Gilgamesh

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Gilgamesh
Mesopotamian Mythology
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Epic of Gilgamesh 2500 BC (earliest known
literary text)

• 11 Clay Tablets (story)
• 12th Tells of his ruling the netherworld
• Most important epic poem in human history
• Various adventures of hero-king searching for
  immortality
• An account of the flood
• Characters
• Gilgamesh (2/3 god 1/3 human)
• Enkidu (wild man)

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Mesopotamian Societies

• Sumerians
• first major civilization (3000 BCE)
• non-Semitic people /language
• Uruk (and other cities)
• cuneiform writing
• elaborate mythology and cult-based mythic poems
• Babylonians / Akkadians
• later (c.1200-600 BCE)
• Semitic people.language
• myth based on Sumerian myth

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Mesopotamian Societies

• cuneiform writing

• Both societies share
• social/political hierarchy with kings as head of
  state
• priestly class who also teach/write/preserve
  literature
• tradition of sacred writings associated with
  actual rituals
• high level of civilization (i.e. social
  structure material wealth)
• irrigation-based agriculture, water resources
  organized by government

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Gods and Goddesses

• Sin (the moon), had a higher place in the
  pantheon than his children
• Shamash (the sun), who becomes important as a
  deity of all-seeing justice, and
• Ishtar (the morning star), whose multifaceted
  nature includes goddess of sexual love, of
  justice and warfare, of communal prosperity . . .

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Gods and Goddesses

• Tammuz (Dumuzi) was Ishtars husband a god like
  Attis (with Cybele) who died and was reborn every
  year.
• Ereshkigal was the goddess of the Underworld
  (Kurnugi).
• Ea was the god of fresh water, thus a fertility
  god he is often a protective figure (asin the
  flood myth in Gilgamesh).
• Belili, Dumuzis sister parallel to Geshtinanna
  in the Sumerian story, who takes her brothers
  place in the underworld.

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Key Themes

• Companionship
• Death
• Immortality
• Gods-Humans Relationship
• Meaning of Life or Growing Up?

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Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is on the Sumerian king-list as one of
Uruks earliest kings in the realm of myth. He
is featured in several Sumerian myths and in one
long poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh. This poem is
the most popular piece of literature in
Mesopotamia, found in many different languages
and versions across 2500 years. We discovered it
in about 1920. There are two major versions we
are reading the Nineveh version, compiled by a
priest in about 800-700 BCE.
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Gilgamesh
I shall tell the land of the one who learned all
things, of the one who experienced everything, I
shall teach the whole. He searched lands
everywhere. He found out what was secret and
uncovered what was hidden, he brought back a tale
of times before the flood. He had journeyed far
and wide, weary and at last resigned. He built
the wall of Uruk. . . One square mile is the
city, one square mile is its orchards, one square
mile is its claypits, as well as the open ground
of Ishtars temple.
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Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is the son of Lugulbanda and the
goddess Ninsun and he is 2/3 god, 1/3 human.
But like all humans he is destined to die. As the
poem begins he is king of Uruk, busy building his
city ever greater. When the epic opens,
Gilgamesh, though perfect in splendor, perect in
strength is causing problems at home. His
excess energy (in building, exploration, and sex
everything in fact) is causing tension among
his people, who pray to the gods for relief.
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Gilgamesh and Enkidu
The gods create Enkidu, a hairy wild man, and
place him in the forest near Uruk. He lives like
an animal, startling the locals. They send to
Gilgamesh, who suggests thay they tame him by
sending him a woman to sleep with.
The woman (called Shamhat, a cult name of Ishtar)
sleeps with him converting him to humanity.
Enkidu decides to go to Uruk. Gilgamesh dreams
about him, and his mother Ninsun interprets the
dreams. When the two men meet at a celebration
of Ishtar they fight to a standstill, then
become fast friends. They decide to go on a quest
to free the Cedar Forest of Humbaba.
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Gilgamesh and Enkidu
So the heroes represent culture in theis battle
against nature . . . Everyone advises against it.
Ninsun prays to Shamash
Why did you single out my son Gilgamesh and
impose a restless spirit on him? He faces an
unknown struggle, he will ride along an unknown
road . . .
She adopts Enkidu as her son, and entreats him to
watch after Gilgamesh. The heroes depart . . .
Ellil destined Humbaba to keep the pine forest
safe, to be the terror of people . . .
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Gilgamesh

• What does Gilgamesh have in common with such
  heroes as Odysseus, Achilles, Hercules, and
  others modern day heroes?
• Is his story (so far) essentially different from
  theirs in some ways?
• Youre reading the poem in fragmentary form so
  this may be hard to tell but . . . are there
  essential differences in how this story is told,
  compared to, say, Homer?

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Characteristics of heroic myths

• 1. The hero is usually a demi-god, or has a god
  in his family.
• 2. The hero has some kind of super-natural power
  or has the strong support of a god.
• 3. The hero is usually on a quest. He has a task
  or a challenge (or more than one) that an
  ordinary mortal could not carry out.
• 4, The hero is always seeking fame, glory and
  most important, honor. These are more important
  than life itself.
• 5. The hero is braver, stronger, bolder and some
  times more clever than most men. He is close to
  the gods.
• 6. The hero usually has a weakness, usually too
  much pride or a terrible temper. This can lead to
  problems for him, and usually to his downfall.

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The Cedar Forest
When Enkidu touches the gates of the Cedar
forest, he feels a supernatural cold and
debility, and at first can barely continue. Then
Gilgamesh has terrible dreams of destruction,
which Enkidu interprets in a favorable light. The
heroes battle Humbaba, who asks for mercy. But
Enkidu urges Gilgamesh to kill the monster,
despite the gods possible displeasure. Humbaba
cries out
The heroes defeat Humbaba, and return to Uruk in
triumph. In Uruk, the goddess Ishtar approaches
Gilgamesh to become her lover.
Neither one of them shall outlive his friend!
Gilgamesh and Enkidu shall never become old men!
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Gilgamesh Ishtar
Come to me, Gilgamesh, and be my lover! Bestow
on me the gift of your fruit! You can be my
husband, I can be your wife. I shall have a
chariot of lapis lazuli and gold harnessed for
you . . . kings, nobles and princes shall bow
down beneath you. . .
But Gilgamesh scornfully rejects her
You are a door that cant keep out winds and
gusts, a palace that rejects its own warriors, a
waterskin which soaks its carrier . . . which of
your lovers lasted forever? Which of your
paramours went to heaven?
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The Bull of Heaven
Enraged, Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to
ravage Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill it, and
when Ishtar reviles them, Enkidu also insults
her, even throwing the thigh of the bull in her
face. Inanna calls together the women to mourn
the bull a type scene related to fertility
ritual. (The Bull of Heaven is the husband of
Ereshkigal.)
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Gilgamesh Ishtar
What reasons does Gilgamesh give for rejecting
the love of Ishtar? Have we seen anything like
this in Greek myth? Why is Gilgamesh so hostile
to Ishtar, given that he does reject her? How is
Ishtar characterized in this exchange
benevolent, cruel, as bad as Gilgamesh says, etc.
. . . What do you expect at the conclusion of
this episode, when Enkidu and Gilgamesh have both
disrespected the goddess?
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Enkidus death
Enkidu gets sick and over 12 days, he dies. He
curses the hunter and the prostitute who found
him and made him human, but Shamash persuades him
not to curse the prostitute.
Enkidu has a terrible nightmare
The gods were in council last night. And Anu
said to Ellil, As they have slain the Bull of
Heaven, so too have they slain Humbaba One of
them must die. Enlil replied, Let Enkidu die,
but let Gilgamesh not die. Then heavenly Shamash
said, Was it not according to your plans? But
Enlil turned in anger to Shamash You
accompanied them daily, like on of their
comrades.
Gilgamesh mourned bitterly for Enkidu his friend,
and roved the open country. Shall I die too?
Am I not like Enkidu? Grief has entered my
innermost being . . .
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Gilgamesh travels to the ends of the earth,
through the dark mountain, the pathways of
Shamash
He meets Siduri, the (female) innkeeper (another
cult name of Ishtar), to whom he pours out his
troubles. She directs him to Utnapishtim, and
adds
When he had gone one double-hour, thick is the
darkness, there is no light he can see neither
behind him nor ahead of him When he had gone
seven double hours, thick is the darkness, there
is no light At the nearing of eleven
double-hours, light breaks out. At the nearing
of twelve double-hours, the light is steady.
As for you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full,
Make merry day and night. Of each day make a
feast of rejoicing. Day and night dance and play!
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Utnapishtim
With the help of the boatman Urshanabi, Gilgamesh
travels across the water to Dilmun, the land at
the edge of time . . . He cuts 60 saplings for
poles, and as each enters the waters, it is eaten
away. He finally uses his tattered clothing for
a sail and arrives exhausted to Utnapishtim

• Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh
• how Ea told him to build a huge arc because a
  flood was coming
• how built the amazing thing, how he and his
  family alone of all mortals were saved from the
  Flood,
• how Ishtar mourned the dead
• and how he and his wife came to Dilmun, living
  as immortals.

I crossed uncrossable mountains. I travelled all
the seas. No real sleep has calmed my face. I
have worn myself out in sleeplessness my flesh
is filled with grief.
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READ PP.25-32 Utnapishtim offers Gilgamesh a way
to become immortal
Gilgamesh says to him, to Utnapishtim the remote,
"as soon as I was ready to fall asleep, right
away you touched me and roused me."
Test yourself! Don't sleep for six days and seven
nights."
But as soon as Gilgamesh sits down, he falls
asleep. He sleeps for seven days and nights, and
each day, Utnapishtims wife puts a loaf of bread
beside him. The old loaf is rotting when the
last one is fresh a metaphor for the seven
decades of human life.
But Utnapishtim shows him the loaves, and
Gilgamesh realizes that he has failed his
quest. Utnapishtim gives Gilgamesh a consolation
prize a rejuvenating plant. But on the way
home, a snake takes it from him.
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Homecoming
Go up onto the wall of Uruk, and walk around!
Inspect it . . . One square mile is the city, one
square mile is its orchards, one square mile is
its claypits, as well as the open ground of
Ishtars temple.
Urshanabi accompanies Gilgamesh home, and when
they reach the city, Gilgamesh proudly points it
out to him
The story's quiet close belies the significance
of Gilgamesh's return. He is back where he
started but a changed man, his description of
Uruk here suggesting in the context a new
acceptance of the meaning of the city in his
life, an embracing rather than a defiance of the
limits it represents the king has evolved from a
hubristic, dominating male into a wiser man,
accepting the limitations that his mortal side
imposesand his essential kinship with all
creatures who must die . Thomas van Nortwick
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finis
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Atrahasis
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