Project Worldseizer

In one of Homers epic poems, the Odyssey Odysseus with his sailors land on the island of the cyclops. The cyclops live on the island living off of their goats and their farming. Odysseus and some of his men go to the cave of the cyclops Polyphemus son of Poseidon to find out if the cyclops are a humane people. After Polyphemus comes home with his goats and sheep he rolls a stone in front of the cave and then finds Odysseus and his men. He takes two of the men and eats them whole. The next morning he does the same thing again and then lets his goats and sheep out and rolled the stone in front of his cave again. Odysseus then comes up with a plan to let them escape. That night Odysseus offers the cyclops wine from the temple of Apollo. The giant becomes drunk and then asks what Odysseus’s name is. Odysseus then replies that his name is noman. When Polyphemus is asleep Odysseus and his men plunge a large stick carved to a point in to the giants eye. Polyphemus howls in pain and because of the yelling the other cyclops come to see what is wrong. Polyphemus then tells them that “Noman is killing me.” Then they leave thinking that he is just ill. The next day Odysseus and his remaining men escape by hiding under the sheep as they go outside because the cyclops was now blinded. They drove the sheep on to their ships and then sailed away.

The Minoans of Crete were settled on the island around 3000 BC. Archaeologists lead by Aurthur Evans started excavating the palace city of Knossos in 1899. They soon found more structures all over the island proving that this was an island wide civilization. The Minoans had what is known as a temple economy. People would bring their goods to the palace to then be distributed amongst the people. The Minoans traded widely with Minoan pottery being found as far away as modern day Israel. The Minoans were accomplished artists with frescoes depicting daily life as well as images of bull leaping. Their pottery had geometric designs with red glazes and was sometimes eggshell thin. The Minoans had no fortifications and they are thought to have been a very peaceful nation. Not very much is known about Minoan religion though multiple shrines and sacred caves have been found. There has been some evidence that the Minoans worshiped goddesses and bones have been found that suggest that they may have taken place in human sacrifices. Around 1100 BC Minoan civilization collapsed and was most likely taken over by Mycenaean Greece.

Mycenaean Greece was not known to exist until Heinrich Schliemann found the city of Mycenae in his quest to prove that the Iliad was real. Mycenaean Greece started about 1600 BC. They were much more warlike than the peaceful Minoans and also traded widely. They had many self governed city states and had advanced innovations. They had magnificent buildings such as the lions gate and were sometimes buried with elaborate masks. Mycenaean Greece ends with a 300 hundred year dark age from 1100 – 800 BC where no trace of their civilization is found.

Abraham started in his homeland of Ur which is modern day Iraq. God told Abraham to go to Canaan and live there. God also gave Abraham a promise that His descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Then in Canaan God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac. At the last minute God prevented Abraham from sacrificing his son and he sacrificed a ram instead.

Issac married Rebekah and they had two sons, Jacob and Esau. When Esau was very hungry Jacob had him sell his birthright to him in return for some stew. When the time came to give the birthright Rebekah helped Jacob in to tricking his father in to giving the birthright to him. When Esau realized this he was very angry and wanted to kill Jacob, so Jacob fled to his uncle Laban’s house.

Jacob worked for Laban for seven years to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel but ended up marrying his other daughter Leah. He worked seven more years for Laban to marry Rachel and then decided to go try and meet with Esau. Esau forgave Jacob and then near Bethlehem Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin. Jacob favored Joseph above his other sons and this made his brothers very jealous. They ended up selling him in to slavery and he went to Egypt to work for Potiphar. Joseph and ended up in prison and got out by interpreting the Pharaohs dreams.

The dreams meant that there would be a famine and now they should prepare a grain supply. His brothers fled to Egypt because of the famine and Joseph revealed himself and told them to bring the Hebrews to come live with him in Egypt. Eventually Moses would lead the Hebrews out of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Canaan.