509BC to 432BC

Society

509BC. Rome overthrows her Etruscan king; becomes a republic.

Literature

508BC. Ramayana. Valmiki. India. Epic poetry. Ranks with Mahabharata. 24,000 stanzas. Rama is the 7th incarnation of the deity Vishnu. Rama wins his wife Sita by bending god's bow; lovers separated, reunited. She is sent away because of concern for her chastity and raises Rama's sons. In the end, they are reunited again, but continuing doubts about her faithfulness to Rama while kidnapped causes Earth Mother to take her back to herself, away from Rama and the other doubters.

Analects. Confucius. China. Nonfiction. Collection of sayings of Confucius, anecdotes about him and his disciples. Brief, unsystematic pronouncements on ethics, government, ritual, literature. Fundamental part of education in traditional China.

Society

490BC. The Battle of Marathon, September 15, gives Athens its Frost great military triumph over Persia.

Literature

490BC. The Suppliant Women. Aeschylus. Greek. Play. Father flees Egypt with fifty daughters. King of Egypt demands that his 50 sons marry them. All but one son is murdered by the daughters on their wedding night. First of a trilogy. Others lost.

Society

480BC. Battle of Thermopylae, August 19, ends in victory for the Persians under Xerxes. He sacks Athens. The Battle of Salamis, Sept. 23, brings victory to the Greeks.

Literature

472BC. The Persians. Aeschylus. Greek. Play. Only extant Greek tragedy dealing with recent history rather than myth. Shows compassion for Xerxes who was responsible for defeat at the hands of the Greeks.

467BC. Seven Against Thebes. Aeschylus. Greek. Play. War between the sons of Oedipus for the throne of Thebes. Martial in spirit. Eteocles vs. Polynices. They meet in single combat and kill each other.

460BC? Prometheus Bound. Aeschylus. Greek. Play. Prometheus knows who will overthrow Zeus. Won't tell. Plunged into Tartarus. Men's relations to the gods.

458BC. Oresteia. Aeschylus. Greek. Trilogy. The Agamemnon recounts the murder of Agamemnon. The Libation Bearers tells of the vengeance of Orestes, killing Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. The Eumenides recounts Orestes' trial in which he is shown not to have shed the blood of kin since the blood of the family passes through the father, not the mother.

Society

457BC. A 28-year Golden Age begins in Athens as the statesman Pericles makes the city preeminent.

Literature

441BC. Antigone. Sophocles. Greek. Play. In defiance of Creon, Antigone buries her brother, Polyneices. She's condemned to be buried alive. Creon regrets too late. Her fiance (his son Haemon), Antigone and Eurydice, his wife, commit suicide.

438BC. Alcestis. Euripides. Greek. Play. Alcestis, wife of Admetus, agrees to replace him in death after no one else will. Drunk, comic Heracles rescues her from Hades. Implies question about Athens' attitude toward women.

Society

432BC. The Peloponnesian Wars begin in Greece. Sparta declares war on Athens.

Literature

431BC. Medea. Euripides. Greek. Play. One of the most complex heroines/villainesses in dramatic literature Changes from a woman overwhelmed with sorrow to a woman dominated by the fury of revenge against Jason who has deserted her. As her ultimate revenge, she icily kills their two children on whom he dotes.