L03: Gilgamesh (Part 1)

HSH1000 The Human Condition

Dr. Sureshkumar Muthukumaran
HSH1000 Lecture 05: Gilgamesh (Part 1)

Agenda

Part 1
1. Why does the past matter?
2. Historical context of the Gilgamesh epic
3. Summary of the Gilgamesh epic

Part 2
1. What is close reading?
2. Civilisational markers: what makes us human?
3. Human relationships with the environment
Why does the past matter?

Ø Path dependence: what happens is

constrained by what happened previously.

Ø Our individual and collective choices/

conditions/actions have been determined by
past actors, whether in the near or distant
past. We are already on a trajectory that was
given shape by those before us.

Ø Similarly, the future will be constrained by

the present. The present is just the future’s
past!
Why does the past matter? (continued)

Consider this:

Ø Why do we live in cities?

Ø Why is time a multiple of 60?
Ø Why do we observe the European calendar?
Ø Why is monogamy the default kind of social organisation?
Ø Why do we eat what we eat? Why is eating dogs and cats frowned upon
in most cultures but not pigs and cows (although these are too in some
cultures)?
Ø Why do we value identities constructed around language, culture,
religion and phenotypes?
Why does the past matter? (continued)

Ø Why is the Bishop of Rome the head of the

Catholic church?
Ø Why is pepper the default seasoning along with
salt?
Ø Why do we use the Indian numeral system?
Ø Why do we have so many Greek words for
terminology in modern biology & medicine?
Ø All these phenomena are
products of particular historical
circumstances - it doesn’t have
to be this way but IS because of
the choices past societies have
taken.

Ø You will not be able to grasp

why the world around you is
the way it is (with all its defects
and achievements) or effect
change going forward without a
sense of the long-term
trajectory of human history (or
“deep history”).
James C. Scott on the allure of deep
history:

“History at its best … is the most

subversive discipline, inasmuch as it
can tell us how things that we are
likely to take for granted came to be.”

- Against the Grain, pp. 3-5

*Deep history gives you the

intellectual tools to interrogate our
present (and future) condition.
Why does the past matter? (continued)

Ø The past is alive in our everyday choices, conditions &

actions.

“If we eat bread made of Canadian wheat and cheese from

New Zealand, we are not only drawing upon resources that
are geographically worldwide, but we are at the same time
observing practices, the making of wheaten bread and the
use of cheese, devised in the ancient (Middle) East more
than fifty centuries ago. So also in most of the things we are
eating and drinking, doing and thinking, at every moment of
our lives we are paying unwitting tribute to the diffusion of
culture in time and place.”

- Grafton Smith, The Diffusion of Culture (1933: 8)

History in a plate Chilies and peanuts are native to
Central-South America; only
available in Asia after the Afro-
European colonisation of the
Americas.

Cucumbers (Cucumis sativus)

are native to northern India;
wild relative survives in the
foothills of the Himalayas.

Rice (Oryza sativa) was

independently domesticated in
China and India.

Domesticated chickens are a

hybrid between jungle fowl
native to South and Southeast
Asia; egg consumption was not
regular before the domestication
of the chicken.
What has the ancient Middle East given us?
 Aššuwa

Hittite Aššuwa > Greek Ἀσία > Latin Asia

*first attested in the 15th century BCE
Quarantine!
King Zimri-Lim of Mari writes to Queen Šiptu (c.
1775-1762 BCE)

“I have heard “Nanna has an infection (simmum).”

Since she is often at the palace, it will infect the
many women who are with her. Now give strict
orders: No one is to drink from the cup she uses; no
one is to sit on the seat she takes; no one is to lie on
the bed she uses, lest it infect the many women who
are with her. This is a very contagious infection!”
- ARM 10, 129
And possibly the most crucial piece of technology we
have inherited from the ancients:

Writing!
Independently devised in at least four regions:

Ø Mesopotamia (Iraq), c. 3300 - 3200 BCE

Ø Egypt, c. 3300 – 3200 BCE
Ø China, c. 1300 BCE
Ø Mesoamerica, c. 900– 600 BCE

*The vast majority of the world’s scripts today are

descended from the Middle Eastern alphabetic script
devised by Canaanite-speakers in Egypt around 1800
BCE.
Cuneiform
from the Latin cuneus for ‘wedge’

Ø Cuneiform represents the earliest form

of writing

Ø Devised in southern Mesopotamia (Iraq)

Ø Typically written on clay tablets with a

reed stylus which creates wedge-like
shapes.

A modern copy of the Mesopotamian creation epic

(Enūma Eliš) by George Heath-Whyte (Cambridge)
prism Typology of cuneiform tablets

Lenticular Rectangular
tablet tablet

cylinder
cone
Cuneiform
Ø The earliest form of this script, between 3300 and 2900
BCE, was pictographic and preserved no grammatical
values.

