Transcendentalism in Beowulf and AntigoneAs time progressed through the different eras, from Antiquity to the Renaissance, a trend began to form in the literature. The ancient periods, reflected in the writings of the Taoists and Greeks, were fundamentally an age of transcendentalism. The gods of this era were treated almost as if they were friends of the people or advisors; the gods controlled their destiny and what was uncontrollable, but people were still very individualistic. Over time, a trend took Europe towards a period of theism, where the god(s) were treated as father figures; the gods controlled the lives of all their people just as parents control their children, even, as Martin Luther said, with an attitude of fear. Through the periods of ancient Greece, to medieval Europe, to Renaissance Europe, a cycle forms from a completely transcendentalist attitude to a completely theistic attitude, and vice versa. Some of the earliest literature scholars have recovered over the years and come from the ancient period. notably from the Orient and Greece. These people believed strongly in the will and power of the self, emphasizing the transcendental qualities of life; they encouraged people to look within for the answer rather than to the state or God. Two works from this period that are representative of this attitude are the poems of Lao Tzu, a Taoist, and Antigone, a play by Sophocles. In Lao Tzu's poem 47, “There is no need to run outside,” Lao Tzu writes: “…dwell/At the center of your being; / For the more you leave it, the less you learn” (Davis, 832). By encouraging others to study the world from the "center of their being," he clearly shows his interest in learning spiritualist ideas, which seem to coincide perfectly with the times of each era. As today's literature becomes more and more romantic and we are likely nearing the end of an era, we must ask ourselves: does the cycle continue? The Renaissance was followed by an almost cathartic spiritual reform movement. In America, these cycles seem to have accelerated into a discernible oscillating phenomenon – individualist in the 1960s, theistic spirituality in the 1980s, and another transcendentalist movement in the 1990s, each shift bringing the two ideas closer together. Perhaps one day, in the near future, these ideas will become similar enough that they can somehow be brought together to form a more moderate philosophy of society. Works Cited Davis, Paul, et al., comp. Western literature in a global context. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995