EPIC OF GILGAMESH:  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS


SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

How would you begin to describe the relationship between Enkidu and Gilgamesh?  What, on different levels, are the meanings of their relationship?  How would you begin to compare and contrast Enkidu and Gilgamesh?  Are they opposites?  Are they "doubles?"  Is there a difference here?  How would you compare and contrast Gilgamesh's relationship to Enkidu with Theseus' relationship with the Minotaur?  What other relationships from world mythology come to mind here?

How would you compare and contrast the journeys made by Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the epic?  Where does each start, how and why does each change, and where does each end up?  How do they change each other?  How would you describe the relationship between Enkidu and culture at different points in the story?  To what extent does he start in the realm of nature and end in that of culture?  How is Gilgamesh presented at the beginning of the story?  How are the problems presented by Gilgamesh to the people of Uruk similar or different to those presented by Enkidu to The Hunter?  How might one compare and contrast the solutions of the citizens of Uruk in the former case to those of The Hunter in the latter?  Does the "wild man" Enkidu tame Gilgamesh?  If so, how does one explain this apparent paradox?

How would you analyze Gilgamesh and Enkidu's encounters with Humbaba and the Bull of the Sun?  In what ways is Gilgamesh's fight with Humbaba similar or different to Odysseus' contest with Polyphemus (the Cyclops)?  "Why do you give my son/ A restless heart, and now you touch him/ With this passion to destroy Humbaba/," notes Ninsun.  "And you send him on a journey to a battle/ He may never understand, to a door/ He cannot open."  How would you interpret this remark of Gilgamesh's mother?  What is he after in this instance?

Why do you think it is that Enkidu dies first?  As he lies dying, Enkidu curses the temple prostitute, and then revokes his curse and blesses her.  Comment upon this scene.  What picture of death is presented by the dying Enkidu?

How would you compare and contrast Gilgamesh's response to Enkidu's death with that of Achilles to the death of Patroclus?  To what extent is Gilgamesh transformed into Enkidu after the latter's death?  How would you compare and contrast Gilgamesh's journey to the edge of the world with Enkidu's encounter with the temple prostitute and resultant journey to the gates of Uruk?

How would you compare and contrast Gilgamesh's voyage to the edge of the world with his earlier trip to the Cedar Forest?  What is he in search of in the later trip?  What does he learn during this second voyage?

What significance would you attach to the character of Urshanabi in this part of the story?  What is the meaning of the tests that Utnapishtim asks Gilgamesh to undertake?  What is the meaning of his failure here?  How would you compare and contrast Gilgamesh's voyage to the edge of the world with famous Greek journeys to the Underworld?  How would you compare and contrast Utnapishtim to Tiresias?

How would you compare and contrast Utnapishtim and Noah?  How would you compare and contrast the Flood as represented in Gilgamesh with the Biblical Flood?  Why does the Flood happen in the Mesopotamian case?  Why is Utnapishtim singled out to be saved?

How would you compare and contrast the role of the serpent in the Epic of Gilgamesh to that of the serpent in Genesis?  How would you compare and contrast Enkidu's fall from a state of nature to that experienced by Adam and Eve?  To what extent is it meaningful/ distracting to discuss Biblical parallels in analyzing the Epic of Gilgamesh?  Why or why not engage in such an exercise?

What events in the story take place over six days and seven nights?  In what ways are these events connected and what meaning would you attach to this recurring motif?

What role do women play in the Epic of Gilgamesh?  How would you compare and contrast Enkidu's encounter with the temple prostitute with Gilgamesh's refusing of Ishtar's attempted seduction?  How does Siduri compare and contrast with the temple prostitute?  With Ishtar?

How do the gods act in the Epic of Gilgamesh?  What is the nature of their relationship with humans?  To what extent do they seem to influence or dictate human action?  How do the gods differ and how are they similar to humans?  What significance, if any, would you attach to Gilgamesh's 2/3rds divinity?  In the relationship between the natural world and the cultural world that seems to be such a recurring theme in Gilgamesh, to what extent is the former the abode of the gods?

How are trees connected with life and death, with nature and culture, and with the gods and mortals in the Epic of Gilgamesh?  Where and in what ways do trees enter the story? 

If you were to supply the Epic of Gilgamesh with a subtitle, what would it be?  Why?


The Seminar Note

General instructions for seminar notes are on the Assignments Page or can be accessed HERE.

If you choose to write a seminar note on the Epic Of Gilgamesh, I would like you to complete a short Assignment Wrapper and attach that at the very end of your Seminar Note.

The Specifications For The Assignment Wrapper

Your wrapper should include answers to two questions and then a few sentences in which you respond to the prompts below to reflect upon this mini-assignment.

The Questions:

1)  Did you base your seminar note upon your reading of the N. K. Sanders translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh?

2)  Did you use any other resources and/or tools in completing your seminar note than our course text?  If so, please describe.

The Prompts:

In a very few sentences, offer some self-reflection after completing this mini-assignment.  What were the steps you took in completing this seminar note?  How and why did you choose your topic and structure?  Did you connect to this epic?  How interesting or uninteresting was it for you?  What difficulties, if any, did you experience in completing your seminar note?  How would you begin to evaluate your own work here?  Are you pleased with what you have written?

The Purpose Of The Assignment Wrapper

The purpose of the Assignment Wrapper is two-fold.

It is designed in part as an accountability measure.  I want to emphasize that seminar notes should represent your own direct engagement with the course's core texts and to ask you whether this is indeed the case.  In recent semesters, I've often received work that leaves me completely baffled as to what it represents and how it was completed.  The Assignment Wrapper will provide at least a clear statement from you in this regard.

The Wrapper is also intended to serve as a small exercise in self-reflection.  I would like you to move beyond a reliance upon my feedback to actively reflect upon your own processes and your own academic output.  Your own self-appraisal here may well be more valuable to you than the evaluation you receive from me.


 

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