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It is unclear whether Dante had followed Homer's lead consciously, or whether he had simply gone through the same process of recognizing the fundamental principle involved in the development of periods of renaissance. One must assume, however, that Dante, as an accomplished scholar, had some knowledge of the great achievements of the Classical era and what lay at its beginning. Thus, the question arises, where did Homer come from? What historic background did this pioneer draw from?
Developmental roots in the old Babylonian era.
One is left to conjecture, here. As has been pointed out, there has been a prior period of an unfolding renaissance that occurred in the old Babylonian era, the Old Classical Period. This era predated Homer by almost a millennium. It, too, was an era in which literature, art, and development had flourished. In this era two highly developed languages existed side by side, and a well developed system of law and justice had been established. This period, itself, was preceded by a sequence of developments that began almost 2000 years earlier. A period of several distinct dynasties begun as the old Babylonian region was conquered, and reconquered many times, and became a melting pot of a number of different cultures.
The earliest civilization that developed an organized culture in the western world was probably that which became established in the fertile valley of the Euphrates and Tirgis rivers, and in the valley of the Nile. Since the Egyptian world was more isolated by natural barriers, it became less of a melting pot of people than the Mesapotamian world had become. The early Mesapotamian world, and the later Babylonian development, had set the stage for the European and Asian culture within which framework the Greek culture developed.
The Babylonian world was also the central background of the biblical focus. This twin-river setting would likely have brought many experiences of floods, such as the great flood described in the Bible in conjunction with Noah and his ark. Indeed, early references to large scale flooding do exist, and many such floods may have been devastating to the land, some perhaps even catastrophically so.
The frequent flooding of the Yellow river in China has caused countless millions of deaths, and still causes enormous damage, which the Three Gorges project is designed to prevent in the future. In the ancient world, of course, people had no choice but to live with what the rivers brought. Nor was the early civilization centered on Babylon. The capital of the region was "URN," located at lower end of the river system where the Tigris and Euphrates join into one, before flowing into the Persian Gulf.
Four successive dynasties (kingships) developed, centered on Ur in the early dynastic period between the 3rd and 2nd millennium. This early historic period was dominated by the Sumarian language and tradition. The Sumarian language was associated with a pictographic style of writing. In the latter part of this period one of the kings of this dynasty carried his conquest farther afield, as far as the Mediterranean. He may have been the world's first empire builder. After a short reign of 25 years, however, he was defeated by a still mightier conqueror, Sargon, of the Semite people.
Out of Sargon's victory a new Dynasty was created; and through the influx of new people resulting from the conquest, a second language was introduced. This new language that became dominant during this second dynasty of Ur. It was later named "Akkadian" in reference to the people who were identified as the "Akkad" (people from the north). The Akkadian language, was a more literary language. It was less pictographic, and therefore more writable. It consisted of a variety of wedge shaped symbols. None-the-less, throughout the entire Babylonian era the Sumarian language was retained, so much so that some of the official royal inscriptions were bilingual. Unfortunately, none of the Akkadian literature of this early time, has survived.
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Stories about
Love
from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche
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