Title: Gilgamesh
Title: GilgameshGenre: - Epic Poem
Sub-genre: Mythic- Fantasy
Nationality: - Ancient Sumerian // Iraq
Time Period: - Classic
First and Last Read by Dr. Rearick -June 11, 1997 / Sept. 9 2008
Rated: A+
Location: - Dr. Rearick's Office (e-text online) (Word Version at MVNU)
Used for: ENG3103: World Literature I
Internet Resources: Upgraded Sept 1, 2010 |
Commentary: Unlike Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, thus far no translation of this epic in the pubic domain which could be placed on our J-drive has surfaced. This surprises me since it has been studied since the 19th century. By the by, be warned. In my searching of the internet I have already discovered that there are at least two rock bands and one fantasy role playing game out there with Gilgamesh as their titles!
| A summary of the Old Babylonian heroic poem, Gilgamesh, which describes the legendary story of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk |
| The Epic of Gilgamesh is, perhaps,
the oldest written story on Earth. It comes to us from Ancient Sumeria,
and was originally written on 12 clay tablets in ... www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/ |
Comments: This work dates back to the third millennium
BC, fifteen hundred years before Homer. According to the book jacket of
my text, this story "of a great king and his doomed friend was passed on
to the Babylonians, who made it their national epic" (William Alfred, Harvard
University). For more information of this type follow the Encyclopedia
link above. Other sources have emphasized Gilgamesh's search for answers
in the face of his own mortality brought to him by the death of 
his
friend, Enkidu. (Insert is a clay mask of Humbaba, guardian of the forest
of the gods. Taken from Creighton University's
Epic
of Gilgamesh web site).
I can see why this poem has had a strong appeal to this age. In spite of the fact that it is filled with gods and supernatural beings it is filled with the sorrow of facing the fact that humanity is but a limited force in a dangerous world.
The gods have no care for the beings that live under them. Instead all that is noble and strong is achieved by the human beings in the story. Love fidelity and self-sacrifice are all qualities of the humans who struggle in the desperate world they find themselves in.
I find interesting Biblical echoes in several places. Utnapishtim (whose name means "He who saw life" (96) is the Noah of Babylon. He survives the terrible flood, but in his case the whole disaster is caused not by God's justice to Man's evil, but by the caprices will of the gods who do not even understand what they do. (At one point one of the goddesses weeps for those who are lost in the city, but the narrator ironically points out she weeps only because she realizes she has lost something that was hers--not because of the tragedy of human loss.
Also the journey that Gilgamesh makes reminds me of Christ's journey into death, and the fact that he achieves it by finally finding a flower (a blood red rose) which cuts his hands and causes them to bleed furthers Christ like image. Furthermore the fact that the gift of eternal life is stolen by a serpent also seems to me archetypally important.