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)
What is determined by the council of the gods concerning Enkidu? (i-ii)
What would Enkidu have done to the cedar he “helped bring to the city” if he had known he would die? (ii)
Which two people does Enkidu speak curses against? (iii)
How does Shamash respond to Enkidu’s curses? (iii)
How is the man described who attacked Enkidu in his dream? (iv)
Enkidu “cried out in the dark to Gilgamesh.” What did he say? (iv)
What is Enkidu transformed into? (iv)
How is “the House of Darkness” described? What is there? (iv)
What does Enkidu say is the reason that Gilgamesh does not help him? (v)
Logic Questions: (Interpreting the Text)
What does the council of the gods reveal about their respective wills? (i)
Why does Enkidu want his name forgotten? (ii)
“Gilgamesh the brother will pray to the gods…Gilgamesh the king will build a statue…” Why does the author make a distinction between what Gilgamesh will do according to his role as brother and his role as king? (ii)
Why does Enkidu call down curses on those two people? (iii)
Do you think Enkidu repents fully from the curses he called down? Why or why not? (iii)
What is the “noise in the sky” and what is the “noise in the earth” which answered? (iv)
In Enkidu’s dream, why is he not able to overcome the monster that attacks him? (iv)
What is the enemy that Enkidu has to face alone? (iv-v)
Rhetoric Questions: (Analyzing Ideas in the Text)
In Tablet 1 we saw Enkidu’s “heart was beginning to know itself.” (I.iv) Now we see the “Stormy heart of Enkidu…rages with understanding of the fate the high gods have established for mankind.” (VII.ii) Does greater understanding necessarily lead us to greater misery? Why or why not?
Memento Mori is Latin for “remember your death.” How should the knowledge we will one day die affect our life now?
Do we all, like Enkidu, face death alone? (iv-v)
Theological Analysis: (Bringing the Scripture to Bear on the Text)
Compare the council of the gods in part (i) with Psalm 2 and Psalm 96. How is YHWH, the God of the Bible, different from the gods of Gilgamesh?
Compare part (ii-iii) of this reading with Job 3. What are some similarities and differences between Enkidu and Job’s wrestling with their suffering and mortality?
Consider the view of the “Underworld” that is presented to us in Gilgamesh (iv) and compare it to the description Jesus gives of the place of the dead in Luke 16:19-31. What are some fundamental differences between these two depictions?
Read 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and compare this to the idea of “the House of No Return” in part (iv) of our reading. How does the Christian faith offer hope where the religion present in The Epic of Gilgamesh offers none?
Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)
Suffering, Death