Tradition

1 Pages 126 Words

Long after these oral traditions developed, the spoken and sung were put into written form. The main reason for doing so was that they not be lost or altered, thereby losing or misrepresenting the whole past of a people. In written form, these traditions have provided the world with some of its greatest literary classics: the 'Epic of Gilgamesh' (see Babylonia and Assyria), the 'Iliad' of Homer, and much of the Old Testament portion of the Bible. The Old Testament, in fact, contains as great a variety of ancient oral traditions in written form as can be found in one book. It has creation legends, stories of epic heroism and adventure, love tales, intrigue and murder stories, lyric poetry, songs of praise, proverbs, riddles, and more....