The Epic of Gilgamesh
People and places to know
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Gilgamesh
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Enkidu
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Uruk
Gilgamesh: 27 century BCE, Sumerian ruler who was later hailed as a hero and a god. The stories about him were originally Sumerian, but were translated into Old Babylonian and Akkadian, and continued to be told (and developed) for hundreds of years. Sometimes said to be the first great work of literature in the West.
Principal episodes
Story of the civilizing of Enkidu and how Enkidu and Gilgamesh became friends
The virtues of Gilgamesh (building of the city Uruk, restoration of shrines, 2/3 god, 1/3 man); the violence of Gilgamesh, who is powerful beyond control (rapes women of the city at will, insists upon the “first night”)
The people complain and the gods ask the goddess Arura to create another (Enkidu- the wild man) to rival Gilgamesh so that peace may come again
A hunter is being thwarted by the wild man, who unsets the traps and allows the animals to go free. He asks Gilgamesh to send a prostitute to pleasure the wild man.
The harlot, Shamhat, lays with Enkidu and then asks him to come with her to Uruk. She tells him of Gilgamesh and of his dream that prophesied Enkidu’s coming.
The wild man is dressed and eats cooked food, his his body is washed and anointed with oil. He sleeps with Shamhat for 7 days. He now takes up weapons to guard the flocks. Enkidu is no longer wild.
Shamhat and Enkidu decide to go to Uruk so that Enkidu can challenge Gilgamesh before he takes the first night from the bride at a wedding feast
Enkidu meets Gilgamesh at the entrance to the marital chamber. They angrily wrestle like bulls, Enkidu admits that Gilgamesh is the strongest of all and sovereign over the city, and the embrace.
Gilgamesh’s mother tells him that Enkidu has no father or mother and that he will not forsake Gilgamesh. The are now companions for life. They kiss.
Enkidu tells Gilgamesh of Huwawa in the Cedar Forest and Gilgamesh decides to venture into the Forest and cut down the Cedar to win glory and fame.
[Other stories follow: the killing of Huwawa/JHumbaba, Ishtar and the Bull of Heaven, Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh’s journey to find immortality, the Flood.]
Brief Essay
-Be prepared to discuss in what ways this is like, and in what ways unlike, the idea of literature that we get from the Iliad.
-What does this story suggest about the nature of what it is to be “civilized” (as opposed to “wild”) or “cultured” (in the sense of accommodating to cultural and social norms).
