Q 01/05

Gilgamesh was king of which ancient Mesopotamian city?

A) Babylon

B) Ur

C) Uruk

D) Nineveh

Answer · why

C) Uruk

Uruk, one of the world's first true cities, is also where writing is first recorded: clay tablets from before 3000 BCE that logged goods moving in and...

Q 02/05

The Epic of Gilgamesh was pressed into clay tablets in which script?

A) Hieroglyphic

B) Linear B

C) Cuneiform

D) Demotic

Answer · why

C) Cuneiform

Cuneiform tablets of the epic survived by accident: when Nineveh was sacked and burned in 612 BCE, the fire baked the clay hard and the ruined palace ...

Q 03/05

At the shepherds' camp, what does the newly tamed Enkidu drink seven jugs of?

A) Water

B) Beer

C) Milk

D) Mead

Answer · why

B) Beer

Beer, with bread, is the first human food Enkidu is given; after seven jugs his face shines with joy, his shaggy body is groomed and oiled and, the po...

Q 04/05

Who is Shamhat, the woman who tames the wild man in Tablet one?

A) A widowed queen

B) A goddess in disguise

C) A shepherd's daughter

D) A temple prostitute

Answer · why

D) A temple prostitute

A temple prostitute, Shamhat is cursed by the dying Enkidu for luring him out of the wild, until a god reminds him that she fed him, clothed him and l...

Q 05/05

Whose livelihood does the wild Enkidu ruin, setting off the plan to tame him?

A) A fisherman's

B) A trapper's

C) A shepherd's

D) A farmer's

Answer · why

B) A trapper's

A trapper's pits and snares are what Enkidu keeps wrecking, filling in the one and ripping out the other to free the animals, until the man's father s...