Female Figures : The Epic Of Gilgamesh

After passing through the twin mountains of Mashu, Gilgamesh encounters Shiduri, the tavern keeper. Lost in his wanderings, he is forced to seek advice from her on how to reach Utanapishti. It is ironic because after his blatant abuse of power and mistreatment of women, as mentioned above, it is a woman that he seeks advice from in one of his weakest moments. She tells him how to reach Utanapishti and the dangers that lay in between and tells him to find Ur-shanabi so that he may continue his journey. In addition to providing guidance, women also play powerful roles. Shamhat, for example, uses the power of sex and curiosity to lure Enkidu away from his wild environment. After having sex for seven days and seven nights, Enkidu was no longer able to return to live amongst the animals and was forced to learn the ways of civilized life, which Shamhat taught him. It is easy to see that at this point in the epic, Shamhat clearly possessed the upper hand over Enkidu. He succumbed to her every word, learned the ways of morality and man, and was even convinced to go stand up to the mighty king of Uruk, which ultimately led to the friendship between Enkidu and Gilgamesh.Ishtar also takes on the role of a powerful woman. The goddess of love used her sexual power over men. Not only did she use it to get the man she wanted, but she used this power to dominate and hurt the men that loved her. Knowing that her love would eventually lead to his loss of independence and

In the story, a woman's status is clear. Women are deemed as less important and less powerful compared to men. However, they are important and powerful characters that drive the story with their feminine qualities. Men often use women to gain for themselves, regardless of the outcome for the women. One of the women mentioned at the beginning of the story, “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” is Shamhat, a harlot taken to seduce and tame Enkidu, by the hunter who discovers Enkidu. Shamhat is told to use her womanly ways to seduce Enkidu, dragging him away from his wild beast life. “Treat him, a human, to women’s work” (The Epic of Gilgamesh 104), There was no concern whatsoever to

For thousands of years there has been a strong distinction between the roles of men and women. Often times in stories there will be women that are only mentioned for their beauty and charisma. Hardly ever will you see pages upon pages being spent talking about the true character and accomplishments of women characters. Even though stories like The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of Genesis were written thousands of year ago, (when stories were told mostly told from a males perspective) the light shined on women in the texts show them as wise, strong, and greatly influential beings. In The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of  Genesis, the writer shows the women as bringers of knowledge,  guidance, and care to the men in the texts that are lacking thereof.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender plays a very significant role. While women were not the most powerful gods nor the strongest or wisest of humans, they still had tremendous influence. Though the main characters of the story, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, are male, women did not play a necessarily minor role. With all the women that play a role in the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender is a topic worthy of discussion.

Throughout the history women’s nature have been represented with many definitions. They have been entitled by powerful beings, dangerous, weak, and cunning, leaders, or even murderers. In the epic of Gilgamesh and Greek play, Medea, many women are represented having, by some means, same characteristics. In the epic of Gilgamesh women are in charge of many huge changes, because of their nature. In the Medea, a women is represented who did many sacrifices for her husband, however, gets nothing in return and as a result she attempts evil deeds. Since centauries women’s nature have always been studied under observation of male gender and represented to societies. These Created and developed rules by social constructions in different communities’ women see themselves as what is shown for them by others.

Bridging between two different time periods and describing two divergent cultures, Gilgamesh from The Epic of Gilgamesh and Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart depict two larger than life heroes who's masculinity are the cause for them beginning as powerful god-like characters however is also the cause for them ending as regular human beings who display deep feelings and emotions. Even though these characters reach a humbling ending the journey differs through their view of masculinity. During this assignment I will be contrasting their views of masculinity.

The characters of The Epic of Gilgamesh are heavily shaped by their patriarchal leaders and society. The same is true for the protagonists of David Brooks’ Self-Mastery and Love, from his book, The Road to Character. Gilgamesh, a harsh ruler of an ancient city looking for eternal youth, George Marshall, a young man from Pennsylvania trying to prove himself , and Mary Anne “George Eliot” Evans, an author from England searching for love while questioning her faith, share many qualities and challenges. Despite living over 3,000 years apart, these people within their worlds go to great measures and long journeys to obtain something important to themselves, while grappling with the different effects of patriarchy.

