Gilgamesh - Quiz
Gilgamesh
  • 1. Who is Enkidu initially created by in the story?
A) Shamhat
B) The gods
C) The people of Uruk
D) Gilgamesh
  • 2. Gilgamesh is 2/3 god and 1/3 what according to the epic?
A) Spirit
B) Man
C) Beast
D) Bird
  • 3. Who is Gilgamesh's mother in the epic?
A) Ishtar
B) Siduri
C) Ninsun
D) Shamhat
  • 4. Who is the wise man that Gilgamesh seeks out for help?
A) Utnapishtim
B) Anu
C) Enkidu
D) Humbaba
  • 5. Who helps Gilgamesh defeat Humbaba?
A) Ishtar
B) Shamash
C) Enkidu
D) Siduri
  • 6. Who is the father of Gilgamesh?
A) Enkidu
B) King of Uruk
C) Shamash
D) Lugalbanda
  • 7. What deity aids Gilgamesh in his quest for immortality?
A) Enki
B) Ishtar
C) Anu
D) Shamash
  • 8. What does Gilgamesh search for after the death of Enkidu?
A) Immortality
B) Power
C) Wealth
D) Love
  • 9. What is Enkidu's relationship to Gilgamesh?
A) Brother
B) Servant
C) Friend
D) Father
  • 10. What animal represents the god of the earth in the epic?
A) Snake
B) Eagle
C) Lion
D) Bull
  • 11. What city does Gilgamesh rule over?
A) Uruk
B) Nineveh
C) Ur
D) Babylon
  • 12. Who is the guardian of the Cedar Forest that Gilgamesh seeks to defeat?
A) Anu
B) Enlil
C) Humbaba
D) Utnapishtim
  • 13. Who created Enkidu?
A) Gilgamesh
B) Ishtar
C) Aruru
D) Ninsun
  • 14. Who is the goddess of love who tries to seduce Gilgamesh?
A) Ishtar
B) Siduri
C) Shamhat
D) Ninsun
  • 15. What was the original Sumerian name for Gilgamesh?
A) Utnapishtim
B) Enkidu
C) Bilgames
D) Huwawa
  • 16. During which period did Gilgamesh become a major figure in Sumerian legend?
A) Early Dynastic Period
B) Akkadian Empire
C) Old Babylonian Period
D) Third Dynasty of Ur
  • 17. Who composed the standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh?
A) Sîn-lēqi-unninni
B) Huwawa
C) Aelian
D) Enkidu
  • 18. What did the oracle predict about Gilgamesh in Aelian's anecdote?
A) He would become a god
B) He would find immortality
C) He would die young
D) He would overthrow his grandfather
  • 19. Where was the Epic of Gilgamesh rediscovered?
A) Library of Ashurbanipal
B) Ur Excavations
C) Babylonian Library
D) Sumerian Archives
  • 20. What creature rescued Gilgamesh mid-fall in Aelian's anecdote?
A) A lion
B) A serpent
C) A dragon
D) An eagle
  • 21. Which epic poems are believed to have been influenced by the Epic of Gilgamesh?
A) Beowulf and The Aeneid
B) The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost
C) The Mahabharata and Ramayana
D) The Iliad and the Odyssey
  • 22. What was the name of the giant Gilgamesh defeated in Sumerian poems?
A) Enkidu
B) Aga
C) Huwawa
D) Utnapishtim
  • 23. What objects did Inanna give to Gilgamesh, which he later lost?
A) Mikku and pikku
B) Crown and scepter
C) Ring and staff
D) Sword and shield
  • 24. What was the main reason Gilgamesh became afraid of death?
A) Defeat by Humbaba
B) Rejection by Ishtar
C) Oracle's prediction
D) Enkidu's death
  • 25. What did the guards do to prevent Gilgamesh's mother from becoming pregnant?
