SparkNotes: Gilgamesh: Quiz

1. What river flows past Uruk?

(A) The Nile

(B) The Rhone

(C) The Euphrates

(D) The Orinoco

2. How was The Epic of Gilgamesh preserved?

(A) In writing on scrolls

(B) In carvings on tree trunks

(C) In writing on clay tablets

(D) Aristotle translated it into Greek

3. When did the real Gilgamesh live?

(A) Before the Ice Age

(B) In about 2700 b.c.

(C) In the Middle Ages

(D) In Victorian times

4. Why did the gods create Enkidu?

(A) To overthrow Gilgamesh

(B) To be Gilgamesh’s loyal servant

(C) To provide a counterforce to Gilgamesh’s power

(D) To marry Gilgamesh’s sister

5. Who introduces Enkidu to civilization?

(A) His mother and father

(B) A temple prostitute

(C) A talking gazelle

(D) The goddess Ishtar

6. Who guards the Cedar Forest?

(A) Twelve Roman Legions

(B) Two scorpion monsters

(C) Shamash, god of the sun

(D) The demon Humbaba

7. Why does Gilgamesh spurn Ishtar?

(A) Because he’s already married

(B) Because Enkidu would be jealous

(C) Because she’s already married

(D) Because he doesn’t want to be her plaything

8. Which god supports Gilgamesh’s incursion into the Cedar Forest?

(A) Enlil, god of earth, wind, and air

(B) Anu, god of the firmament

(C) Ea, god of wisdom

(D) Shamash, god of the sun

9. Gilgamesh dreams that a mountain falls on top of him and Enkidu. What does Enkidu say this dream foretells?

(A) The collapse of the Assyrian Empire

(B) Enkidu’s death in battle

(C) Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s triumph over Humbaba

(D) The eruption of Mt. Thera

10. What does the Bull of Heaven bring to the city of Uruk?

(A) Famine

(B) Flood

(C) War

(D) Seven years of plenty

11. Why does Enkidu curse the temple prostitute?

(A) Because she gave him syphilis

(B) Because she stole his wallet

(C) Because if she hadn’t tempted him from the wilderness he would have never met Gilgamesh

(D) Because he knows she poisoned him

12. Why does Enkidu bless the temple prostitute?

(A) Because she told him the future

(B) Because she loans him money

(C) Because if she hadn’t tempted him from the wilderness he would have never met Gilgamesh

(D) Because he feels bad that he poisoned her

13. What garments are the dead people wearing in Enkidu’s dream about the underworld?

(A) Togas

(B) Feathers

(C) Animal skins

(D) They are naked

14. Who is the queen of the underworld?

(A) Siduri

(B) Ereshkigal

(C) Ea

(D) Utnapishtim

15. Why does Gilgamesh leave Uruk after Enkidu dies?

(A) To avenge his death by killing a god

(B) To find out how he can avoid having to die himself

(C) To track down Enkidu’s murderer

(D) To escape the police, who think he murdered Enkidu

16. How does Gilgamesh get to the other side of the twin-peaked mountain called Mashu?

(A) He climbs over it

(B) He walks around it

(C) He walks through it

(D) A winged lion carries him over it

17. What are the Stone Things?

(A) Nobody knows

(B) Statues of Ishtar

(C) Lodestones

(D) A popular Babylonian singing group

18. How does Urshanabi’s boat cross the Waters of Death?

(A) A god blows it across with his breath

(B) A fish tows it

(C) Urshanabi rows it

(D) Gilgamesh poles it

19. What advice does Siduri the tavern keeper give to Gilgamesh?

(A) To never buy on credit

(B) To never mix beer and wine

(C) To take his pleasures in this world

(D) To offer up libations to Ea, the god of wisdom

20. How did Utnapishtim find out that the gods were planning to destroy the world with a flood?

(A) Ea, the god of wisdom, spoke to him through the walls of his house

(B) A little bird told him

(C) His joints were aching

(D) Ishtar told him

21. What test does Utnapishtim give to Gilgamesh, to see if he is worthy of eternal life?

(A) He makes him name all the Babylonian gods in alphabetical order

(B) He wrestles with him

(C) He asks him to stay awake for six nights and seven days

(D) He asks him to travel to Colchis and steal the golden fleece

22. What is the name of the magical plant that Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh about?

(A) Loco weed

(B) Rag weed

(C) Widow’s weeds

(D) How-the-Old-Man-Once-Again-Becomes-a-Young-Man

23. Who steals the magical plant?

(A) A winged lion

(B) A scorpion monster

(C) The king of Tyre

(D) A snake

24. Who is Sin-Leqi-Unninni?

(A) The author of the most complete version of The Epic of Gilgamesh that we know of today

(B) The god of fire, wheat, and pottery making

(C) The king of Shurrupak

(D) Gilgamesh’s father

25. What fell through the hole in the floor of the Carpenter’s House?

(A) Gilgamesh’s drum and drumstick

(B) Gilgamesh’s coins

(C) Gilgamesh’s Stone Thing

(D) Gilgamesh’s dagger