Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Earliest Literature
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.
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
Loneliness
Civilly
Mortality
Friendship
Sacrifice and Responsibility
Grief and Stoicism
Sites Cited
The British Museum
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.html
The Norton Web for World Literature
http://www.wwnorton.com/nawol/s1_overvi
ew.htm#1
YouTube Gilgamesh
http://www.youtube.com/profile_video_blog?
user=helvis213&page=3