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UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title A tale of love and revenge : an interpretation of the Epic of Gilgamesh Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4xw5d8j9 Author Mohebali, Elmira Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO A Tale of Love and Revenge An Interpretation of the Epic of Gilgamesh A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts by Elmira Mohebali Committee in charge: Professor Babette Mangolte, Co-Chair Professor Ricardo Dominguez, Co-Chair Professor Norman Bryson Professor Page duBois Professor Mariana Wardwell 2014 Copyright Elmira Mohebali 2014 All Right Reserved The MFA thesis of Elmira Mohebali is approved and it is acceptable in quantity and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ Co-Chair _________________________________________________ Co-Chair University of California, San Diego 2014 iii Dedicated to My Mother, Jamileh Piran. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page …………………………………………………………… iii Dedication………………………………………………………………… iv Table of Contents …………………………………………………………. v Abstract of the Thesis….…………………………………………………. vi Introduction.....…………………………………………………………….. 1 Love Letter #1....…………………………………………………… 3 The Epic of Gilgamesh Through the Ages....………………………………………………………. 5 Love Letter #2....…………………………………………………… 10 Gilgamesh Epic as Presented The Original Plot....……………………………………………………….. 11 Empathizing with a Goddess Finding Inanna/Ishtar Within…….……………….…………………….. 14 Love Letter #3....…………………….……………….……… 17 My Version of the Epic A Tale of Love and Revenge…….……………….………………………... 20 Last Love Letter…….……………….………………………... 22 Works Cited…….……………….……………………..…….………………. 24 Bibliography…….……………….…………………………………………… 25 v ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS A Tale of Love and Revenge by Elmira Mohebali Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts University of California, San Diego, 2014 Professor Babette Mangolte, Co-Chair Professor Ricardo Dominguez, Co- Chair When my empathy with goddess, Ishtar turned into a schizophrenic obsession, a video performance was created. A Tale of Love and Revenge is a performance for camera in which I continued my existence within the powerful immortal, Goddess Ishtar. Ishtar in my story gives up her identity as a goddess for her love of Gilgamesh. vi Introduction A Tale of Love and Revenge is a new interpretation of the famous Epic of Gilgamesh. As an Iranian woman, born and raised in capital city of Tehran, I never heard the name Gilgamesh. The origin of this epic goes back to Mesopotamia in current Iraq. Yet, the Epic seems to have too many common points with my native Iranian culture to be dismissed. In excitement of discovering what seemed to hold the roots of many Iranian issues and problems within, I was drawn into the Epic deeper and deeper. Before I knew it, I fell in love with the hero, king Gilgamesh, “who had seen everything.” (Kovacs, Tablet I pg3), As time passed, and as I read different translations of the Epic in English and Persian, I realized that the Epic of Gilgamesh could be interpreted in a variety of settings, especially with the Mesopotamian kings being directly associated with divinity. One of the many interpretations of the Epic could consider Sitchin’s proposal of earth being an experimental project of intelligent aliens. (Sitchin) A different and more interesting interpretation could take a feminist reading of the Epic. In A Tale of Love and Revenge, I deliberately chose to see the Epic in the shadow of goddess point of view. Throughout this work, questions are asked and paths are revealed. Questions of women, including myself, are asked of the audience on both personal and global scales. In a more personal, amorous interpretation, I address Gilgamesh in my love letters. Through speaking directly to the king, I discovered that the relationship between the king and the goddess is shifting constantly and fits into multiple, different settings in 1 2 history. Studying and observing these shifts that are also mentioned many times in the love letters contributed to a deep self-realization and therapeutically charged art practice. Love Letter #1 Dear Colonizer, Beloved Master, I know that our relationships, the symbolic interaction between the two entities that we call our worlds, are more complicated than the possibilities offered within this passage. I cannot even imagine how to holistically discuss my points in this letter. There are invisible hands interfering in every aspect of our lives to an uncontrollable instinct, from our public affairs to the most personal aspects of our beings, from the oil cartels over the gulf to our exaggerated