1. The Epic of Gilgamesh and Ancient Mesopotamia
The history and culture behind the world’s oldest recorded story – Epic of Gilgamesh
Adapted presentation. Acknowledgements to Kimberly Torres

2. Mesopotamia– Geography (circa 4000 BC )
Mesopotamia means “the land between the rivers.”
It is located in an agriculturally rich region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (also known as the “Fertile Crescent” or “cradle of civilizations”.
It was located in the region known today as Iraq as well as parts of Iran.

3. Mesopotamia’s Ruling Societies from 5000 BCE – 600 BCE
Sumeria was the first civilization in the region.
Later, the Akkadians, Babylonians, Hittites, Assyrians, and Chaldeans take over their cities and adopt their culture. S

4. Sumerians (5000-2100 BC) 1. Economy
The Sumerians were the first group of people known to have dominated this region.
1. Economy
Sumerians made their living by growing crops and raising livestock. They were also known as successful merchants and traders throughout the Persian Gulf region.

5. 2. Government and Society
Sumerians ( BC)
2. Government and Society
Sumerians lived in city-states. These cities were walled (fortified) for protection and surrounded by vast, open land.
The largest city-states were Ur, Uruk, and Lagash. The Sumerians never developed a central, unifying government between the three, leaving them vulnerable to attack.
Sumerian society developed a three-level class system (nobles, middle class, peasants).

6. Sumerian City States

7. Sumerians (5000-2100 BC) 3. Religious Beliefs
The Sumerians (and later the Babylonian people) worshipped a pantheon of gods and goddesses.
Regardless of one’s actions in life, they did not believe in life after death. They believed that after one dies there is only emptiness.

8. Anu – father of gods and god of the sky (similar to Zeus)
Enlil – god of the air
Utu – sun god;
lord of truth and justice

9. Sumerians (5000-2100 BC) 4. Cultural Achievements
Developments in math and science – A precise 12 month calendar, the concept of zero, “Pythagorean theorem”

10. Sophisticated technology – terraced temples (ziggurats), wheeled vehicles, sail boats, animal-drawn plows.

11. A Ziggurat.

12. World’s first writing system – cuneiform
World’s first writing system – cuneiform. Formed by reed markings on wet clay tablets.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, the first work of fiction ever recorded, was etched on stone tablets in cuneiform on over 40,000 clay tablets in 2,000 BCE.

13. History of Epic of Gilgamesh
While there is no evidence that the events in the epic actually happened, there was a Gilgamesh who ruled the Sumerian dynasty of Uruk in 2,700 BCE

14. Akkadians ( BC)
The Akkadian people easily take over Sumerian culture – perhaps because of Sumer’s lack of a unified government.
However, Sumerian culture is main-
tained through these shifts in power; and, the Akkadians produce their own version of Gilgamesh.

15. (much like Latin today).
Babylonians ( BC)
The Babylonians recognized the value of Sumerian culture and adopted much of it as their own. Sumerian became a literary language
(much like Latin today).

16. Hanging Gardens of Nebuchadnezzar

17. King Nimrod’s
Tower of Babel

18. Code of Hammurabi

19. Under the Assyrian empire the Epic of Gilgamesh took on its final written form.
Assyrians ( BC)

20. The final translation was added to the King’s library at Nineveh.
After the destruction of Nineveh by the Chaldeans in 612 BCE, the epic was lost until the library was excavated in 1872 CE.

21. KEY FACTS

22. FULL TITLE · The Epic of Gilgamesh
AUTHOR · The ancient authors of the stories that compose the poem are anonymous. The latest and most complete version yet found, composed no later than around 600 B.C., was signed by a Babylonian author and editor who called himself Sin-Leqi-Unninni.

