It has been raining for three days in New York City, so it’s a good time to work inside. Here, for this week’s Text, is a reading on Siddartha Gautama, the Buddha along with this comprehension worksheet to accompany it.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Storm god of the air. Enlil was born of the union of An (heaven) and Ki (earth), who were regarded as joined together. Enlil separated them—the element air may have been thought to separate the vault of heaven from earth by its own expansion. Enlil married Ninlil, who bore him three gods of the underworld (Nengal, Ninazu, and an unknown god) and Nanna, the moon, who in turn became the father of Utu, the sun. Next, Enlil impregnated his mother Ki and produced Nintu, another earth goddess. Enlil became more important in the pantheon than his father An, and in turn he was himself to a degree supplanted from his place as principal god by Enki. Enlil was the chief god of the Sumerian city of Nippur. In the Babylonian period, Marduk took on many of his attributes, and Akad became a storm god.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
On this Thursday morning, Mark’s Text Terminal offers you this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Salman Rushdie.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“In Sumerian mythology, the river that is supposed to surround the earth. The Abzu seems almost identical with the Greek Oceanus, the ‘river of ocean.’ In Babylonian mythology, it is personified as Apzu, the fresh water, who has existed from the beginning of time with his wife, Tiamat, the salt water; he plays an important role in the War of the Gods. The Sumerian Enki and the Babylonian Ea, almost identical gods of water and wisdom, live in a palace in the Abzu, which was probably the Persian Gulf. The shores of which in the early days may have reached northward to the city of Eridu.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
“The Babylonian god of water and of wisdom. Developed from the Sumerian god Enki, Ea was one of the most important gods in the pantheon. It was he who, to a considerable extent, established the orderly functions of the earth, sky, and sea, especially as they affect man, though specific functions such as irrigation or the growth of grain were in the hands of lesser gods. It was Ea whose wisdom or cunning often saved the universe and the other gods from disaster. He disposed of the stone monster of Kumabi when it threatened heaven; he alone of the gods found the means to save Ishtar from the underworld; and he saved mankind from the flood by warning Utnapishtim to build his ark, as explained in The Epic of Gilgamesh.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
On a Tuesday morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concepts of yin and yang. This is one of the most recognizable and even well-known concepts in Chinese culture.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“A Babylonian epic poem. A myth of the creation of the world and the establishment of the divine hierarchy, it formed a part of the New Year festival, in which it may have been acted out. It is known as the Enuma elish, from its opening words. The first gods were Apzu and his wife Tiamat, personifications respectively of the fresh and salt waters. From their union sprang two obscure gods of the deep, Lahmu and Lahamu, who in turn gave birth to Anshar and Kishar. These were the parents of Anu, the sky. Anu was the father of Ea, the god of wisdom. After his birth, a multitude of other gods came into being, but they were such rowdy lot that Apzu, against Tiamat’s advice, determined to destroy them all. Ea, however, drugged Apzu and his dwarfish counselor, Mummu, killed Apzu, and imprisoned the dwarf. Tiamat promptly took the god Kingu for her consort.
Ea now married Damikina, who bore him Marduk, the storm god. A mighty prince, he was given to such pranks as putting the winds on a leash. Many of the gods grew resentful and asked the primal mother, Tiamat, to destroy him. She created a variety of hideous monsters and, placing Kingu at the head of her forces, prepared to make war against the principal gods, who supported Marduk. Ea and Anu were both quickly routed, but Anshar sent Marduk to fight Tiamat. Arming himself with a bow and arrows, a bludgeon of thunder, and a flail of lightning, the young storm god marched against the ancient goddess. After a terrible battle, he destroyed her and imprisoned her monsters in the depths of the earth. Splitting Tiamat’s body into two pieces, he formed the firmament with one half, the foundations of the earth from the other. He then determined the spheres of the chief gods: Anu was to rule the area above the firmament; Enlil, that between the firmament and the earth; and Ea, the waters below the earth. In order to find someone to serve the gods, he finally created a puppet man, out of the blood and bones of Kingu, who was killed for the purpose. In gratitude, the gods built the city of Babylon, which was crowned by a great shrine for Marduk.
This story, one of the oldest known creation myths, bears striking parallels to Greek myth, in which the primal father (Uranus) is destroyed by a descendant (Cronos), and later the young storm god (Zeus) defeats various monsters spawned by the primal mother (Ge) and imprisons them in the earth. Marduk’s killing of Tiamat has its counterpart in Baal’s killing of Yam, the dragon of the sea, in the Canaanite Poem of Baal.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“American writer. Kingston, a first generation Chinese-American, was born in Stockton, California. Her first book, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts (1976), won the National Book Critics Award for General Nonfiction and established her reputation. A mixture of personal history and cultural criticism, it was regarded as innovative because of its mixing of genres. Kingston’s iconoclastic approach to nonfiction bears a resemblance to new journalism, noted for its combination of autobiographical strands and fictional techniques in nonfiction. China Men (1980) explores the impact of Chinese and American cultural inheritances on contemporary men and women. Kingston’s first novel, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989), received generally favorable reviews for its exuberant prose, a blend of comedy and magical realism. The main character, Wittman Ah Sing, is a vehicle through which Kingston explores issues of assimilation and societal and individual change. Clearly an allusion to Walt Whitman, Wittman Ah Sing symbolizes a positive vision of modern acculturation and globalization.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
It’s Friday again, as the weeks and years spin by. Mark’s Text Terminal continues to observe Asian Pacific American Heritage Month by offering, as This week’s Text, a reading on novelist Amy Tan with this comprehension worksheet to accompany it. Also, her is an Everyday Edit exercise on Hiroshima (and if you like it, you can get a yearlong supply of them from the extremely generous proprietors of the Education World website.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“(1886-1912) Japanese Tanka and freestyle poet. A Buddhist priest’s son, Takuboku began writing poetry early, but had to struggle hard to earn a living after his father was excommunicated in 1904. Plagued by poverty, ill health, and his own temper, he became increasingly critical of the norms of both society and poetry. The Tanka of his mature years, collected in Ickiaku no suna (1910; tr A Handful of Sand, 1934) and Kanashiki gangu (1912; tr Sad Toys, 1977), movingly express his frustrations and alienation from society. Together with Masaoka Shiki, Takuboku may be credited with modernizing traditional Japanese poetry.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged asian-pacific history, poetry, readings/research
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