The Epic of Gilgamesh Outline

I.  One of the oldest literary works in the world is the Middle Eastern Epic of Gilgamesh.

A.  The modern text is based on a 7th century B.C.E. copy found in the library of the Assyrian King Assurbanipal.

B.  The poem itself dates to about 2800 B.C.E., when Gilgamesh was king of the Sumerian city of Uruk.

  1. The poems written about him were passed down from the Sumerians to the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians as these people succeeded to power in the Middle East.
  2. The poems were woven into a single narrative in the 2nd millennium B.C.E. by a Babylonian scribe known as Sin-lique-uninni.

II.  The poem is divided into two parts: a heroic story about the exploits of a legendary king, and a narrative about a spiritual quest by a man who has just recognized his own mortality.

A.  Gilgamesh is heroic in that he is partly divine and hence larger than life in all respects. His adventures are told in an epic, which is a narrative poem about a heroic figure who defines his culture.

B.  Gilgamesh begins the story as a ruler who wears out his people, who pray to the gods for relief.

  1. The gods create Enkidu as an alter-ego for Gilgamesh: half animal, half human in complement to Gilgamesh’s half-human, half-divine nature.
  2. Enkidu is civilized by a prostitute who has sex with him, introduces him to shepherds – who teach him to eat human food, wear clothing, and groom himself – and then takes him to meet Gilgamesh.
  3. The two wrestle and then become fast friends.
  4. The pair cements the friendship and seeks lasting fame by going to the cedar forests and killing their guardian, Humbaba, in an anticlimactic action that angers the god Enlil. Because there was no wood or stone in Sumeria, this may have been meant as a necessary quest by a builder-king.

C.  The death of Enkidu provides a transition to the second part of the poem.

  1. Gilgamesh spurns an offer of marriage from Ishtar, the goddess of love.
  2. In retaliation, Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven against Uruk, but Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill it.
  3. The gods decide that the pair of heroes has crossed into forbidden territory and that one of them – Enkidu—must die.
  4. Gilgamesh stays by Enkidu until after he dies; the, frightened by death, he lays aside his regalia and goes out searching for a more literal immortality than a name that will live after him.

D.  The second part of the poem is about the quest for a remedy against death.

  1. Gilgamesh travels to the end of the world, crosses over the Ocean of Death, and arrives at the island of Utnapishtim; he and his wife are the only humans ever granted immortality by the gods.
  2. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the Mesopotamian version of the story of the Great Flood, in which he built a boat that saved animals and people. As a reward for this act, he was given eternal life; the act will never be repeated for any other human being.
  3. Gilgamesh is given a plant that renews one’s youth, but a snake eats it as Gilgamesh is returning to Uruk.
  4. The connections between this flood story and the one in the Old Testament have stimulated much scholarship.
  5. The poem presents a pattern in which a hero of unusual birth undergoes heroic trials, seeks a treasure, and then returns to ordinary reality a changed person.
  6. Gilgamesh returns home empty-handed but becomes reconciled to the human lot: his own immortality will be the walls of Uruk.
  7. The Sumerians’ depiction of life after death—the first in literature—is grim; there is no happy afterlife to console human beings.
  8. The poem insists that Gilgamesh is a hero not just because of what he did but because of what he learned.

III.  The poem is rich and complex enough to be interpreted in various ways.

A.  Enkidu’s story is a Mesopotamian parable of culture in which the protagonist moves from the wilderness to pastoral to city life—from prehistory to history.

  1. The story is also a fall from primeval innocence and union with nature into self-consciousness and the severing of the bond with nature.
  2. Enkidu as a civilized man kills animals that were once his friends and slays the guardian of the forests so they can be plundered.

B.  Gilgamesh’s story is about coming to terms with mortality.

  1. As part of his maturation process, Gilgamesh comes to see everything in a new way and better understands who he is and what he can accomplish.
  2. The deepest wisdom comes to Gilgamesh from Utnapishtim: It is about understanding one’s role and responsibility in life and then performing it—in Gilgamesh’s case, to go home and resume his duties as king.
  3. The poem also encourages one to find time for some civilized pleasures throughout life.

IV. In addition to the themes and techniques already noted, this work also deals with many themes for the first time in literature: the relationship between gods and humans, the immortalizing power of art, the nature of a paradisial garden, the hunter or shepherd as a mediating figure between nature and civilization, dreams as potents of the future or a message from another world, the ferryman across the waters of death, and the fantastic journey to strange places including the Land of the Dead.