GILGAMESH MINI-ESSAY

"Gilgamesh is stupendous! . . .  I consider it to be

the greatest thing that can happen to a person."   -- Rainer Maria Rilke (1916)

GRADING AND RECOMMENDED LENGTH

This project counts as 35% of the First-Half Portfolio.  The recommended length is approximately 3-5 pages double-spaced.

THE MINI-ESSAY

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient Sumerian myth that dates back more than four thousand years.  Reconstructed from tablets found in the nineteenth century, the story can seem simultaneously strikingly contemporary and very distant.  Your mission is to write a short analytical paper on one major theme of the epic.  The purpose is to open up your own understanding of Gilgamesh.

THE PROCEDURE

Read the Epic of Gilgamesh.  The introduction provided by N.K. Sanders is useful but it can be read either after or before the story itself.

Pick a topic from the list below or design your own.

Write a short but thoughtful and well-organized essay.  Include specific examples and quotations from the text in your paper (footnotes are not necessary but do list the page number for the quotations in parentheses).

An Epic of Gilgamesh Guide page will be added to the Assignment and Discussion Topics sections of the course web-site.  This will include both questions for class discussion and some background materials that may prove helpful to you as you work on this assignment.

SOME POSSIBLE TOPICS

• The Relationship Between Gilgamesh and Enkidu

• Death and The Human Condition in the Epic of Gilgamesh

• Male and Female in Gilgamesh

• The Relationship Between Nature and Civilization in Gilgamesh

• The Relationship Between Gods and Humans in Gilgamesh

• The Meaning of Gilgamesh's Quest

• Gilgamesh as Tragic Hero

• Compare and contrast Gilgamesh as an epic hero with 1) Heracles, 2) Odysseus or 3) ? (your choice)

• Sleep and Dreams in Gilgamesh

• Compare and contrast the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Biblical stories told in Genesis