The Epic of Gilgamesh is a perfect way for students to examine the common template for adventure stories known as a ”Hero’s Journey”. This is a recurring pattern of stages many heroes undergo over the course of their stories. Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist, writer, and lecturer, articulated this cycle after researching and reviewing numerous myths and stories from a variety of time periods and regions of the world. He found that they all share fundamental principles. This led to the Hero’s Journey, also known as the Monomyth.
Students can create a storyboard that highlights the three main features of a hero's journey: the ordinary world, crossing the threshold and atonement. Teachers can extend this activity to have students create a storyboard that includes all twelve stages if desired! Teachers can add as many templates to an assignment as they wish to differentiate and provide students' choices.
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Student Instructions
Use the story of The Epic of Gilgamesh and map it to the narrative structure of the Hero's Journey.
In order to help students write an epic, it is important to discuss with them the elements that are part of an epic. Teachers can list down these elements and discuss them in detail one by one. Guide the students on how they can make these elements more relevant for modern audiences while still keeping the essence of an epic.
Once the students are more familiar with the elements of an epic or Hero’s journey, teachers can ask them to read an epic and guide them on how it can be converted into a modern journey. This will help students analyze the process and come up with new ideas for their own projects.
Encourage the students to use technology and modern concepts and ideas in their own epic. This will make the project more relevant to today’s society and depict a more appropriate picture. Students can also compare and analyze themes present in different epics and use them as inspiration for their own creative writing.
Creating modern adaptations for old literature writings requires a lot of effort and creativity on behalf of the students. Teachers can guide the students through this process and engage them in exercises that can help them foster creativity and improve critical thinking skills.
After finishing the assignment, ask students to consider the process of bringing a traditional epic or hero's journey into the contemporary day. Talk about the lessons they learned about cultural change, storytelling, and the ongoing impact of these classic stories.
As in a traditional hero's journey, Gilgamesh encounters friends and foes, faces obstacles, changes as a person, and eventually pursues immortality and knowledge. All these elements make Gilgamesh’s journey more interesting and help in the development of prominent themes.
An emblem of the valiant quest is the Cedar Forest. It is at this crucial point in Gilgamesh's quest that he and Enkidu walk into the forest to kill Humbaba, the gatekeeper.
In the epic, Gilgamesh's search for immortality and his fear of dying are extensively explored. In the end, he finds that accepting death and leaving a lasting legacy is essential to living a meaningful life. These themes impart important messages that are still relevant in the modern day.