Gilgamesh Archetype

A hero is a person that is admired for his courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Such noble qualities include virtue, respect, and beneficial. An epic hero is a supernatural character who partakes the principles of a race. He (or she) completes long, dangerous journeys and accomplish extreme goals in a form of a quest. Similar to a hero, they must be courageous and robust. In the epic The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus is an epic hero.

A hero can be defined in several ways. Someone can be considered a hero by the qualities he or she displays. The epic poem Beowulf, written by an unknown author, describes the most heroic man and role model of the Anglo-Saxon times. This hero Beowulf has all the qualities and traits that a true hero expresses. Beowulf, as depicted in the epic Beowulf, is the prototype of the epic hero, a larger-than-life figure who embodies the virtues and ideals of his culture.

The story of Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk who is two thirds god and one third human, is a interesting and intriguing piece of literature. The story tells of Gilgameshs' strength, bravery, intelligence, looks, and loyalty making him a true model hero. It says that Gilgamesh was (pg.13), "given a perfect body and endowed with beauty and courage and his beauty surpassed all others." Throughout the story he is constantly going into battle and going on long adventures to find answers that will better his city. He is also respectful to those he meets along his journeys and asks God for strength during his battles. Gilgamesh is a religious character that posseses super human strength, bravery, selflessness, and intelligence making him a model

The epic of Gilgamesh is a story of an ambitious epic hero who influenced historical scene and huge cultural differences in Mesopotamian society. Gilgamesh story implicates a sequence of religious and adventure victories of the century. The story tells a long live life of a brutal warrior and affective kings of different surrounding dominion. Gilgamesh was half human and one-third god, a combination that made him great humanitarian as well as greatest among the combatants. He was one the greatest with superhuman strength and was also proud preserved the wisdom of his people. The story is about showing God giving strength while searching for the meaning of life. Eventually, I don’t think Gilgamesh would be considered as a hero in today society because of spiritual characters and behaviors. He took an adventure to pursue his own desire and find out the secret life of immortality. Gilgamesh was a true hero because he was the strongest, caring and the wisest in Mesopotamian society.

In particular the two men’s journeys differ. For example, Gilgamesh goes on a journey to find glory and, immortality. When Gilgamesh meets Enkidu, his friend, Gilgamesh decides he wants to go on a quest to “make a name for himself”(tablet 5.4). Gilgamesh later goes on another journey to find immortality after his friend Enkidu dies. Gilgamesh becomes scared of death and wants to find the God Utnapishtim and his wife for immortality. Utnapishtim built an arch to survive the great flood and is the only one who knows how to gain eternal life since he survived the great flood. Gilgamesh finds Utnapishtim and Utnapishtim tells him to “stay awake for six days and seven nights, and he too will become immoral” (tablet 11.7). Gilgamesh did not have success staying awake, instead, he falls asleep for six days and seven nights. Utnapishtim believes that Gilgamesh will lie saying he did stay awake, so Utnapishtim’s wife “bakes a loaf of bread every day and lays the loaf at Gilgamesh’s feet”(tablet 11.7). Gilgamesh realizes that immortality is unlikely going to happen, so he accepts his fate and writes his story on a stone in from of his wall protecting his city. On the other hand, Moses goes on a different journey to lead the people of Egypt to a new place, Canaan. Moses is very humble and is not the leader type. For example, Moses is chosen by God to become a leader. God gives Moses supernatural powers to

A true epic hero has many very defining characteristics. Usually you will find this hero to be the ‘alpha male. ' With an almost super hero personality, epic heroes are extremely above an average human being. This character must be of noble birth, and as a result, this gives them great respect and many resources. There is a deep reverence for the gods and this helps the hero through tough times. An epic hero is bravery than the other characters. They are willing to take bigger risks and reap greater rewards. Despite these strong traits, there is usually an element of deep suffering that the character must deal with through out his story. No matter what, however, the epic hero will always win out in the end in a good vs. evil type of

In the beginning of the book, Gilgamesh is careless and destructive. Gilgamesh is in control of everyone, but he doesn’t care about anyone.The epic opens with people complaining about Gilgamesh’s ignorant, and irrational behaviors. “The city is his possession, he struts through it, arrogant, his head raised high, trampling its citizens like a wild bull. He is king, he does whatever he wants, takes the son from his father and crushes him, takes the girl from her mother and uses her, the warrior's daughter, the young man’s bride, he uses her, no one dares to oppose him”() In the beginning of the book Gilgamesh is almighty, but he doesn’t have a fear of death, and he is very destructive. Gilgamesh does not care about the people he is ruling over, people talk about him as the strongest, and he has the most power in the rule. This demonstrates how

