Overview of 'Epic of Gilgamesh'

In this paper I will be discussing five different things about The Epic of Gilgamesh. The first thing that I will discuss is the historical context of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Second, will be the main two characters in the epic and the nature of their relationship. Third, will include how the gods are portrayed in the epic. Fourth, I will also discuss how the actual historical occurrence is the basis for the flood story. Lastly, I will discuss what I learned about the Sumerian society by ready the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The Epic of Gilgamesh has a lot of historical background. All the most important elements of the story existed as separate poems in the older Sumerian literature. It may have been composed and recited long before they were even written. The tradition reaches back into a preliterate ago on the borderline of legend and history, a little later than the Deluge, when gods were replaced by mortals on the thrones of the city-states. (Sanders, 13) This period of time was called the Archaic Sumerian civilization. The Sumerians were the first literate inhabitants of Mesopotamia, and theirs is the language of the oldest tablets from Nippur which relate to Gilgamesh. (Sanders, 13) The influence in these talented people, shown in laws, language, and ideas, persisted long after they had been defeated by their Semite neighbours. Therefore, no anachronism to find the early Gilgamesh texts still written in this ‘learned’ language, although majority of them date from the beginning of second millennium, after the Semitic conquest. According to the excavation, the Archaic Sumerian or Early Dynastic civilization of the early third millennium follows notable flood levels at several important sites such as Kish, Shurrupak, and Uruk among th...

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... dynastic rule. It is concerned with controlling the flood, ordering of the physical world and much more. Most of these places are somewhat related. Human have to attempt to understand their beginnings in history. In history, origin stories were the earliest attempts, which is a language that has its own historical truth.

By reading the Epic of Gilgamesh, I learned that not all cities/societies act the same way. In some society the sexual relationships are different as well as the different gods that were portrayed in the book. I learned that the women in the Epic of Gilgamesh are viewed as one who has a lot of knowledge and a lot of people seek to them for advice. I also learned that men have a lot of power but they use it for the wrong reasons. I also noticed that the people of Uruk obeys all kings/gods/goddess and even prays for them when they gone on journeys.