Download Background--The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh
What is an Epic?
(Epic): a long narrative poem about a larger-than-life hero
who is engaged in a dangerous journey (quest) that is
important to the history of a nation or people.
Examples: Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon)
The Odyssey (ancient Greek)
Sundiata (West African)
The Mahabharata (Indian)
The Nibelungenlied (German)
The Divine Comedy (Italian)
The Song of Roland (French)
King Arthur legends (English)
The Epic – Key Elements
• An opening statement of theme, followed by a
prayer (invocation) to the gods
• Begins in medias res (in the middle)
• Has a serious tone and an elevated style
• Includes epic similes and epithets (stock words /
phrases)
Epic Simile
• Epic (or Homeric)similes --elaborate comparisons
between two unlike objects using like or as. The
Odyssey is an epic poem and epic similes in The
Odyssey abound. Example of an epic simile from The
Odyssey
• Epic Simile: "I drove my weight on it from above and
bored it home like a shipwright bores his beam with a
shipwright's drill that men below, whipping the strap
back and forth, whirl and the drill keeps twisting,
never stopping --So we seized our stake with it fiery
tip and bored it round and round in the giant's eye."
Epithets
• An epithet is a term or phrase used to characterize the nature of a
character, an object, or an event.
• An epithet that has become a cliché because if its excessive use in earlier
translations of The Odyssey is "rosy-fingered Dawn." Morning's first light is
compared to rosy fingers spreading across the land. Fagles spares the
reader slightly, while being faithful to the text, by referring to "Dawn with
her rose-red fingers
Example: Athena often carries the epithet "sparkling-eyed” or “grey-eyed”
Examples of epithets from The Odyssey: Rosy fingered Dawn
Odysseus, master mariner Muse, daughter of Zeus
•
The Epic – Key Elements
• An epic hero (ex. Achilles/ The Illiad)
• An epic conflict (ex. Greeks v. Trojans; Achilles
v. Hector; The Illiad )
• An heroic quest(s)
• Divine intervention (Zeus, Hera—The Illiad)
An Epic Hero is…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Strong
Brave
Loyal
Virtuous
** flawed in some way (often hubris)
Occupies an important position in society
Is usually of semi-divine or noble birth
An Epic Conflict
• Plot--centers on the hero’s struggle against a
series of obstacles
• Proves his…
– Strength
– Bravery
– Wisdom
– Virtue
…through a variety of deeds and success
in battle or adventure.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
• written over 4000 years ago.
• based upon 12 clay tablets written in
cuneiform script
• is at least 1,000 years older than the Greek
epics Iliad and Odyssey, as well as most books
of the Hebrew Bible.
• tale was written by the ancient Sumerians
• repeated and reworked by writers from the
Babylonian and Assyrian cultures.
Clay Tablets Found in 1839
Historical Gilgamesh
The epic is based on some grains of fact:
• Sumerian king named Gilgamesh
• reigned over the city-state of Uruk, in ancient
Mesopotamia (now Iraq)
• Reigned some time between 2700 and 2500
B.C.
The Characters
• Anu (aay nooh): the god of the
heavens; the father-god
• Ea (aay): the god of wisdom;
usually a friend to humans
• Enkidu (en-kee-dooh):
Gilgamesh’s friend; a wild man
whom the gods created out of
clay
• Enlil (en-lil): the god of the air,
the wind, and the earth
• Humbaba: a giant demon who
guards a great cedar forest
• Ishtar: the goddess of love and
war; the queen of heaven
• Ninurta: a god associated with
the sun and human laws
• Siduri (Sid-ooh-ree): goddess
of wine and brewing
• Urshanabi: the ferryman who
travels daily across the sea of
death to the home of
Utnapishtim
• Utnapishtim: the survivor of a
flood sent by the gods to
destroy humanity; the gods
granted him eternal life.