What is an epic hero? Although we would like to believe that a hero would always be there to save us as needed, that is not always the case. All heroes are different, but what makes them epic? Many would answer that question by saying because they are in an epic poem or story; however, that answer isn’t true. An epic hero, of course is in an epic narrative, but it is what they accomplish in that specific text. First, an epic hero has to make a grand journey and be in the Gods favor or shall we say the chosen one. Also, he has to be seen as superior than any other man. For clarification, the epic hero needs to be bigger, faster, stronger, and wiser than anyone else in the story, except for the Gods of course. Also, and epic hero is also

The epic of Gilgamesh exhibits a beautiful look at what a person with strong perseverance had do. The fact that Gilgamesh after the death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh’s greatest friend, he mourns for a while and then goes on a quest to the edge of the world in an attempt to find the key to immortality, is incredible. Gilgamesh’s journey takes him to Mashu, the twin-peaked mountain where the Sun rises on one side and sets on the other. The mountain that is guarded by two scorpion like creature that had no intentions of permitting Gilgamesh to pass through the tunnel that lead to the other side, but his passion persuaded them to. After traveling for hours in the darkness he emerges and proceeds to meet Siduri, the tavern keeper, who tells him that his desire for immorality is futile, but seeing how determined he was to reach Utnapishtim, the only immortal man. He then advances to Urshanabi, the ferryman, who takes Gilgamesh to Utnapishtim, but not after

An archetype is defined as an image, story-pattern, character, setting, symbol, or situation that recurs frequently in literature and in life. It demonstrates universal human experiences and associates strongly with readers through a subconscious understanding. In the Epic of Gilgamesh the main character, Gilgamesh, is an example of a superheroic archetypal hero. He took on an epic quest for everlasting life by following the archetypal steps of a hero’s journey. Through suffering due to tragedy, realizing the nature of his quest, seeking help from a mentor, experiencing failure, and returning home with a companion, Gilgamesh’s story followed the situational archetype of a hero’s journey.

A hero is someone who saves the day. An epic hero possesses superhuman strength, craftiness, and confidence. They are helped or harmed by the goals. They embody values that a culture considers admirable. In Homer's The Odyssey, Odysseus is a great example of an epic hero.

Gilgamesh has been caught killing animals for the fun of it, destroying the properties of others, and acting as a selfish man who lacks care. An archetype is a typical example of a certain person or thing in a society’s culture. Gilgamesh is considered to be a criminal example of an archetype because of his inconvenient ways of living. This is because Gilgamesh acts as

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh was mostly divine but shared minimal characteristics of a god. Such characteristics were bold physical structures and the strength of a wild bull which he inherited from his mother, Ninsun, the cow goddess. Everything else such as his characteristics, mentality, and actions mirrors ours, humans which makes him more like us than a god. His actions portray the burden of the flawed human nature that we all carry such as being aggressive, competitive, and running away from our fears.

Bravery is also an important depiction of Gilgamesh throughout The Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh was brave in most of the events in the epic, but the main component was after Enkidu died and he went out of his way to try to find immortality (The Epic of Gilgamesh 97). Throughout the epic, Gilgamesh’s character seems to evolve after the death of Enkidu and this is the turning point for him. “He braves monsters, runs along the sun’s path under the earth at night, encounters a mysterious woman who keeps a tavern at the edge of the world, passes a garden of jeweled trees, crosses the waters of death, and finally arrives at the doorstep of Utanapishtim and his wife” (The Epic of Gilgamesh 97). When Gilgamesh encountered Utanapishtim, he was doubted at first, but he did not give up. Gilgamesh did what he was told even if he failed at certain tasks and ended up with

Gilgamesh saves the day once again when Ishtar sends down the Bull of Heaven to wreak havoc on the city. With the help of Enkidu, he kills the bull by using his great strength. This fighting scene is typical for an epic hero. Like most epic heroes, Gilgamesh has superhuman achievements in battle. Because of his great strength, beauty, and courage, Gilgamesh is clearly the hero of the story, which is necessary for the work to be considered an epic.