Ø It subsequently evolves into a logosyllabic script

meaning a sign can represent an entire word or a
syllable, that is consonant-vowel combinations or
standalone vowels. Signs can also be polyvalent, taking
on both logographic and syllabic values.
 The sign GIŠ

Phonetic values: es, eṣ, ez, is, iṣ, iz

Logographic value: GIŠ = iṣum ‘tree’

Determinative: GIŠ is placed before words

related to trees, wood and wooden objects.
Determinatives indicate the class of nouns a word
belongs to.
*On average, a scribe needs to know at least 600-
1000 signs with multiple values (cf. average literate
Chinese reader knows 3000 – 4000 characters)
 Cuneiform
Ø Cuneiform was originally devised for
Sumerian, a linguistic isolate that is
unrelated to any known language today.

Ø Later, the cuneiform script was adopted

to write other regional languages
including Akkadian, Hurrian and
Elamite.

Ø Akkadian, which becomes the dominant

language of Mesopotamia by the early
2nd millennium, is a Semitic language
related to the likes Hebrew, Arabic and
Aramaic.

Maništušu obelisk with Akkadian text, c. 2270 BCE, Louvre, Paris

Who devised writing and for what?

Ø Writing devised for purposes of accounting, tax collection

and administration (almost 90% of early documents relate to
these areas; the remaining 10% is represented by lexical lists
i.e. early forms of the dictionary).

Ø Increased population density in urban spaces meant that

documenting economic processes could no longer be suitably
managed with the skills of memory and orality alone.

Ø Closely tied to the emergence of complex states which

sought to extract resources, regulate production and collect
revenues. This in turn led to the accumulation of wealth and
widening social stratification.

Ø It would take half a millennium, that is the mid-3rd

millennium BCE, for the technology of writing to produce
anything approaching what we term literature.
C’est une étrange chose que l’écriture ... Le seul phénomène qui
l’ait fidèlement accompagnée est la formation des cités et des
empires, c’est-à-dire l’intégration dans un système politique d’un
nombre considérable d’individus et leur hiérarchisation en castes et
en classes ... elle paraît favoriser l’exploitation des hommes avant
leur illumination.

“Writing is a strange thing. . . . The one

phenomenon which has invariably accompanied
it is the formation of cities and empires: the
integration into a political system, that is to say,
of a considerable number of individuals into a
hierarchy of castes and classes . . . It seems to
favour the exploitation than the enlightenment
of mankind.”
- Claude Levi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques, 1955: 872-877
Être gouverné, c'est être, à chaque opération, à chaque
transaction, à chaque mouvement, noté, enregistré,
recensé, tarifé, timbré, toisé, coté, cotisé, patenté,
licencié, autorisé, apostillé, admonesté, empêché,
réformé, redressé, corrigé

“To be governed is to be at every

operation, at every transaction, noted,
registered, counted, taxed, stamped,
measured, numbered, assessed, licensed,
authorised, admonished, prevented,
reformed, corrected, punished.”
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Idée générale de la
révolution au XIXe siècle (1851)
But writing wasn’t just about managing the economy:

Ø From the late 3rd millennium BCE onwards all kinds of texts
are available in the cuneiform record: administrative,
epistolary, legal, medical-pharmacological, astrological-
astronomical, mathematical, literary, gastronomic etc.

Ø And they’re incredibly entertaining:

Extract from a letter to king Esarhaddon of Assyria (680–

669 BCE) on treacherous officials at Guzana

Qurdî, the chariot driver of the treasury horses, is treading of the

authority of the Palace. He has laid his hands on the (sacred)
cone of the goddess Ištar, saying: “Strike me! Let’s see what
happens! Bring me a knife, so I can cut it off and stick it in the
governor’s ass!”
 So when was the Gilgamesh poem composed?
Ø Legends grew around a historical Gilgamesh who probably reigned as
king of the city-state of Uruk between 2700 – 2600 BCE. Already in the
middle of the third millennium BCE, Gilgamesh makes an appearance
as a deified king in a list of gods from the site of Fara (ancient
Shuruppak).

Ø The first Gilgamesh stories appear as short episodic stories in Sumerian

in the late 3rd millennium BCE. The originally disparate stories are
combined into a cohesive narrative in successive Akkadian adaptations
and a semi-canonical Akkadian version in twelve tablets exists by 1200
BCE.

Ø The final semi-canonical version of twelve tablets (the “Standard

Babylonian” version) is attributed to a Babylonian scribe named Sîn-
lēqi-unninni who lived sometime around 1300 - 1200 BCE. It is this
version of the story which you are reading!

Gilgamesh edited by Sîn-lēqi-unninni (c. 1200 BCE), manuscript copy from

the library of king Assurbanipal, Nineveh, 7th century BCE, British Museum
Historical/ geographical context
Ø The story is set in the context of early urbanisation
in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).

Ø By the late 4th millennium BCE, Uruk was the

largest urban centre in the world, ten times larger
than any other known human settlement. It
measured some 250 hectares and was home to an
estimated 40,000 inhabitants.

Ø In the first half of the 3rd millennium, the city was

fortified by a magnificent wall, 8 metres in height,
covering some 9.5 kilometres and composed of
approximately 300 million mudbricks.

