The Invention of Writing and the Earliest Literature

1
The Invention of Writing and the Earliest
Literature

• And a Little About Gilgamesh

2
In the Beginning

• Before the invention of writing, stories and
  songs were transmitted orally from generation to
  generation.
• Without written documents of this oral tradition,
  there was always the risk of its literature being
  irrevocably lost due to cataclysms such as
  foreign conquest or natural disaster.

3

• Writing was not invented for the purpose of
  preserving literature
• the earliest written documents contain
  commercial, administrative, political, and legal
  information.
• They were created by the first "advanced"
  civilizations in an area that Westerners commonly
  call the Middle East.
• These ancient civilizations were agrarian,
  developing in the valleys of the Nile, Tigris,
  and Euphrates rivers. Cities began as centers for
  administration of irrigated fields, but they soon
  became centers for government, religion, and
  culture.
• The Egyptians built temples and pyramids in
  Thebes and Memphis the Sumerians, Babylonians,
  and Assyrians build palaces and temples in
  Babylon and Ninevah.

4
The Oldest Writing

• The oldest writing was pictographic, meaning that
  the sign for an object was written to resemble
  the object itself later, hieroglyphic and
  cuneiform scripts were invented to record more
  complicated information.

5

• The oldest extant texts date from 3300 to 2990
  B.C. and consist mostly of lists of foodstuffs,
  textiles, and cattle.
• Though such lists were well served by
  pictographs, by 2800 BC scribes began to make
  marks in a script that was later called
  cuneiformthe Latin cuneus means "a wedge"to
  record more complicated information such as
  historical events.
• This form of writing survived more than two
  millennia.
• In Egypt, scribes developed a
  different form of writing.
• Named at a later date after the Greek
  words for "sacred" and "carving,"
  hieroglyphs also developed in more cursive
  versions for faster writing.

6
Gilgamesh

• Gilgamesh was reintroduced to the world when a
  portion of it, Utnapishtims Story of the Flood,
  upon which the biblical story of the flood is
  based1, was accidentally discovered in 1872.
  Written 4000 years ago
• Since then, tablets containing other parts of
  Gilgamesh have been found at sites throughout the
  Middle East in various cuneiform languages.

1. This is the opinion of the editors of Norton
and thus should be taken as just thatan opinion
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• Begun in 2700 B.C. and written down about 2000
  B.C., the first great heroic narrative of world
  literature, Gilgamesh, nearly vanished from
  memory when it was not translated from cuneiform
  languages into the new alphabets that replaced
  them.
• Though the identity of its author and context are
  now lost, its stories, with their astonishing
  immediacy, appeal to modern readers. (apparently
  the Babylonian poet who compiled the stories did
  sign his nameShin-eqi-unninni making him the
  earliest recorded author)
• It was originally titled He who Saw the Deep
  (Sha naqba imuru) or Surpassing All Other Kings
  (Shutur eli sharri). Gilgamesh was probably a
  real ruler in the late Early Dynastic II period
  (ca. 27th century BC).

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• With this profound familiarity, there is also
  something infinitely strange and remote about
  Gilgamesh.
• The narrative is concerned chiefly with
  Gilgamesh's friendship with Enkidu, his quest for
  worldly renown and immortality, and his death.
• It is an epic like the Iliad,
  the Odyssey and Beowulf.
• A long narrative poem
• Done in formal style
• About an extraordinary hero. . .
• who represents his culture.

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Universalities Within Gilgamesh

• Loneliness
• Civilly
• Mortality
• Friendship
• Sacrifice and Responsibility
• Grief and Stoicism

10
Major Balance Points in Gilgamesh

• When Gilgamesh sets himself right he sets the
  world right.
• Between wilderness and city
• Individual and society
• Gods and men
• People and leaders
• When Gilgamesh sets himself
• right, he sets the world right.

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Sites Cited

• The British Museum http//www.mesopotamia.co.uk/me
  nu.html
• The Norton Web for World Literature
  http//www.wwnorton.com/nawol/s1_overview.htm1
• YouTube Gilgamesh http//www.youtube.com/profile_v
  ideo_blog?userhelvis213page3

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• Gill N. S Who is the First Named Author?
  About.Com Ancient History. http//ancienthistory.
  about.com/od/poetsplaywrightswriters/f/firstauthor
  .htm
• Introduction to Gilgamesh Audio Commentary to a
  Slideshow Internet Archive. http//www.archive.org
  /details/IntroductionToGilgamesh
• The Epic of Gilgamesh Wikipedia, the free
  encyclopedia. 2 Sept. 2010. http//en.wikipedia.or
  g/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh