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GILGAMESH BACKGROUND. World Literature I Presentation by: Ralph Monday. Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia. The Descent of Inanna. This journey into the underworld is a bit older than Gilgamesh. It is probably the oldest extant written story in the world.
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GILGAMESH BACKGROUND • World Literature I • Presentation by: • Ralph Monday
The Descent of Inanna • This journey into the underworld is a bit older than Gilgamesh. • It is probably the oldest extant written story in the world. • The story can actually be located in the urban culture of Sumer to 3500 B.C.E.
Both Sumer and Egypt developed a written language at about 3200 B.C.E. • Mesopotamia and Egypt have the oldest written literature in the world. • Urban civilization is thought to begin with Sumer.
Gilgamesh • The story came to us from 22,000 clay tablets of cuneiform writing from • modern day Iraq. • The Akkadian king, Ashurbanipal had it written down sometime during the eighth century B.C.E.
Cuneiform Writing • Genesis 10:10And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar (Sumer) .....
Language • Sumerian is a linguistically isolated and extinct language. All attempts to connect Sumerian with any other tongue have so far failed. Sumerian is preserved only on clay tablets in a corpus of texts written in cuneiform. After 2000 B.C.E. the Semitic language Akkadian became dominant.
Cuneiform Script • The Sumerian civilization is thought to be the earliest culture to use written language, in about 3200 B.C.E.
Gilgamesh Continued • The story of Gilgamesh was lost until 1839 when A.H. Layard found the tablets in Nineveh. • In 1872 George Smith translated them into English.
Gilgamesh Summary • The epic begins with a list of Gilgamesh’s accomplishments. • We learn that he is self-indulgent and that he sleeps with all the virgins before they sleep with their lovers.
The Coming of Enkidu • Enkidu is created to be a challenger to Gilgamesh. • He is first civilized by a ritual orgy of six days and seven with a temple priestess. • This symbolizes the loss of his animal nature.
Enkidu challenges Gilgamesh to a physical battle, stopping him from claiming “first night.” • Gilgamesh wins, though not easily, and he and Enkidu become friends. • Enkidu can be seen as a type of double or foil for Gilgamesh.
Humbaba Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh wants some of the lumber of Enlil’s forest, up the Euphrates River. • He and Enkidu travel to the forest that is guarded by a giant, Humbaba. • When Gilgamesh begins to cut down trees, Humbaba is enraged. • Humbaba offers the entire forest if he can live, but Enkidu persuades Gilgamesh to kill him.
Ishtar • The fertility goddess, Ishtar, proposes to Gilgamesh and wants to make love to him. • He refuses and insults her about her poor record as a lover. • Whining, Ishtar goes to her father and asks for the Bull of Heaven so that Gilgamesh will be destroyed.
Anu grants the bull, but Enkidu and Gilgamesh kill it, dedicating its heart to Shamash. • Ishtar is even more upset. • Enkidu then dreams that either he or Gilgamesh must die for having killed the Bull and Humbaba.
Enkidu curses the gate made of the cedar he stole and the woman who brought him to civilization. • Anu reminds Enkidu of how good the woman was and he retracts the curse. • Enkidu can then only speak his terrifying dreams to Gilgamesh who watches him die.
Gilgamesh Wanders the Earth • Alone and terrified of death, Gilgamesh travels eastward toward the mountain of Mashu (perhaps in Iran or Kashmir?). • He kills lions and wears their hides until he meets dangerous scorpion men who inquire about his quest.
Persian impression of a cornelian cylinder seal Scorpion men
Gilgamesh responds to the Scorpion men by telling them that he is looking • For Utnapishtim, a mortal who became a god, so that he too, can discover the secret of eternal life. • They let him pass and he goes into a tunnel beneath the mountain to emerge on the other side in the land of the gods.
There he meets Siduri, a veiled bar maid for the gods. • She does not recognize Gilgamesh, for his long journey and mourning for Enkidu have made him haggard and emaciated.
Siduri reveals to Gilgamesh the paradox of divinity: because men are mortal they can at least enjoy life, • For it is rare and a mysterious gift. • The gods, however, being immortal have no need to fear death; life is nothing to them. • Life is all the same, one enjoyment after the other, none spectacular.
Gilgamesh asks her for the way to Utnapishtim. • She directs him to a forest, and beyond the forest is a mooring where • The mysterious boatman, Urshnabi, stands waiting.
Gilgamesh smashes a box on the boat because he is angry and afraid of death. • He must supply the ship with poles painted with tar in order to cross the sea of death. • He does so and is taken to meet Utnapishtim, the Faraway.
The conversation they have is similar to the one that Gilgamesh had with Siduri and Urshnabi. • Utnapishtim tells him that there is no such thing as “permanence,” that nothing lasts forever. • However, Gilgamesh wants to know how Utnapishtim, who once was a mortal, came to be among the gods.
Utnapishtim then tell Gilgamesh the story of the gods being upset and • Destroying the world by sending a great flood. • All humans were destroyed except Utnap and his family. • The story is almost identical to the one in Genesis.
It is time for Gilgamesh to return to the land of the living. • Utnapishtim offers him a test: Stay awake for six days and seven nights, • And he might just become immortal. • Gilgamesh fails before he even begins.
He falls asleep and when he wakes up the baked loaves of bread beside • His bed tell him that he has slept for seven days. • Utnapishtim’s wife wants a going away present for Gilgamesh.
The old man tells Gilgamesh about a plant growing at the bottom of the sea that grants immortal life. • However, a snake steals the plant away from him and he loses the gift of immortal life.
Gilgamesh arrives as a hero in Uruk. He then engraves his life’s story on stones. • Gilgamesh dies, granted immortality only through the monuments he has built and the poem that we read. • The people praise his deeds and the greatness of their king.
