Cuneiform Symbols Used In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh was a story completely written in cuneiform. The author for this Epic poem is unknown and remains a mystery. According to, Spar, “Some time in the twelfth century B.C., Sin-leqi-unninni, a Babylonian scholar, recorded what was to become a classic version of the Gilgamesh tale (p.6).”

Mesopotamia developed a form of writing known as cuneiform. Their writing evolved from pictures into signs. Mesopotamians used writing mainly for record keeping. They would put business transactions into writing and had a written code of law. They also had literature like The Epic of Gilgamesh. The Epic of Gilgamesh is about one of the earliest passions of man, the search for eternal life. The Mesopotamians had a school for writing because they wanted trained scribes for

The Epic of Gilgamesh is generally regarded as the greatest literature about tales of a great king. The Epic of Gilgamesh served to show us a lot of things. The time period of BCE is very blurry, and this story attempts to describe many different things in not only Sumerian beliefs, but also Sumerian's culture as a whole. Like many stories from BCE the truth itself is questionable, even though a lot of the information is fact. The factual information that Gilgamesh teaches us about Sumerian Civilization is that had had many craftsman and artistic skills, and also a strong belief in Gods.

It is the earliest piece of literature from Mesopotamia and shows how society advanced in writing and as a culture. It is the first work to be recorded by mankind which is extremely significant as human beings. It also gives information of how Gilgamesh treated others as a ruler. It brings up the idea of how a ruler, or one with greater powers, should treat people.

The Sumerians created a civilization located in the Fertile Crescent, or Mesopotamia, which is located in the Middle East. The legendary ruler of the Sumerians, Hammurabi, was famous for his set

. Mesopotamia, current day Iraq, derived its name from words meaning, "the land between the rivers," which refers to the Tigris and Euphrates. This land was inhabited during the fourth millennium B.C.E. and throughout time transcended into political and military organizations. The significance of these cultures revolved around important warrior figures and their impact on society. The most important figure that will be discussed is the protagonist from The Epic of Gilgamesh. Many consider it to be the greatest literary composition written in cuneiform Akkadian around 2150 BC. This epic portrays the life of the great warrior, Gilgamesh. It chronicles how his victories, both militaristic and internal,

In early society epic poems such as, the Epic of Gilgamesh, were significant to the people who wrote them and the historians who came later; because they symbolize a people's understanding of their past. The Epic of Gilgamesh reveals that the Sumerians believed that humans were created by the Gods and were at their mercy. This create some uncertainty for the Sumerians where they are searching for immortality because they are uncertain of when the Gods will decide to take life away from them. The humans try to prove themselves to the Gods, so that the Gods will favor and protect them. The desire to escape death is a recurrent theme throughout history, but the Epic of Gilgamesh is the first recorded account on this matter.

The epic poem of Gilgamesh is written in Cuneiform, which is the first written language that took thousands of years to develop. Gilgamesh was also based around similar locations within the current Southwest part of Asia such as Uruk, Mesopotamia, Tigris River, and Euphrates River. The reason the locations are so influential is because it resembled the specific areas during the time where cultural diffusion was widely spread. It also dealt a lot with Sumerians as they were basically the first civilization and cities to hold over lordship successively. Gilgamesh also had Polytheism influence within the story, such as the goddess Ishtar, the Babylonian and Assyrian goddess of fertility, love, hunt, war, and marriage.

While telling the story of Gilgamesh, the unknown author also incorporates many aspects of Sumerian society into the epic such as the government structure of Uruk, floods that would constantly interfere with the lives of the people of the Sumerian society, and showing how vital clay was in the Sumerian society. The Epic of Gilgamesh begins

The Epic of Gilgamesh has many events in it that reflect the values and culture of acient mesopotamian life. the people of mesopotamia valued the gods and the relationship between mortals and imortals, the value of life and living to the fullest, And the value of firendship and love. the gods role in the Epic of Gilgamesh is very large through out the epic they are seen as a helpful and guiding force. one example of the gods lending a hand is when gilgamesh and enkidu go to the cedar forest to fight the demon humbaba. they call on the great god shamash to assist them in entering the cedar forest, slaying humbaba, and cutting down the cedar trees to bring back to the great walled city of uruk.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest epic known to date. It is an old Babylonian tale first written down in Sumerian. The first known copy of the epic is dated to around 2100 to 2000 B.C.E. However, it is believed to have originated many years earlier passed along though oral story telling. The epic was used in Babylonian schools to teach literature to students (Puchner 36). In ancient times, the Epic of Gilgamesh was widely read from Mesopotamia to Syria to Levant and Anatolia. The epic was also translated into non-Mesopotamian languages such as Hittite (Puchner 34). The story we know today was expanded upon around 1200 B.C.E. by a Babylonian priest. “The eleven-tablet version may be said to have assumed its present form during the latter part of the second millennium”(Abusch 618). It was then written down again and stored in the library of an Assyrian king named Ashurbanipal (Ziolkowski 55-56). It was thanks to this act that

Being one of the earliest known works of literature, “The Epic of Gilgamesh is a classic work of myth, and a must-read for all who desire a fuller understanding of ancient Sumerian culture” (literaryanalysis.net). This classic offers a chance to investigate how deities interact with humanity and to come face-to-face with the dreaded mortality of man.

The excerpts from “The Epic of Gilgamesh” are a summary of a story of a Mesopotamian king and his adventures with the gods and immortality. “The Epic of Gilgamesh” was written in stone about 2000 B.C. This story shows that the values of beauty and strength were strived for by ancient people of Mesopotamia because these were the traits they admired in their herculean hero Gilgamesh.

Lessons In The Epic of Gilgamesh For sometime, the reasoning and evidence behind Gilgamesh being in the school curriculum has been questioned. Are the lessons in the story useful, or are there valuable lessons at all? The lessons in The Epic of Gilgamesh are infact useful to everyone, and can impact the youth in the community in positive ways. The Epic of Gilgamesh teaches lessons that are infact critical and should stay in the curriculum.

The Sumerians Sumer was the first urban civilization in Mesopotamia, which was itself the world’s first civilization. Sumer was located in modern day Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and it contained a population of between .8 million to 1.5 million people. The Sumerians are known for cuneiform writing and creating the first legal code. The Sumerians were a complex and mysterious people. Below are some facts about this early civilization.