The Invention of Writing and the Earliest LiteratureAnd a Little About Gilgamesh

In the BeginningBefore 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.

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.

The Oldest WritingThe 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.

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.

GilgameshGilgamesh 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 agoSince 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

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 muru) or Surpassing All Other Kings (Shtur eli sharr). Gilgamesh was probably a real ruler in the late Early Dynastic II period (ca. 27th century BC).

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 poemDone in formal styleAbout an extraordinary hero. . .who represents his culture.

Universalities Within GilgameshLonelinessCivillyMortalityFriendshipSacrifice and Responsibility Grief and Stoicism

Major Balance Points in GilgameshWhen Gilgamesh sets himself right; he sets the world right.Between wilderness and cityIndividual and societyGods and menPeople and leadersWhen Gilgamesh sets himselfright, he sets the world right.

Sites CitedThe British Museum http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.htmlThe Norton Web for World Literature http://www.wwnorton.com/nawol/s1_overview.htm#1YouTube Gilgamesh http://www.youtube.com/profile_video_blog?user=helvis213&page=3

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