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  • Essay / The results of the movements of people across physical and social boundaries described in ancient literature

    Since the first human beings appeared on earth, people have migrated, traveled and crossed thousands and thousands of miles of land and sea to spread not only their population, but also all their languages, ideas and cultures. This article will discuss the results of the movement of people across these physical boundaries, such as mountains, deserts, oceans or even walls to another settlement, as well as the results of the merging of different social barriers that separate communities. The reasons for these migrations will also be discussed, exploring the motivations behind them, such as the benefits and consequences of such a movement, and what this could mean for the perception of a nation or individual , respectively, of his home and himself. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThere are many instances of crossing physical boundaries throughout history, linked to the early migrations of human settlement of land, the construction of permanent colonies, as well as the invasion and conquest of said colonies. There are several examples of such situations in many of the semester's readings, such as Homer's Odyssey. The story centers on Odysseus's journeys to return home, and his journey across the seas to many different countries reflects the idea of ​​him. and his men literally crossing the ocean divide, as well as the borders of several different nations they encountered along the way. In Professor Smith's lecture, he focused on the idea of ​​caves in The Odyssey, explaining how there was a recurring setting of a cave in the story where the characters were located, and showing the map of the world of all the different cave sites in the epic. The caves stretched from Ogygia, which is the island of Calypso, located in the far east of the Mediterranean near Spain, to the island of the Cyclops, which is considered the island of Sicily , to Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, to Crete, the southernmost island of Greece. These are just a few examples of the extensive use of caves in history, as over thirty different caves in total appear throughout, showing the numerous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea and thus showing the crossing of immense boundaries physical appearance of Odysseus and his men. In addition to the large body of water and multiple caves on several different islands, Odysseus also crosses the borders of different nations and cities, such as Ismaros, the land of the Cicones, where Odysseus had gone in search of food and water and ended up attacking the city. He also participated in the Trojan War, where he came up with the idea of ​​building the wooden horse and using it to infiltrate the Trojan borders and sack the city. This is inspired by Dr. Keller's first lecture, in which she stated that deception is the key to the collapse of a city and that the best way to gain access to a walled city is "through the front gate ". This relates to the reading about the capture of Joppa, in that Djehouty offers to travel to Joppa in the midst of their conflict, sending gifts to the city as a sign of their defeat. However, the gifts were actually baskets containing soldiers, thus leading to the city being taken in the same manner. In addition to crossing literal borders, migration across various lands and civilizations also leads to the passing of social and cultural ideas between the different people of eachplace. The story of the capture of Joppa is an example of this transfer of information and ideas, as a literary work written by a different person, in a different place and time period, has a very similar plot and storyline , if not almost exactly the same, and as Dr. Keller stated, it "crosses the boundary of time and place." There are several examples of this type of border crossing, such as the statue also featured in Dr. Keller's lecture, which described the combination of the Egyptian god Anubis and the Greek god Hermes, showing the transfer of religious and cultural ideas across society. A similar example was presented in Professor Smith's lecture, where he mentioned manuscripts written in Greek. found in a Roman museum. He also brings up the idea that language is also a barrier, which is often seen as a problem in many semester readings because they were written many years ago in different languages. Smith even gives the definition of the word "translate", and gives the roots of the word in Latin, which roughly means "to transport across", which relates to the crossing of borders. Although besides the literal meaning of the word, language and translation create a barrier when trying to receive information from a certain text, as Smith also alludes to in his lecture, describing how literal translation from the Greek to English of The Odyssey, "does not flow well". In addition to the fact that language constitutes a barrier in certain cases, it can also result from the physical crossing of borders by humans and the assimilation of different cultures between them. This can be seen in Stanbuck's lecture when he discusses the four main dialects of Old English and how modern English was created by crossing borders and mixing these dialects over the years. There are also examples of crossing metaphysical boundaries, such as Odysseus's journey to the Underworld and conversation with the spirits of the dead. This is also seen with prophets who can communicate with the deities of their religion, such as Odysseus communicating with spirits, this shows the crossing of the boundary from the real physical world into a whole other world. The migrations described so far all have a motive that caused the people involved to cross the border they crossed, leading to positive and negative outcomes, some of which have already been discussed, such as the spread and training of certain languages. In almost every case of crossing a literal dividing line, such as the walls of a city, there is a conflict between two parties that causes one to attempt to invade the other, ultimately leading to the breach of one or other of the attacked parties. , or in retaliation, the walls of the attacker, thus crossing this border. A specific example of such an event can be seen in the sack of Troy and the capture of Joppa. The result of the entry of one nation into another is the perpetual mixing of different peoples, cultures, languages, religions and ideas within the same place, and in the case of an empire that spans several different countries over thousands of kilometers, these mixtures of ideas are spread throughout this vast expanse of land. The motivations of some other individuals may not be the same, as in the case of Odysseus, for much of his journey he is simply trying to get home, after being forced to travel to several different places by will gods. This is also seen in many Old English elegies, where the speaker of these poems is usually in exile and separated from home, family, and other human society. This.