sex lives. Please let me make it clear from the very beginning something that you might already know. The Easterners write in spiral forms. We write in metaphors and indirect analogies. Persian literature is full of authors and poets who appear as gods who create misleading universes. Despite your youthful appearance, you are now old enough to know that gods are known for putting mankind to intense labor. Let’s forget all about the original sin and the biblical genesis that makes humans responsible for all that we're going through on earth. Here, I’m asking you to glance upon Babylonian 3 4 Genesis with me. I am talking about when the Mesopotamian God, Marduk, defeated the goddess, Tiamat. Then the new reign began as a male god defeated the female goddess of chaos and sweet waters. Tiamat was the mother of second-generation gods, who then were kept captive to serve another group of gods. The privileged gods were the supporters of Marduk in his victory. We read about Tiamat's supporters in a book by Alexander Heidel published in 1951 AD: "Their menial task proved so burdensome that they asked Marduk for relief. As Marduk listened to the words of the captive gods, he resolved to create man[kind] and to impose on him the service which the defeated deities had to render." (Heidel, Pg. 9) All that I'm trying to say is that both the gender conflict within the region and the related power struggles are ancient issues. They have altered appearance through history, yet the core issues have stayed the same. The Epic of Gilgamesh Through the Ages The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest epic from Mesopotamia, has only been known to the modern world for fewer than two centuries. The three different Babylonian versions of the epic vary in origins from the Northern Mesopotamian sites of Assur, Nimrud, and Sultantepe, and the Southern Mesopotamian sites of Uruk and Babylon. The best-preserved tablets that this research is based on are mostly found in the palace library of King Ashurbanupal in Assyria dating to the seventh century BCE. The original eleven clay tablets are written in Standard Akkadian1 script in cuneiform2. Cuneiform as a form of Near Eastern writing is used throughout the region as late as the middle of the Persian Empire in 300 BCE. The English and Persian translations of Gilgamesh Epic that are presented here are mostly based on the Standard Version. The existence of a Sumerian version of the Epic is evident, while the poorly preserved fragments of the Sumerian texts date as late as the Old Babylonian Era. The fragmented tablets in Sumerian show that each tablet in the Standard Babylonian 1 The Babylonian and Assyrian fragments of the Epic bear witness to a standardized edition of the poem, which is called the Standard Babylonian epic. 2 The cuneiform system of writing is used widely in ancient Middle East. The term has Latin and middle French roots meaning “wedged form”. 5 6 version has its roots in an individual corresponding epic story sometimes as short as 144+ lines. 3 In comparing the older tablets and fragments of the Epic like Old 3 “Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven” in a single tablet is considered the basis for tablet VI of the Standard Version. (Kovacs, pg. XXV) 7 Babylonian, Middle Babylonian and Assyrian versions to the better preserved tablets of Standard Babylonian version, dramatic social changes become apparent. Whether these texts contain some historical information embedded within or merely are of a literary narrative, they show significant alteration from one era to another. For example, the Standard Babylonian Epic seems to have few episodes reappearing from the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh and Agga4. In the Sumerian accounts of the war, Agga is captured and yet the conclusion seems a curious forgiveness and mercy from Gilgamesh that ends up in the release of Agga. The approach of Gilgamesh toward Agga can be seen in tablet V during the battle with Humwawa, the guardian of Cedar Forest. In the description of the fight with Humwawa in Standard Babylonian version, Gilgamesh appears just as merciful as he is been with Agga, while Enkidu, his primitive counterpart convinces him to kill the guardian of the forest. In the Kovaks’ translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh tablet V, after capturing Humbaba, it reads: “…Humbaba begged for his life, saying to Gilgamesh: “you are young yet, Gilgamesh, your mother gave birth to you, and you are the offspring of Rimat-Ninsun… … Gilgamesh, let me go(?) I will dwell with you as your servant(?). As many trees as you command me I will cut for you, I will guard for
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