Ø Not an isolated phenomenon: there were lots of

similar city-states/ polities in the region between
the Nile valley and the Indus river.
Ruins of the Uruk (modern Warka), Iraq
Reconstruction of Uruk in the late 3rd millennium BCE
 How well was it known in the past?
Ø The Gilgamesh poem is not just a modern classic. The poem was
popular in antiquity and studied in Babylonian scribal schools. As
Akkadian became a diplomatic lingua franca, across the Middle
East by the late 2nd millennium, the Gilgamesh poem travelled far
and wide as part of the Akkadian scribal curriculum. Tablets with
the Gilgamesh poem have been discovered in Emar and Ugarit in
Syria, Megiddo in Palestine and Hattusa in Turkey.

Ø From its original Sumerian and Akkadian versions, it was also

Fragment of a Gilgamesh manuscript,
Megiddo, Israel-Palestine, 14th century
BCE, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
translated into other Middle Eastern languages like Hurrian and
Hittite. Mesopotamian narrative motifs travelled widely and their
influence is still felt in the Bible and the Homeric epics, among
other surviving ancient works.
 Rediscovery and reconstruction of the Gilgamesh poem
Ø The Gilgamesh story is witnessed by over 228 clay tablet manuscripts which
span some two millennia and originate from various archaeological sites
across the Middle East.

Ø Owing to breaks in the tablets and missing manuscripts, the Gilgamesh poem
survives in an incomplete state and parts of the narrative are still being
sketched in as new manuscripts continue to be uncovered from excavations in
the Middle East. It is best that you imagine before you a damaged masterpiece,
a worm-eaten book.

Ø Tablets containing the Gilgamesh epic were rediscovered in 1872 by George

George Smith (1840 - 1876) who was
responsible for the rediscovery of the
Gilgamesh epic
Smith, a scholar employed by the British Museum in London. George Smith
had reconstructed the Gilgamesh story using tablets from the splendid library
of Assurbanipal, the last great ruler of the Assyrian empire in the 7th century
BCE. These tablets were found at the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh,
(modern-day Mosul in northern Iraq).
Display of tablets from the library of Assurbanipal,
Nineveh, 7th century BCE, British Museum, London
Manuscript copy of tablet V of the epic of Gilgamesh, mid-1st
millennium BCE, Suleimaniyah Museum, Iraqi Kurdistan;
discovered in 2011
Impact of rediscovery

Ø The discovery of Gilgamesh epic by George Smith ignited great

public interest in the text owing to its inclusion of a Flood story so
reminiscent of the one known from the Book of Genesis, sparking
fervent debate about the date and authenticity of the Biblical narrative.

Ø Archaeological excavations and scholarly studies on the ancient

Middle East drew many sponsors who sought to validate the Biblical
narrative in the face of scientific literature which outlined a radically
new origin for life and humanity along empirical lines. Remember
Charles Darwin had published the Origin of Species less than twenty
years ago in 1859!

Simon de Myle,
Noah’s Ark
(Genesis 6-9), 1570,
private collection,
Paris
Gilgamesh today
Ø In our time, the Gilgamesh poem has found multiple re-
incarnations in novels, plays, poems, anime, comic
books, video games, operas, dance, painting, prints and
other visual and performative arts.

Ø Gilgamesh finds representation in the standard

anthologies of world literature and has become a staple
in introductory university modules in North America and
Europe.
Ok that was a lot of content. What do I really need to know?

Ø The earliest form of writing called cuneiform appeared in Mesopotamia

(modern Iraq) around 3300 – 3200 BCE.

Ø The cuneiform script was originally devised to write an extinct language called
Sumerian but was later used for other languages like Akkadian. Akkadian is
related to living languages like Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic.

Ø The Gilgamesh story is preserved on clay tablets written in the cuneiform

script. There are early Sumerian versions of the story but we only get a
coherent epic in the Akkadian version. The version we are reading is called the
“Standard Babylonian” version and dates to 1400 – 1200 BCE.

Ø The Gilgamesh story was well-known across the ancient Middle East. The
story was lost for nearly 2000 years but it has become a classic once again after
the decipherment of cuneiform in the 19th century.
Tablet 1

Ø Gilgamesh tyrannises the people of

Uruk who complain to the gods.

Ø To divert his superhuman energies, the

gods create his counterpart, the wild
man Enkidu, who is brought up by
wild animals.

Ø Enkidu is spotted by a hunter who

lures him away from the herd with a
prostitute. The prostitute shows him
her arts and proposes to take him to
Uruk where Gilgamesh has been
seeing him in dreams.
Tablet 2

Ø The prostitute takes Enkidu to a shepherds’

camp where he is instructed in the ways of
mankind.

Ø Enkidu learns how Gilgamesh abuses his

kingly power by bedding brides on their
nuptial nights. He is shocked by this practice
enters Uruk and interrupts the proceedings.

Ø Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight. A stalemate

ensues and the pair become friends.

Ø In search of fame and glory, Gilgamesh

proposes an expedition to the Cedar Forest
ignoring Enkidu's warning of the dangers.
They kit themselves out with weapons. The
elders of Uruk try to dissuade them.
Tablets 3 & 4

Ø The elders give Gilgamesh and Enkidu

advice for their journey. The two heroes
visit the Gilgamesh’s mother Ninsun who
enlists the help of the Sun God Shamash.
Ninsun adopts the orphan Enkidu.
Gilgamesh gives instructions for the
governing of Uruk in his absence. The
heroes depart.

