Answer TWO of the following for Wednesday's class (don't worry--I'll give you a shorter set of questions as a break for Friday):
Q1: When Humbaba is defeated he bargains with Gilgamesh, saying “Spare my life, O Gilgamesh…let me dwell here for you in [the forest of Cedar!] Trees as many as you command…” (V.42). Is it shameful/unheroic that Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay him at this moment, beheading him and ripping out his lungs? Or does the poem depict him as an evil and duplicitous creature? How does the poet want us to read this pivotal episode?
Q2: Based on Gilgamesh’s speech to Ishtar, what kind of goddess is she? What relationship does she (an immortal) have with the mortals on earth? Does this have parallels with other gods from the more familiar Greek or Norse traditions? What might this say about the Sumerian/Babylonian view of gods and their place in the world?
Q3: Enkidu’s
speech in Tablet VII against death is one of the first ‘existential’ speeches
in literature. What is the nature of his anger, and why is it particularly
poignant and ironic? Related to this, why does Gilgamesh call it “profanity”
(not meaning curses, necessarily, but maybe more like blasphemy)?
Q4: If you were
a member of Sumerian/Babylonian society, and this was actually your culture and
your gods, would you feel comforted by the will of the gods? Do their actions
in these tablets seem just? Does the poem explain why Enkidu deserves to die
and Gilgamesh to suffer? Do the gods seem to be embodiments of eternal truths…or
heroes and tyrants in a larger form?
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