If you are looking for the beginning of the Epic of Gilgamesh study you should start HERE with the Historical introduction. The links to each set of study questions will be posted at the bottom of that original post as they are completed so you can easily find whichever section you are looking for.
Grammar Questions: (The Facts of the Text)
How many “leagues” per day do Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel? (i)
What do the companions give as an offering to the god Shamash? (i)
What interpretation does Enkidu give for the mountain in Gilgamesh’s first dream? (i)
What interpretation does Enkidu give for the bull in his second dream? (i)
What word does Enkidu use to describe each dream Gilgamesh has? (i)
How many “terrors” is Huwawa usually clothed in? How many is he wearing now? (i)
The “Cedar Mountain” is described as the throne of which god? (ii)
How is the cedar forest described? (ii)
List the “thirteen storms against Huwawa.” (ii)
What does Huwawa offer to Gilgamesh if Gilgamesh will spare his life? (iii)
How do Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill Huwawa? (iii)
What does Gilgamesh build for Uruk from the cedars? (iii)
Logic Questions: (The Interpretation of the Text)
What does the incredible distance traveled each day by the two warriors indicate about them? (i)
Enkidu finds “the hidden water” repeatedly in this reading. What does this tell us about whether or not Gilgamesh listened to the advice of the “old men” in the previous tablet? (i)
After his third dream Gilgamesh says “Let us go back from the mountain, down to the plain.” What might this statement imply about Gilgamesh at this point? (i)
Why might Huwawa not be wearing all of his terrors presently? (i)
A “confusion of voices” breaks out in the forest. Whose voices do you think they are? (ii)
What does it mean when the text says, “always the face of Huwawa was somewhere there” and “The face of Huwawa keeps changing?” (ii)
Why does Gilgamesh take Huwawa’s head back to Uruk? (iii)
What are some ways we see the importance of this great task being faced with a friend rather than alone? (ii-iii)
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analyzing Ideas in the Text)
Do you think Enkidu really knew what the dreams meant or was he just being encouraging? (i)
Do you think that Shamash needed Gilgamesh and Enkidu in order to defeat Huwawa or could he have done it himself? (ii)
Do you think Huwawa’s warning about “Enlil…the first of gods” will cause Gilgamesh problems later? (iii)
What other examples can you think of in history and literature where a person/hero was only successful because of a friend who stuck closer to him than a brother?
Theological Analysis: (Bringing the Scripture to Bear on the Text)
Gilgamesh “climbed to a high place” (i) in order to make his offering to Shamesh. What are “high places” associated with in Scripture? Consider the following texts: Leviticus 26:27-33; Deuteronomy 12:1-7.
Compare and contrast Gilgamesh’s experience with Shamesh speaking to him in dreams with young Samuel’s experience in 1 Samuel 3. What is similar and what is different?
Compare parts ii-iii of this reading with 1 Samuel 17. What is similar and different about these accounts?
Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)
Beauty, Friendship, Temptation