Judaic & Hellenic Culture Memory This essay examines the position t

This essay examines the position that memory is central to the ideals of the culture depicted in the Torah or Old Testament. Also brought forth is the viewpoint that in Greek culture memory was of primary positive importance and not dangerous or destructive. Basically, the traditions of a culture are initially founded on memory, and this is particularly so of history and literature, which may exist for hundreds of years as an oral tradition before it is actually written. This is just as true of the ancient Greeks as it was of the ancient Hebrews. In both the Judaic and Hellenic cultures, memory was an absolute necessity for the purpose of bringing historical and literary traditions down through the generations. The peoples of the ancient Mediterranean world did not have written libraries. Special individuals trained in the art of recalling from memory the important historical events and literary masterpieces of their ethnic heritage were all important to their particular culture.

Essentially, the folk epic is a perfect example of a memorized oral tradition passed down from one generation to the next by the poets or bards. The epic began as an expression of belief in superhuman heroes who attempted to accomplish some outstanding undertaking for the benefit of their tribal group. Examples of this exist in such Hebrew Scriptural epics as Genesis and Exodus, as well as in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in the Hellenic culture. Scattered throughout the ancien

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sic components of understanding that myths provide, although partly directed by matter and instinct, are nevertheless fundamentally arbitrary since they portray not just the real world of fact, but a people's perception and experience of that phenomena. Although it may be true that all cultures have specific myths through which they respond to the essential questions of existence, it is in the creation myths that the most fundamental attempts at answers can be discovered. And so we have: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made . . . " (Genesis 2:1-2) Creation myths such as this are really the most comprehensive and profound of mythic literature. They are concerned with first causes and the basic qualities of what their cultures find reality to be. Both the ancient Hebrews and ancient Greeks established in their myths their essential knowledge of mankind and the universe, with memory as basic to the entire historical and literary proc

Category: Philosophy - J