Gilgamesh And The Iliad Comparison

One of the most fascinating pieces of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, deals with and explores many of the problems humans have wrestled with for thousands of years. Even though the text does not explicitly answer any of the questions it poses, it gives clues that point to the answers. One of these questions, the dilemma of whether to act based solely on a person’s intuition or act based on reason and advice, occurs regularly in the text. Throughout The Epic of Gilgamesh, characters have success and failure when they act based on either their intuition or using reason, but the epic clearly points out, through examples, that acting based on reason instead of intuition constitutes more success in all facets of life.

Every mythological hero seems to be on a journey in search of the thing he desires most in the world. The two heroes who stood out to me were Gilgamesh, and Achilles. Gilgamesh’s greatest fear was death, while Achilles feared his legacy being lost and forgotten. Technically their desires are different, but their journey share many similarities, and in the end, boils down to the same thing. Each man in his own way, both Gilgamesh and Achilles desired immortality above all else. Though immortality takes on very a different meaning for Gilgamesh, as it does for Achilles, every decision as well as all the sacrifices they make, are based on their fear of death and dying.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a Mesopotamian myth and the oldest known narrative there is, originally created on clay tablets written in cuneiform. The story focuses on two individuals. Gilgamesh, who is the tyrannical ruler of the kingdom of Uruk. Then his counterweight, Enkidu who resides in the forest and was raised by animals. It may seem that neither would have much in common, considering one is royalty and one is a wild man. However, these two characters balance each other despite their differences, which results in a beautiful friendship, but both will lose as well as gain in the end.

The Epic of Gilgamesh not only told a story of the people of a Sumerian Civilization and the battles of their great ruler. The Epic spoke of current environmental and natural issues “It shows an understanding of ecological processes and the consequences of human action on the earth that anticipates current ecological work.”( Perlin 35)

The maturation of Gilgamesh and his desire to acquire wisdom throughout his journey is quite apparent. By overcoming difficulties such as upholding Uruk, becoming friends with Enkidu, and various other scenarios, Gilgamesh proves that he did in fact grow up throughout the epic.

In the text that has been covered in class we often see how the gods so often turn their backs on their heroes i.e. “Odyssey” by Homer. However, our God promises He will never leave us or forsake us. There are many gods in the Greek mythology yet one god could be for the hero and one could be against; they can completely counter act what the other god is doing. They lack in communication i.e. “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” Our God is three in one Father, Spirit, and Son, yet there is no lack in communication because they are one. In the Greek stories there are monsters and all other sorts of enemies and they all do whatever their little hearts desire (this is seen in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Epic of Gilgamesh). We believe in one enemy his name is Lucifer (Satan, The devil). He is the king of lies, deceit, and temptation. He is the deceiver. He is everything bad rolled in to one creature. People may not

(1) The black demon saw a beautiful woman and out of all the nobel women. He picked the one that was about the be married. He kidnapped her on her wedding night. It shows that the black demon does things impulsively. He does not care of the consequences. It shows that since he is a demon. He does not fear the consequences of men. When he saw her he could not longer live without her. When he kidnap her. He locked her in box showing that he does not trust the women he kidnap with other men. It also means he wants to keep her pure. She was kidnap on her wedding night so she did not have sex yet so the demon believed she was pure. The untainted virgin that has not been violated by men was his and his only. When he traveled he took her out of the box and wanted to sleep beside her. It shows when he his comfortable. He would sleep better beside her. The women was the demon's most prized possession. It is like comparing the women to a boy's secret toy. When a boy is around someone he would hide his secret toy from everyone. When the boy is alone he would take it and worship it. This meaning is similar to Metamorphoses when Apollo wanted Daphne. Even though she refused him. He impulsively try to rape her. She was turned into a tree, but he still tried to rape the tree. Another text with the similar meaning is in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Any women Gilgamesh desired he would take married or not. Since he was part god and king. He did not care of consequence like the demon.