Ø Every three days in the course of their

journey Gilgamesh and Enkidu pitch
camp on a hillside and conduct a ritual to
produce a dream. Each time Gilgamesh
wakes from a nightmare but Enkidu
reassures him that his dream is favourable
after all. After five such dreams the heroes
draw near to the Forest of Cedar.
Tablet 5

Ø After admiring the forest, the heroes

draw their weapons and seek Humbaba.
Humbaba confronts them and accuses
Enkidu of treachery. Enkidu urges swift
action.

Ø Gilgamesh and Humbaba fight and

Shamash sends the thirteen winds to
blind Humbaba and win victory for his
protégé. Humbaba pleads for his life.
Enkidu again urges haste telling
Gilgamesh to kill Humbaba before
other gods find out. Humbaba curses
the heroes who promptly kill him and
begin felling cedar in the sacred
groves.
Tablet 6

Ø Back in Uruk, Gilgamesh's beauty

provokes the desire of the goddess Ishtar
and she proposes to him. Gilgamesh
scorns her and reminds her of the fates
suffered by her many former lovers.
Ishtar is enraged and rushes up to
heaven.

Ø She persuades the sky-god Anu, her

father, to give her the fiery Bull of
Heaven (the constellation Taurus) so that
she can punish Gilgamesh with death.
The Bull of Heaven causes havoc in
Uruk but Gilgamesh and Enkidu
discover its weak spot and kill it.
Tablets 7 & 8

Ø In a dream, Enkidu sees the gods in

assembly decree his death. In anguish, he
issues a series of curses on the hunter and
prostitute who led him into human
civilisation. In a second dream, he is
granted a vision of the Underworld.

Ø After describing the dream to Gilgamesh,

he falls sick and dies. Gilgamesh is
inconsolable. He prepares a lavish funeral
for Enkidu.
Tablet 9

Ø In mourning for Enkidu, whose death has

reminded him of his own mortality, Gilgamesh
leaves Uruk to wander the earth in search of
the immortal Uta-napishti, whose secret he
covets.

Ø Pressing on to the end of the world, he comes

to the mountains where the Sun sets and rises
and asks the help of the scorpion-men who
guard the Sun’s path under the mountains.

Ø Unable to convince Gilgamesh of the danger

he courts, a scorpion-man allows him to pass,
and Gilgamesh races against time to complete
the Path of the Sun before the Sun catches up
with him. He reaches the far end of the tunnel
just in time and finds himself in a heavenly
garden of jewels.
Tablet 10

Ø Gilgamesh encounters Shiduri, a tavern-keeper who lives by

the seashore beyond the garden. He seeks her aid in crossing
the sea to find Uta-napishti the immortal. Shiduri warns him
of the futility of his quest and the dangers of the Waters of
Death, but tells him where to find Uta-napishti's ferryman,
Ur-shanabi, with his crew of Stone Ones.

Ø Gilgamesh hinders his own progress by smashing the Stone

Ones but is then instructed by the ferryman to make punting
poles as an alternative means of propulsion. They cross the
Waters of Death and Gilgamesh explains his story to Uta-
napishti.

Ø Uta-napishti reminds him of the duties of kings and

discourses on the inevitability of death and the fleeting
nature of life.
Tablet 11

Ø Uta-napishti explains how he gained immortality and

narrates the story of the Flood. He puts Gilgamesh to a test
of staying awake for a week. Exhausted, Gilgamesh fails and
falls asleep. Realising that he cannot even overcome sleep,
he loses hope of conquering Death.

Ø As a parting gift, Uta-napishti tells Gilgamesh how to

procure a marine plant which offers the prospect of
rejuvenation. While Gilgamesh is bathing in a pool on his
way back home, a snake seizes the plant and sheds its skin.
Gilgamesh realizes that his labours have been in vain.

Ø He arrives in Uruk with Ur-Shanabi. With words that echo

the prologue, he instructs the ferryman to climb the walls and
observe Uruk and its community.
Five minutes break!
2.1: What is close reading?

Ø The methodical and evidence-based assessment of the language and structure of a text to
determine and analyse meaning and significance. This involves paying careful attention to
words and word clusters (e.g. clauses, sentences, passages).

Ø Looking at the particulars to infer a general pattern of information.

Ø Two-pronged process: (1) Observing the data and (2) making an analysis/ interpretation/
claim about this data.

Ø Close reading can be performed on individual passages or the text as a whole.

Ø A mode of evidential reasoning which is applicable to all fields of enquiry.

