Inscription and Image

R missed this week's Gilgamesh gathering due to a family trip to Kansas City. Yet she still got a taste of Mesopotamia when she encountered an Assyrian palace sculpture at the Nelson-Atkins Museum.

Her eyes lit up once she looked more closely and realized that inscribed onto the surface of the statue itself was . . . cuneiform.

Four ways to end a wrestling match

Here's one version of the initial, violent encounter of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, from Tablet II:

Ludmila Zeman, Gilgamesh the King

Enkidu blocked the entry to the marital chamber,
and would not allow Gilgamesh to be brought in.
They grappled with each other at the entry to the marital chamber,
in the street they attacked each other, the public square of the land.
The doorposts trembled and the wall shook,
Gilgamesh bent his knees, with his other foot on the ground,
his anger abated and he turned his chest away.
. . . They kissed each other and became friends.


Their first impulse is to grapple with one another, as enemies. But finding one another equal in strength, the wrestling turns to an embrace, as intimates. Later, they take on the bull of heaven, together; wrestling with the natural world is apparently a common motif in Mesopotamian art.

4th century BCE coin

As we think back to the struggles of last year's Greek heroes, one notable difference from Gilgamesh is the comparative solitude of the quests of Telemachus (who wrestles with Proteus) and Odysseus (who earlier in The Iliad defeated Ajax during their funeral games for Patroclus). In the Homeric epics, one man bests another, and carries this triumph forward. For Gilgamesh, wrestling provides an occasion for recognizing an extraordinary peer, one about whom he had been dreaming.

Marc Chagall, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel

A third, biblical analogue (Genesis 32) is Jacob wrestling with—a man? an angel? God? himself?

Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him.

Throughout the history of reading and interpreting writing, there are places where you don’t even know with what obscure thing you are wrestling. The outcome is uncertain. And when you begin to delve into commentary, you are immediately reminded that you are not alone in this struggle—centuries of careful thinkers have similarly wrestled with the text, and with one another, in an ongoing conversation. 

2009 Globe As You Like It

Shakespeare gives us a fourth outcome, with wrestling leading not to glory, or male-bonding, or a confrontation between the self and the divine, but to a metaphor for romance. In As You Like It, Rosalind effuses to an unexpectedly victorious Orlando: "Sir, you have wrestled well, and overthrown / More than your enemies." To himself, he marvels in reply: "O poor Orlando! Thou art overthrown"—by love.

Here are the closing lines from a poem by Rilke, which alludes to the Genesis account above. No matter the outcome, it's clear the these intense physical encounters have left the wrestlers changed, often irrevocably. 

“The Man Watching” (translated by Robert Bly)

When we win it's with small things, 
and the triumph itself makes us small. 
What is extraordinary and eternal 
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared to the wrestlers of the Old Testament: 
when the wrestlers’ sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.

Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight) 
went away proud and strengthened 
and great from that harsh hand,
that, like a sculptor’s, shaped him.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively, 
by constantly greater forces. 

Lecture on Odyssey statues

From Professor Tronchin at Rhodes College:

Please join the Department of Art & Art History in welcoming Professor Steven Tuck (Classics and Art History, Miami University of Ohio).

He will present the annual Ruffin Lecture in the Fine Arts this Thursday, February 7, at 6PM in Frazier Jelke B.

Tuck will be speaking about the grotto of the Roman emperor Tiberius at Sperlonga, south of Rome.

It was a cave turned into an elaborate and unique “banquet hall,” filled with sculptures depicting scenes from the Odyssey, including the blinding of Polyphemus and Scylla attacking Odysseus’ ship. These statues are colossal—think minivan-sized or larger.

As the cave was only discovered and excavated in the 1950s, the sculpture and the related dining space and villa are quite open for interpretation.

Reconstruction of the Polyphemus group from the Sperlonga grotto

Listening to Gilgamesh

E's grandfather has been following our progress online, and he recommends the "History of Our World" podcast on Gilgamesh. It's 45 minutes long, and dramatizes the epic.

A good video introduction to the cultural legacy of Gilgamesh can be found in this program, 30 minutes long. It includes interviews with Ludmila Zeman, David Damrosch, and others who have interpreted and retold this story.

