English 9/ Dr. Krollkidu

English 9/ Dr. Krollkidu

Gilgamesh

Homework: For our next class, please read Part One of Gilgamesh (pages 11-24) and answer the questions below in your notebook or journal; when you are done, also look up the vocabulary words (listed below). As long as you can write VERY NEATLY, you do not need to type your responses.

(Each day that a reading assignment is due, you will be responsible for readingthe text carefully, answering the accompanying questions, and looking up the definitions of the vocabulary words. It’s a tough but FASCINATING text, so we’ll read it slowly! )

Note: A Glossary of names and places appears on pages 95 and 96 and could prove helpful to a careful reader! 

Assignment One: (pages 11-24) (Answer on a separate sheet of paper.)

1. Describe Gilgamesh. What kind of person is he? How does he treat his people? Justify your answers with quotes.

1. Now describe Enkidu. What kind of person is he? Again, justify your answers with quotes.

1. Would you rather be one of Gilgamesh’s subjects or Enkidu’s animals? Explain your reasoning.

1. How does the hunter’s son feel about Enkidu? Why?

1. Describe Ninsun. What kind of person is she? Again, justify your answers with examples (every time)!

1. Why does Gilgamesh send a prostitute to visit Enkidu?

1. Describe the prostitute. What kind of person is she? (Again, justify… you know the deal!)

1. How does Enkidu respond to the prostitute when he first sees her? What kind of interaction do they have?

1. How does Enkidu feel about the animals, who had been like his brothers, the day after he sleeps with the prostitute?

1. What does Gilgamesh dream about? Provide two concrete examples and provide the interpretations that Ninsun gives him.

1. How does the prostitute convince Enkidu to give up his life among the animals? Where and how does she convince him to live instead?

1. Given the way Ninsun and the prostitute are described, what can you infer about women in ancient Sumerian culture?

1. Describe what happens in the scene when Gilgamesh and Enkidu first meet. Move from the concrete to the abstract in this scene. In other words, what happens between them? Why does this happen?

Vocabulary:

1) Steppe (15)

2) tyrant (15)

3) birthright (15)

4) callous (16)

5) dexterity (16)

6) idleness (16)

1)forsake (19)

2)lunged (23)

3)bellowing (23)

4)exaltation (24)