WORLD LITERATURE I (ENG 251)
UNIT 1: Activities for Gilgamesh and the
Hebrew
Bible
Dr. Diane Thompson, NVCC, ELI
Select the Activity you wish to respond to. Make a copy of the
question to begin your Activity. Post your Activity to the
Blackboard Activity 2:
Gilgamesh and Hebrew Bible Forum. Please title your entry "Activity 2." I will comment on your work on the Forum, and
send your grade to you privately, by email. If you choose to submit a double credit Activity,
indicate that on your essay. It will have to be very well developed to earn double credit.
| Compare the Biblical story of the flood with the
version of the flood told by Utnapishtim in Gilgamesh. Now, identify several
important ways in which
the two floods are similar and several important ways in which they are different. What do you think
is the most striking difference between them and so what? Explain, using specific examples from both
stories to support your ideas. |
| Job is a story of a man who suffers terribly
because God allows him to be tested by Satan. Job passes every test, but in the process he
loses everything dear to him, including his family. God rewards him in the end by giving
him new property and a new family. Compare this conception of divine power with that of
the gods in Gilgamesh, who are irritated with human beings and decide to destroy them all.
What kind of "progress," if any, can you see in the idea of the divine as
"caring" for human beings? You might look at the nature of Utnapishtim's reward
in the end, and of Job's. Be sure to support your argument with reference to specific
examples from both stories. |
| Read the story of Abraham in any
Hebrew Bible. Abraham
left Sumeria to begin the trek that eventually ended in Israel. He became accepted as the
ancestor of the Hebrews, the Christians and the Muslims. Can you see any connections
between the world described in Gilgamesh and the world described in the story of Abraham
or any other selection of your choice from the Hebrew Bible? Give specific examples to
support your ideas. |
| Job's God is incomprehensible total power; there
is no society of other gods to compete with him for control of the universe. Compare this
to the quarreling family of gods in Gilgamesh. Are there any similarities? What are the
most interesting differences? Use specific examples to support your ideas. |
| What was the purpose of the flood in
Gilgamesh?
What was the purpose of the flood in the Hebrew Bible? What do these different purposes
tell you about the relationship of human beings to divinity in each? Use specific examples
from both stories to support your ideas. |
| Compare the story of The Fall in the
Hebrew
Bible with the episode of how Enkidu becomes fully human (by means of the harlot) in
Gilgamesh. In both stories a woman is instrumental in causing a man to become fully
human, and eventually to die, the fate of human beings. Discuss the similarities and the
differences between the two stories, using specific examples from both to support your
ideas. |
| Human suffering is a major theme in
the Hebrew
Bible and in Gilgamesh. Through suffering, human beings can learn about the nature of
reality and their place in it. Compare Job and Gilgamesh as suffering heroes, as they
search for understanding, and come to accept the limits of their human condition. Use
specific examples from both stories to support your ideas. |
| Look at the dreams in
Gilgamesh and in
The
Story of Joseph. Both stories present dreams as bringing true knowledge, if a person
knows how to correctly interpret them. Compare the way Gilgamesh's mother interprets his
dreams to the way Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dreams. Do you see any interesting
similarities or differences? Discuss and support your ideas with examples from both
stories. |
| Compare Joseph in the
Hebrew Bible and Gilgamesh. Both are culture heroes, ancestors of a people, who go through difficult,
painful adventures as they gain understanding and mastery of their lives. Find some
interesting points of similarity, and some interesting points of difference between the
two men and discuss these in some detail, using specific examples from both texts to
support your ideas. |
| Double credit. The story of the creation of Adam
and his expulsion from the garden of Eden has interesting parallels in the creation of
Enkidu and his expulsion from the fellowship of the animals. A contemporary author, Daniel
Quinn, has written an amazingly thoughtful short novel, Ishmael: An Adventure of the
Mind and Spirit, which has very different interpretations of these ancient stories of
human creation and the expulsion from the "garden" of innocence. Read
Ishmael (A Bantam/Turner Book; 1992; paperback edition, 1995).
Then write an essay comparing the three versions of human creation and
expulsion from the "garden."
This Activity is worth up to 100 points if
very well done. |
| Double credit. Anita Diamant
has written a fascinating, feminist novel, The Red Tent, that
retells the story of Joseph's family from the point of view of his
sister Dinah. She has an affair with a non-Hebrew living in town, who
wants to marry her. The men of Joseph's family demand that all the men
of the town must be circumcised before the marriage; they agree. While
the men are recovering from their circumcisions, the men of Dinah's
family go into town and murder them. This much is in the Bible, more
or less. Diamant's story goes on from there to follow Dinah into
another life in Egypt, where she lives for many years and eventually
meets her brother Joseph. The "red tent" itself is
where the women go during their menses, for childbirth, etc. If you
select this option, read the book and write a
comparison/contrast of the two versions of the story of Joseph, the
one in The Red Tent and the one in the
Hebrew Bible.
This Activity is worth up to 100 points if
very well done. |
| Double credit. Read Shlomo
DuNour's novel Adiel (trans. Philip Simpson, The Toby Press,
2002), which is an angel's eye view of Genesis, focusing mostly on the
stories of Adam and Eve and Noah's flood. DuNour's large extended family
was killed in the Holocaust, and he is using the story of the flood as
an analog of the Holocaust. The narrating angel, Adiel, asks constant
questions about how God both creates and destroys. Adiel finds no
satisfactory answer except that God does so. Write a review of this
fascinating book, considering the question of creation/destruction as
presented by Adiel and compare/contrast it to either the
Hebrew Bible and/or
the Gilgamesh version of the flood.
This Activity is worth up to 100 points if
very well done. |
| Both Gilgamesh (after the
death of Enkidu) and the narrator of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible
express profound despair at the meaninglessness of human life that ends
inevitably in death, but they come to very different solutions to this
basic human situation. Explore how each of them despairs and how each
comes to his "solution," as well as what each solution is.
|
(c) Diane Thompson:7/20/1998; updated:
01/27/2011 |