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Friendships Of Friendship In The Epic Of Gilgamesh And Enkidu

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The Epic of Gilgamesh: Friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu
Have you ever heard of Hercules? What about Odysseus? While this story is similar in the amount of issues and the typical emotional and mental growth, this is not about either of them. This is about a man who while had unlimited power, was ignorant to societal norms. Gilgamesh is a chap who through the meeting of his best friend Enkidu comes to be a changed man. In the poem The Epic of Gilgamesh, through similar themes of the Bible in different areas we learn of Gilgamesh and Enkidu growth. Thus, the establishment of friendship plays an important role of humanizing one and making the other more civilized and humble.
First, Gilgamesh was born two-thirds God and made one-third man (Sanders, The Epic of Gilgamesh) in Uruk by the Gods. He did tremendously good deeds in Uruk as stated in the prelude of The Epic of Gilgamesh, in the following statement, “In Uruk he built walls, a great rampart, and the temple of blessed Eanna for the God of the firmament Anu and for Ishtar the goddess of love. However, since he was the King of Uruk, he seemed to have twisted his understanding of how a king or leader was supposed to act as a protector rather than an unrestrained man due to lack of punishment. Gilgamesh was very arrogant and was described as “a handsome youth…His entire body exudes voluptuousness supreme over other kings”. This caused the existence of Gilgamesh to bore as a double-edged sword in most circumstances.

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