Jomari L.

Labiano BSED 2-A

DIGGING DEEPER

Instruction: Research and explain what makes the following a literary composition that has influenced
the world.

1. The Bible of the Sacred Writings

- The sacred text of Christianity is the Holy Bible. The Christian Bible has two parts: the Old Testament
which is essentially the Hebrew scriptures of Jesus' time; and the New Testament which contains
writings about Jesus Christ and about the early church. The four gospels (a word meaning ‘good news')
of the New Testament are accounts of Jesus' life and teaching, of his death and resurrection. The New
Testament also contains the Acts of the Apostles, which describes the early growth of the Christian
church; the letters of Paul and other important leaders in the early church; the Letter to the Hebrews;
and the Book of Revelation. The New Testament teaches that salvation comes through believing in the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and in following his teachings. It teaches that salvation is a gift
God extends freely through Jesus Christ to all people. The influence of the Bible is worldwide. Its mighty
power has affected every department of human activity. The contents of the Scriptures have supplied
themes for the greatest poets, artists and musicians which the world has yet produced, and have been
the mightiest factor of all in shaping the moral progress of the race.

2. Koran

- The Quran is thought by Muslims to be not simply divinely inspired, but the literal  word of God.
Muhammad did not write it as he did not know how to write. According to tradition, several of
Muhammad's companions served as scribes, recording the revelations. Shortly after the prophet's
death, the Quran was compiled by the companions, who had written down or memorized parts of it.
Caliph Uthman established a standard version, now known as the Uthmanic codex, which is generally
considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with mostly
minor differences in meaning. The Qur'an influences Muslims as it shows them what is right and guides
them to become a good Muslim. Qur'an is the Holy Book and word of God and teaches that God was all-
knowing and powerful so Muslims are inspired. To treat others the way you would like to be treated,
respecting views of others.

3. The Iliad and Odyssey

- The Iliad tells the story of the Greek struggle to rescue Helen, a Greek queen, from her Trojan
captors. The Odyssey takes the fall of the city of Troy as its starting point and crafts a new epic
around the struggle of one of those Greek warriors, the hero Odysseus. While The Iliad is an
epic tale of war and battle, The Odyssey is the story of a journey, a hero's heroic effort to return
to his home. Iliad and Odyssey influenced in many ways the world, especially Europe and Middle East
throughout history. These two poems have been part of the education of western and Middle Eastern
high classes since ancient times and they still are today and influenced deeply not only the literature and
figurative arts but even, arguably, the course of history itself.
4. The Mahabharata

- The Mahabharata is an ancient Indian epic where the main story revolves around two branches of a
family - the Pandavas and Kauravas - who, in the Kurukshetra War, battle for the throne of Hastinapura.
Interwoven into this narrative are several smaller stories about people dead or living, and philosophical
discourses. The Mahābhārata was one of the two most important factors that created the "Hindu"
culture of India (the other was the other all-India epic, the Rāmāyaṇa, pronounced approximately as
Raa-MEYE-a-na), and the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa still exert tremendous cultural influence
throughout India and Southeast Asia.

5. Canterbury Tales

- The Canterbury Tales tells the story of a group of pilgrims traveling from London to Canterbury to visit
the holy shrine of St. Thomas Becket. This is a story made of stories: Each of the pilgrims takes a turn as
a storyteller, with a banquet promised to the person who tells the best tale. One of the main lessons
throughout all of the tales and main story is that honor and honesty is valued. In stories like the
Physician's Tale, we see that the lying Appius who lusts after a young girl, is eventually caught for his lies
and thrown in jail where he kills himself. The Canterbury Tales is a reflection of then and now. Women
are still seen as inferior, there is still corruption, and people are still deceitful. To make all of this connect
to today, The Canterbury Tales should still be read and studied. Students can learn about the past and
see how relatable it is to today.

