THE ASSIGNMENT
For this discussion, please read these short excerpts from Herodotus
that concern the roles of women vs. the roles of men in Egypt; religion in Scythia; and the treatment of the dead in Scythia.
Then answer the following three questions in 3 separate mini-paragraphs. Each answer should be 100-200 words, so your total for all three questions combined should be 300-600.* Each post should include at least TWO direct quotations (word for word from the translation I’ve given you, in quotation marks) from EACH of the three sections of the Herodotus reading. That is, you should have a total of 6 direct quotations.
For each direct quotation, you must give the paragraph number of the quotation (e.g. Paragraph 1.1, Paragraph 1.2, etc.) Do NOT use any other translation or method of citation.
1) “On the behavior of Egyptian males and females”.
Herodotus claims that the customs of the Egyptians are “(more or less) the exact opposite to those of all other men”—by which he actually means that Egyptian customs are the opposite of Greek (and specifically Athenian) customs. What does Herodotus’s description of Egyptian female and male gender roles and behavior tell you, by implied contrast, about Athenian gender expectations for men and women? Your thesis should be a general statement backed up as many examples as you can find in the text.
2) “On Scythian religion”:
Herodotus suggests that the Scythians worshipped a lot of the same gods and goddesses as Greeks did, but with different names. But while Scythians sacrificed animals to the gods just as the Greeks did, Herodotus presents this method as radically unlike that of the Greeks. Please read this document on the basics for Greek animal sacrificeLinks to an external site. and describe (as always, beginning with a thesis) what you think the difference(s) is/are between Greek and Scythian sacrifice.
Link to Reading- https://www.learnreligions.com/method-of-sacrifice-in-ancient-greece-4079925
Make sure to properly cite the webiste (as “Sacrifice website”) when you use it in your submission. If you use any of the LANGUAGE on the website directly, it must be put into quotations (“”) (DO NOT USE ANY OTHER SOURCES.)
3) “On Scythian warfare”:
We learned from the passage “On Scythian Religion” that the Scythians’ favorite god was also Ares—the god of war—which tells you what their favorite activity was. Given that one of Achilles’s worst moments in the Iliad was his abuse of his enemy Hector’s corpse, what do you think an archaic Greek audience who was raised on Homer would have thought reading about the Scythians’ treatment of their enemies (which could even include family members)? Point to as many details as possible that you think would have scandalized Herodotus’s audience.
WARNING: Only submissions that follow my specific instructions for direct quotation and proper citation of the Herodotus excerpts I have provided and the website on Greek sacrifice. I will assume that off-topic answers (without direct quotation and proper citation) are AI-generated or otherwise plagiarized. Those submissions will receive NO credit.