Questions Based on the Gilgamesh Script:
1. Why was it significant that Gilgamesh built a great wall around Uruk?
2. Where would the temple Eanna have been built inside the city?
3. Fill in adjectives that describe the following:
A. Gilgamesh’s ______wisdom
B. Gilgamesh’s ______strength
C. Gilgamesh’s ______valor
4. Gilgamesh was ____god and ____ man.
5. Gilgamesh became arrogant and tyrannical. Name two actions that showed his arrogance.
6. The elders of the city pray to the gods to create a man that would be ______to Gilgamesh.
7. Anu created a man named ______. She made him from a pinch of ______.
8. A hunter observed that Enkidu ate grass with the ______and drank in peace with the ______.
9. The hunter also feared Enkidu because he ______the hunter’s pits and ______the hunter’s traps.
10. Gilgamesh decides to weaken Enkidu by sending whom to him?
11. What is a courtesan?
12. After being with the courtesan, Enkidu could no longer run like the animals, but he had gained______and ______.
13. Who is the goddess of love?
14. Gilgamesh’s mother Ninsun interprets his dream and says that the star in his dream is ______.
15. She says the axe in his second dream is what kind of man?______What is this man’s name?
16. During his time with the shepherds, Enkidu is introduced to two ways of men that are new to him. What are they?
17. When Enkidu enters Uruk, he blocks Gilgamesh’s way. What is Gilgamesh on his way to do?
18. The wrestling match between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is a symbolic clash between civilization and nature. Which one of them represents civilization?______Nature?______
19. They wrestle as if they are enemies but yet they become the best of friends after they fight. Explain why this happens.
20. On what adventure does Gilgamesh want Enkidu to accompany him? Where will they go?______What monster will they fight?______
21. What kind of trees grow in the forest?
22. What is Humbaba’s job in the forest?______
Describe his roar.______
Describe his breath.______
23. What happens to a man when he gazes upon Humbaba?
24. Gilgamesh scolds Enkidu for fearing Humbaba. Gilgamesh says that they will go in the bond of ______and that he will make an ______name for himself.
25. Gilgamesh orders new armor for himself and Enkidu—axes, swords, and sheaths, so that they bear ______pounds of armor each.
26. What comes from Humbaba’s mouth?
27. What adjective is used to describe Humbaba’s force?
28. The elders try to warn Gilgamesh not to go into the Cedar Forest. Name two warnings that they give to Gilagamesh.
29. What do the elders advise Gilgamesh to do in order to protect himself?
30. Copy one of the prayers that the elders pray as Gilgamesh and Enkidu leave the city.
31. What does Ninsun, Gilgamesh’s mother, ask Shamash (the sun god who endowed Gilgamesh with beauty when he was born) to do?
32. What does Ninsun ask Enkidu to do?
33. When Gilgamesh looks upon the gate of the forest and beholds the keeper of the gate, what does he finally understand?
34. According to Enkidu, why should Gilgamesh go ahead and attack immediately?
35. What happens to Enkidu’s hand when he touches the gate?
36. Gilgamesh and Enkidu sleep in the forest. Gilgamesh dreams about a mountain that topples on him. Enkidu says that it represents______.
37. Who is the man that rescues Gilgamesh in his dream?
38. Enkidu dreams that his ______fails him.
39. Gilgamesh has another dream, a frightful one, which ends with Gilgamesh standing in ______.
40. Enkidu assures him that his frightful dream represents what?
41. Enkidu also reassures Gilgamesh that, in victory or defeat, what will live forever?
42. What arouses or causes Humbaba to be alarmed?
43. At first, whose power was strongest in the fight with Humbaba versus Enkidu and Gilgamesh?
44. Shamash, the sun god, helped Gilgamesh by sending eight winds which did what?
45. Humbaba tries to make a deal with Gilgamesh. What is the deal?
46. Enkidu strikes Humbaba. What happens to Humbaba?
47. When Gilgamesh returns to the city, the goddess of love, Ishtar, is attracted to him and asks him to be her consort. Define consort.
48. List three of the many promises that she makes to him if he will be her husband.
49. Gilgamesh turns her request down, accusing her of unfaithfulness. He insults her. List three of the insults he says to her.
50. Ishtar runs to her father Anu and asks him to punish Gilgamesh for insulting her. She asks him to create a ______to charge down upon Gilgamesh.
51. Anu gives in to Ishtar’s request because she threatens to do what?
52. The bull of heaven is sent down and it kills ______men with its first snort.
53. Enkidu first grabs the bull by the horns. Later he grabs it by its tail and Gilgamesh stabs it. After they have killed it, they tear out ______and offer it to ______.
