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Masterpieces of World Literature Handout II:

The Epic of Gilgamesh

1. Where was the Epic of Gilgamesh written?: ancient east

2. When was it written? the epic poem first inscribed around 1800 B.C.

3. When did this work of literature disappear from the world? Around the year
612 a. C., Nineveh was destroyed by invaders and it was not until 1845 that the
British explorer Austen Henry Layard located its remains,

4. Where were these clay tablet found? The twelve clay tablets from which the
most complete version of the Gilgamesh poem was compiled came to light in
1853 during excavations of the library of King Ashurbanipal II in the ancient
Assyrian city of Nineveh.

5-10. How does bird watching, sea sickness, and just plain laziness (the desire of
not wanting to get a real job), lead to one of the greatest discoveries of
world literature?

11. How does Layard get funding for his excavation?

12. How many tablets were found? Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rassam
discovered nearly one hundred thousand cuneiform tablets dating to the time
of Ashurbanipal.

13. What was the problem with the discovery of these tablets? they did not
have enough funds to be able to dig and did not know exactly where they were

14. What did Sir Henry Rawlinson have to do to understand cuneiform?

Rawlinson deduced that Old Persian used a syllabic alphabet and correctly
deciphered it. Working independently,
15. How does George Smith, an uneducated cleaner, plan to get rich of these
tablets?

16. How and why does George Smith die?

17. What is Gilgamesh’s quest?

18. How is the Epic of Gilgamesh related to the Bible?

19-20. What are two themes found early on in the Epic of Gilgamesh?
21. Did the scribe Sin-leqi-unninni write an original text?

22-4. What are 3 characteristics of an epic tale?

25-28. The Epic of Gilgamesh is shorter than Homer’s Odyssey and may be of
simpler form. Why is this? What two literary forms were important to
Near Eastern civilizations?

29. How is Enkidu like Tarzan?

30. What does Gilgamesh give Enkidu to try to make him civilized?

31. How is Gilgamesh different than other Akkadian kings?

32. Did ancient people drink beer?

33. How does literature allow for the control of power?

34. What were the 2 things that the historic king, Gilgamesh, was known for?

35. What is the Humbaba and where does it live?

36. Why was cedar important to ancient civilizations?

37-39. Why do the Gods bring about the Flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh? How
does this differ from the Bible?
40. What does interpolated mean?

41. What is the earliest story of the Biblical Flood?

42. How is human belief changed after the Flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh?

43-44. How does Gilgamesh rebel against the Goddess Ishtar? What is the
result of Gilgamesh’s actions?

45. Ishtar is the Goddess of what?

46. What is the significance of Gilgamesh’s dream where an axe falls down on
him?

47-8. Why were dreams important to Mesopotamians (2 reasons).

49. TRUE or FALSE: The Epic of Gilgamesh is like a novel because we get
insight into the characters psychological motivations for
their actions.

50-55. How is the ending of the Epic of the Gilgamesh different from endings
from modern novels? How is it both, comic and tragic, at the same time.