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Question 1

Hesiod’s hero

Answer 1

hemitheoi = half-god, semi-divi

Question 2

Earliest known account of a mythical hero

Answer 2

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Question 3

Uruk

Answer 3

the world’s first real urban center with a population of at least 25,000 by 3000
BCE.
• The circuit of its wall in 3100 BCE was six miles!
• Also developed world’s first writing system, cuneiform, to write the Sumerian
language.
• It was located in what is today Iraq

Question 4

a historical king of the Sumerian city of Uruk around 2700 BCE

Answer 4

Gilgamesh

Question 5

Most complete account in 11 tablets excavated from the Assyrian
city of Nineveh, city destroyed in 7th century BCE

Answer 5

Epic of Gilgamesh

Question 6

Mesopotamia

Answer 6

the land ‘Between the Rivers’ Tigris & Euphrates

Question 7

An/Anu

Answer 7

(old king of heaven) (compare Uranus or Cronus)

Question 8

Enlil

Answer 8

storms, kingship) (compare Zeus)

Question 9

Inanna/Ishtar

Answer 9

sexual love and war / queen of heaven) (compare Aphrodite and Hera)

Question 10

Enki/Ea

Answer 10

wisdom, trickster) (compare Hermes and Prometheus)

Question 11

Ereshkigal

Answer 11

goddess of underworld, dead) (compare Hades

Question 12

Utu/Shamash

Answer 12

sun) (compare Helios

Question 13

Gilgamesh (begining)

Answer 13

Gilgamesh is already a great king with no rivals, begins
to abuse his power (man of city)
– Sleeps with every virgin the night before her wedding
– Wears out the young men in exercises
– Acts more like a god than a human (no real limits to his power)

Question 14

Gilgamesh’s people

Answer 14

The people beg the gods for relief, and so a new character is created by them
to counter Gilgamesh.

Question 15

Enkidu

Answer 15

(man of nature).
– Lived in the wild, ate grass, ran with animals, destroy traps set by men
– Gilgamesh sends out a temple prostitute «Shamhat» to ‘tame’ him
– Human sex leads to loss of innocence; Enkidu is now civilized and the animals shun him;
gains knowledge as a compensation for his loss of strength and innocence

Question 16

Stays for a while with shepherds: a sort of halfway house betwixt
nature and culture

Answer 16

Enkidu

Question 17

There he learns to eat food and drink beer (products of
culture/civilization) and help the shepherds against attacks on their
flocks by wild beasts.

Answer 17

Enkidu

Question 18

They wrestle, and —– is thrown, but the two become best of
friends.

Answer 18

Enkidu

Question 19

Importance of male companionship for hero

Answer 19

homosocial bond = culture = progress
• More important than sex with women (which = nature)

Question 20

The two seek fame through dangerous task

Answer 20

to kill the
guardian of the Cedar Forest, Humbaba

Question 21

wants to have sex with him Gilgamesh

Answer 21

Ishtar

Question 22

Gilgamesh mocks her as a treacherous lover

Answer 22

Ishtar

Question 23

Ishtar responds

Answer 23

y having the Bull of Heaven sent to kill
Gilgamesh.
• Bull of Heaven = famine

Question 24

Enkidu jumps on the bull, holds the horns so that Gilgamesh can slice
open the neck.
• Ishtar shows up to curse Gilgamesh, and Enkidu throws the bull’s
genitals/haunch at her.
• Divine punishment will soon be inescapable.

Answer 24

Gilgamesh and Enkidu

Question 25

Enkidu dreams of death. • Enkidu describes the realm of Ereshkigal

Answer 25

a place where bird-like spirits sit in darkness and eat dust and clay. All are treated the same. • He then becomes sick and dies.

Question 26

After the Death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh does what?

Answer 26

Gilgamesh goes on a massive odyssey seeking to learn about life and death and to try to obtain actual immortality!

Question 27

Gilgamesh does what in the beginning of his odyssey

Answer 27

Lives like animal in wilderness, kills lions, and wears their skins for clothing • He reverts to a natural state, sort of like Enkidu at the story’s beginning. • Travels for 12 days in darkness to the Garden of the Gods, wants to learn about immortality. • Meets Siduri, the divine barmaid (!) of the Garden – Her divine advice: death is part of human life, pursue the human pleasures of wife and home and children, food and drink, dancing and feasting. – He rejects her advice but asks how to get to Utanapishtim.

Question 28

Gilgamesh cannot accept this, journeys across the waters of ocean to find

Answer 28

Utnapishtim <>

Question 29

Utnapishtim

Answer 29

Ziusudra, Atrahasis (cf. Noah)

Question 30

Utnapishtim

Answer 30

is warned of the coming flood by Ea/Enki. – Built a boat, saved earth’s animals and his family. – Enlil regrets the flood, makes Utnapishtim immortal.

Question 31

Utnapishtim to Gilgamesh

Answer 31

Only way to become immortal is by the grace of the immortals. • Doesn’t matter how strong you are. • Who will convene the gods for you, Gilgamesh?

Question 32

‘So you, Gilgamesh, wanna be immortal, do you?’ • He challenges Gilgamesh

Answer 32

to overcome sleep as first step to overcoming immortality (why this test?) • Gilgamesh immediately accepts the challenge. • Instead of staying awake, he sleeps for six days. • Utnapishtim’s wife bakes bread daily to prove it. • Thus, a symbol of culture (bread) at the story’s beginning now becomes a symbol of the limit of human culture in the face of death (nature)

Question 33

Utnapishtim then tells him of an underwater plant

Answer 33

restores youth (but does not grant immortality). • Gilgamesh ties rocks to his feet and dives down to find the plant (but does not eat it). Wants to take it home to Uruk, but a snake steals it from him on the way home. • Etiology: snake then sheds its skin, becomes young again.

Question 34

Gilgamesh at last gives up and goes home, realizes limitations of mortals

Answer 34

Utnapishtim’s place becomes forever inaccessible after this Writes his story on cuneiform tablets and places in wall of city (a means of outlasting mortality).

Question 35

mortality vs. immortality (

Answer 35

offspring vs. fame

Question 36

Dangers and pleasures of civilized world vs. the lost simplicity of the natural world

Answer 36

nature vs. culture

Question 37

Important (Folktale) Motifs Common in Heroic Myth

Answer 37

Hero has a divine parent, but is mortal, Hero has miraculous birth or childhood, Hero has great strength and beauty, Hero a harm to his enemies but also to his own people, Hero’s truest companion is another male., Hero compelled by his enemy to perform impossible tasks (not Gilgamesh but by his own choices)., Hero resists the temptations of an enticing but dangerous woman

Question 38

Homosocial relationship

Answer 38

male/male = culture and immortality through fame

Question 39

Heterosexual relationship

Answer 39

male/female = nature and immortality through offspring