Essay #1

Students, I have crossed the River of Death and have returned from the House of Dust (after all appropriate and gruesome sacrifices have been made) with questions for all of you. Enlil must have been angry, because the gods gave me questions instead of answers to share with you.

Utanapishtim seems to think that if each of you writes a four to six page paper (typed, double spaced, with one inch margins all around) on the epics with which we began the fall, you, too, may be granted safe passage through this semester.

Later, Enkidu said the questions are just prompts and that it will be up to you to flesh them out. He suggested you use an axe. When I told him you didn’t have any, he suggested you use your brains.

Here then, are the questions, straight from the faraway. Choose one and work it into an original thesis. Use textual evidence in the form of quotations and paraphrasing from GILGAMESH, or THE ODYSSEY to support your claims. Use MLA style in citing the text.

Finally, Gilgamesh, in his wisdom, recommends that you conference your paper with me. While not mandatory, the gods (and I) would be pleased. Turn in your essay Friday, September 21, in class

FROM GILGAMESH:

Defend the following statement from literary critic Bernd Jager:
“Both Gilgamesh and Enkidu repeat in their voyage humanity’s passage from an original, savage state based on violence and contained by natural barriers to a new poetic, civic, and religious order that is based on neighborliness and the principle of the threshold.”

Consider the issues of sex and gender in GILGAMESH. You might look at the role of women, the ambiguous relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Enkidu and the harlot, etc.

Compare GILGAMESH to elements of the Old Testament. Why might it be significant to draw these comparisons? What universal lessons are the ancients imparting?


FROM THE ODYSSEY:

Consider Telemachus and/or Nausicaa as initiates, and their evolving identities and choices as they enter adulthood.

Consider the intensity of the violence throughout this book - do you find it unsettling or "over the top"? Why or why not? Does the epic narrator take up an attitude towards the violence?

Consider the following question: Does Odysseus want to go home?


COMPARING and CONTRASTING:

Consider the role of hero in both epics. What are the responsibilities of a hero? Are Odysseus and Gilgamesh good at the role? Or have they upset the world order with their heroics?

Compare the ways in which nature is viewed in both epics. Is the killing of Humbaba and the Cyclops merited? How might human insolence conflict with the natural world in the epics?

Compare the role of the powerful woman in both epics. Think about the ways that Circe and Ishtar use sex to control the heroes. What about the “good wife” archetypes of Utanapishtim’s wife and Penelope? Are there any similarities here?