From: David T. Mason, Emeritus
360-671-3582
Dear Colleague,
I want to remind you of an unsual opportunity available very soon. The
Friends of Fairhaven College is producing the complete Epic of Gilgamesh
in one exciting evening of acting, singing, chanting, and dancing on a
stage rich in multimedia, music history, and mystery. Using an only
slightly modified script of the Sn-leqi-Unninn version of Gilgamesh,
translated and annotated by John Gardner and John Meier, we are confident
that we have achieved a high degree of authenticity while maintaining a
strong respect for the text lodged in a mildly hauteur venue.
Set near the Mesopotamian confluence in present-day Iraq, the epic tells
of an Uruk king renown for his strength and bravery but hated for his
abuse of power and person. Successful appeals to the gods produce another
hero of strength and strategy, a twin, seduced away from his feral nurture
by the ministrations of a temple prostitute. The two men meet at the gate
of the bride-house where Gilgamesh intends to exercise the jus prima
nocteal rights that have made him so unpopular with his people. Enkidu,
the other twin, blocks his way and the two grapple into the night, ending
by sealing their new friendship with an impassioned kiss.
As the heroes pass into maturity, a period of conquering dragons and
killing bulls gives way to the untimely death of Enkidu under the malign
influence of the Goddess Ishtar who had long fancied Gilgamesh as easily
among her own string of conquests (cr. Leporellos Il catalogo to Donna
Elvira in Don Giovanni.) Gilgamesh is thrown into a deep funk and takes
on the garb and guise of a desert wanderer, and goes in search of the
Utnapishtims, the only other hybreds --part mortal, part god--known. With
the Utnapishtims comes a story of an ark of escape from vengeful gods.
This story antedates the Noah myth by hundreds of years, and ends as
Gilgamesh returns to Uruk with what might be a double of Enkidu or Charon
the river pilot of later times. Some citations: Gardner, John and J.
Meier. 1985. Gilgamesh. Vintage Books (Random House) . Meier, John.
1997 Gilgamesh: Gilgamesh: A reader. Nolvhszy-Carducci Press. Wauconda,
Illinois. Tigay, Jeffrey H. 1982 The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic.
University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
Directions to Fairhaven College:
From I-5 take Exit 252. Follow Western Washington
University Outdoor Sculpture Collection roadsigns SW on McDonald Parkway
one mile to a right at South Campus Drive. Parking lot entrance is on the
right in a long block.
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