Write a substantial response (at least two typed pages) to the following question. Your response should be informed by the lectures, by the readings of the primary texts, and by the supplemental readings in Enduring Legacies volumes. The fuller your response the better your grade. 

Nearly every culture that we’ve studied this semester has revered violent, male heroes.  Moreover, the “great” cultures (the Mesopotamians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons) are often those that conquered others. Warfare, invasion, and imperialism are accepted behaviors for these peoples. In the literary texts that each of these cultures produced, the rule of personal combat is arguably a much more prevalent way of resolving things than societal law. What does this say not only about cultures then but culture now?  Does literature/entertainment only reflect culture, or does it influence it? Discuss whether the study and tradition of great literature with heroic male violence might in any way be having a negative effect on today’s western culture.