Difference between revisions of "History 8 Mesopotamia Gilgamesh"

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1.Power of the King is absolute Augie Avery History 8 November 13, 2012

Wiki According to Sumerian tradition, Gilgamesh was an early ruler of the city-state Uruk. According to legend, Gilgamesh was two-thirds God and one-third man. He oppressed his people harshly. As a ruler he became a cruel tyrant over the people of Uruk. He claims rights of intercourse with each bride and is constantly humiliating all of the grooms. His people cried to the Sun God Anu, the chief God of Uruk because he worked them to despair building a great wall. Anu tells the people to summon Aruru, the mother goddess to create a wild man, Enkidu. Enkidu is to be Gilgamesh’ rival in order to give the citizens of Uruk some rest. He has absolute over all of his subjects. The Gilgamesh epic is about an actual king of Sumeria. He is said to have reigned in C 2750 BCE as the 5th ruler of the first dynasty of Uruk. He is the son of King Lugaluanda and Ninsun. He is a handsome and physically powerful god-man.

www.mcgoodwin.net

2. Man vs. Nature

• • • Why does Enkidu lose the ability to understand and roam with the animals?

• • The Cedar Forest

• • • What does this section tell us about man's relationship with nature?

• • • What does the Demon represent?

3. Conflict between political rule and temple rule; i.e. the Church vs the State

• • • Who is Ishtar and what does she represent?

Ishtar is the Goddess of love, procreation, and war. She attempted to seduce Gilgamesh but failed. Ishtar represents the church.

• • • Who is Gilgamesh and what does he represent?

Gilgamesh was the king of Uruk in the cradle of civilization 4,000 years ago. He was one third human and two thirds God, and he surrounded his city with high walls and laid out orchards and fields. Although Gilgamesh was very strong and wise, he oppressed his people terribly. He raped any woman who struck his fancy, no matter who she was. He forced labor upon his people in order to accomplish his building projects, and he was despised by all. After a series of events, Gilgamesh went on a quest to find and retrieve immortality. He did not achieve his goal, but he came back to his kingdom accepting the fact that he will die someday, but humankind will live forever. Gilgamesh represents the state.

• • • What is the relationship of religion or the temple and the state or the king?

Religion and the temple have more power than the state. Whenever something goes wrong, the citizens always blame the king and not the church. Also, the Gods were constantly punishing mortals, which means that the kings did not have much authority.

Sources: Gilgamesh video, Gilgamesh worksheet, http://www.sonic.net/~cfair/gilgamesh.html Camila Chabayta

4. Quest for immortality

• • • Despite all of Gilgamesh's power, he is unable to prevent Enkidu's death, and the narrative changes direction. How can one describe Gilgamesh as a hero in the last half of the work?

In the last half of the work, Gilgamesh travels through Mount Mashu (which guards the sun) and the Land of Night, fights stone creatures, and crosses the Water of Death to reach Utnapishtim, the ancient one. Utnapishtim and his wife are immortal, which Gilgamesh wants to be. He does not want to suffer and die like his friend Enkidu. However, he fails to pass the two tests Utnapishtim gives him: staying awake for six days and recieving a special plant of rebirth from the bottom of the ocean, and he is forced to be a mortal. Gilgamesh can be described as a hero because he undertook the most arduous journey of all time in this period. Even though he did not become immortal, he was able to make it to Utnipashtim and back to Uruk, which no human had ever accomplished. This made Gilgamesh seem immortal when he really was not. Although Gilgamesh ends up becoming a mortal, he can be described as a hero due to his courage and bravery during the journey to Utnapishtim. The image below shows Gilgamesh and the Boat Man in the boat with Utnapishtim and his wife looking on at them through the door of their cottage.

By Ellie Davidson. Sources are taken from: The Gilgamesh Text: [1] and the Gilgamesh Video: [2] The source for the picture: [3]

5. Love As a Motivating Force

• • • How do the gods behave and relate to humans?

The gods sometimes act in sympathy and forgiveness towards the humans when they are in trouble and lend a helping hand. For instance, when Gilgamesh is young and oppressing his people, Anu, the sky god, reaches out to the people and creates Enkidu, the wild man, to rival Gilgamesh. Similarly, when Gilgamesh is traveling to the cedar forest, his mother prays to the sun god, Shamash, and he promises to watch over him during the dangerous battle to come. Sometimes the gods act out of love or anger to the humans. Ishtar, the goddess of love, offers to become Gilgamesh's lover, but he refuses her rudely. Upon hearing these insults, Ishtar begs her father to give her the Bull of Heaven so she may pain Gilgamesh and his people like he has pained her. Ishtar is mad at Gilgamesh because he broke her heart, and therefore, she attempts to take his life. This is a perfect example of 'love as a motivating force'; she loves him and he rebuts her in such an offensive manner that she is motivated by that love to try to kill him.

• • • How do the humans relate to each other?

Humans interact in many ways throughout the story, but love is the most prominent force behind all of the actions. Gilgamesh and Enkidu form a strong platonic relationship built on respect and improving each other. The bond they have can and is only broken by death; when Enkidu leaves this world, Gilgamesh is crushed and proclaims that his people shall never stop mourning the great loss of his friend. Enkidu and Shamhat, one of the temple harlots, form an erotic love bond in the forest when she lures him to the tempting life of civilization. When they arrive back at Uruk, the couple gets married, and when Gilgamesh claims the right to the bride on her wedding day, Enkidu fights the powerful king, proving his devotion to his new partner.

Helen Dodd

Sources: [4] [5]

**6. The Inevitability of Death

• • • Why do the gods bring on the Flood? Is any reason given?

No reason was given for the gods to bring on the flood, Tablet 11 only said "they all resolved to destroy the world in a great flood". There was no reason for why they wanted to destroy the entire Earth, but it was serious enough that they all swore never to tell any living being. Ea technically didn't break the oath, but instead skirted around the rules and told Utnapishtim's house walls and told the walls to build a boat that would hopefully let some creatures survive the flood. There are many possible reasons for the gods to have decreed the flood. Most likely they were angry at the humans for some reason, and wanted vengeance, so decided to destroy the whole Earth.

• • • What does it tell us about the nature of history and the relation of the gods to humanity?

This story tells us how far back the first idea of "The Great Flood" occurred, and how ancient of an idea it was. Many other religions such as Judaism and Christianity have a very similar flood story, which lets us know how stories were passed down through generations, eventually creating some of the base ideas for future religions. This was the first real literature that was written down, and also happened to be one that would later greatly influence other religions. It also shows how unmerciful the gods were to humans. The gods were willing to wipe out the entire Earth, and didn't think twice about killing all life on Earth. Ea was the only god who was merciful towards the humans, letting them know about the flood and enabling some of them to escape.

• • • What has Gilgamesh achieved at the end of the poem?

By the end of the poem, Gilgamesh has not achieved immortality like he originally wished. Instead, though, he has been warned by the gods that he needs to enjoy daily pleasures of life and family. This is a new idea for Gilgamesh, since he has spent a huge chunk of his life seeking immortality, and hasn't enjoyed the simple things in life. So really, even though Gilgamesh hasn't achieved his original goal of immortality, he now has the new goal of enjoying the simpler things in life, which in the long run, will make him much happier.

-Julia Giordano SOURCE: Gilgamesh Epic: http://www2.sjs.org/Beniretto/Mesopotamia/gilgameshtext.html