“The mountain’s name was māšu (twin i.e. a mountain with twin peaks)”

Gilgamesh, IX.37 (not provided in your translation)

Ø Some details/ literary devices are lost in

translation especially those relating to sound
effects e.g. consonance, assonance,
onomatopoeia etc. (you don’t need to know
what these are for this module!)
Sometimes we need cultural context e.g. why is Gilgamesh two-thirds god?
Father: Lugalbanda, king of Uruk
Mother: The (demi-)goddess Ninsun “Wild Cow”

Base Mesopotamian number: 60

Ø Mesopotamian sexagesimal system of counting still survives in our reckoning of time:
60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 360 days to a year (that’s 60 times 6), 360 degrees
to a circle

Two-thirds of 60 is 40
40 is a number sacred to Ea, the god of wisdom

Each god was associated with a number in Mesopotamian thought e.g. Ishtar: 15, Shamash: 20
Ea (Akkadian)/ Enki (Sumerian), the god of wisdom

- Lives in a watery abyss called the apsû or nagbu (“the

Deep”/ “totality”/ “underground water”)
- Lives with the seven sages (apkallū) who civilise
mankind together with Ea/ Enki

“He who saw the Deep, the country's foundation” (Tablet 1,

line 1)

Apkallū sages,
cylinder seal impression,
Babylonia,
7th century BCE,
British Museum

Impression of the god Ea/ Enki from a cylinder seal,

Sippar, southern Iraq, c. 2300BCE, British Museum
Step 1: Observation

What to observe?

Ø Facts and details (the “raw data”) e.g. time, setting, characters, objects, actions etc.

Ø Choice and sequence of words + the way in which ideas and/or arguments are presented.

Ø Rhetorical/ literary devices used to construct arguments/ ideas/ narratives e.g. figurative
language, ambiguity etc.

Ø Textual patterns - is there anything repeated or emphasised, e.g., words, phrases, ideas? Are
there contradictions in the data/ descriptions offered?
Step 2: Analysis/ Interpretation/ Claims

Ø How to explain the data we have observed? What does this information add up to? Why
have these details been included? How does it inform us about the thematic concerns/
arguments of the text?

Ø In many cases, there is no exclusive or definitive analysis/ interpretation/ claim as the

observed data can support several interpretations/ claims, sometimes even conflicting ones!
(cf. experimental data in science supporting multiple hypotheses).

Ø The most important thing for you to remember is that your interpretation must be grounded
in the evidence i.e., the data you have observed in step 1.
Civilisational markers: what makes us human?

Ø The poem begins and closes with an exhortation to observe the city of Uruk.

Ø Throughout the poem, urban life and routine activity is presented as diagnostic of human
civilisation.

Ø The physical fabric of the city encompasses the totality of human existence: procreation, food
production, construction/ industry and mental activity.

Ø But the presentation of human life in cities is not free of criticism.

Let’s look at a few specific passages now

CLOSE READING
Raw data: the text and its language
“A square mile is city (households), a
square mile date-grove, a square mile is
clay-pit, half a square mile the temple of
Ishtar: three square miles and a half is
Uruk’s expanse.” (1.6; repeated at 11.25).
Examine basic definitions (if needed)
Clay-pit: plot from which pottery clay is
retrieved i.e. potters’ quarters.
Literal or figurative language?
Literal
Why specifically focus on these four features of urban life? What do
they represent?
City/ Households: Residential; promise unending cycles of life. The
individual dies but mankind is immortal as a collective.
Date palm groves: Agricultural activity; date palms are long-lived - bring
to mind nourishment, longevity and agrarian fertility.
Clay pit: Cottage industries; alludes to the human capacity to create and
build out of natural elements (clay).
Temple of Ishtar: Spiritual and intellectual activity; otherworldly
pursuits.
*Therefore these descriptions attempt to capture the totality of
human endeavours/ experiences (a claim/ argument/ interpretation built
on the basis of observed data)
CLOSE READING
Raw data: the text and its language
“Uruk-the-Sheepfold” &
“Eanna, the sacred storehouse”
(1.3, 13, 14 etc.)
Examine basic definitions
Sheepfold: a pen or enclosure for holding
sheep (Akkadian: supūru)
Literal or figurative language?
Metaphor: Uruk is the sheepfold
Source domain: Agriculture
What does this tell us? What purpose/ significance can we assign to
the language of the text?
*Same data/ evidence can yield different interpretations/ claims/
arguments
Why use the metaphor of a sheepfold for the city?
Ø Beneficent role of city (protective/ nurturing functions); indirect
reference to ruler as shepherd.
Ø Invokes agrarian abundance/ fertility/ prosperity.
BUT also brings to mind
Ø Involuntary domestication and captivity; is some kind of criticism of
the urban form embedded in the use of this metaphor?
 CLOSE READING
Raw data: the text and its language
“See its wall – white as wool! Behold its
parapet that none could copy! … Climb
Uruk’s wall and walk its length. Survey its
foundations, examine the brickwork. Is not its
masonry kiln-fired brick?”
(1.4-5)
Literal or figurative language?
Literal
What does this tell us? What purpose/ significance can we assign to
the language of the text?
*Same data/ evidence can yield different interpretations/ claims/
arguments
Why provide an extended description of the wall?
Ø Enduring hallmark of the city/ spatial marker which provides
permanence and safety to the settlement/ marker of civic identity
(“none could copy”)/ memorialises its builder (Gilgamesh).
Ø BUT it also enforces the spatial concentration of people and resources
promotes a highly stratified form of existence (note the references to
conscripted labour and warfare in the same tablet/ chapter: 1.12 & 14).
Civilisational markers: what makes us
human?
Ø While the urban life is presented as an ideal form of human
civilisation, the descriptions still allow for subversive
readings of the city and its ruler.

