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The Epic of Gilgamesh
World Lit Survey
How the Epic of Gilgamesh
Endured
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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.
Modifications to the Epic
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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
How Did We Get the Story Today?
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After the fall of Babylon, the written epic was
lost.
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.
The Epic of Gilgamesh: Setting
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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 modernday Iraq
Historic Map of Mesopotamia
Epic of Gilgamesh: Social
Context
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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?
Epic of Gilgamesh: Legacy
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Later classical and
medieval kings also used
lions as their personal
symbol
Examples include Henry
“the lion” of Saxony and
Richard “the lionhearted” who led the
first crusade c. 1100
(right)
Epic of Gilgamesh: Language
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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
Cuneiform
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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.
Cuneiform
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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 :
Cuneiform
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The first symbol pictures "gal," or "great," and the second pictures "lu," or
"man." Eventually, this pictorial writing developed into a more abstract series
of wedges and hooks. 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:
Cuneiform
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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.
Cuneiform
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The Mesopotamians wrote on clay
tablets with long reeds while the clay
was still wet. The fresh clay then
hardened and a permanent record was
created. The original Mesopotamian
writings were crude pictures of the
objects being named, but the difficulty
of drawing on fresh clay eventually
produced the wedges and hooks unique
to cuneiform. This writing would be
formed by laying the length of the reed
along the wet clay and moving the end
nearest the hand from one side to
another to form the hook
Writing’s Effect on History
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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
Epic of Gilgamesh: Religion
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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)
Epic of Gilgamesh: Themes
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Civilization vs. Nature (or Man vs. Nature)
Mortality:
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Friendship (or Man vs. Man)
Flood story
Kingship (or Man vs. Society)
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What is the meaning of life?
How should a king rule?
Religion:
How do people and gods interact?
 How do Sumerians appease the gods through ritual?
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The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Story: Prologue
Emphasizes:
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Wisdom Acquired in Life
Monuments Erected Which Last For
Centuries
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Story: Characters
Gilgamesh the God and Man
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Bad Ruler
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Arrogant Person
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Oppressive to His People
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Brutal to Friend and Foe
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)
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The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Story: Plot Lines & Action
First Adventure
 Slaying
of Humbaba, the giant who the
gods appointed to guard the Cedar
Forest
 Giant of Cedar Forest of the Living
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Story: Plot Lines & Action
Second Adventure
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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.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Story: Plot Lines & Action
Enkidu’s Death
Awakens Gilgamesh
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Emptiness of mortality in spite of worldly
fame
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Search for immortality
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Story: Plot Lines & Action
Discoveries
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Secrets of immortality from Utnapishtim
“The Old Men Are Young Again” plan
Flood story (Universal Story)
A recorded history
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Story: Plot Lines & Action
Fails 2 Tests of Potential Immortals
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Can’t Remain Awake for 6 Days and 7 Nights
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Loses “The Old Men Are Young Again” plan to
the Serpent
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Story: Plot Lines &
ActionReturn to Uruk
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Empty handed… but is he?
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Knows his worldly endeavors will endure
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Has gained wisdom
Epic of Gilgamesh: Significance
What Does the Story Mean To Us
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How did the ancient people of Mesopotamia
live?
What experiences related through the story are
similar to experiences of man today?
Religion: What role does God play in the
attitudes, values, and beliefs of the people of
Ancient Uruk? How do people and gods
interact? How do Sumerians appease the gods
through ritual?
Epic of Gilgamesh: Significance
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Oldest story ever recorded
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First recorded “author”
Kingship (How should a king rule?)
Mortality: What is the meaning of life?
Friendship (man’s relationship to man)
Flood story
Shows commonality of human nature, stories,
adventures, etc.