54. Ishtar is angry, but Gilgamesh and Enkidu return to the city and celebrate how?
55. Enkidu has a bad dream in which Anu says that one of them, Gilgamesh or Enkidu, must pay for killing the bull. How must they pay?
56. As Enkidu is dying, he remembers specific times in his life. Name two.
57. Enkidu says that if it were not for the paradoxes of life, he would not know what he is losing. What is a paradox?
58. In Enkidu’s dream, he sees a solemn apparition. Define apparition.
59. Describe his apparition.
60. Who is Irkalla?
61. What do the people of the underworld eat?
62. What transformation happens when one is taken to the underworld?
63. What classes of people dwell in the underworld?
64. Often in dreams there is a feeling of paralysis, of the inability to move or get away. Copy a line that shows this feeling in Enkidu’s dream experience.
65. Gilgamesh says that the dream is ominous. Define ominous.
66. Enkidu is sick and dying. He says that one who dies in battle is ______, but that he will die in ______.
67. Next to life, Enkidu says that he loved his friend. Gilgamesh shows his sorrow through certain actions. List three of these.
68. After Enkidu is buried, Gilgamesh imitates the appearance and the original life of Enkidu. Explain.
69. Finally, Gilgamesh realizes that he fears death now and he will go on a quest. Whom will he seek?
70. At the mountain of Mashu, what kind of people keep watch?
71. Where must Gilgamesh go in order to find Utnapishtim?
72. When he arrives at the place where Utnapishtim lives, he sees a new world of ______and ______.
73. Who is Enlil?
74. Gilgamesh travels until he comes to the dwelling of Siduri, who is a wine maker living by the Mediterranean Sea. How does she react at first to Gilgamesh’s coming?
75. When Siduri asks Gilgamesh why he is so pale (wan) and so emaciated (undernourished and weak), what does he reply?
76. Siduri advises Gilgamesh not to seek immortality but to be content to be a man, a mortal, and do what sorts of things?
77. Siduri also advises Gilgamesh not to try to cross the sea on his own power because he will die. When he insists, she tells him to find Urshanabi. Who is he?
78. Gilgamesh goes into the woods and cuts off the heads of the stone images. What is he perhaps trying to prove by doing this?
79. Why was this act of destroying the stone images a rash decision on Gilgamesh’s part?
80. Now he has to find another way to cross. Urshanabi tells him to cut down how many punting poles?______A score is how many?______How many is six score?_____
81. The poles should be six cubits long. A cubit is between 18 and 22 inches, so the poles should be between ______and _____ inches or approximately _____feet.
82. Bitumen is resin (sticky stuff) that comes from trees. Plates would have been thin pieces of metal or wood used for protection. In essence, what is Urshanabi asking Gilgamesh to build?
83. Why would Gilgamesh have to use 120 different poles and not use any of them over again?
84. A mantle is a cloak. For what does Gilgamesh use his?
85. What does Utnapishtim’s name mean?
86. Copy the lines that tell what Gilgamesh seeks.
87. Utnapishtim answers Gilgamesh and ends his speech with a summary statement of three words:
______
88. We finally learn why Utnapishtim is so special. What is it that he has that no other man has?
89. Utnapishtim says that the gods sent a deluge. Define deluge.
90. Utnapishtim tells a story very similar to the story of Noah and the flood. Which three birds does Utnapishtim send out to see if the flood water have receded?
91. After the flood, Enlil granted what to Utnapishtim and his wife?
92. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that to find eternal life, he will have to undergo a test. What is the test?
93. How will Utnapishtim mark the number of days that Gilgamesh sleeps?
94. Utnapishtim sends Urshanabi and Gilgamesh away. First, he orders Urshanabi to do what for Gilgamesh?
95. It was an ancient custom to never send a guest away empty handed. Utnapishtim, at his wife’s urging, gives Gilgamesh the secret to finding eternal life. What must Gilgamesh go and find?
96. What are the characteristics of the plant of immortality?
97. What did Gilgamesh do in order to reach the bottom of the deep waters?
98. Gilgamesh gives a long name to the plant. What is the name?
99. Who steals the plant and what happens when it steals the plant?______What word is used by Gilgamesh to refer to the one who steals it?
100. Gilgamesh and Urshanabi return to Uruk. Gilgamesh has lost the gift of eternal life but he has gained knowledge and wisdom and will be a better king because of his journey. Who sits in the place of friendship where Enkidu used to sit?