6. Uncle Tom’s Cabin

- Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in full Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe
published in serialized form in the United States in 1851–52 and in book form in 1852. An abolitionist
novel, it achieved wide popularity, particularly among white readers in the North, by vividly dramatizing
the experience of slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin tells the story of Uncle Tom, an enslaved person, depicted
as saintly and dignified, noble and steadfast in his beliefs. While being transported by boat to auction
in New Orleans, Tom saves the life of Little Eva, an angelic and forgiving young girl, whose grateful father
then purchases Tom. Eva and Tom soon become great friends. Always frail, Eva’s health begins to
decline rapidly, and on her deathbed she asks her father to free all his enslaved people. He makes plans
to do so but is then killed, and the brutal Simon Legree, Tom’s new owner, has Tom whipped to death
after he refuses to divulge the whereabouts of certain escaped slaves. Tom maintains a steadfastly
Christian attitude toward his own suffering, and Stowe imbues Tom’s death with echoes of Christ’s.
Stowe's vivid characters and portrayal of their struggles opened reader's eyes to the realities of slavery
and the humanity of enslaved people. Stowe hoped the novel would build empathy for the characters
and, in turn, for enslaved individuals.

7. The Divine Comedy

- The Divine Comedy is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in

1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature
and one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is
representative of the medieval worldview as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th
century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian
language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Divine Comedy is a
fulcrum in Western history. It brings together literary and theological expression, pagan and Christian,
that came before it while also containing the DNA of the modern world to come. It may not hold the
meaning of life, but it is Western literature's very own theory of everything.

8. El Cid Campeador

- El Cid tells the epic story of a man who fights to restore his honor after being banished. El Cid is
banished from Spain and forced to abandon all of his belongings. Determined to restore his name, he
and his vassals conquer a series of Moorish settlements. El Cid was a formidable military leader who
won several famous battles. He was also an astute politician. His most significant accomplishment was
his conquest of Muslim-ruled Valencia in spite of strong Almoravid resistance. He ruled Valencia from
1094 until his death in 1099.

9. The Song of Roland

- The Song of Roland reflects the fight between Christianity and Islam, or good and evil. The poem
glorifies Christianity and its defeat over Islam, with the intention of encouraging Christians during the
Crusades.
In the 'Song of Roland', Charlemagne's eternal loyalty lies toward God, for whom Charlemagne is the
vassal, and the others the vassals for Charlemagne. His thinking lies around the notion that God can
make a decision towards punishing or rewarding someone on the basis of how loyal one is. The Song of
Roland is one of the most popular medieval epics of French Literature. It was written to commemorate
the Battle of Roncevaux Pass fought between Roland and Basques. The epic itself went on to become
widely popular and was later romanticized as a conflict between Christians and Muslims during the
Crusades.

10. The Book of the Dead

- The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from
the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BCE) to around 50 BCE. The original Egyptian name for
the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw, is translated as Book of Coming Forth by Day or Book of
Emerging Forth into the Light. "Book" is the closest term to describe the loose collection of
texts[4] consisting of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through
the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife and written by many priests over a period of about 1,000
years. In addition to explicitly describing the afterlife and the roles of the gods, the Book of the Dead
also gives insight into important concepts like the ka and ba, aspects of the soul believed to live on after
death.

11. The Book of the Days

- Reminiscent of Thorton Wilder's Our Town, Book of Days is about a small southwestern Missouri town
confronted by a violent death and is forced to reconsider the world and values they thought they knew
inside and out. Each day, listed in chronological order gives a short list of saints connected to the day
and famous persons being born on that day and dying on that day. Individuals are then selected from
these lists for more detailed articles. With six or seven articles per day the total number of articles,
which are in the form of erudite essays, runs to around 2000, a staggering undertaking in terms of
research. It is a much quoted reference in many hundreds of other reference books.
12. One Thousand and One Nights or the Arabian Nights

- The primary story is about Shahryar and Shahrazad. When Shahryar discovers that his queen at the
beginning of the tale is being unfaithful, he declares that all women are the same and vows to take a
new bride each night and have her killed the next morning. Very simply put, the frame story itself is one
of a king, King Shahrayar, who has been betrayed by his wife, and who is off commiserating with his
brother, King Shahzaman, who had suffered a similar fate himself. On their journey, they encounter a
beautiful woman who is being held captive by the most fearsome genie. The story of The Thousand and
One Nights is a unique tale that teaches simple morals throughout the many stories within the main
story. This tale is about a clever women that saves herself, as well as the women in her kingdom, from
being put to death by the king.