IH 0851 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Yin And Yang, Enkidu, Shamhat

• School: Temple University
• Department: Intellectual Heritage
• Course: IH 0851
• Professor: Natasha T.Rossi

Document Summary

Mesopotamia the land between rivers present day iraq. King of was intermediary between the gods. Southern and northern mesopotamia divided into sumer and akkad. Sumer is were the worlds first writing system developed (development of a writing system becomes a social need as society"s became more complex because their history was longer than they could orally recall) Initially wrote on clay tablets eventually writing was known as cuneiform, latin for wedge-shaped. Gilgamesh was king of uruk around 2700 bc. Oldest tablets are from 2100 bce in cuneiform. 1600 bce old babylonian text was created from cuneiform. Written in akkadian using cuneiform script on 11 tablets. Gilgamesh and enkidu have a yin yang relationship. Commitment because of family adoption of enkidu. Ishtar turns all her men into creatures. Gilgamesh displaying wisdom and reason because he learned from enkidu. Gilgamesh is intimidated by a woman with power.