CLT3378 01 Ancient Mythology East and West Spring 2015 Study Guide for Final Exam As a study aid for the exam make sure you can identify each of the following terms Who is each god or other figure To what culture does the god figure term belong In what literary work does the god figure term appear What does the god figure do in that literary work For a term concept what does the term concept mean How does the term concept relate to the myths cultures and literary works that we have studied Gilgamesh of Unug Started out as an actual historical figure beign the summerian king of the city Over time became a legendary mythical figure o Saying to be 2 3 divine and 1 3 human o A son of the goddess Ninsun and the mortal king Lugalbanda o Gets shaped and formed by the creator goddess herself she made his form perfect In the story we are told o That Gilgamesh himself with his own has built the walls of the city of Uruk o He s actually a really awful person So arrogant and out of control that he goes around and beats up his own male subjects and any woman he sees he rapes Unug city that Gilgamesh was the king of Akkadian language Gilgamesh was written in o renamed the city of Unug to Uruk Uruk the name of the city of Unug after it was renamed by the Akkadians Bilgames the Sumerian name of gilgamesh Ninsun o the divine mother of Gilgamesh o A goddess Lugalbanda o the mortal father of Gilgamesh o A king o When he died he was thought to become a God Epic of Gilgamesh Babylonian 12th tablet version Belit ili o Also forms Gilgamesh s body sculpting it perfectly Forms him with more stature and beauty than other humans Enkidu o Gilagamesh s second self o Created by Aruru belit ili aruru takes a lump of clay and drops it into the wilderness and enkidu is formed o A product of his environment He is born covered with hair wild and uncivilized The animals in the forest take Enkidu in as their own and Enkidu goes around and takes down all of the hunter s traps second self an equal to a hero mostly always doomed to death Shamhat o Name means prostitute o An actual prostitute but still a very important person to the city of Uruk o In the story Gets set by the hunter s father to sleep with Enkidu Ishtar the goddesss of sexual desire and war o In the story Sees Gilgamesh bathing and decides that she wants him After getting rejected she goes to her father and gets the bull of heaven Humbaba put by the god Ellil to be the protector of the Pine forest o Fought by Enkidu and Gilgamesh o Killed by Gilgamesh Ellil the storm god o Put Humbaba to guard the Pine Forest Shamash The sun god o Prayed to by Gilgamesh while fighting Humbaba sends the four winds to help him o Ninsun Gilgamesh s son goes to shamash and asks her to help him fight o Given to Ishtar after she complained to her father Anu about getting divine council myth Humbaba Bull of Heaven denied o Killed by Gilgamesh Utnapishtim o Only person with immortality o Lives at the very edges of the world at the Mouth of the Rivers An underworld type place because it was all the way to the West which was associated with death back then where the sun sets o reached by Gilgamesh who wants immortality Scorpion man o Guards Mashu tells Gilgamesh that mashu is impossible to be entered by mortal men isn t a problem for Gilgamesh because he is 2 3 divine Mashu mountain at edges of earth o twin peaks o where sun Shamash rises in the east o carries a saw which doesn t make sense because its in the west and the sun rises Ur Great Lyre Siduri Urshanabi Apsu o Sumerian city where the great lyre was discovered in a tomb o Discovered in Ur o On the bottom panel of the lyre there was an image of a scorpion man Indicated an underworld funeral connection o sometimes referred to as an alewife beer seller o runs a tavern Mesopotamians were big beer drinkers o Ferryman that takes Gilgamesh across the sea o Where the plant of immortality is At the bottom of Apsu ring composition o the walls that Gilgamesh built were mentioned at the beginning of the story and are mentioned again at the end of the story STORY Gilgamesh the son of Ninsun and Lugalbanda is 2 3 divine and 1 3 human He is also king of the Sumerian city of Uruk Gilgamesh gets shaped by the creator god herself so he is made perfectly We are also told that Belit ili forms Gilgamesh s body sculpting it perfectly and forming him with more stature and beauty than other humans When the story opens Gilgamesh is a grown man He has already succeeded his father and has built the wall of Uruk with his own hands Gilgamesh although king is actually a horrible person as he so is arrogant and out of control that he goes around and beats up his own male subjects and any woman he sees he rapes The people of Uruk pray to the god Anu begging for relief of Gilgamesh Anu answers their prayers and goes to Aruru and gets him to create Enkidu Enkidu is created to be the equal of Gilgamesh being his second self Aruru takes a lump of clay and drops it into the wilderness and Enkidu is formed Enkidu is born a product of his environment being covered with hair wild and uncivilized Enkidu becomes one with the animals and sees them as family so much that he goes around and takes down all of the traps set up by hunters The hunter gets so mad that he goes to his father and complains so his father tells him to go to Uruk and ask Gilgamesh and to ask him if he can borrow a prostitute Gilgamesh lends him the prostitute Shamat she waits for Enkidu at the watering place where he gets his water and when he sees her he is coiled They sleep together for 6 days and 7 nights straight After Enkidu sleeps with Shamat he becomes more wise and civilized and even looks and acts more like a human and is therefore rejected by the animals Pissed off Enkidu goes to Gilgamesh who is getting ready to go to a woman s house the night before her wedding and rape her taking her virginity and making her impure and stands in front of him preventing him to enter the house The men start to wrestle each other but in the process of fighting they realize they re like each other s halves and become best friends Gilgamesh proposes a quest to Enkidu and says that they should fight Humbaba heroic quest myth with Enkidu serving as the guide they finally find the Pine …
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