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 (Biblical Erech), a mighty city on the river Euphrates, and the greatest city in the
world at one time. Its inhabitants appeal to the gods for protection from the
king, and the gods produce a counterbalance — a primeval man named
Enkidu, created in the outback from the dust of the earth. Gilgamesh arranges
for Enkidu to be seduced into civilization by a famous courtesan, and the two
men become bosom friends. They then undertake a great journey to the distant
cedar forest, far beyond civilization, and 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, realising his own mortality, and 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. He rejects Gilgamesh's desire for
immortality as a foolish quest, but before sending him home tells him of a
plant that will confer eternal youthfulness — it grows in the waters
under the earth. Gilgamesh dives for the plant, and takes it back to Uruk
with him, accompanied by the ferryman. On the journey home 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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