We should not read The Epic of Gilgamesh because it enforces and promotes the objectification of women. One instance of this is portrayed when the people of Uruk lament to the gods about the harshness of many of Gilgamesh’s actions towards women. The narrator states, “His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior’s daughter nor the wife of the noble.” (62) Firstly the phrases, “leave no virgin to her lover”, “warrior’s daughter” and “nor the wife of the noble” present women in a manner that identifies women through their connections to men rather than as an independent person. This is a large problem as the style in which this is presented makes it seem casual and the problem isn’t seen or understood, which allows others to introduce or mention women in the same way, thus furthering

In 1919, Women were first granted equal rights to vote; the struggle for women to play an important role in history can be dated from the 1900’s and all the way back to the ancient Mesopotamian time period. Women have been viewed as goddess to unwanted servants throughout the variety of change in rulers, religions, and simply time periods. There has been a constant battle for women to have equal rights and to be treated equally in all aspects of life. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest recorded account of the roles of women and their importance in a functional society. The role of women in the Epic of Gilgamesh was only small highlights of the story, but their influence on the epic hero’s journey was life altering; Ishtar, Shamhat, and Siduri were able to create and maintain a civilized

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, there are female characters who influence the timeline of events in the story. Ishtar, the goddess of love and Shamhat, a sacred prostitute, both played important roles throughout the epic. In this ancient story, women not only represent astuteness and dominion, but also deceit and destruction. These women could both use their sexuality and deceitfulness to influence the decisions and the lives of the men they encountered.

Throughout the majority history, the power and influence of men over women varied greatly, with women typically being in the position of less power and influence. Although women seem to play a less apparent role, women are essential for both the continuation of life and the nurturing of the future, signifying that the power of women is very potent. The women of Gilgamesh are goddesses, priestesses and a variety of other roles, each with their own set of skills, guide Gilgamesh throughout the epic. Despite the perception of some scholars that the women of Gilgamesh appear inferior, the women have diverse and influential roles throughout the story, challenging the traditional conception of women’s lesser influence and power. The power of

Gilgamesh begins searching for the meaning of life after the death of his friend, Enkidu. He contracts with a young woman, Siduri, the maker of wine. He asks her to direct him to the immortality. Siduri tells Gilgamesh to enjoy the life of this world and its pleasure. This is the “lot of man,” to fell one’s bell with food and drink, to enjoy the life and be merry, to cherish children, and to love one’s wife. Siduri tries to persuade Gilgamesh of these things to his quest for immortality. However, Gilgamesh was very motivated to overcome the death. Gilgamesh thinks that the dead live in darkness surrounded by dirt and dust and suffering darkness. By the end, Gilgamesh gave up to what Siduri had told him and he begins to address the problem of

Misogynistic is how we can describe the thought of early Western civilized culture. We find this evident in literatures from ancient history. However, ancient culture did not set their practice of misogyny into stone. There are some exceptional cases in the famous epic poems, the Epic of Gilgamesh of the Sumerians and Akkadians and the Odyssey from Homer of the Greeks. We all can agree that these epic poems or at most the authors did not view women with our modern perspective – equality among gender. However, we cannot deny that female characters helped set the path of the epic heroes’ journey to their goals. In these epic poems, women are portrayed as figures and themes of knowledge, motherhood, seduction. These themes and figures are shaped through interaction between women and heroes.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the story about Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk and Enkidu, their friendship, how Enkidu dies, how Gilgamesh mourns the death of his friend and finally he understands enlightened truth . Most of this story is narrated from Gilgamesh’s point of view. The story is set in Mesopotamia and the portrayal of Gilgamesh is ironical. He is described as a king of immense vigor and strength who is not benevolent with his subjects. He befriends Enkidu who is of equal valor. They embark on different conquests together after which Enkidu gets dreams with message of his impending death . Enkidu subsequently dies with illness . With the death of his friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh is shattered and also becomes obsessed with his own life and so he embarks on a quest to find Utnapishtim, who is bestowed with immortality by the Gods. He believes that he would get eternal life from Utnapishtim, who had received eternal life from the Gods . The story’s theme throughout is related to how man evolves through various incidents in his life and finally realizes that immortality for a human lies in doing good work for others but not in the conquest of death. The entire story revolves around how Gilgamesh, obsessed by life yearns for eternal life and how it eludes him even though he undertakes dangerous quests to find it . The thesis statement is that humans can attain immortality by the acts and deeds they perform.

The shepherd sought refuge from the harlot of “the temple of love” who is named Shamat. The temptress is not a goddess but works under a well known temple who is guarded over by a goddess. When the young shepherd finds Shamat he tells her, “teach him, the savage man, yours woman art” (The Epic of Gilgamesh, pg.) The harlot does just that and she teached Enkidu the art of women for six days and seven nights, after which the wild creatures fled from him: “And now the wild creatures had all fled away; Enkidu was grown weak, for wisdom was in him, and the thoughts of a man were in his heart” (The Epic of Gilgamesh, pg. ). Her power and art which is so sensual has ostracized him from his wild companions, and leads him back to the temptress Shamat. Accepting him she convinces him to venture into civilization with her. This leads to her clothing him and shaving him, with that, “holding his hand she led him like a child to the sheepfolds” (The Epic of Gilgamesh, pg.). Shamat appears as both the tender lover and a tender caretaker. This not only reveals how women led civilizations into progression, but how their sensititivtyand sexuality contained immense power of men. The art of women was highly aware to men in its ability to transform even the wildest of men. A woman's power is quite