Three & seven

LESSON 10. The aim of the lesson is to review the ways of expressing ideas laconically yet effectively. You will also …………………

1. Read the given paragraph and identify its structure (the mode of thought: narration, description, exposition, argumentation or urging; the thesis, the general logical structure.)

The fact is that there are hundreds of miracles on the Earth, and perhaps a reasonably travelled person could now name at least fifty wonders comparable to the original seven, even without escaping from the confines accepted as belonging to the ancient world. There must have been just as many ancient times, contemporaneous with the reign of Alexander the Great, when such lists were first compiled. And therefore, the question is why there were only seven wonders listed in the first place? The answer is comparatively simple, if somewhat foreign to our understanding. It lies in the fact that the number was itself a holy number. We have inherited a seven-day week - because, according to the ancients, there are seven planets, and because these were governed by seven angelic beings, seven gods, and seven evil demons. There were seven deadly sins, and seven great virtues. When the late medieval magicians wrote their tracts on numbers, they always gave precedence to the number seven, to the "holy" number, for within its compass were said to lie the secrets of the universe, to a point where it was believed that any man who could piece together the mysteries of seven and three would attain all human knowledge! This is why there were seven wonders listed in the ancient world - not because there were only seven great marvels!

2. a) When giving a lecture on the subject, one is supposed to provide pauses. Similarly, a paragraph is not only a logical construction, but also a compositional device, regulating the rhythm of the discourse.

Where would you make pauses if that speech were yours? How would you break it into smaller paragraphs for consideration of compositions?

b) Give a one-sentence summary of the above paragraph, reflecting its LOGICAL structure.

3. What would you write in a paragraph beginning and ending with the following phrases:

a) All great art submits to tradition ................ No matter how pressing tradition is, art always defies its limitations.

4. Describe one of the Seven Wonders of the World trying to explain why it was nominated as one.

• The Pyramids.

• The Hanging Gardens in Babylon.

• The Statue of Zeus in Olympia.

• The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

• The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

• The Colossus at Rhodes.

• The Lighthouse at Alexandria.

5. Make a list of seven contemporary wonders of the world. Account for your choice.

6. Why are numbers 3 and 7 are considered to be holy?

Egyptian book of the dead

How do you picture ancient Egypt? Do you see mysterious pyramids, linen-wrapped mummies, and secret religious ceremonies? Many of our images of ancient Egypt probably derive from Hollywood movies like The Mummy’s Curse. Surprisingly, however, many observers throughout history have shared this picture of Egypt as an uncanny culture, wise in secret lore. Although these popular ideas about ancient Egypt are exaggerated and distorted, they do contain a grain of truth. The ancient Egyptians were preoccupied with death and the progress of the soul through the underworld. Their concern, however, reflected an optimistic – not a dark – outlook. They believed in a type of life after death. To prepare for this existence, they collected the numerous spells, confessions, and words of power known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The title incorrectly suggests a single volume. Actually, it refers to many different texts written in different eras. These texts, inscribed on long papyrus scrolls entombed with the deceased, were a guide for a dead person on the perilous journey through the underworld. They contained, for example, magical spells that would fend off demons and monsters, as well as confessions and assertions of innocence that would help the soul when it came to judgement before Osiris, the god of the dead.

In some ways the Egyptian Book of the Dead resembled a travel guide to the underworld. Just as a contemporary travel guide might inform you about accommodations, traffic, and currency in a foreign country, so the Book of the Dead told the ancient Egyptian what to say and what to do in the strange country of the hereafter. For example, on the way to see Osiris, the ruler of the dead, the deceased had to pass through seven great halls. Each of these was supervised by three gods, and unless the deceased could tell each god his or her name, the journey would end. Not knowing the magical names was comparable to arriving at a modern frontier without a passport!

The story of Osiris involved suffering, death, and resurrection. That emphasis on resurrection is why Osiris’s story had such an appeal, for the average Egyptian hoped to survive death. The identity they felt with Osiris was so strong that the dead were referred to by name as Osiris.

The most dramatic moment of the underworld journey was the judgment of the dead by Osiris. The heart of the deceased – for Egyptians the word «heart’ also meant «conscience» – was weighed against a figure of Ma’at, the goddess of law, truth, and justice. Souls that failed that test were tortured and destroyed. Such destruction, called «repeated death», was perhaps the greatest fear of the Egyptians. It meant complete extermination.

The conception of judgment, reward, and punishment is common to many cultures, including our own. Compare the Egyptian underworld with that depicted in The Epic of Gilgamesh :

«…The house from which none who enters ever returns, down the road from which there is no coming back. There is the house whose people sit in darkness, dust is their food and clay is their meat. They are clothed like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness. I entered the house of dust and I saw the kings of the earth, their crowns put away forever. They who had stood in the place of the gods, stood now like servants to fetch baked meats in the house of dust... There was Ereshkigal the Queen of the Underworld; and Belit-Sheri squatted in front of her, she who is recorder of the gods and keeps the book of death. She held a tablet from which she read. She raised her head, she saw me and spoke: «Who has brought this one here?» Then I awoke like a man drained of blood who wanders alone in a waste of rushes; like one whom the bailiff has seized and his heart pounds with terror.» (from The Gilgamesh Epic).

Associated with the Book of the Dead were the Egyptian burial practices that have fascinated so many other cultures, including ours. They embalmed the dead using the process of mummification. The techniques of embalming usually involved the removal of the inner organs, treatment of the body with resin – an organic substance from plants – and wrapping the corpse in linen bandages.