My apologies for the long summaries, but don't you want the full experience of The Epic of Gilgamesh? Yes, that's what I thought. Now to the fun part. Why are these tablets important to the classroom? The theme of this post is about making connections!
One, I think it's pretty obvious that any of these epics can be part of an integrated curriculum. It's fun for kids to relate to other classes. When they sit down in an English classroom and discuss The Epic of Gilgamesh, they can make connections to a world history class about the civilizations between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and Mesopotamia. Research has shown that making connections to prior knowledge is the best reading strategy to employ and is most effective. Why not use this chance to use an epic to have students connect to their prior knowledge?The following link is to a website filled with activities for making connections: Making Connections Strategies.
In terms of historical value, The Epic of Gilgamesh begins by telling the history of the people. Although fictionalized, scholars have discovered that there was a Gilgamesh who ruled during this time. As stated before in the characteristic of epics, epics were used to describe events and circumstances of a group or nation of peoples. The Epic of Gilgamesh is no exception. This gives modern students a chance to learn about people of the past. This is important because it broadens students' horizons and expands their perspectives by showing them the past.
The first two tablets relate to modern audiences because it tells of human qualities, power, and nature, which all students can make connections to in your classroom.
Gilgamesh is part man, and although he is a hero, he has flaws. It would be easy throughout the first two tablets (and the rest of the poem) to have students make their own connections to Gilgamesh and other characters, such as Enkidu. There are many activities that can be done to ensure that students make substantive connections and to have discussions over it.
One theme of the epic is the question of power. Especially in the first tablet and highlighted in the second tablet, Gilgamesh is characterized as powerful, but in two different ways: magnificent and terrible. He shows the spectrum of what power can do to a person. On one hand, he shows tremendous confidence in his ruling abilities and there is no other king who can match him. Essentially, he is a good protector of his people from outside forces. Unfortunately, he isn't a good protector of his people from himself. He rapes women whenever he wants and uses his men at his own abandon, not caring if they are killed. Here, he shows the qualities of a good and bad ruler. Again, it would be an enlightening, entertaining, and educational (yay, alliterations) discussion to compare and contrast Gilgamesh to rulers of our modern world.
Nature becomes a theme in the epic and there are very interesting discussions over ecology and The Epic of Gilgamesh. As seen in the first two tablets, and especially with the second tablet titled, "The Taming of Enkidu," there is a distinction made between nature and society. Enkidu becomes tamed from the wild and is brought, if you remember, to reason and understanding. Nature is made to be dominated by man. Students can relate to this now with things such as exploring space or even the depths of the ocean. Man has been dominating nature and still does. Dr. Gerald R. Lucas (who is an associate professor of English in the Department of Media, Culture, and the Arts at Middle Georgia State College) wrote an illuminating piece titled, "The Taming of Nature in Gilgamesh" that is accessible for students and can provide an interesting discussion, again, of making connections. The article can be found at the following link: "The Taming of Nature in Gilgamesh".
It's important to note that throughout the entire text, students can make connections. The first two tablets are a great introduction to this by discussing human qualities found in Gilgamesh, power, and nature. These three themes are evident throughout the entire text, but make for substantive discussions. With these discussions, the text can become extremely accessible to students, even though it was written many centuries ago.
Get some sleep because Tablets III and IV are being discussed tomorrow!
Cassy
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