"What a Good Vassal!": El Poema de Mio Cid and the Heroic Code of Medieval Spain

  1. The Historical El Cid: Spain at the Beginning of the Reconquest
    1. El Cid: Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, (c. 1043-1099)
    2. A Christian Hero for Catholic Spain
    3. The Text: 1140-1207
  1. First Cantar: El Cid in Exile
    1. Merit and Rank
    2. Moneylenders: Raquel and Vidas
    3. Dona Jimena and the Cid’s Daughters
    4. The Cid Wins "Ganancia."
  1. Second Cantar: Victory and Honor
    1. The Cid Takes Valencia
    2. His Retainers Gain Honor
    3. The Infantes’ Scheme
  1. Third Cantar: The Disgrace of the Infantes de Carrión
    1. The King’s Permission
    2. The Incident of the Lion
    3. The Exposure of the Women
    4. The Dissolution of the Marriages
    5. The Return of the Swords and Money
    6. The Challenge by the Retainers
    7. The Trial by Combat

Review for the Final
  1. The Works
    1. Gilgamesh
    2. The Exaltation of Inanna
    3. The Odyssey
    4. Antigone
      5. and Oedipus the King
    5. Symposium
    6. Aeneid
    7. Beowulf
    8. The Poem of the Cid
    9. Inferno
      10.
  1. The Ideas
    1. Leadership and Civilization
    2. Immortality and Literature
    3. The Self and the Mind
    4. Gods and Humanity
    5. Fate and Duty
    6. Honor and Reparation
    7. War and Civil Society
  1. The Times and Places
    1. Mesopotamia (Sumeria, Akkadia, and Babylonia) in the Second and Third Millenia, BCE
    2. Homeric and Classical Greece, Eighth and Fifth Centuries, BCE
    3. Imperial Rome, 19 BCE
    4. Anglo-Saxon England, 700 CE
    5. Medieval Spain, 1140-1207
    6. Late Medieval Italy, 1265-1321
  1. The Final
    1. Part I: Short Answers
    2. Part II: Identify and Discuss
    3. Part III: Essay
  1. Study Suggestions
    1. Fill in the holes.
    2. Think and remember with your pen.
    3. Outline the course—structure is memory.
    4. Build a foundation.
    5. Develop your ideas.
    6. Outline your essays.