23. GENRE · Heroic quest; heroic epic
LANGUAGE · Sumerian; Akkadian; Hurrian; Hittite. All these languages were written in cuneiform script.
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · Between 2700 B.C. and around 600 B.C. in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq)
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION · Tablet XI of Gilgamesh was first translated into English and published in The first comprehensive scholarly translation to be published in English was R. Campbell Thompson’s in 1930.

24. Character List
People:
Gilgamesh -  King of Uruk, the strongest of men, and the personification of all human virtues. A brave warrior, fair judge, and ambitious builder, Gilgamesh surrounds the city of Uruk with magnificent walls and erects its glorious ziggurats, or temple towers. Two-thirds god and one-third mortal, Gilgamesh is undone by grief when his beloved companion Enkidu dies, and by despair at the prospect of his own extinction. He travels to the ends of the Earth in search of answers to the mysteries of life and death.

25. Enkidu - Companion and friend of Gilgamesh
Enkidu -  Companion and friend of Gilgamesh. Hairy-bodied and brawny, Enkidu was raised by animals. Even after he joins the civilized world, he retains many of his undomesticated characteristics. Enkidu looks much like Gilgamesh and is almost his physical equal. He aspires to be Gilgamesh’s rival but instead becomes his soul mate. The gods punish Gilgamesh and Enkidu by giving Enkidu a slow, painful, inglorious death for killing the demon Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven.

26. Utnapishtim -  A king and priest of Shurrupak, whose name translates as “He Who Saw Life.” By the god Ea’s connivance, Utnapishtim survived the great deluge that almost destroyed all life on Earth by building a great boat that carried him, his family, and one of every living creature to safety. The gods granted eternal life to him and his wife.

27. Urshanabi - The guardian of the mysterious “stone things
Urshanabi -  The guardian of the mysterious “stone things.” Urshanabi pilots a small ferryboat across the Waters of Death to the Far Away place where Utnapishtim lives. He loses this privilege when he accepts Gilgamesh as a passenger, so he returns with him to Uruk.

28. Partial List of Important Deities and Demons:
Anu -  The father of the gods and the god of the firmament.
Aruru -  A goddess of creation who fashioned Enkidu from clay and her spittle.
Ea -  The god of fresh water, crafts, and wisdom, a patron of humankind. Ea lives in Apsu, the primal waters below the Earth.

29. Humbaba -  The fearsome demon who guards the Cedar Forest forbidden to mortals. Humbaba’s seven garments produce an aura that paralyzes with fear anyone who would withstand him. He is the personification of awesome natural power and menace. His mouth is fire, he roars like a flood, and he breathes death, much like an erupting volcano. In his very last moments he acquires personality and pathos, when he pleads cunningly for his life.

30. Tammuz - The god of vegetation and fertility, also called the Shepherd
Tammuz -  The god of vegetation and fertility, also called the Shepherd. Born a mortal, Tammuz is the husband of Ishtar.
Enlil -  God of earth, wind, and air. A superior deity, Enlil is not very fond of humankind.
Shamash -  The sun god, brother of Ishtar, patron of Gilgamesh. Shamash is a wise judge and lawgiver.

31. Ishtar -  The goddess of love and fertility, as well as the goddess of war. Ishtar is frequently called the Queen of Heaven. Capricious and mercurial, sometimes she is a nurturing mother figure, and other times she is spiteful and cruel. She is the patroness of Uruk, where she has a temple.

32. Ereshkigal -  Terrifying queen of the underworld.

33. Ninsun - The mother of Gilgamesh, also called the Lady Wildcow Ninsun
Ninsun -  The mother of Gilgamesh, also called the Lady Wildcow Ninsun. She is a minor goddess, noted for her wisdom. Her husband is Lugulbanda.

34. Importance of Gilgamesh
Earliest known literary work.
Contains an account of the Great Flood and the story of a virtuous man named Utnapishtim who survived (a secular version of Noah)
Expresses values of ancient civilization – such as the belief in divine retribution for transgressions such as violence, pride, the oppression of others, and the destruction of the natural world