Ø Notice how the poem begins with a blistering critique of

political power and is irreverent in its treatment of its
protagonist.

Ø The drudgery of urban life is the subject of the first tablet

which presents the people of Uruk being tyrannised by the
excessive demands of their ruler (harsh labour obligations,
warfare and untoward behaviour towards womenfolk).

Ø But overall, the city still embodies what it means to be

human. The toil and simple pleasures of life are all are
enclosed by the great walls of Uruk.
Civilisational markers: what makes us human?
Ø Another obvious case study for the poem’s
understanding of the human condition is found
in Enkidu’s development from a wild man to an
urbanite.

Ø Enkidu, shaped by the gods and born without a

mother’s cries of pain, is emblematic of the
first man, a metaphor for the earliest
manifestation of humanity.

Ø Enkidu’s humanising process, which involves

the consumption of human food and drink and
socialisation at a shepherd’s camp, mirrors
mankind’s transition from the wilderness to
pastoralism and finally a settled agrarian life in
villages and towns.
 Enkidu’s transition

Before After
Food “he grazes on grasses, joining the “Enkidu ate the bread until he was
throng with the herd at the water-hole” sated, he drank the beer, a full seven
Grass > Bread/ Beer (1.17, 19, 23) goblets.” (2.5)

Hairstyle “All his body is matted with hair. He “The barber groomed his body so hairy,
bears long tresses like those of a anointed with oil he turned into a man.”
Hairy/ unkempt > Groomed woman.” (1.17) (2.5)

Clothing “naked like an animal” (1.17) “She stripped and clothed him in part of
her garment … He put on a garment,
Naked > Clothed became like a warrior.” (2.2, 2.5)

Habitation Forest Shepherd’s camp (2.2) > city of Uruk

 Enkidu’s transition
Cognitive skills
Ø No knowledge of (human) languages
Ø Some inborn cognitive skills (undoes
traps - altruistic/ instinctive sexual
knowledge) but otherwise innocent/
lacking knowledge about human social
organisation and material culture.
Ø Understands and uses human
language; even starts singing!
Ø Gains emotional intelligence (e.g.
seeks love and friendship/ expresses
joy and sorrow).
Ø Develops moral sensibilities (enraged
by Gilgamesh’s behaviour in Uruk)
Before
“offspring of silence, woven for war”
(1.16)
“he knows not a people, nor a country.”
(1.17)
“He filled in the pits that I dug, he pulled
up the snares that I laid.” (1.19)
After
“but now he had reason, and wide
understanding.” (1.26)
“He knew by instinct he should seek a
friend.” (1.27)
“I will challenge him … there I shall
change the way things are ordered.”
(1.28)
“Enkidu heard what she said, and thinking
it over, he sat down weeping. His eyes
brimmed with tears, his arms fell limp, his
strength ebbed away.” (2.11)
“His mood became free, he started to
sing, his heart grew merry, his face lit
up.” (2.5)
Enkidu’s transition

Cognitive skills (continued)

Ø Notice also how Enkidu’s speech invokes labour and

production, features which are closely associated with
the human condition in the text:

“Now, my friend, but one is our task, the copper is

already pouring into the mould! To stoke the furnace for
an hour? To blow on the coals for an hour? Don't draw
back, don't make a retreat!” (5.9)
 Enkidu’s transition

Occupations/ routine activity Before After

“Over the hills he roams all day” “Come, I will lead you to Uruk, where
Ø Freedom of the wild contrasted
(1.19) men are engaged in labours of skill,
with the need to engage in “labours
you, too, like a man, will find a place
of skill”
for yourself.” (2.1)
Ø Functions as a camp guard; called a
“Sleeping lay the senior shepherds,
“shepherd” and a “warrior” (like
their shepherd boy, Enkidu, a man
Gilgamesh!)
wide awake.” (2.5)

“He put on a garment, became like a

warrior.” (2.5)
 Enkidu’s transition
Relationship with animals/ Before After
nature
“He filled in the pits that I dug, he “The gazelles saw Enkidu, they started
pulled up the snares that I laid.” (1.19) to run, the beasts of the field shied
Ø Used to live with herbivores;
away from his presence.” (1.26)
animals are surrogate family.
“with the gazelles he grazes on grasses,
joining the throng with the herd at the “he took up his weapon to do battle
Ø Protects animals; undoes hunters’
water-hole, his heart delighting with the with lions. When at night the shepherds
traps.
beasts.” (1.17) lay sleeping, he struck down wolves, he
chased off lions.” (2.5)
“O Enkidu, whom your mother, a
Ø Alienated from all animals/ hostile
gazelle, and your father, a wild donkey, “Now in treachery you bring before me
behaviour towards some species
did raise, whom the wild asses did rear Gilgamesh, and stand there, Enkidu,
including Humbaba, the guardian of
with their milk, whom the beasts of the like a warlike stranger!” (5.7)
the forest.
wild did teach all the pastures.” (8.1)
Ø Enkidu’s transition is perceived by
“My friend, a wild ass on the run,
the guardian of the forest as an act of
donkey of the uplands, panther of the
“treachery”
wild, my friend Enkidu” (8.2, 10.6)
 Enkidu’s transition

What can we say about the nature of Enkidu’s civilisational entry points?

