Eng 2R

The Epic of Gilgamesh

World Lit Survey

How the Epic of Gilgamesh Endured

Stories of King Gilgamesh were told and handed down for hundreds of years after his death. Finally the tales were written down by the 21st century B.C. When the Babylonians conquered the Sumerians, they inherited the Sumerian cultural traditions. A Babylonian author created the start of the unified Gilgamesh epic as we know it today.

Modifications to the Epic

Other Babylonian writers modified the epic. They added the prologue and the flood story, as well as emphasized the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu. These writers also gave the narrative its central theme: the search for immortality.

The Epic of Gilgamesh: Setting

Story takes place in ancient Sumer, one of the first settled parts of the Fertile Crescent. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers allowed for the development of water canals and agriculture. This is part of modernday Iraq.

Historic Map of Mesopotamia

Epic of Gilgamesh: Social

Context

Gilgamesh was the actual king of ancient Uruk about 2700 B.C. This statue depicts Gilgamesh as a powerful ruler and lion-killer. What can we learn about Sumerian civilization and kingship by looking at this statue?

Epic of Gilgamesh: Language

Gilgamesh was written down on clay cuneiform tablets. Scholars were able to translate Sumerian cuneiform by comparing it to later Akkadian tablets with similar stories. This cuneiform writing consists of wedge shapes read right to left.

Cuneiform

The earliest writing in Mesopotamia was a picture writing invented by the Sumerians who wrote on clay tablets using long reeds. The script the Sumerians invented and handed down to the Semitic peoples who conquered Mesopotamia in later centuries, is called cuneiform, which is derived from two Latin words: cuneus , which means "wedge," and forma , which means "shape." This picture language, similar to but more abstract than Egyptian hieroglyphics, eventually developed into a syllabic alphabet under the Semites (Assyrians and Babylonians) who eventually came to dominate the area.

Cuneiform

In Sumer, the original writing was pictographic ("picture writing"); individual words were represented by crude pictorial symbols that resembled in some way the object being represented, as in the Sumerian word for king, lu-gal :

Cuneiform

These wedges and hooks are the original cuneiform and represented in Sumerian entire words (this is called ideographic and the word symbols are called ideograms, which means "concept writing. The Semites who adopted this writing, however, spoke an entirely different language, in fact, a language as different from Sumerian as English is different from Japanese. In order to adapt this foreign writing to a Semitic language, the Akkadians converted it in part to a syllabic writing system; individual signs represent entire syllables. However, in addition to syllable symbols, some cuneiform symbols are ideograms ("picture words") representing an entire word; these ideograms might also, in other contexts, be simply syllables. For instance, in Assyrian, the cuneiform for the syllable "ki" is written as follows:

Cuneiform

However, as an ideogram, this cuneiform also stands for the Assyrian word irsitu , or "earth." So reading cuneiform involves mastering a large syllabic alphabet as well as a large number of ideograms, many of them identical to syllable symbols. This complicated writing system dominated Mesopotamia until the century before the birth of Christ; the Persians greatly simplified cuneiform until it represented something closer to an alphabet.

Writings Effect on History

As with all cultures, writing greatly changed Mesopotamian social structure and the civilization's relationship to its own history. Writing allowed laws to be written and so to assume a static and independent character; history became more detailed and incorporated much more of local cultures' histories.
Richard Hooker
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GLOSSARY/CUNEI.HTM

Epic of Gilgamesh: Religion

Sumerian shrine or Ziggurat, c. 2100 B.C. in Ur The ziggurat is a religious temple rising like a mountain in the desert where Sumerians worshiped local gods In Gilgameshs city of Uruk, the popular gods were Anu (father of the gods), Ishtar (goddess of love), and Lugulbanda (Gilgameshs personal god)

Epic of Gilgamesh: Themes

Civilization vs. Nature (or Man vs. Nature) Mortality:

What is the meaning of life?

Friendship (or Man vs. Man) Flood story Kingship (or Man vs. Society)

How a should king rule

Religion:
How people and gods interact How Sumerians appeased the gods through ritual

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Story: Prologue
Emphasizes:

Wisdom Acquired in Life Monuments Erected Which Last For Centuries

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Story: Characters Gilgamesh the God and Man

Bad Ruler Arrogant Person

Oppressive to His People

Brutal to Friend and Foe

Enkidu
Created by Gods as a Match for Gilgamesh Seduced by a Harlot Tamed by Civilization Possesses the Best of Man and Beast Suffers and Dies for the Sins of Gilgamesh (rejection of Ishtar)

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Story: Plot Lines & Action First Adventure
Slaying

of Humbaba, the giant who the gods appointed to guard the Cedar Forest

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Story: Plot Lines & Action Second Adventure

Gilgamesh rejects the love of Ishtar, the goddess of the storehouse, love, war, and the evening & morning star. Ishtar, enraged, sends Bull of Heaven against the people of Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu destroy the bull. Enkidu, as a result, is cursed and dies a painful, slow, pathetic death.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Story: Plot Lines & Action Enkidus Death Awakens Gilgamesh

Emptiness of mortality in spite of worldly fame Search for immortality

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Story: Plot Lines & Action Discoveries

Secrets of immortality from Utnapishtim, an immortal The Old Men Are Young Again plant Flood story (Universal Story) A recorded history

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Story: Plot Lines & Action Fails 2 Tests of Potential Immortals

Cant Remain Awake for 6 Days and 7 Nights Loses The Old Men Are Young Again plant to the Serpent

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Story: Plot Lines & Action Return to Uruk

Empty handed but is he? Knows his worldly endeavors will endure Has gained wisdom

Epic of Gilgamesh: Significance

What Does the Story Mean To Us

We learn how ancient people of Mesopotamia lived. We see that experiences related through the story are similar to experiences of man today. Religion: We see similar roles that God plays in the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the people of Ancient Uruk to our own. We see how people and gods interact.

Epic of Gilgamesh: Significance

Oldest story ever recorded

First recorded author

Kingship: How should a king rule? Mortality: What is the meaning of life? Friendship: Mans relationship to man Flood story: Validation of Bible story Shows commonality of human nature, stories, adventures, etc.