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Gilgamesh and the Two Lions. 16th c.
BCE.: This ring was found in Greece, in a
Mycenaean context. Location: National
Archaeology Museum of Greece. ArtStor:
UCSD Slide Gallery
“The most famous of
Mesopotamian heroes is
Gilgamesh. The mythologizing of this early dynastic Sumerian king of
Unug (Uruk) had already begun by about 2400 B.C.E., when
Gilgamesh, or Bilgamesh, was worshipped at several Sumerian sites. It
is even possible that he was deified during his lifetime (c. 2650 B.C.E.)
because of his building of the walls of Uruk and his defense of Uruk
against the rival city of Kish.... Gilgamesh was always closely associated
with the sun god Utu ( Shamash) and was often identified with Dumuz
(Tammuz), also a deified king of Uruk. It was said that his mother was
the goddess Ninsun and his father the deified hero Lugalbanda. Ur III
and Isin kings (c. 2100–1900) especially considered Gilgamesh their
ancestor and used that connection to justify their rule....
“We know Gilgamesh best through what is probably the earliest
example of an epic poem. The “Epic of Gilgamesh” certainly had oral
roots but was first expressed in written— Akkadian—form in the Old
Babylonian period of the early second millennium B.C.E. A more
complete version was written later, in the Middle Babylonian period, supposedly by one Sin-leqe-unnini, and
there are neo-Babylonian, neo- Assyrian, Hittite, and other versions. The epic had gained popularity in much of
the Middle East by the middle of the second millennium B.C.E. It was apparently the Middle Babylonian version
that was the basis for most of the Ninevite recension, the c. 1500 line epic in twelve tablets discovered in the
Assyrian Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh dating from the seventh century B.C.E.”*
The text we read in class is a translation of these tablets, supplemented with material from older, fragmentary
texts.
*David Leeming. "Gilgamesh." The Oxford Companion to World mythology. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford
University Press.
For more information, see Andrew George’s introduction to our text, xiii-xxx.
Historical Contexts
Gilgamesh
MESOPOTAMIA
“For more than four millennia, Mesopotamia and Egypt were the two most highly developed, complex societies in
the ancient Near East.... The term Mesopotamia, first used by the ancient Greeks, means “the land between the
rivers” and designates the geographical area defined by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (roughly equivalent to
present-day Iraq).... Mesopotamia's alluvial plain needed irrigation for widespread agricultural production, but in
the north, rainfall permitted dry farming; in the south, the people of the marshes supported themselves by fishing
and herding. Lacking such natural resources as minerals, stone, and hardwood, the Mesopotamian economy
depended almost entirely on agriculture and animal husbandry. From the rivers, mud and clay were abundant and
were used extensively for ceramics, building, artistic expression, and as the medium for the cuneiform writing
system—the earliest known.”
from Marian H. Feldman. "Mesopotamia." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press,
2001. Oxford Reference Online.
SUMER and AKKAD
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“From [around 2400 to 2300 B.C.]... southern Mesopotamian history
can begin to be reconstructed. Texts from that time reveal that the
inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia divided their country into
southern and northern regions, which they referred to as Sumer and
Akkad respectively, with the dividing line at the city of Nippur
(Nuffar)....
During the third millennium, most of the inhabitants of Sumer, the
southern region, spoke Sumerian, a language that is related to no
known language, living or dead; in Akkad a significant proportion, if not
a majority, of the population spoke Akkadian, a Semitic language
related to Arabic, Hebrew, and a host of other languages. The
Sumerians were present in the land at least from the late fourth
millennium, and were almost certainly there much earlier....”
from James A. Armstrong. "Mesopotamia." The Oxford Companion to
Archaeology. Oxford University Press.
BABYLON
“A Mesopotamian city
Copper Bull's Head with Lapis Lazuli
situated slightly southwest of
Eyes. Sumerian. 27th c. BCE.: Artwork
the convergence of the Tigris
location and image: Saint Louis Art
and Euphrates Rivers,
Museum
Babylon (Babel in Hebrew) is
well known from textual and
archaeological evidence. Babylon first rose to political prominence
under King Hammurabi ( 1792 – 1750 BCE ). It remained the dominant
city in southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia) for about two hundred years
Stele of Hammurabi. 18th c. BCE.:
until the invasion of the Hittite King Mursilis I in the early sixteenth
Louvre Museum. Paris, France. Columbia
century BCE. Its next rise to greatness came under Nebuchadnezzar I (
University Image Bank
ca. 1124– 1103 BCE ) when, after his defeat of Hultaludish-Inshushinak
of Elam, it became the major power in southern Mesopotamia.
Babylon's dominance faded again with the rise of Assyria. Babylon and Assyria remained rival forces until 609
BCE when Assyria and its capital Nineveh fell to Babylon, which had long since come under Chaldean (Aramean)
domination. Babylon itself fell to the Persians under Cyrus the Great in 538 BCE , an event recorded in the
prophecies of “Second Isaiah.” The city of Babylon continued to exist for hundreds of years thereafter, finally
disappearing with the advent of Islam.”
from Victor Avigdor Hurowitz. "Babylon." Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Oxford Reference Online.
ASSYRIA
“...The Assyrian heartland consists of a roughly triangular stretch of land around the upper Tigris.... At the height
of its power the Assyrian empire embraced the entire Fertile Crescent, extending from southern Armenia in the
north, the Arabian Desert in the south, Egypt in the southwest, and the Persian Gulf in the east. Assyrian political
power ended with the fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE , although certain elements of Assyrian culture and
administrative practices lived on in various parts of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian empires that succeeded it.”
from Victor Avigdor Hurowitz. "Assyria." Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Oxford Reference Online.
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