The Invention of Writing and the Earliest Literature And a Little About Gilgamesh

In the Beginning Before the invention of writing, stories and songs were transmitted orally from generation to generation. Without written documents of this oral tradition, there was always the risk of its literature being irrevocably lost due to cataclysms such as foreign conquest or natural disaster.

Writing was not invented for the purpose of preserving literature; the earliest written documents contain commercial, administrative, political, and legal information. They were created by the first "advanced" civilizations in an area that Westerners commonly call the Middle East. These ancient civilizations were agrarian, developing in the valleys of the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates rivers. Cities began as centers for administration of irrigated fields, but they soon became centers for government, religion, and culture. The Egyptians built temples and pyramids in Thebes and Memphis; the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians build palaces and temples in Babylon and Ninevah.

The Oldest Writing The oldest writing was pictographic, meaning that the sign for an object was written to resemble the object itself; later, hieroglyphic and cuneiform scripts were invented to record more complicated information.

The oldest extant texts date from 3300 to 2990 B. C The oldest extant texts date from 3300 to 2990 B.C. and consist mostly of lists of foodstuffs, textiles, and cattle. Though such lists were well served by pictographs, by 2800 BC scribes began to make marks in a script that was later called cuneiform—the Latin cuneus means "a wedge"—to record more complicated information such as historical events. This form of writing survived more than two millennia. In Egypt, scribes developed a different form of writing. Named at a later date after the Greek words for "sacred" and "carving," hieroglyphs also developed in more cursive versions for faster writing.

Gilgamesh Gilgamesh was reintroduced to the world when a portion of it, Utnapishtim‘s Story of the Flood, upon which the biblical story of the flood is based1, was accidentally discovered in 1872. Written 4000 years ago Since then, tablets containing other parts of Gilgamesh have been found at sites throughout the Middle East in various cuneiform languages. 1. This is the opinion of the editors of Norton and thus should be taken as just that—an opinion

Begun in 2700 B. C. and written down about 2000 B. C Begun in 2700 B.C. and written down about 2000 B.C., the first great heroic narrative of world literature, Gilgamesh, nearly vanished from memory when it was not translated from cuneiform languages into the new alphabets that replaced them. Though the identity of its author and context are now lost, its stories, with their astonishing immediacy, appeal to modern readers. (apparently the Babylonian poet who compiled the stories did sign his name—”Shin-eqi-unninni” making him the earliest recorded author) It was originally titled “He who Saw the Deep” (Sha naqba īmuru) or “Surpassing All Other Kings” (Shūtur eli sharrī). Gilgamesh was probably a real ruler in the late Early Dynastic II period (ca. 27th century BC).

It is “an epic” like the Iliad, the Odyssey and Beowulf. With this profound familiarity, there is also something infinitely strange and remote about Gilgamesh. The narrative is concerned chiefly with Gilgamesh's friendship with Enkidu, his quest for worldly renown and immortality, and his death. It is “an epic” like the Iliad, the Odyssey and Beowulf. A long narrative poem Done in formal style About an extraordinary hero. . . who represents his culture.

Universalities Within Gilgamesh Loneliness Civilly Mortality Friendship Sacrifice and Responsibility Grief and Stoicism

Major Balance Points in Gilgamesh When Gilgamesh sets himself right; he sets the world right. Between wilderness and city Individual and society Gods and men People and leaders When Gilgamesh sets himself right, he sets the world right.

Sites Cited The British Museum http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.html The Norton Web for World Literature http://www.wwnorton.com/nawol/s1_overview.htm#1 YouTube Gilgamesh http://www.youtube.com/profile_video_blog?user=helvis213&page=3

Gill N. S “Who is the First Named Author?” About.Com: Ancient History. http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/poetsplaywrightswriters/f/firstauthor.htm “Introduction to Gilgamesh” Audio Commentary to a Slideshow Internet Archive. http://www.archive.org/details/IntroductionToGilgamesh “The Epic of Gilgamesh” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2 Sept. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh