Across the differing surviving versions of the epic and related texts, scholars believed that the recurrence and minute differences of this account between multiple versions helps build a timeline on when each version was written, as well as how they influenced one another, regarding the tale of the Sumerian flood.
For example, scholars have debated over whether the Atrahasis epic or the Gilgamesh epic was the true source material of the other. In attempting to understanding the historical context behind The Epic , we must also consider the social culture at the time, particularly literary culture, and how it was comprised of people transcribing texts into countless versions that were distributed and passed down across cultures and civilizations, intended to reflect or maybe even challenge the societal norms and values at the time.
This cycle even persists today as scholars and experts continue to search worldwide for more traces of The Epic , in hopes to reconstruct this narrative and sustain its historical significance. Lab 3 - Simulating the Scriptorium ». Moses is believed to have led his people out of Egypt between BC.
Influence: Although the texts themselves were lost for thousands of years, the story had spread throughout Asia and Europe. Greeks and Romans continued to refer to King Gilgamesh as late as AD, written versions of the story seem to have disappeared perhaps as early as BC. The story itself was not unearthed until , by a British archeologist, Austen Layard, who helped rediscovered these lost civilizations. This influence can be traced most clearly through the two sets of texts that have most influenced our own culture: the Homeric Epics The Iliad and The Odyssey and The Bible.
In fact, the process of writing down and compiling the Hebrew Scriptures is now believed to have been begun in Babylon, after the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, had captured and then destroyed Jerusalem and driven the Israelites into exile mainly into Babylon itself c BCE.
Love is the civilising force that makes him fully human. She teaches him how to eat bread and drink ale and dress like men. Meanwhile, a passer-by tells him how Gilgamesh seizes and violates brides in Uruk. Enraged, he enters the city and wrestles with the king but they turn out to be equal in strength and eventually decide to become friends.
In pursuit of eternal fame and glory, together they now go to the cedar forest near Lebanon and kill Humbaba, the guardian and protector of the jungle. This infuriates the gods who had appointed Humbaba to guard the forest. The friends cut down the magnificent cedar trees for timber, which was difficult to come by in an already deforested Mesopotamia.
The implied environmental concerns of the text may strike a sympathetic chord with modern readers. While Gilgamesh is bathing after the fight, a goddess falls in love with him and proposes marriage but he turns her down.
She feels slighted and requests her father to send the bull of heaven to kill him. However, in the ensuing battle, Enkidu and Gilgamesh kill the bull. These audacious acts of defiance provoke the gods even more, and they sentence Enkidu to death. Fearing death, he sets off to discover the secret of eternal life from his forefather, the immortal man Utnapishtim, who had built a boat and survived the great flood.
This is strikingly similar to the story of the Biblical Noah. It may also remind Indian readers of Manu surviving jal pralaya along with his wife Shatrupa and the Saptarishi. Gilgamesh crosses the waters of death and meets his ancestor who tests his strength and asks him to live without sleep for a week.
He fails the test miserably realising that if he cannot defeat sleep how can he even think of conquering death. The tyrant is eventually humbled and learns what it means to become human. He returns to his city and gets all his experiences written on a stone. Unlike Homeric epics, which are products of oral culture, The Epic of Gilgamesh, refers to writing and discusses how the experiences of the king were written down.
This makes the king the author of his own story. Perhaps, among the ancient texts, only the Mahabharata contains such overt references to writing. No one knows who wrote the story of Gilgamesh. However, one knows that it was written in Akkadian and Sumerian, languages used by the people of lower Mesopotamia, where writing had been invented some 5, years ago.
Scribes wrote it on clay tablets in cuneiform script, using wedge-shaped letters. The new technique of writing evoked wonder.
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