Investigating the Story of Gilgamesh

THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH IS OUR FIRST UNIT OF THE SEMESTER.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THEMES AND TOPICS WE ARE STUDYING IN THIS UNIT

What is the heroes Quest?

1. Define the difference between an ordinary quest and an heroic quest. Does it have to do with the scope of the quest, how many people are involved, the status of the questee.

 

 2. Share your answer with a partner

 

 3. Discussion in class of the concept of the hero’s quest

 

 B) Write the definition of hero’s quest in your notebook- the heroes quest is the search for immortal life or secret knowledge?

 

Hook: What happens when someone knows about an upcoming calamity and doesn’t tell anyone. Think about recent tragedies at Columbine or Virginia Tech?

 

 Section on the Power of Dreams:

 

Read Pages 24-27 in your Textbook—It is the story about how U gained the information about the upcoming flood.

 

1. Who warns U about the coming flood, and how does this God of Wisdom accomplish this transfer of knowledge? 

 

 

 

 

2. Explain why the flood story is an archtype? How is it similar to the Bible story of Noah and the

Ark

? What do you predict will be similar, and what will be different about Noah and the character Utnapishtim?

 

 

Students read the following summary to gain additional background information on the character Utnapishtim and his wife.

 

Read this background information on the immortal character Upnapishtim.

 

Read this silently as background to a new character:

 

 

Utnapishtim’s name means “He Who Saw Life,” though “He Who Saw Death” would be just as appropriate, since he witnessed the destruction of the entire world. The former king and priest of Shurrupak, Utnapishtim was the fortunate recipient of the god Ea’s favor. His disdain for Gilgamesh’s desperate quest for eternal life might seem ungenerous, since he himself is immortal, but Utnapishtim must carry a heavy load of survivor’s guilt. He doesn’t know why, of all the people in the world, Ea choses him to

live, but he does know that he tricked hundreds of his doomed neighbors into laboring day and night to build the boat that would carry him and his family to safety while he abandoned them to their fates. What Utnapishtim gained by his trickery was a great boon for humankind, however. He received a promise from the gods that henceforth only individuals would be subject to death and that humankind as a whole would endure.

 

 

Wrap-Up- Additional vocabulary words for fully understanding the content of the epic.:

 

2. What is a Ballast

 

 

2b What does one do when they herald?. Who was it that heralded Jesus?

 

 

2c When one is involved in travail, what is the depth of the worry and problem

Wrap Up:

 

Give an example from your own life when things changed dramatically in a short period of time?