Gender Inequality In Gilgamesh Essay

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.

After Enkidu and Gilgamesh defeat the divine beast Humbaba, another pivotal sexual interaction tests Gilgamesh’s character and reveals his changed nature. As Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel back from the sacred forest, Ishtar (Babylonian goddess of love and

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

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.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a story of Gilgamesh, a man who was two-thirds god that was saved by companionship. Gilgamesh was a cruel and careless king, who spent his time raping women, exhausting citizens, and conquering foes and foreign lands until he met, fought and was guided by his great friend and soul mate, Enkidu. With the help of Enkidu and his influence, he learned compassion as well as wisdom and integrity, and eventually Gilgamesh became a great and fair king. Though the story focuses mainly on Gilgamesh and his friendship with Enkidu, there are several roles played by women that help to make and move the story along. Without these important women who show great strength and feminine qualities despite being oppressed by the

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.

The Epic of Gilgamesh chronicles the life of the great warrior and hero Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is not great hero because he is moral. In fact he is feared because "a goddess made him, strong as a savage bull, none can withstand his arms" (1). This phrase underlines the terrible power of femininity, in the view of the Mesopotamian culture that produced the text. On one hand, the female principle is responsible for creation. On the other hand, the female principle also has the ability to destroy: the epic takes a largely dim perspective of humanity, and often, by extension of women, because the source of all creation is a goddess, Aruru. Aruru creates but she also generates suffering.

Gilgamesh recognizes the strength of the harlot's charm, however while he recognizes that, he fails to recognize anything else regarding women. He sleeps with all the women in his land and takes them out of their home to be his brides. His lust leaves no virgin to their lover, neither the warrior's daughter or the wife of the noble (62). It is because of this that Enkidu challenges Gilgamesh by saying, "I have come to challenge the old order, for I am the strongest here'' (68). Enkidu recognizes the importance of women and their right to be with their families. The role of women in ancient Mesopotamia was that of a homemaker, and to destroy or corrupt the homemaker one can destroy and/or

When Ishtar sees Gilgamesh on his throne, the goddess Ishtar, the goddess of love and war, is overcome with lust. She pleads with Gilgamesh to be her husband. He dismisses her advances and recalls her previous husband, who because of her, suffered terrible fates because of her. Angered, she tells her father, Anu, to punish him for disrespecting her. Anu then sends the bull of heaven down to punish gilgamesh. When the bull came down, Gilgamesh and Enkidu wrestled with it. Enkidu finally grabs its tail and Gilgamesh plugged his sword between the bull shoulder. After that they sacrifice its heart to shamash. Ishtar then shouts curses at them, Enkidu respond by throwing the bull’s haunches at her, and threatening that he will cut her down like they did the bull of Heaven. Even though they respected the god Shamash they disrespected a superior God, Enlil. Because of Gilgamesh and Enkidu transgressions, the gods come together to decide which one of the two shall die as punishment.But, since Gilgamesh is born from a God he could not be killed, so they decide that Enkidu should be

Ishtar, the goddess, is a powerful woman as if to recognize the power of women as they give life to men through their love as well as their ability to destroy men. The name goddess normally would represent a majestic and noble woman of power. Ishtar however, is portrayed as the complete opposite in The Epic of Gilgamesh. She is portrayed as one who uses the characteristics of a prostitute to lure in the man that she wants, which at the time is Enkidu. Ishtar is told “make your breasts bare, have no shame. Let him see you naked, let him possess your body” (Sandars, 3), “she was not ashamed to take him, she made herself naked and welcomed his eagerness” (Sandars, 4). The story talked about how Ishtar would go for the men she wants and would throw them away after she gets what she wants. This is rather the opposite of how women during the times of this story were. Women were used by men and not the other way. The creators of this epic portrayed Ishtar this way to show the power of women being able to seduce men to have their way.

and Enkidu become companion and dare to annihilate beast Humbaba in the cedar forest. They are effective in their triumph and come back to Uruk, where Gilgamesh makes, Ishtar, the girl of Anu for turning her away. At this, Anu discharges the bull of heaven on the city of Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu rout the bull adding affront to Ishtar, and in counteract the gods make Enkidu fall extremely ill. Gilgamesh gets to be discouraged and tries to surrender his godlikeness.

The roles of women have changed in history. Women have been a centered discussion and powerful components on men in history and literature. Women were seen in many ways, but mainly in a bad light with less to do with their mind, but more so with their bodies. The women in Gilgamesh have a strong presence in the story, some good and some bad. One stand point that is broad is that they have a voice.

Ishtar: The goddess of love and war who fell in love with Gilgamesh and asked for his semen (Ferry 29). Was enraged by Gilgamesh’s rejection speech and sought for revenge on him by releasing the bull of heaven (Ferry 32-33).

Gilgamesh and Enkidu become friends after a fight between them. Gilgamesh and Enkidu agreed to fight The Bull of Heaven wish insulted Ishtar, Goddess of love. By them killing The Bull of Heaven the Gods decided that Enkidu must die. The death of Enkidu hurt Gilgamesh and caused him to go into a depression. Gilgamesh finds himself speaking to a barmaid, a women, who gives him some advice. She tells Gilgamesh to stop grieving over his friend Enkidu and enjoy life. She tells him to always be happy and surround himself with happy things. She tells him that he must enjoy his wife and his children and that life will continue.

In the beginning of Chapter 3 of the epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is faced with a difficult decision: should he reject the goddess of love and war, Ishtar’s romantic advances? It may appear that Gilgamesh should have accepted Ishtar’s offer of marriage, as the rejection led to the death hundreds of innocent citizens of Uruk. On the surface, the epic could easily mislead the reader to believe this is the case, but without further analysis, the reader may miss the epic’s major character flaws that would have made a relationship between Gilgamesh and Ishtar catastrophic. Through studying the behavioral tendencies each character possesses, this misunderstanding can be addressed. Through this study, it becomes clear that Gilgamesh’s pride and Ishtar’s sharp temper prove that a relationship between them should not happen because this combination of traits tend to escalate each other to extreme levels of conflict.