Imagination Flashcards
Who said ‘landscape is the work of the mind, its scenery built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock’?
British historian Simon Schama.
During the Middle Ages and much of the Renaissance, many people in Europe shunned what?
Many people in Europe shunned mountain ranges.
Recall: Yohans Shoytzer, dragons in mountains of Switzerland in early 1700s.
Earlier Europeans, like the ancient Greeks or the Celts, revered mountains as divine palaces. Give an example.
E.g. Mount Olympus. For the ancient Greeks, mountains often were features as the abodes of Gods, like Zeus.
The wilderness and isolation of mountains also impressed the Greeks. Give an example.
E.g. Homer’s 8th century epic poem Iliad, one of oldest extant works of western literature, vividly describes mountain weather.
Mount Olympus in Thessaly, Olympus word predates Greeks, likely used to define what?
Peak or mountain in generic sense.
Italy, like Greece, is mountainous country, with ___ ruining its entire length and ___ alps form N borders.
Apennines
European
How did Romans view mountains?
Romans viewed mountains as obstacles to commerce and conquest. They were places to be dreaded.
Romans crossed Alps regularly by Caesar’s time. Give an example of a crossing.
E.g. Hannibal’s crossing.
What did Romans do before a crossing?
To appease Celtic deities of alpine passes, Romans made offerings of coins and small bronze tablets inscribed with the names of the deity and the traveller.
Later, medieval Europeans, like their Roman predecessors, seemed to pay little attention to what?
They seemed to pay little attention to the grander aspects of nature; there’re actually very few favourable references to mountains in either the literature or graphic art of the age.
How long did suspicions about mountains persist?
Well into the 18th and 19th century, when medieval fears would subside to a new Romantic enthusiasm.
In the East, the appreciation of mountains began much earlier. For how long?
They were considered sacred in China at least 2,000 yrs bc.
The great ranges of China were often represented as what?
A dragon. Dragons were benevolent, controlling the elements and guarding sources of wisdom.
Who was Hannibal?
Hannibal was a Carthaginian general in 281 BC.
What was the Korean people origin myth?
According to origin myth of Korean people, they are descended from the union of a sky god and a bear woman on the sacred volcano Mount Paektu, the highest mountain on the Korean Peninsula.
Before the 3rd century (AD) - in China, mountains are dangerous places of supernatural powers; what caused the shift?
4th century, shift in Chinese capital to more attractive mountains in S, and growing discontentment with imperial bureaucracy, people were increasingly traveling to mountains.
Mountains became inspiration, places of scenic beauty. Give an example.
E.g. Hsieh Ling-Yun poem (AD 433).
For many in the East, sacred mountains were the focus of religious pilgrimage. Give an example.
E.g. Mount Kailash: Tibet, perhaps most holy mountain on Earth, sacred to adherence of Hindu, Buddhist and the Jain and Bon religions.
What is circumambulation?
The act of walking around a sacred object or idol.
What does Kailash Mountain represent for certain religions?
For Hindus, Kailash is home to Lord Shiva, one of the 3 major deities. For Buddhists, it’s the deity Demshog, who represents supreme bliss.
Many of the higher peaks of the Himalayas are sacred to people of that region. Give examples.
Mount Everest is known in Nepal as Sagarmatha (forehead in the sky), to Tibet it is Chomolungma (Mother goddess of the world).
In the European Alps, and the mountains of the Middle East, archeological sites indicate the presence of humans as far back as what?
100,000 ya (stone age)
In the Americas, radiocarbon dating reveals a human presence in mountains for how long?
10 or 11,000 yrs (almost as long as humans have been known to have inhabited the Americas).
The Andes contain perhaps the most spectacular display of human settlement in mountains anywhere. Give an example.
E.g. Machu Picchu, a 15th century Inca settlement located high in the Peruvian Andes.
