A Comparison of the Divine in Gilgamesh, the Old Testament of the Bible, and Metamorphoses

Two understand how the gods influenced our hero, Gilgamesh, one must first look at the various ways the gods meddled into his life. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a tale of a half-mortal man whose quest to break his own boredom turns into a tale of friendship, immortality, and kingship. However, his tale would not have been able to happen if it was not for the influence of the various Sumerian deities. After the people of Uruk complained to the gods about Gilgamesh’s child-like behavior, the goddess Aruru creates the man that will become Gilgamesh’s closest friend, Enkidu. Enkidu was created as an equal to the king so that Gilgamesh would have a way to occupy his time. Unfortunately, after the two friends defeated the giant Humbaba, a terrible demon creature, the god Enlil becomes enraged, but despite Enlil’s best effort, he is unable to punish the two.

The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Hebrew Bible are considered by their audiences’ as two of the greatest literary works of ancient literature. The universal truths on The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Hebrew Bible, are most fundamental when viewed from both the contemporary and traditional audiences. Fundamentally, both audiences develop their own universal truths during the time in which the events transpired or by reading the scenic events from an anthology or other literary works.

While mortal characters contain differences that deal with mortality and age, the depiction of higher power and divine characters come in very different forms, but maintain similar overall behaviors. Due to the similarities in behaviors, the major events are depicted very similar and the outcomes are almost identical. The differences in the stories arise simply because of the context in which each story is written. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in ancient Mesopotamia where religion was extremely polytheistic. The story in The Hebrew Bible is written with a monotheistic mindset. While these religions are different in terms of the number of gods, there are obvious similarities that arise between the divine figures in each story. The gods in The Epic of Gilgamesh represent different personalities and virtues, but there is

The relationship between humans and the divine are prevalent in Genesis, and The Epic of Gilgamesh. Evidence is seen at the beginning of both books; in each story one can make the statement that neither culture is secular. Evidence such Genesis opening line reading, “When God created heaven and earth … ”, and how on page 3 of The Epic of Gilgamesh, it describes that Gilgamesh was blessed to have “the Lady of the Gods drew the form of his figure, while his build was perfected by divine Nudimmud.” Both cultures believed in a divine power, however there are stark contrasts between the culture’s relations with that power.

The Hebrew Flood story of Noah and his obligation to preserve man kind after God had punished all living creatures for their inequities parallels The Epic of Gilgamesh in several ways. Even though these two compilations are passed on orally at different times in history the similarities and differences invoke deliberation when these stories are compared. Numerous underlining themes are illustrated throughout each story. Humans are guilty of transgressions and must be punished, God or Gods send a flood as punishment to destroy this evil race, a person is selected by the gods to build a craft that will withstand the flood and allow this person to create a new race. An

Gilgamesh struggled to establish moral principle. His personality at first was an arrogant, self-centered tyrant ; he was described by Enkidu "His teeth are dragon's fangs, his countenance is like a lion his charge is the rushing of the flood..." (pg. 16 line 3-6). But towards the end of this epic narrative Gilgamesh switched

Evolutions of civilizations can occur because of differences in people’s religion, culture, or geographic setting of the settlement. The relationship between the world of the gods and that of men was perceived differently by the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Hebrew ancient civilizations. This is demonstrated by the way each group viewed the process of creation. They had different thoughts on the creation of their gods, the universe and of man. This essay will discuss the relationship between humans and their gods in three different ancient civilizations: Sumerian, Egyptian and Hebrew.

The gods of both religions had control over all the different aspects of life such as weather, fertility, and war (Hunt, Martin, Rosenwein & Smith, 2013, p.10). For instance, in the Book of Genesis 17:16-19, the Hebrew’s god says to Abraham that he is going to bless his wife, who is ninety years old, and he is going to give him a son by her. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Sumerian god Aruru creates Enkidu to destroy Gilgamesh (p. 3). Another aspect of the Sumerian religion is the god-like attributes of the Sumerian kings. This is reflected at the beginning of the Epic of Gilgamesh: “Anu granted him the totality of knowledge of all. He saw the Secret, discovered the Hidden” (p. 1). In the Hebrews religion, only god knows everything, and he is universal and omnipresent. There is no one in the world more powerful than

Ancient world literature and early civilization stories turn around human’s relationship with higher beings. Ancient civilizations were extremely religious, holding the belief that their very lives were in the hands of their almighty god or goddess. This holds true for both the people of biblical times as well as those of the epic era. However, their stories have some differences according to cultural variation but the main structure, idea and theme are generally found correlative. It is hard to believe that that one work did not affect the others. The first great heroic epic poem of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament are two cultures that are hundreds of years apart. Upon studying the book of Genesis and the story of Gilgamesh; whereas one

The divine blesses the righteous and punishes the evil man to remind their limitation and worship to the God.

The birth goddess Aruru pinched a piece of clay and threw it to the plains where Enkidu was created. Enkidu was a wild man, hairy and naked. He ate and drank with the other animals. The harlot Shamhatwas sent to tame Enkidu. She offered her body and showed him the luxuries of men. He was led to Uruk and met Gilgamesh attending a wedding where he would have the bride for his own before her husband. Enkidu thought this was inappropriate and took exception to the act. Gilgamesh and Enkidu clashed with each other in the streets but there was no winner. This shows the moral differences in the two though they were physical equals. Enkidu would come to be the moral compass to Gilgamesh’s brutality (W. W. Norton & Company Vol

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, gods were not divine, and did not have more sensibility than humans. They were actually more childish and irrational than humans. Ninsun is a goddess and the mother of Gilgamesh, also called as Wild cow (Gilgamesh, 222ff). She is famous for her wisdom. Shamash is the god of sun. He came to Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s aid when they attacked Humbaba, a demon who guards the Cedar Forest, by using the power of the winds to restrain Humbaba long enough for Gilgamesh to get in the killing blow. Shamash’s arguments are not stronger than the other gods’. Ishtar is the principal goddess of Uruk (Gilgamesh, 222ff). She is present at Gilgamesh’s celebration after the death of Humbaba. She would have loved to become his wife, but Gilgamesh

Written thousands of years ago, The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem that documents the life of Gilgamesh. As two-thirds god, one-third mortal, and King of Uruk, Gilgamesh claims to be the most powerful man on Earth. With his fitting title, he built grandiose architectures, such as the towers of Ishtar and Anu, walls, and gardens. However, his reign would soon be challenged by Enkidu, a man made of clay and raised by the wilderness. A creation of Aruru, Enkidu was the solution to the prayers of the citizen of Uruk. They hope that Enkidu will defeat Gilgamesh and end his tyranny.

In the excerpt from the poem “The Epic of Gilgamesh” translated by N.K. Sanders, the author uses vivid imagery in order to delineate the Sumerian beliefs. For instance, the author propounds that “In front over hill and plain Shullat and Hanish, heralds of the storm, led on. Then the gods of the abyss rose up; Nergal pulled out the dams of the nether waters, Ninurta the war-lord threw down the dykes, and the seven judges of hell, the Annunaki, raised their torches, lighting the land with their livid flame.”(30) Here, the author reveals that people of this time period were polytheistic.(VB) Moreover, the author states that Gods were very powerful and dangerous in Sumerian culture. Likewise, earlier in the text, the author illustrates that Gods

While Mesopotamia’s Anu and Canaan’s El were pursuing their aloof ways, Yahweh speaks the name of Abraham, lifting his people out of slavery, and seeks out the lonely, heartsick Jewish exiles in Babylon. God is a God of righteousness, whose loving-kindness is from everlasting to everlasting and whose tender mercies are in all his works.”