Download The Literature of Ancient Mesopotamia

The Literature of Ancient
Mesopotamia
Mrs. Whitney Wilhelm
English II
Mesopotamia - “The land
between the rivers”
Mesopotamia is the name given by the Greeks to
an ancient area of the modern-day Middle East
(Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria).
This region is also known as the Fertile
Crescent, an agriculturally rich land watered by
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Mesopotamia - “The land
between the rivers”
The Sumerians were the first
people to dominate this region,
settling here sometime between
5000 and 4000 BC.
The Sumerians :
Grew crops and raised cattle for a living
Were successful merchants and traders
Were known for their stonework,
metalwork, and sculpture
The Sumerians lived in citystates, much like the Greeks:
City-states were walled for protection against
invaders
Pyramid-like temples, called Ziggurats, were the
center of the cities
The priests of the ziggurats were considered the
earthly representatives of the gods
Sumerian society was based upon
a strict Class system
Upper Class = priests, government officials
Middle Class
Lower Class
=
=
merchants, artisans, doctors
peasants, farmers, slaves
The Sumerians achieved a high
level of culture and learning
Knowledge of architecture
Developments in science, math, astrology
Created one of the world’s first systems of
writing, known as cuneiform, consisting of a
wedge-shaped marking made with a stick on clay
tablets
The largest city-states, such as Ur, Uruk,
and Lagash, had populations in tens of
thousands.
Many city-states were in sight of each other
But the Sumerians never organized a strong central
government
They often competed against each other for land and
resources
This made it easy for stronger enemies to capture and
control them later
Because the Sumerians failed to form a
unified government, they were vulnerable
to the attacks of different nations:
Akkadians
Babylonians
Hittites
Assyrians
Chaldeans
Persians
(~2500 BC)
(~2000 BC)
(~1600 BC)
(~900 BC)
(~612 BC)
(~539 BC)
It was during the reign of the Babylonians that
the story of a great king called “Gilgamesh”
became translated and preserved
The story was written ~ 4000 years ago
It takes the form of an epic poem
Tells of a king who actually reigned over the city-state
of Uruk sometime between 2700 and 2500 BC
The story was originally found on broken Sumerian
tablets and restored / translated by the Babylonians
The epic tells of the superhuman
adventures of the legendary king
Legend has it that Gilgamesh is two parts god and one part
human, thus possessing both supernatural powers and human
weaknesses
Though he was a great leader of a mighty city, he suffered
from excessive pride (hubris).
His anger at the gods over the death of a friend leads him to
seek eternal life
Though he confronts obstacles along the way, he must
ultimately accept his human limitations
The epic tells of the superhuman
adventures of the legendary king
The selections of Gilgamesh we will read
are based upon 12 clay tablets of
cuneiform script.
These tablets were among 25,000 discovered in modern
Iraq at Ninevah in the buried ruins of the library of King
Assurbanipal of Assyria
The original tablets were damaged in a fire during a
Persian raid around 612 BC, but recent discoveries of
older versions of the epic helped to reclaim the parts of
the story that were missing.
The epic was so widely known that
scholars believe it served as an archetype,
or model, for hero myths around the world
Greece, India, and Persia would later model characters
and adventures after those portrayed in Gilgamesh
The epic reveals a great deal about the ancient
Mesopotamians’ sometimes pessimistic (negative)
views of existence
But it also shows us the sensitivity and humanity of
these ancient peoples, who are not unlike us in their
joys, sorrows, and strivings
Background of the Sumerian Beliefs
reflected in the Epic of Gilgamesh
Though they were advanced for their time, the Sumerian and
Babylonian civilizations were powerless against ever-present
threats of floods, droughts, and invaders.
They worshipped a pantheon, or “family,” of unpredictable gods
and goddesses who could bring misfortune as well as favor.
Regardless of social status or level of goodness, there was no
joyful afterlife to look forward to.
No wonder these people had a negative outlook on life!
These pessimistic (negative) beliefs are
evident in the Epic of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh, in spite of his great powers, suffers a lifechanging loss. When the person who means the most to
him dies, the proud Gilgamesh must come to terms with
the reality that he himself will not live forever.
Because, in the Sumerian view, death offers only
emptimess, Gilgamesh rebels against it, and sets off on a
quest to attain immortality (eternal life).
Gilgamesh is the earliest known of the
Epic Heroes
All epic heroes are human beings
All have supernatural strength and spiritual powers
All are mighty leaders of their people
Most of them are of mixed divine and human birth
Most of them possess human weakness, which forces
them to accept human limitations in spite of their power
Why are Epic Heroes so important to us?
We admire them for their divine, supernatural
powers, and often wish to be like them
We sympathize with them because their human
weaknesses and difficulties remind us of our
own