say what?
"Come, Gilgamesh, be you my bridegroom! Grant me your fruits, O grant me! Be you my husband and I your wife! Let me harness you a chariot of lapis lazuli and gold, its wheels shall be gold and its horns shall be amber..."
Ishtar
This wild man is created to be Gilgamesh's equal and companion.
Enkidu
A recurring image, idea, or pattern throughout a literary work is called this.
a motif
This is the city where Gilgamesh rules as king.
Uruk
This ancient region, located largely in modern-day Iraq, is the setting of Gilgamesh's world.
Mesopotamia
"Life, which you look for, you will never find."
Utnapishtim
This guardian of a bunch of trees is killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
Humbaba
When a character speaks to another character, the words are an example of this literary element.
dialogue
Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to this forest to confront its guardian.
The Cedar Forest
This form of writing, made with wedge-shaped marks, was used on clay tablets.
Cuneiform
"My friend, I have been talking to you but you have not been listening to me, You have been listening to the curse of Humbaba!"
Enkidu
Gilgamesh's mother
Ninsun
a literary technique where an outer story serves as a wrapper or "picture frame" for one or more inner, embedded stories
frame narrative
After the death of his companion, Gilgamesh begins this quest that drives the later part of the epic
Quest for everlasting life (or immortality)
The people of Mesopotamia worshiped multiple gods; this belief system is called this.
polytheism
"...I should have carried you up, and killed you at the very entrance to the branches of the forest.
I should have fed your flesh to the screeching vulture, the eagle, and the vulture..."
Humbaba
This woman introduces Enkidu to human society and civilization.
Shamhat
Gilgamesh and Enkidu's contrasting qualities make them examples of this literary relationship.
Foils
sent by Ishtar after her rejection, this represents famine but it quickly slain by the dynamic duo
The Bull of Heaven
The surviving versions of Gilgamesh were preserved on these durable writing surfaces.
clay tablets
"O Gilgamesh, where are you wandering? The life that you seek you never will find... let your belly be full, enjoy yourself always by day and by night! ... For such is the destiny [of mortal men]."
Siduri
This ancient boatman took Gilgamesh to meet Utnapishtim
Urshanabi
This type of long narrative poem recounts the deeds of a legendary hero.
Epic
Gilgamesh's father
Lugalbanda
mentioned in the epic, this is a rare type of gemstone, blue in color and found in modern-day Afghanistan
lapis lazuli