Ø Despite the contrasts between the diets of animals (water and grass) and humans (beer and bread), it is
ironic that Enkidu’s civilising process includes very primal elements which we share with animals: eating,
drinking and sex. Even the act of singing, which Enkidu is said to do at the shepherd’s camp, is arguably a
liminal activity which we share with animals like birds (in tablet 5, birds and monkeys are likened to a
“band of musicians and drummers”)

Ø But notice how human food involves an element of production (e.g. cultivating, grinding, baking, brewing
etc.) – human life is centred around labour in contrast to the freedom and plenty of the wild.
 Enkidu’s transition

What can we say about the nature of Enkidu’s civilisational entry points?
Ø Notice also how Enkidu’s civilisational entry-points are gendered – not only is he humanised by a
prostitute but bread, beer and clothing also have feminine associations in the ancient Middle East. The
production of bread and beer, the management of taverns and the weaving of textiles was typically a part of
the female domain in the ancient Middle East.

Ø In the epic of Gilgamesh, women, with the notable exception of the goddess Ishtar, uphold societal norms
while men are not infrequently negligent and impulsive.

Ø The notion that women function as civilisational beacons is already seen in the case of the prostitute who is
presented as a teacher to Enkidu:

“He came back and sat at the feet of the harlot, watching the harlot, observing her features. Then to the
harlot's words he listened intently, as Shamhat talked to him, to Enkidu” (1.27)

Ø Enkidu’s interaction with Shamhat mirrors a child learning social skills through observation and imitation
of other humans (usually siblings & parents).
 Enkidu’s transition
Nature vs culture debate: How much human knowledge is innate? How different are we
from animals?

Ø Despite what seems to be a dramatic transition from beast to man, Enkidu was perhaps a
liminal creature to begin with. There was already something that set him apart from the
animals.

Ø The wild Enkidu is said to fill in pits, undo snares and release animals from traps – this is
not something wild animals regularly do and thus Enkidu displays some kind of altruistic
behaviour that transcends species, a feature perhaps peculiar to mankind.

Ø Does the poet mock our perceived gulf between nature and culture by using eating,
drinking and sex as Enkidu’s civilisational entry-points?

Ø Is self-awareness accompanied by a sense of loneliness? Enkidu’s newfound self-awareness

brings about a state of isolation in stark contrast to the plurality of the herd to which he
belonged. Enkidu becomes conscious of the need to establish social relations, an instinct
unknown to his earlier self.
Enkidu’s transition

Is there some kind of social commentary/ criticism of human civilisation embedded in the
Enkidu episode?

Ø Enkidu’s transition is presented as a tragic and bittersweet alienation from the wilderness. The
acquisition of self-reflectivity, reason and understanding is accompanied by a state of defilement
and expulsion from the wilderness.

“Enkidu had defiled his body so pure, his legs stood still, though his herd was in motion. Enkidu was
weakened, could not run as before, but now he had reason, and wide understanding.” (1.26)

“Because you made me weak, I who was undefiled! Yes, in the wild you weakened me, who was
undefiled!” 7.7

Ø The Gilgamesh poem, shares with the Book of Genesis, the notion that the partaking of
knowledge was accompanied by a fall from spiritual purity.
 Enkidu’s transition

Is there some kind of social commentary/ criticism of the human condition embedded in the Enkidu
episode?

Criticising our current state?

Ø Enkidu’s narrative trajectory is an early form of pastoral longing. He is the product of a mature agrarian and
urban state reimagining its past and lamenting its alienation from the natural world. Enkidu represents the
nostalgia for a perceived loss of innocence and a simpler and perhaps equal way of life outside the walls of
a city.

Or not?

Ø Or perhaps it is a means of justifying our current state – do the benefits of human civilisation outweigh
those of the wild state? Are we being reminded of the “original state” so we do not lapse into it? Is the
narrative taming the reader/ listener as much as it does Enkidu?
 The enticement of the wild man Ṛśyaśṛñga (the Indian Enkidu),
Rāmāyaṇic mural series from the Rāmasvāmi temple, Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, 1930s
Human relationships with the environment

Ø Alongside contrasting the freedom of the wild with the

toil of urban life, the poem also displays an ethical
ambivalence towards urban civilisation’s exploitation
of natural resources.

