnum creates living beings from clay on his potter’s wheelThe Book of the Heavenly CowThe sun god Ra is getting older. Mankind plots against him because of this, and he sends Hathor, who transforms into the lion goddess Sekhmet, to punish them. She rages on mankind and gets drunk on blood beer. Ra forgives man and decides to retire to the heavens creating the sky as he goes.The Osiris Myth (a.k.a. Isis and Osiris)The god king of Egypt Osiris is murdered by his evil brother Seth and his wife, Isis, sets out to find and restore his body. In the end, Osiris becomes King of the Underworld and the archetype for a good death. The Journey of ReEvery night the sun god Ra ventures into the Underworld where he encounters challenges and fights monsters so he can once again rise from the horizon the next morning. The Descent of Ishtar to the UnderworldThe goddess Ishtar decides to visit her sister Ereshkigal in the Underworld, and it does not go well.Nergal and EreshkigalThe workaholic goddess of the Underworld finds love, loses love, and then finds it again.The Death of Ur-NammuThe king has died. His people and the gods lament his death as be descends to the Underworld to start his new life after death and deal with his depression.The Epic of GilgameshA hero finds a best friend and goes on an epic journey to understand his own mortality. Total bromance.The Ninurta Myth (Lugal-E) A hero fights a rock/tree monster, then creates nature and gives destinies to all of types of rocks. Anzu A lion-eagle steals the tablet of destinies from Enlil and our hero Ninurta fights him to get it back.Etana Eagle betrays Snake and is punished. Etana comes to his rescue and they attempt to fly to heaven.AdapaA man gets stranded in a boat and hurts the South wind which angers the god An.Erra and Ishum Erra gets bored and angry and threatens to kill everyone and everything ever. A lot.Dumuzi StoriesDumuzi and Inanna fall in love but soon after the wedding Dumuzi is killed. He is lost wandering the earth trying to get to the Underworld while his wife, sister, and mother mourn him. Lots of feels. Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta Enmerkar needs elite goods to decorate Inanna’s temples. The Lord of Aratta will give them to him if he passes 3 tests of intelligence.Lugalbanda and the Thunderbird Lugalbanda gets separated from his army on the way to Aratta. He helps the Thunderbird’s hungry baby and in return, the Thunderbird rewards him and helps him find his friends. The Story of Sinuhe Sinuhe gets spooked and flees Egypt to live in the Levant but as he ages, his heart longs for his homeland. The Shipwrecked SailorA sailor tells his commander a story about being shipwrecked and meeting a serpent who tells him a story about losing his family.Doomed PrinceA young prince is doomed from birth to be killed by a crocodile, a dog, or a snake. He accepts his fate and travels abroad to experience life and meets a princess in a tower. The Tale of the Two BrothersTwo brothers at odds are brought together when one is wronged by his wife and needs help getting revenge.The Contendings of Horus and SethA lengthy legal battle between the son of a king and brother of a king over who should rule when the king dies. The Blinding of Truth by FalsehoodSibling rivalry over a dagger causes Truth to be unnecessarily blinded because of his brother Falsehood’s exaggerated accusations. The Sargon Birth LegendBaby is abandoned in basket and sent down a river.The birth of Queen HatshepsutWoman claims to be god’s daughter so she can be king.Cheops and the MagiciansThe pharaoh is bored so his sons tell him, and us, a series of stories about magicians’ marvels for entertainment. The Romance of Setna Khaemuas and the Mummies (Setna I)While stealing a magic scroll, a ghost tells Setna about her life and the bad luck her family had because of the magic scroll. Setna is skeptical until he himself suffers bad luck.The Adventure of Setna and Si-Osire (Setna II)Si-Osire reads a scroll telling a story about battling magicians (wizards) in the ancient past. And time travel. myth_analysis_assignment_instructions.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview • o • • • • • • 3 • • • • • • • • • • 4 • • • • • 5 6 7 - - 8 - 9 10 11 12 13 ... Purchase answer to see full attachment