Eng 2R The Epic of Gilgamesh

1. Eng 2RThe Epic of Gilgamesh World Lit Survey

2. 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.

3. 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. By the 7th century B.C., a written version credited to Sin-liqi-unnini was included in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.

4. How Did We Get the Story Today? After the fall of Babylon, the written epic was lost in the rubble. Archaeologist Austin Henry Layard excavated Ashurbanipal’s library in the mid-1800s . Henry Rawlinson discovered and deciphered the poem on clay tablets in cuneiform. George Smith then translated the 11th tablet containing the portion of the epic describing a great flood, an account remarkably similar to the story of Noah and the ark in the Bible.

5. 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 modern-day Iraq.

6. Historic Map of Mesopotamia

7. 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?

8. Epic of Gilgamesh: Legacy • Later classical and medieval kings also used lions as their personal symbol. • Examples include Henry “the lion” of Saxony and Richard “the lion-hearted” who led the first crusade c. 1100 (right).

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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 :

12. 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:

13. 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.    

14. Writing’s 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

15. 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 Gilgamesh’s city of Uruk, the popular gods were Anu (father of the gods), Ishtar (goddess of love), and Lugulbanda (Gilgamesh’s personal god)

16. 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

17. The Epic of Gilgamesh The Story: Prologue Emphasizes: • Wisdom Acquired in Life • Monuments Erected Which Last For Centuries

18. The Epic of Gilgamesh The Story: CharactersGilgamesh the God and Man • Bad Ruler • Arrogant Person • Oppressive to His People • Brutal to Friend and Foe

19. 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)

20. The Epic of Gilgamesh The Story: Plot Lines & ActionFirst Adventure • Slaying of Humbaba, the giant who the gods appointed to guard the Cedar Forest

21. The Epic of Gilgamesh The Story: Plot Lines & ActionSecond 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.

22. The Epic of Gilgamesh The Story: Plot Lines & ActionEnkidu’s Death Awakens Gilgamesh • Emptiness of mortality in spite of worldly fame • Search for immortality

23. The Epic of Gilgamesh The Story: Plot Lines & ActionDiscoveries • Secrets of immortality from Utnapishtim, an immortal • “The Old Men Are Young Again” plant • Flood story (Universal Story) • A recorded history

24. The Epic of Gilgamesh The Story: Plot Lines & ActionFails 2 Tests of Potential Immortals • Can’t Remain Awake for 6 Days and 7 Nights • Loses “The Old Men Are Young Again” plant to the Serpent

25. 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

26. Epic of Gilgamesh: SignificanceWhat 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.

27. 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: Man’s relationship to man • Flood story: Validation of Bible story • Shows commonality of human nature, stories, adventures, etc.