The quiz you have been given functions as a reading aid and requires nothing except basic knowledge responses.  It has been provided more as a reading prompt than for any other reason. It is important to know some basic information about the epic to begin understanding how the framework of the story reflects a culture.  Certain universal themes emerge in Gilgamesh which are most important to the story. Some of the Web-links encourage you to begin addressing this aspect of the learning.  Finally, this great epic mirrors the culture of another time, a time and culture from a period in history about which we know very little.  Yet, the work’s themes transcend time barriers making the work relative to life today.  The main goal in this class is for the readers to be able to move to that point of higher thinking which allows him/her to synthesize and analyze the story.  Hopefully, reading this story will allow the reader the opportunity to learn about another, ancient culture, which in some ways is like his or her own. It also allows the reader to look at the attitudes, values, and beliefs of another culture in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the human condition, not necessarily to judge it. Once the reader is able to do this, than personal reflective thought begins to emerge.

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