Unit 1

English 203:  Literature  of the  NonWestern  World

Review:

You learned something about two ancient & only partially understood cultures that contributed to the evolution of Western culture but were themselves lost & forgotten: Mesopotamia & Egypt.

You found that the Gilgamesh myth has interesting similarities with Genesis, Homer & even the New Testament (e.g., that GIL is 2/3 divine, 1/3 human).

Strangely, GIL is too divine or too removed from human emotional experience.  He is consequently humanized by being involved in something like family & civic life.  Enkidu is his brother.

You found that Mesopotamian culture, like Homer's world, was pessimistic about death.  Despite his 2/3 divinity, GIL dies just like Homer's Achilles, whose mother is a goddess (Thetis).
You should remember that the Gilgamesh myth advertises & advocates urban life.  In large part it is celebrative, inviting us to feel proud of our great civilization that is equaled -- in 2,500 bce -- only in distant Egypt & far off China.

Gilgamesh does not often rise to the level of great, moving poetry, but this passage is poignantly memorable & parallels some of the most profound thinking in both Greece & in Asia:

When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping.  As for you, GIL, fill your belly with good things; day & night, night & day, dance & be merry, feast & rejoice.  Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, & make you wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man (34).

I expect that you were surprised by the Egyptian poems.  The religious thinking evident in the first three poems is both sophisticated & knowledgeable of the supposedly superior merits of monotheistic belief.  If we did not known that these were ancient Egyptian poems, we may easily have thought that they expressed Judeo/Christian/Islamic belief & ideas.

The other surprise is how charming the adolescent love poems are.  They seem artless, direct, & entirely contemporary.  They are also superior to the thousands of poems that have been written since these were written, which become dull & muddy by trying so hard to express romantic love in some fresh way.

This is the end of unit 1.  Next week you will work through unit 2.  It will have the same structure & you will use the same navigation bar.  See you then.