Brandon Scribner

5/28/18

Comp 201 World Literature

Dr. Victor Gomia

Module 2 Summary

The reading starts out with an introduction to the Mesopotamian story The Epic of Gilgamesh,
one of the world most ancient pieces of literature. The epic tells the story of Gilgamesh and his quest for
immortality, his befriending of a beast like man whom was created to counter him, and their tribulations
in friendship and in death. Basic questions of life are brought up during the story such as: what it means
to be human, death and friendship, nature and civilization, power and violence, travel adventures and
homecoming, love and sexuality. Although the literature was massively wide spread, the story was
forgotten and lost for almost two thousand years. Only to be rediscovered in the nineteenth century by
archeologist, Austen Henry Lanyard, at the site of Nineveh, and later deciphered at the British Museum
in London. The main character of the story Gilgamesh was thought to be a priest-king of the city-state
Uruk in southern Mesopotamia. Uruk was located near modern day Iraq by the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers. Sometime during 2700 B.C.E, Gilgamesh ruled and was known for the construction of the Uruk
monumental city walls. Gilgamesh was born three parts divine, and one-part human. The offspring of
Nunsun, the goddess in the shape of a wild cow, and a human male named Lugalbanda. Gilgamesh was a
tale not written by a single author but was an evolution of stories over a long span of millennium. The
earliest version of Gilgamesh appears around 2100 B.C.E. Written in ancient Sumerian language, a
wedged cuneiform script on clay tablets. Gilgamesh’s realization during the story of his mortality is
explained by his words,

“I have peered over the city wall, I have seen the corpses floating in the river’s water. So too it will come
to pass for me, so it will happen to me… Since no man can avoid life’s end, I would enter the mountain
land and set up my name.”

A Babylonian priest and scholar named Sin-leqi-unninni carefully selected elements of the story
from older traditions, inserted new plot elements, and added a preface to the epic around 1200 B.C.E.
He divided the story into eleven chapters and eleven tablets. Some fragments of Gilgamesh are still
missing, and some passages are fragmentary and barely legible. The Gilgamesh depicted in the epic was
an awe-inspiring warrior and sparkling hero, but at first during the beginning of the tale he is a bad ruler,
arrogant, oppressive, and brutal to the civilians. To counter the tyranny of Gilgamesh the Sumerian Gods
created Enkidu to confront Gilgamesh. Enkidu was a blend of human and beast. Enkidu was born in the
wild and raised by beasts of the wild. Once Enkidu broke hunter’s traps to spare the lives of the wildlife,
he became a problem for Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh decides to tame Enkidu with the wonders of civilization.
Gilgamesh sends Shamhat, prostitute of Uruk, to lay with him for seven days then lead him in the city
with food, beer, and clothing befit a king. After an early rivalry Enkidu and Gilgamesh become friends,
and Gilgamesh decides they are going to set off on their first adventure. The venture was to slay
Humbaba, the protector of the Cedar Forest and guard for the hard god Enlil. With the blessing of the
sun god Shamash they cut down the monster. Gilgamesh once cleansed from battle and radiant in
victory attracts the attention of Ishtar, goddess of love and warfare. Gilgamesh does not politely avoid
her advances but instead rudely chides her and heaps insults at her. Ishtar then summons the Bull of
Heaven against the two friends. The duo kills the Bull of Heaven. The gods decided that the duo has
gone to far, and one of them must die. The lot falls on Enkidu because Gilgamesh is the king. Gilgamesh
is torn by the death of Enkidu and mourns for his lose for seven days and nights. After the death of
Enkidu, Gilgamesh faces his own mortality, casts out civilization, wonders the steppe fighting beasts, and
searches to make a name for himself. Blazing a trail to Utanaphishtim, the holder of the secret to eternal
life. Utanaphistim gives Gilgamesh a chance at the request of his wife to eat the magic plant. Gilgamesh
hesitates, and a serpent eats the plant instead. Gilgamesh is ultimately sent home emptyhanded. In the
final moments Gilgamesh looks onto his civilization and the creation of the city wall and is a changed
man. Gilgamesh shares certain important features with Greek epic. The different verse forms and varies
lengths of verse line. Which can only be inferred by context such as through patterns of parallelism.
Considered part of a larger Near Eastern and Mediterranean epic tradition, Gilgamesh was only
translated into cuneiform languages. Not into the Greek traditional alphabet. Gilgamesh’s complex word
play, parallel phrases, and elevated style addressed sophisticated ears, minds of scholars, and members
of the royal court. Babylonian schools used the epic to teach literature. The epic portrayal of many
various types of language inside different characters is an interesting nuance.

The readings switch focus and tell the brief life story of Gaius Valerius Catullus, and emotional
and advanced poetry writer. Catullus was a privileged but insecure young man. He lived till the age of
thirty. Catullus was born in the northern Italian city of Verona. He was born of the high aristocratic
family social class called “equestrian”. Catullus spent most of his life in Rome making friends and bitter
enemies. His “Lesbia” poems identified with many educated peoples such as: Clodia Metella and
Sappho. Catullus held a government position in his twenties that invoked travel and poems were
created during his travel. Most famously his poem of grief about his brother’s death. Catullus’s short life
is extended by the one hundred sixteen poems of his that survive. The collection or libellus is arranged
by meter, not subject so that writing styles would not all be congested near each other. The reading
goes on the describe specific poems that suggest certain themes. The switch between themes such as
love and celebration of life, to the dark and devastating betrayals is what makes Catullus’s writing live
on through the millennium.