"The Odyssey," "1001 Nights," and "The Pillow Book"

After reading the excerpt from “The Odyssey,” “1001 Nights,” and “The Pillow Book” I started to think about the connections between the pieces and why we were reading them together. The first thing that jumped out at me was how “The Odyssey” and “1001 Nights” both began with the author praising God or the gods. This shows how much religion was tied to literature and to life in general and how the arts were meant to praise God or the gods. “The Pillow Book” was not as religious as the other two. Priests were mentioned a few times, but they did not dominate the work. All three of these works did seem to provide a glimpse into the culture and the time that they were written in. This is especially true of “The Pillow Book,” which seemed almost like a diary. The importance of literature in society was also alluded to. In “The Pillow Book” the ladies-in-waiting were tested by their knowledge of poetry, which they were expected to have learned. In “1001 Nights” there were poetic verses throughout, which could be meant to teach the reader a moral lesson.