And there is a 15-minute BBC podcast on the 1872 rediscovery of the flood tablet, which made one otherwise staid library assistant understandably ecstatic. This comes from the incomparable "A History of the World in 100 Objects"; hear also the earlier episodes on cuneiform, and on the Standard of Ur.

The kids genuinely love it when family and friends become involved in the story's background. It's marvelous to hear them discussing the narrative with peers as well as adults. Your interest helps reinforce the their own curiosity about this fascinating era and epic.


p.s. the version Miss E has been reading them is called Gilgamesh the Hero, adapted by Geraldine McCaughrean. And everyone has a copy of an informative DK volume on Mesopotamia. We can recommend both -- and there are many more books in our library for lending (see the other column on the right).

Humbaba -- Tablet 3

From Miss E:

Today marked the third day of following Gilgamesh's epic adventure. First, we briefly recounted last week's class, which led to discussing the length of time that has passed since the reign of Gilgamesh, around 4,000 years ago. This in turn led to quite some interesting questions from the group.... E: How long ago did life on Earth start? H: How was the first person born? J: Maybe two dinosaurs had a human. I think the life started when everything was still, then it all went CRASH together [these aren't their exact words, but it's the general idea].
Then we dove right into Tablet 3. During this part of the story, Gilgamesh, and his new BFF, Enkidu, plot to enter into the forbidden Cedar Forest, ruled by the fearsome Humbaba. This gigantic, horrid monster was traditionally known to have a lion's head and dragon's teeth. Today we painted Humbabas of our own, quite a sight to behold!

After imagining these gruesome monsters coming to life from the paper, as E excitedly did, we settled down to finish painting our beads.

She formed him out of clay and leaves.

Last Thursday, we added H and J-L to our second Gilgamesh adventure. First, Ms.E reviewed what happened last week. I was excited to hear that everyone excitedly answered "Mesopotamia!" when asked where our story took place.

Ms. E read another section of the text, paying special attention to Wild Man and the hunter. Ururu, the goddess, fashioned Enkydu from clay and leaves and twigs. H said that Enkydu probably looked like a Minotaur. They discussed how Enkydu felt about the hunter's traps and pots. Ms. E read about the woman sent to the forest to tame Enkydu and how every time he went to growl and howl, she would kiss him. The children commented on how she captured him with love rather than traps and snares.

Ms. E read about the first meeting of Enkydu and Gilgamesh - their wrestling match turned to hugs and laughter. They talked about what it must have felt like for Gilgamesh to finally have found a friend.

Ms. E lead the children outside to collect their own materials for creating Enkydu. They found sticks, straw, charcoal, sand, dirt, chicken feathers, leaves and berries. Invoking Ururu, they mixed their materials together with clay and formed their own wild men. E put a stone inside his head. R labored on a head. J-L fastidiously created a well dressed warrior.

Next, they revisited the beads from last week and painted them. H made some new beads and J was inspired to create a clay pendant styled after the filigree gold jewelry found from ancient Mesopotamia.

Another great adventure complete, the kids checked out books to tide them over until next week.

Posted by Sarah

The Epic of Gilgamesh Begins

Last Thursday we began our newest epic adventure - Gilgamesh. Like our Odyssey odyssey, Ms. E will lead our children to explore the story of love, friendship, trust, heartbreak and overcoming challenges. H was ill, so the journey kicked off with J, E and R.

Ms. E began the session with a geography lesson on ancient Mesopotamia and located the Fertile Crescent on the globe, map and google Earth. The children looked at the timeline to put this ancient story into perspective. Ms. E read the beginning of the story and the children talked about tyranny and what it means to be a good leader vs a bad leader. They talked about what it meant for Gilgamesh to be completely friendless.

Ms. E showed them cuneiform writing. The children made their own clay tablets and took a stab at writing in code. J was very interested in writing her name using a cuneiform version of letters. R created a symbol that would represent her name. E created a sentence using cuneiform symbols for water and reeds.

After the tablets were set to dry, Ms. E showed the children pictures of jewelry from ancient Mesopotamia. The crew made beads of all shapes and sizes.
It was a great start to exploring the Epic!

Bearden's "A Black Odyssey" -- coming soon to Memphis

Very happy to learn that the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art will be hosting an exhibition on Romare Bearden's "A Black Odyssey" next February 2–April 28, 2013. Starting in 1977, Bearden began crafting these collages, which are full of intense colors. We own a copy of the DC Moore gallery's exhibition catalog, but it will be exciting to view these in person; can't wait for the crew to take a reunion tour.

Here's a resource for teachers; a celebration of his 100th anniversary; a review essay; a forthcoming study of The Afro-Modernist Epic by our friend at the University of Memphis, Kathy Lou Schultz.


The Brooks description follows:

In the unique language of visual art, Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey is a startling retelling of Homer’s ancient story of Odysseus, who faced many temptations and battled adversaries to make his way home to Ithaca. While this mighty sea-tale of a brilliant but dislocated hero’s journey home originates with Homer—Bearden makes it undeniably his own. Throughout his career, the search for home was the artist’s most pervasive theme. For decades, he created country- and city-scapes of family love—typically secure but sometimes uneasy images of life at home and travelers making their way back.

To stress the universality of Homer’s epic, and to make it more relevant to the lives of blacks as well as to his own experience as a modern black artist, Bearden makes all of his Homeric figures black: gods, mortals, heroes, and villains. This choice asserts the central meaning of the story: a father and husband trying to get home, a son missing his father, a hero tempted to give up his quest, a wife’s tested patience. These themes, Bearden assures us, apply to black people as well as to anyone else.

The forty-five collages, watercolors, and ink drawings included in the exhibition from the artist’s estate elucidate the development of this series.

Graphic Gilgamesh

Many versions of Gilgamesh have begun arriving in the mail. We just received "The Graphic Canon," a 500-page anthology (1st of 3 projected volumes) of excerpts from illustrated versions of "the world's greatest literature." A selection from Gareth Hinds' "Odyssey" is included (the Cyclops episode, aptly).

"The Graphic Canon" opens with Kevin Dixon's version of Gilgamesh. Apparently he has been self-producing these over recent years. The style looks a bit like a cross between R. Crumb's "Genesis" and Elzie Crisler Segar's "Popeye" comic strip: black and white ink, with fluidly energetic lines. Intriguingly, the translation he uses is by Kent Dixon -- yes, that's a relation, his father. Dixon père clarifies that his is technically a "rendition," that is to say, a version that he has crafted drawing upon dozens existing translations in multiple language, with some introductory knowledge of the original cuneiform script.

Gilgamesh, our next odyssey

Our next odyssey will take us even further back in time, to the oldest extant epic: the Mesopotamian story of Gilgamesh. Not surprisingly, it's another heroic quest narrative. Yet this one involves a violence-prone demigod, and ends on a rather more sombre note, as Gilgamesh comes to terms with his mortality. Here's a decent introduction to the poem, including a brief video:

http://www.learner.org/courses/worldlit/gilgamesh/

The cuneiform tablet that includes the Gilgamesh flood narrative (which the Genesis account of Noah seems to emulate) is held in the British Museum. In 1872, the assistant who identified this text, George Smith, became so excited by his discovery that he "jumped up and rushed about the room in a great state of excitement, and, to the astonishment of those present, began to undress himself." You can listen to BM Director Neil MacGregor describe this tablet, part of the marvelous program "A History of the World in 100 Objects."

As with the Homeric poems, there are a number of illustrated adaptations for children. We've ordered Ludmila Zeman's "Gilgamesh Trilogy" as well as other versions to consult. Last spring Miss E. found it thought-provoking to ask our crew to compare different literary and artistic approaches to retelling the same story; we hope to do the same this fall with this similarly pliable narrative. 

One scholar, Theodore Ziolkowski, reflects upon the 20th-century revival of interest in this epic: 

"In sum, in almost a hundred manifestations of literature, art, music, and popular culture, the epic of Gilgamesh constitutes a finely tuned seismograph that registers many of the major intellectual, social, and moral upheavals of the past hundred years: from the religious controversies of the early twentieth century, by way of the search for eternal spiritual values transcending the decline of Western civilization following two world wars, to the struggle for recognition among previously marginalized groups, notably gays and feminists, and eventually to environmental concerns for planet Earth. This fascinating history of reception culminated most recently in a revival of what is believed to be the epic’s original religious impetus and its radical politicization by other writers. In any case, wherever one looks today, and in the most varied manifestations, Gilgamesh is very much among us."