The Results of Movement of People Across Physical and Social Borders Depicted in Ancient Literature

Since the earliest human beings appeared on earth, people have migrated, traveled, and traversed thousands upon thousands of miles of land and sea to spread not only their population, but also all of their languages, ideas, and cultures as well. This paper will discuss the results of movement of people across these physical borders, such as mountains, deserts, oceans, or even the walls to another settlement, as well as the results of the merging of different social barriers which separate communities. The reasons behind these migrations will also be discussed, exploring the motives behind them, such as the benefits and consequences of such movement, and what it could mean for a nation’s, or an individual’s own perception of home and self, respectively.

There are many instances of crossing of physical boundaries throughout history, related to the earliest migrations of man responsible for populating the earth, to the construction of permanent settlements, and the invasion and conquering of said settlements. There are several examples of such situations in many of the readings for the semester, such as Homer’s The Odyssey.

The story centers on Odysseus’ travels in order to return home, and his journey across the seas to many different lands reflects the idea of him and his men crossing the literal divide of the ocean, as well as the borders of several different nations which they encountered along the way. In professor Smith’s lecture, he focused on the idea of caves in The Odyssey, explaining how there was a recurring setting of a cave in the story where the characters were, and showing the world map of all the different cave sites in the epic. The caves ranged in location from Ogygia, which is Calypso’s Island, located to the far east in the Mediterranean, near Spain, to the Island of the Cyclopes, which is thought to be the island of Sicily, to Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, all the way to Crete, Greece’s southernmost island. These are only a few examples of the extensive use of caves in the story, as over thirty different caves in total appear throughout, showing the extensive travel through the Mediterranean Sea, and thus showing the crossing of huge physical boundaries of Odysseus and his men.

In addition to the large mass of water and the multiple caves on multiple different islands, Odysseus also crosses the borders of different nations and cities, such as Ismaros, the land of the Cicones, where Odysseus had gone in search of food and water and ended up raiding the city. He also was in the war in Troy, where he came up with the idea to construct the wooden horse and use it to infiltrate the Trojan borders and sack the city. This draws back on Dr. Keller’s first lecture, where she stated that deception is the key to the collapse of a city, and that the best way into a walled city is “through the front door”. This relates to the reading on the Taking of Joppa, in that Djehuty offers to surrender to Joppa amidst their conflict, sending gifts into the city as a sign of their defeat. However, the gifts were in fact baskets with soldiers inside, thus leading to the taking of the city in similar fashion. In addition to the crossing of literal borders, migration across various lands and civilizations also leads to the passage of social and cultural ideas between the different people of each various location.

The story of the Taking of Joppa is an example of this transference of information and ideas, as a piece of literature written by a different person and in a different location and time period, has a very similar, if not almost exactly the same plot and storyline, and as stated by Dr. Keller, it “traverses the boundary of time and place”. There are several examples of this type of border crossing, such as the statue also presented in Dr. Keller’s lecture, which depicted the combination of Egyptian god Anubis and Greek god Hermes, showing the transfer of religious and cultural ideas through society.

A similar example was brought forth in Professor Smith’s lecture, where he mentioned manuscripts written in Greek found in a Roman Museum. He also brings up the idea of language being a barrier as well, which is often seen as an issue in many of the readings of the semester, as they were written many years ago in different languages. Smith even gives the definition of the word “translate”, and giving the roots of the word in Latin, which is roughly understood to mean “carry across”, which relates to crossing borders. Although aside from the literal meaning of the word, language and translation create a barrier when trying to receive information from a certain text, as Smith alludes to in his lecture as well, when describing the way the literal translation from Greek to English of The Odyssey, “does not flow well”. In addition to language being a barrier in some cases, it can also be a result of the physical border crossing of man, and of the assimilation of different cultures with each other. This can be seen in Stanbuck’s lecture when he discusses the four major dialects of Old English, and how modern-day English was created by crossing borders and mixing these dialects together over the years. There are also examples of the crossing of metaphysical borders as well, such as Odysseus’ journey into the Underworld, and talking with the spirits of the dead. This is also seen with the prophets who can communicate with the deities of their religion, like Odysseus communicating with spirits, it shows the crossing of the border from the real physical world to another world entirely. The migrations outlined thus far all have a motive backing them which caused the people involved to cross whatever border it was that they did, which in turn led to positive and negative results, some of which have already been discussed, such as the spread and formation of certain languages.

In almost all cases of the crossing of a literal divide, such as the walls of a city, there is a conflict between two parties which causes one to attempt to invade the other, leading to the eventual breach of either the attacked, or in retaliation, the attacker’s, walls, thus crossing that border. A specific example of such an event can be seen in the sacking of Troy and the Taking of Joppa. The results of the entrance of one nation into another is the perpetual mixing of different people, cultures, languages, religion, and ideas within one place, and in the case of an empire which spans across several different countries over thousands of miles, these mixed ideas are spread throughout that great expanse of land. The motives of certain other individuals may not be as such, like in the case of Odysseus, for much of his journey, he is merely trying to return home, after being forced into traveling to several different locations by the will of the gods. This is also seen in many of the Old English Elegies, where the speaker of these poems is usually in exile and separated from their home, family, and all other human society. This border which is created can lead to a change in the way a person perceives themselves, such as the speakers in the elegies, who talk about a bright, glorified past which turns into a dark, sorrowful present, in which the speaker has a sense of nostalgia about their better life when they were home.

In the case of Odysseus, when he crosses into the Underworld, he also crosses a border within himself, and shifts from his “war time self”, to his “peace time” self, as stated in Dr. Kozol’s first lecture. There have been many examples of humans crossing literal divides, as discussed in this paper, including the journeying across oceans and vast expanses of land. The crossing of physical boundaries throughout history has been mostly motivated by conflict, and leads to different nations breeching each other’s walls, causing the spread of many cultural and religious ideas, as well as language. As for individuals, such as Odysseus, more personal matters cause them to traverse large distances, and in many cases affect the person in some way or another. If not for all of these examples, and all of the results or consequences of the travel of humans in history, the world as we know it today, with its multitude of different people, religions, cultures, and societies, would not exist.