A) Banished her
B) Sent her away
C) Imprisoned her
D) Kept her under guard
  • 26. What was the name of the tree infested by creatures that Inanna needed help with?
A) Sakku tree
B) Ziziphus tree
C) Date palm
D) Huluppu tree
  • 27. Where did Friedrich Delitzsch give his controversial lecture?
A) Library of Ashurbanipal
B) British Museum
C) Sing-Akademie zu Berlin
D) University of Leipzig
  • 28. Which scholar stated that Gilgamesh has become an autonomous entity independent of his epic?
A) Wayne R. Dynes
B) Theodore Ziolkowski
C) Susan Ackerman
D) Charles Olson
  • 29. Who unveiled a modern statue of Gilgamesh at the University of Sydney in 2000?
A) Assyrian sculptor Lewis Batros
B) Guido Bachmann
C) Douglas Geoffrey Bridson
D) Hermann Kasack
  • 30. Which part of the Epic of Gilgamesh attracted early interest?
A) The flood story from Tablet XI
B) The death of Enkidu
C) The friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu
D) Gilgamesh's journey to the Cedar Forest
  • 31. Which author believed that the Epic of Gilgamesh contained ancient virtues capable of curing modern moral degeneracy?
A) Guido Bachmann
B) Douglas Geoffrey Bridson
C) Gregory Corso
D) Hermann Kasack
  • 32. What does Shamash do to help Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeat Humbaba?
A) Summons lions to attack Humbaba
B) Blows eight winds in Humbaba's eyes, blinding him
C) Turns the forest into a desert
D) Transforms Gilgamesh into a god
  • 33. Who wrote the first modern literary adaptation of the Epic of Gilgamesh?
A) Peter Jensen
B) Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton
C) Sir Henry Rawlinson
D) Alfred Jeremias
  • 34. How was Gilgamesh's name originally misread?
A) As Enkidu
B) As Izdubar
C) As Uruk
D) As Shamhat
  • 35. What happens in both epics when Gilgamesh and Odysseus visit the Underworld?
A) They receive gifts from the gods.
B) They are crowned as new rulers.
C) Both find themselves unhappy while living with a seductive sorceress.
D) They defeat underworld monsters.
  • 36. Which former President of Iraq had a lifelong fascination with Gilgamesh?
A) Douglas Geoffrey Bridson
B) Hans Henny Jahnn
C) Guido Bachmann
D) Saddam Hussein
  • 37. What does Enkidu's ghost promise to do in Tablet XII?
A) Lead Gilgamesh to the Cedar Forest
B) Help Gilgamesh become immortal
C) Marry Ishtar
D) Recover the lost items
  • 38. Who equated Gilgamesh with the king Nimrod from the Book of Genesis?
A) Sir Henry Rawlinson
B) Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton
C) Alfred Jeremias
D) Peter Jensen
  • 39. Who produced the first translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh?
A) Austen Henry Layard
B) George Smith
C) Friedrich Delitzsch
D) Ashurbanipal
  • 40. Who is described as 'two thirds divine and one third mortal' in the Epic of Gilgamesh?
A) Humbaba
B) Utnapishtim
C) Gilgamesh
D) Enkidu
  • 41. Which novel by Guido Bachmann became a classic of German 'queer literature'?
A) The Quest of Gilgamesh
B) River Without Shores
C) Zabibah and the King
D) Gilgamesch
  • 42. Who directs Gilgamesh to Urshanabi, the ferryman of the gods?
A) Ishtar
B) Shamash
C) Siduri
D) Enkidu
  • 43. What does Utnapishtim tell Gilgamesh is necessary to become immortal?
A) Conquer the Cedar Forest
B) Kill the Bull of Heaven again
C) Marry Ishtar
D) Defy sleep
  • 44. Who was Gilgamesh's overlord that he revolted against?
A) Aga of Kish
B) Enkidu
C) Utnapishtim
D) Huwawa
  • 45. What was the time period during which the standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh was composed?
