Mark Ronan's website
Gilgamesh
This is just a brief overview. For a longer synopsis
click here.
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The Epic of Gilgamesh is a
great work of ancient literature, written nearly four thousand years ago. Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk,
a mighty city on the river Euphrates, and the greatest city in the world at
one time. His overbearing nature leads the citizens to appeal for help to the
gods, and they create a counterbalance to him — a primeval man named
Enkidu. Gilgamesh arranges that Enkidu be brought into civilization, and
after becoming bosom friends they undertake a great journey to the distant
cedar forest, far beyond civilization. This is home to the fearsome Humbaba,
placed there by the gods to guard the cedars. After killing Humbaba, they
return to Uruk, and Gilgamesh is offered marriage by the goddess of love,
Ishtar. He spurns her in no uncertain terms, recalling the sorry end of her
previous lovers, and she in her fury brings down the Bull of Heaven to wreak
destruction on the city of Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the bull, but
their audacity is punished by the gods — Enkidu falls ill and dies. Gilgamesh mourns the loss of
his beloved friend, and realises his own mortality. After burying the body,
he sets out on an epic journey to find the immortal Uta-napishti, from whom
he might learn the secret of eternal life. The journey takes him through the
mountains where the sun rises and sets, and where he races the sun itself.
Eventually he reaches the ferryman for Uta-napishti, but in a fit of rage
destroys the 'stone-ones'. What these are, no-one quite knows, but they
somehow help the ferryman sail across the waters of death, to Uta-napishti.
Now he is stuck, and as an alternative, Gilgamesh has to cut down young trees
to use as punting poles. After their arrival,
Uta-napishti tells Gilgamesh the story of the flood. He was instructed by one
of the gods to build a great boat to save himself, his family and all living
things, and when the flood abated, he and his wife received immortality from
the gods. Gilgamesh's desire for immortality he rejects as a foolish quest,
but before sending him home tells him of a plant in the waters under the
earth that will confer eternal youthfulness. Gilgamesh dives for the plant
and takes it back to Uruk with him, accompanied by the ferryman. On the
journey he bathes and a snake eats the plant, then sloughs its skin. Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, a
wiser and better king than the arrogant young man portrayed at the beginning
of the epic. For a more detailed synopsis, click here. |
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