The poem in Book 1 lauds Achilles as the finest warrior of the Athenian army. Nonetheless, when his commanding general, Agamemnon refuses to return to return the captive Chryseis to her father, the priest of Apollo, and a plague ensues, Achilles becomes an insubordinate (disrespecting his commander) by demanding that he return

In each story the gods or God created humans, at first, they were good and pure. Over time, the humans either began becoming too noisy for the gods to rest or they were becoming stained with sin. The story of the flood began with “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” Gilgamesh was king of Uruk that met an equal, Enkidu, whom he loved very much. When the gods sent Enkidu to die, Gilgamesh went out on a quest to gain everlasting life, on this trip met the immortal Uta-napíshtim.

The similarity between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Story of the Flood from The Book of Genesis is an interesting one. Considering how in both stories the Gods commanded one human to construct boats that could survive massive floods, to how both characters had seven days to build their respective boats before the floods came, to even how the dove in each story returned but the raven did not. I think one of the possibilities could be that they are the same story, merely told at a different time, some of the texts are even nearly the same, such as the Lord said in The Story of the Flood “ I will blot out from the earth the men whom I created-men together with beasts and creepy things, and birds of the sky”. Or Enlil’s quote from the Epic of Gilgamesh “the uproar of

In the tale of Gilgamesh, the story starts off with explaining that since Gilgamesh was the king, he had first rights to all women who were wed before their new husbands. Because of this, the people pray for Gilgamesh to find a partner. Anu answer’s this prayer by creating Enkidu. He and Enkidu go on a quest of fame that ultimately leads to the death of his new best friend. In Gilgamesh’s grief, he roams the steppe, and ultimately finds his way to Utanapishtim and his wife in hopes of gaining immortality as they did. Gilgamesh is able to obtain the plant he needs, but gives into the temptation to bath in a pond and loses the plant to a snake. He returns home to realize, or so I believe based on his recount of what he has, the legacy he is

Thus muses Achilles, one of epic poetry's greatest heroes. Epic poetry, one of the earliest forms of literature, began as an oral narration describing a series of mythical or historic events. Eventually, these stories were written down and read aloud to an audience. Although the Epic of Gilgamesh was composed approximately fifteen hundred years prior to the Iliad, the heroes of both epics possess strikingly similar characteristics. Indeed,

Joe Arce 19 Sept 2011 Socrates Vs. Gilgamesh Socrates’ view of death in the Phaedo, Crito, and Apology is complex. His argument tries to prove that philosophers, of all people, are in the best state to die or will be in the best state after life because of the life they lead. Socrates’ views are sharply contrasted in The Epic of Gilgamesh. In fact, he would probably say that Gilgamesh had not lived the proper kind of life and his views of life, and death would lead to an unsettled existence in the afterlife. Socrates’ view of death, from his opinions on the act of dying, the state of the soul after death, and the fear of death, differs from that of The Epic of Gilgamesh to the extent that Socrates would refute every belief about death

The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odysseus both are poems that have since early times been viewed as stories that teach the reader valuable life lessons, almost like a self-help book in today’s society. They both teach a lot of the same general lessons but there are some key similarities and differences throughout both works. Such as perseverance, and the inevitability of death are both lessons that are taught in each poem but they are presented to the reader through different interpretations. In the Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey there are two main characters both viewed as heroic figures in which the develop a greater knowledge of human mankind and immorality.

The destiny in Gilgamesh and The Iliad stories are believed to be a power that controls what happens in the future. The story of Gilgamesh and the Iliad destinies are moderately the same in significance of the conflicts and the ways of life both of the stories focused on a significant deaths. The Iliad and Gilgamesh is a remarkable reminder of the way life is in the present, but also how it is a little different. Both stories are similar in goals and destinies and how it affect the main characters. Most people believes that destiny or fate is pre-set and it is changed only by decisions we make that may be selfish and vindicated. Hopefully by the end of the essay the readers will get a better understand of stories similarities and differences.