A) Neo-Assyrian Period
B) Old Babylonian Period
C) Late Bronze Age
D) Middle Babylonian Period
  • 46. Who sends the Bull of Heaven to attack Gilgamesh and Enkidu?
A) Ninsun
B) Lilitu
C) Enlil
D) The goddess Inanna
  • 47. What language did Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton have rudimentary knowledge of?
A) Akkadian
B) Hebrew
C) Sumerian
D) Greek
  • 48. Which scholar observed a parallel between Gilgamesh rejecting Ishtar's advances and a scene in the Iliad?
A) Aelian.
B) Homer.
C) Walter Burkert.
D) Barry B. Powell.
  • 49. Which king of Uruk adopted Gilgamesh as his patron deity in the 21st century BC?
A) Shulgi
B) Utu-hengal
C) Gudea
D) Agga
  • 50. What does the name Gilgamesh translate to in English?
A) King of Uruk
B) Chosen by Utu
C) The (kinsman) is a hero
D) Builder of walls
  • 51. What is Gilgamesh's name rendered as in the Book of Giants?
A) Seuechoros.
B) Γίλγαμος.
C) Gilgamish/Jiljamish.
D) glgmš.
  • 52. What ideology did Peter Jensen propose regarding the Epic of Gilgamesh?
A) Psychoanalytic interpretation
B) Panbabylonianism
C) Romantic adaptation
D) Solar hero theory
  • 53. In which work does the middle section center around a composer whose relationship mirrors that of Gilgamesh and Enkidu?
A) Zabibah and the King by Saddam Hussein
B) Gilgamesch by Guido Bachmann
C) The Quest of Gilgamesh by Douglas Geoffrey Bridson
D) River Without Shores by Hans Henny Jahnn
  • 54. Which German novelist adapted elements of the Epic of Gilgamesh into his novel 'Die Stadt hinter dem Strom'?
A) Douglas Geoffrey Bridson
B) Charles Olson
C) Guido Bachmann
D) Hermann Kasack
  • 55. Which country showed most interest in the Epic of Gilgamesh in the late nineteenth century?
A) Italy
B) German-speaking countries
C) France
D) England
  • 56. Who tames Enkidu before he confronts Gilgamesh?
A) Shamhat
B) Siduri
C) Inanna
D) Urshanabi
  • 57. What similarity exists between Gilgamesh and Odysseus in their epic journeys?
A) Both are kings of Troy.
B) Both build a great wall around their city.
C) Both sail to the land of the Phaeacians.
D) Both encounter a woman who can turn men into animals.
  • 58. Which Australian band recorded a song titled 'Gilgamesh' in October 2023?
A) An American radio play group
B) King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
C) A German avant-garde theater collective
D) The Gilgamesh Group
  • 59. Who first discovered the Akkadian text of the Epic of Gilgamesh?
A) Ashurbanipal
B) Austen Henry Layard
C) Friedrich Delitzsch
D) George Smith
  • 60. Who does Gilgamesh meet in a beautiful garden by the sea?
A) Ishtar
B) Shamhat
C) Siduri, the divine Alewife
D) Inanna
  • 61. Which scholar noted that the language describing Gilgamesh's relationship with Enkidu has homoerotic implications?
A) Susan Ackerman
B) Wayne R. Dynes
C) Theodore Ziolkowski
D) Charles Olson
  • 62. Which god creates Enkidu to counterbalance Gilgamesh's cruelty?
A) Ishtar
B) Shamash
C) Ea
D) Anu
  • 63. What was the title of Delitzsch's book published in 1920–21?
A) Der Ursprung der Bibel
B) Das Gilgamesch-Epos
C) Babel und Bibel
D) Die große Täuschung (The Great Deception)
  • 64. What is the modern form of the name 'Gilgamesh'?
A) Pabilgames
B) Enmebaragesi
C) Gilgāmeš
D) Bilgames
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