Gilgamesh Research Paper
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Milo Plass
Ms. O’Brien
World Literature
11/24/14
Gilgamesh: Origination of Storytelling and How this Link to the Past is Still Relevant Gilgamesh, over 5,000 years old, is the oldest written work, so then how is it still relevant today? This lies in the structure of the story, in its themes and in its intrinsic values and quests for such things as immortality and the questions about death and mortality that are explored in this book. Gilgamesh, the oldest written work and a poetic narrative, holds clues to the origin of storytelling and how stories have involved, intriguing literary critics and historians to this day. Through analyzing the storytelling …show more content…
This story is also unique in that it was created and recorded
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about 1,500 years before the ancient Greek dramas, and the story itself originated eight hundred years before the written word.
Another important consideration in examining this work is to consider the cultural setting out of which it was born. During the reign of Gilgamesh there was a New Year’s
Festival that was celebrated every year. This New Year’s festival may have traditionally been a purely ritualistic event celebrated in the privacy of a temple but by the time of
Gilgamesh’s reign this was a secular public event that drew masses of people to witness it. In this festival the worship and praise of nature and for fertility of crops took place, marked by the "sexual union of the chief priest and priestess of the temple in an act of sympathetic magic, attempting to ensure fertility for the region" (Cook). …show more content…
Elements of this type of drama and epic myths are present in literature today as well; the impact of Gilgamesh is not lost on present day. For example, there is a flood scene in Gilgamesh that is relatable to the Bible. However, unlike the Biblical flood
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which presents the "world as we desperately want it to be: stable (once the flood is over), just and predictable, in Someone’s reliable control; the Mesopotamian account
[presents] the world as we often experience it, with its messy contingencies and all toocommon horrors." (Keenan) In addition to this realism the book also fascinates in that it "seems to stem from the fact that in so small a compass it offers a variety of narrative forms and types. Its power comes from its presentation of major significance."
Through these elements as well as the mysterious essence of the flood scene, which poses questions such as "If this flood scene was explored back then, was there really a flood?" If so then this may also mean that the Biblical flood had some truth in
Milo Plass
Ms. O’Brien
World Literature
11/24/14
Gilgamesh: Origination of Storytelling and How this Link to the Past is Still Relevant Gilgamesh, over 5,000 years old, is the oldest written work, so then how is it still relevant today? This lies in the structure of the story, in its themes and in its intrinsic values and quests for such things as immortality and the questions about death and mortality that are explored in this book. Gilgamesh, the oldest written work and a poetic narrative, holds clues to the origin of storytelling and how stories have involved, intriguing literary critics and historians to this day. Through analyzing the storytelling …show more content…
This story is also unique in that it was created and recorded
Plass 2
about 1,500 years before the ancient Greek dramas, and the story itself originated eight hundred years before the written word.
Another important consideration in examining this work is to consider the cultural setting out of which it was born. During the reign of Gilgamesh there was a New Year’s
Festival that was celebrated every year. This New Year’s festival may have traditionally been a purely ritualistic event celebrated in the privacy of a temple but by the time of
Gilgamesh’s reign this was a secular public event that drew masses of people to witness it. In this festival the worship and praise of nature and for fertility of crops took place, marked by the "sexual union of the chief priest and priestess of the temple in an act of sympathetic magic, attempting to ensure fertility for the region" (Cook). …show more content…
Elements of this type of drama and epic myths are present in literature today as well; the impact of Gilgamesh is not lost on present day. For example, there is a flood scene in Gilgamesh that is relatable to the Bible. However, unlike the Biblical flood
Plass 6
which presents the "world as we desperately want it to be: stable (once the flood is over), just and predictable, in Someone’s reliable control; the Mesopotamian account
[presents] the world as we often experience it, with its messy contingencies and all toocommon horrors." (Keenan) In addition to this realism the book also fascinates in that it "seems to stem from the fact that in so small a compass it offers a variety of narrative forms and types. Its power comes from its presentation of major significance."
Through these elements as well as the mysterious essence of the flood scene, which poses questions such as "If this flood scene was explored back then, was there really a flood?" If so then this may also mean that the Biblical flood had some truth in