Ancient Near East

Ancient Near East#

The Epic of Gilgamesh#

  • Tablet I Prologue, Enkidu, Gilgamesh

  • Tablet II Enkidu meets Gilgamesh

  • Tablet III

  • Tablet IV

  • Tablet V

  • Tablet VI

  • Tablet VII

  • Tablet VIII

  • Tablet IX

  • Tablet X

  • Tablet XI

Terms#

  • [W] Akkadia

  • [W] Akkadian

  • [W] Amorite

  • [W] Anatolia

  • [W] Anatolians

  • [W] Ancient Near East

  • [W] An(u)

  • [W] Anshar

  • [W] Antu

  • [W] Anunnaki

  • [W] Apkallu

  • [W] Apotropaic Magic

  • [W] Aram

  • [W] Aramaeans

  • [W] Assyria

  • [W] Babylonia

  • [W] Bull of Heaven

  • [W] Cedar Forest

  • [W] Cosmogonic Myth (creation myth)

  • [W] Cradle of Civilization

  • [W] Deluge Myth (flood myth)

  • [W] Elam

  • [W] Elamite

  • [W] Enkidu

  • [W] Enki

  • [W] Enlil

  • [W] Enlil and Ninlil

  • [W] Enuma Elish

  • [W] Epic of Gilgamesh

  • [W] Eridu

  • [W] Eridu Genesis (Sumerian creation myth)

  • [W] Gilgamesh

  • [W] Gilgamesh Flood Myth

  • [W] Hittites

  • [W] Hittites, mythology

  • [W] Hurrian

  • [W] Hurrians

  • [W] Hurro-Urartian languages

  • [W] Huwawa

  • [W] Inanna

  • [W] Ishtar

  • [W] Ki

  • [W] Kishar

  • [W] Lahamu

  • [W] Lahmu

  • [W] Marduk

  • [W] Medes

  • [W] Media

  • [W] Median

  • [W] Mesopotamia

  • [W] Mesopotamia, deities

  • [W] Mesopotamia, history

  • [W] Nanna

  • [W] Ninhursag

  • [W] Ninlil

  • [W] Phoenicia

  • [W] Phrygia

  • [W] Queen of Heaven

  • [W] Sea Peoples

  • [W] Shamash

  • [W] Shamhat

  • [W] Siduri

  • [W] Sin-leqi-unninni

  • [W] Sumer

  • [W] Sumerian

  • [W] Ugaritic

  • [W] Ur

  • [W] Urartian

  • [W] Urartu

  • [W] Urkesh

  • [W] Uruk

  • [W] Utnapishtim

  • [W] Utu

  • [W] Wild Man

Notes#

three principles

  • principle of non reciprocity

  • principle of imperfect fit: things in nature don’t quite fit perfectly in an ecosystem

    • technological things do fit perfectly because they are artifices

  • principle of transformation

    • principle of mutual balance: Ishtar’s object of desire represents the rebalancing of the ecosystem

    • principle of the transformative power of life

the bull of heaven is like a drought

two ways of thinking about death

  • cyclical: born, dies, reincorporation into something else (the transformation that Gilgamesh fears so much): life after life

  • linear: beginning and end: death after life

What does Gilgamesh need to learn?

A dream can serve as an interpretation of the world. Dreams can make reality more meaningful.

Enkidu’s dream is the first true realization of death in an urban culture.

A dream or philosophical myth may be the distillation of the true meaning of something.

human artifice allows for new forms of remembrance, new conceptions of life and death

how can human beings be a resource for the natural world?

  • humus “soil” related to the word human

zoen vs bios greek words

we learn about death through other people

  • Siduri: non reciprocity

  • Utnapishtim: mutual balance

  • snake: transformative power

mutuality to touch

Gilgamesh is like a father figure

  • Gilgamesh deeply consumptive

  • pillaging his own people along with the natural world

  • knowledge of the flood, has three secrets

  • Ishtar is at the center in his vision

  • Gilgamesh learns something after throwing out Ishtar

  • Gilgamesh’s motives and converns

    • desire for immortality through fame

    • support of artifacts and traditions of remembrance

    • destroys the demon guarding the ceder forest

Gilgamesh rejects Ishtar

  • principle of dependence

  • principle of imperfect fit

  • principle of mutual balance

  • principle of transformation

reasons that Gilgamesh rejects Ishtar addressed in second half? reconciliation with Ishtar

wisdom journey, goes to the core of who we are, the symbol of the mountain

  • Gilgamesh embodies urban life

  • Enkidu embodes plains people

  • Huwawa embodies forest people

  • Siduri embodies some form of life that is totally reconciled with this form of dependence, natural cycles: accepting, joyful of finitudes of life

children are the natural way to immortality

  • approaching the long boat poles from a certain cultural point of view, that of a river people

  • waters of death: no mortals have passed it

  • mythic tradition that of a body of water that separates the living/mortal from the afterlfe

  • Greek tradition: the river lethe, the river of forgetfulness

  • the water of death may be uninhabitable

  • the water surrounding him killed everyone

harness, be vulnerable to the elements

  • evolution and adaptation

  • stripping naked shows he has become vulnerable

  • life after life, the dead animal skin keeping Gilgamesh alive

  • wind is categorically different than using your own strength

schedule

  • 05 Feb - Gilgamesh wisdom journey

  • 02 Feb - HOMER

  • 31 Jan - The lessons of the flood and the snake

  • 26 Jan - Gilgamesh’s journey to immortality and Siduri

  • 24 Jan - Concepts of death; mourning Enkidu

  • 22 Jan - Humbaba and Ishtar

  • 19 Jan - The rejection of Ishtar and the Bull of Heaven

  • 17 Jan - Harmonic communities, natural communities, the sublime

  • 15 Jan - Intro to Gilgamesh

  • 12 Jan - Desire and civilization

  • 10 Jan - Gilgamesh prologue; Enkidu and Shamhat; Enkidu meets Gilgamesh

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