Early Heroes

Question 1

What is the epic of Gilgamesh?

Answer 1

Near-eastern hero

Sumerians inhabited Mesopotamia around 2500 BCE
○ Gilgamesh is king of Uruk (5th after the ‘flood’)

Story comes from 12 Akkadian tablets from 700 BCE (cuneiform/wedge-shaped clay tablet)

Question 2

Who is Gilgamesh?

Answer 2

Master of animals, nature
○ Tames nature to make a safe spot for humans

Mortal hero with divine qualities (he interacted with the gods often)
• Violent and arrogant

Best friend Enkidu (gods made him, the hero’s double, out of clay)

He is transformed through loss and suffering, and goes beyond mortal boundaries

His journey:

		1. Slay a monster
		2. Seek immortality 

He is the son of Lugalbanda (mortal king of Uruk) and Ninsun (goddess)
○ So he struggles to accept his mortality and is arrogant

Question 3

What is Gilgamesh like as a king? How does he change?

Answer 3

Problematic: gets into fights, consummates brides
○ His citizens pray, and the gods create Enkidu

Enkidu spawns as a wild hairy dude who lives with animals

• Sacred prostitute Shamhat tames him, but he loses his ability to run with animals after sexing
• • She takes him to the city of Uruk where he meets Gilgamesh in a fight

Together they slay the monster Humbaba who guards the cedar forest

Question 4

What happens with Gilgamesh and Ishtar?

Answer 4

Gilgamesh rejects and insults goddess Ishtar, and she punishes him by killing Enkidu

Gilgamesh experiences grief and denial and does not bury Enkidu
○ Only when he sees a worm fall from his nose does he give him an amazing funeral

Gilgamesh questions his mortality (“must I too die?”)

Question 5

What is his solitary quest? What is his return?

Answer 5

Gilgamesh leaves the city and roams the wilderness in lion skin
○ Searching for the secret of immortality

He travels beyond the limits of the world and talks to old wise man Utnapishtim
○ Utnapishtim is old and survived the flood with his wife; he lives under a mountain through a tunnel

Utnapishtim teaches him that he has to accept that he will die

Gilgamesh returns home with his unique knowledge and writes it down in a sacred text

Question 6

What are characteristics of the Greek Hero?

Answer 6

Divine parent and human parent

Weird birth story
○ Threatened at birth (ex., Dionysus)
○ Early display of powers
○ Education in exile, usually by supernaturl beings (ex., Nymphs)

Quest of impossible task
○ Slaying a monster or other opponent
○ Divine interaction (friend and opposition)
– Usually Athena is a friend

Returning home transformed
○ Unhappy or tragic domestic life
○ Ironic or weird death
○ Kleos and timé (undying)

General theme of separation, initiation, and return

Question 7

Why is a hero considered a “Divided Being”?

Answer 7

The hero is great but he is divided (human and divine = bestial at times)
○ This makes him arrogant, isolated

It is difficult for the hero to know/accept limitations
○ Results in hubris and divine punishment (ex., Gilgamesh punished by Ishtar with loss of Enkidu)