Ø The forest is never presented as a menacing place that

is to be subdued but appears instead as an abode of
beauty, purity and natural abundance which is
despoiled by humans.
 Human relationships with the environment

Tablet 5.1-3: They (Gilgamesh and Enkidu) stood there marvelling at the forest, gazing at the lofty cedars,
observing the way into the forest – where Humbaba came and went there was a track. The paths were straight and
the way well-trodden. They saw the Mountain of Cedar, seat of gods and goddesses’ throne. On the face of the land
the cedar proffered its abundance, its shade was sweet and full of delight. Thick tangled was the thorn, the forest a
shrouding canopy, cedars and gum trees, all entwined, left no way in. For a league on all sides cedars sent forth
saplings, cypresses grew thick for two-thirds of a league. Cedars scabbed with resin grew sixty cubits high, the
resin oozed forth, drizzling down like rain, flowing freely for ravines to bear away. Through all the forest a bird
began to sing, hen birds gave answer, a constant din was the noise. A solitary tree-cricket set off a noisy chorus,
[...] were singing a song, making the ... pipe loud. A wood pigeon was moaning, a turtle dove calling in answer. At
the call of the stork, the forest exults, at the cry of the francolin, the forest exults amid plenty. Monkey mothers
sing aloud, a juvenile monkey shrieks: like a band of musicians and drummers, daily they bash out a rhythm in the
presence of Humbaba.
*In Akkadian the choice and arrangement of words lends an alluring musical quality to what is one of the earliest extended
descriptions of the natural world. The poet, for example, uses alliteration, that is the repetition of initial consonants, to recall
the repetitive calls of birds and insects: iṣṣūru iṣanbur “a bird began to sing”, kīma kiṣir nāri “like a band of musicians”,
ūmišamma urtaṣṣanū “daily they bash out” and so on. Punning or wordplay is also evident: rather than using the word uqūpu
for monkey, the poet deliberately chooses pagû which has the alternative meaning of stringed musical instrument.
 5.267: from the
head he took the
Human relationships with the environment
tusks as booty.
5.20: They slew the ogre, the forest's guardian …
from the head they took the tusks as booty.

5.21-22: Gilgamesh went trampling through the

forest to take resin from the cedars … Enkidu
opened his mouth to speak, saying to Gilgamesh:
“My friend, we have reduced the forest to a
wasteland, how shall we answer (the god) Enlil in
Nippur? In your might you slew the guardian, what
was this wrath of yours that you went trampling the
forest?” … they sought the best timber and cut down
the trees.”
 Human relationships with the environment

Nature is commodified!
Ø While the heroes pause to admire the beauty of the forest, their interest is not purely aesthetic. Gilgamesh and
Enkidu are keenly aware of the economic value of the cedars and make note of its great height and the precise
measurements of the resin oozing from the cedar trees (notice how human civilisation likes to quantify
everything – keep a lookout for numbers in the text).

Ø The slaughter of Humbaba and the extraction of his tusks also signals a commodification of wild fauna –
probably imagined as some kind of elephantine creature.

Ø The text is highly conscious of competing commercial and ecological interests. The killing of Humbaba and
the felling of the cedar trees is followed by a note of profound ecological regret compounded with anxiety
about having offended the gods.

Ø The fears of environmental degradation are not a peculiar concern of our times. Gilgamesh is one of the
earliest texts to display explicit ecocritical sensibilities.
 Human relationships with the environment

Ø The poetic concern with the reckless exploitation of natural

resources was likely a response to the extensive
anthropogenic modification of natural landscapes throughout
antiquity.

Ø Pollen retrieved from sediments cored at the Ghab valley in

northwest Syria and the Southern Bekaa Valley in Lebanon
indicates that the intensive clearance of Levantine cedar
forests began in the early 3rd millennium BCE. By the early
1st millennium BCE, cedars had almost completely
disappeared from the eastern slopes of the Lebanon mountain
range.

Cedar forest at Bsharri, Lebanon

Yasuda, Y., Kitagawa, H., & Nakagawa, T. (2000). The
earliest record of major anthropogenic deforestation in
the Ghab Valley, northwest Syria: a palynological
study. Quaternary International, 73, 127-136.
 Ø Atmospheric lead pollution as a result of the
Roman empire’s expansion.

Ø Silver was needed in huge quantities for coin

production – led to overworking of Iberian and
other silver mining sites which also produced
lots of lead.

Annual average lead measured in the North Greenland

Ice Core Project (NGRIP2) from c. 1000 BCE – 800 CE
- result of anthropogenic mining activity.
Having attended this session ...

Ø Can you briefly describe the historical and linguistic background to

Gilgamesh?
Ø Are you able to discuss how we can profit from knowing
something about the past, even the distant past?
Ø Most importantly, can you perform a rudimentary close reading
(observation + analysis) to unearth key textual concerns through a
focus on the specific use of language (descriptive, figurative etc.).

How does this text change your mind about the human condition?

Ø What do we consider to be civilizational markers? How different or

similar are they to the yardsticks used for human civilisation in the
Gilgamesh poem? e.g. why is urbanism aspirational? (what’s so
bad about smaller forms of social organisation?)

Ø Are concerns about environmental degradation unique to our day

and age? Do human interactions and attitudes to the natural world
show spatial and diachronic variations? How might an ancient text
inform sustainable living in the present? e.g. embedding eco-
critical sensibilities through story-telling
Next Week

Read/watch before lecture:

Ø The Epic of Gilgamesh (if you haven’t already done

so)
Ø What makes a hero? - Matthew Winkler | TED-Ed
Ø Use the reading guide to help you navigate the key
textual concerns
Ø Do attend HSH-with-me sessions if you need help
with reading. Check Canvas for schedule and Zoom
links.