Hero's Journey Vs Gilgamesh

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.

Gilgamesh, written by David Ferry, illustrates a story about a man who knows everything, but continues to try and learn more. Although Gilgamesh may be arrogant, he still remains a great ruler and commander of Uruk. Throughout the book, the adventures of Gilgamesh fit Joseph Campbell’s idea of the hero’s journey. After analyzing the pieces to the hero’s journey, Gilgamesh is proven to be a true hero because his journey parallels that of the hero’s journey described by Campbell. The latter part of this paper will prove Gilgamesh is a hero using Campbell’s model, by analyzing the pieces of the hero’s journey: separation or departure, the initiation, and the return.

Since long ago, people carried an image of what it means to be a hero. It is evident in some great books one might even say. As in The Epic of Gilgamesh, Antigone, and The Iliad, heroism is displayed and exalted, but what does being a hero mean? Overarchingly, in regards to these works, the heroes earn their titles as heroes by notably doing what is right when the time is right, with humane purpose, and an everlasting message. However, Gilgamesh, Antigone, and Akhilleus, being different in their purposes, everlasting messages, type of heroism as whole, can not compare in regards to heroic status.

In the “Epic of Gilgamesh” translated by N.K. Sanders, Gilgamesh completes a series of many challenges and obstacles, fulfilling the conditions of an archetypal quest story. In order to fulfill an archetypal quest story, the hero or protagonist must complete a series of hurdles, on their way toward achieving their goal. In the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, Gilgamesh hunts for his main obsession, immortality, while he battles off monsters, with the help of some friends. Sensing Gilgamesh embraces too much power, the gods create a friend for Gilgamesh named Enkidu in the hopes of lessening Gilgamesh’s power. Enkidu and Gilgamesh turn out to be best friends after Enkidu loses a wrestling match

People have been fascinated by tales of heroism for centuries. In ancient Mesopotamia, heroes give people hope and comfort, and fill them with strength. Ancient Mesopotamia is filled with tales of heroes- mighty warriors battling monsters, men ready to risk life and limb to save their true love or to fight for their nation. Still, there is a great difficulty that lies in defining what a hero truly is. Strength alone does not make a hero; nor does intelligence. Moreover, the Epic of Gilgamesh truly defines the definition of a hero. Gilgamesh is portrayed as a true hero through his skill, intelligence, willingness to die, reverence, and his respect for death.

Through careful depiction of the literary devices metaphor and juxtaposition, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Book of Genesis 1-3 and The Iliad help to overwhelmingly transform the transition between the fictional and natural world. In the fictional novel, The Epic of Gilgamesh, the internal conflict of Man vs. Wild was a major conflict in regards to the central theming of the story. There was an extreme division between man and nature starting in the extreme beginning of the story. The main characters who compliment this conflict were Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The Epic of Gilgamesh directly flows into a comparison with The Book of Genesis. Gilgamesh ties into the Book of Genesis because the relationship between Adam and Eve is similar to Enkidu and

The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey have been a part of human literature for many, many years now, they are both more referred to as epic poems. Both epics are found in different points of time in human cultures stretching roughly 1000 years apart. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a poem from early Mesopotamian culture and The Odyssey is said to be written from the early onset of the Greek civilization. The main characters for these epics are Gilgamesh, a demigod and ruler of Uruk, and Odysseus a great warrior returning home to his wife from war. The two main characters of these epic poems, Gilgamesh and Odysseus share many traits together and apart from each other. Among the qualities that these characters display in each of their respective poems,

The Epic of Gilgamesh is similar to the movie Step Brothers because they are both introduced with two main characters that share dislike for one another. For example, during the Epic of Gilgamesh, the city people of Uruk prayed to the gods to help them combat the arrogant king Gilgamesh. A hairy wild man, Enkidu, was then created to challenge Gilgamesh and his unlawful behaviors. Once confronted by Enkidu, Gilgamesh was angry at the fact that this unknown man was questioning his decisions and Enkidu was upset that a king would take advantage of his power. It was obvious the two did not like each other and in attempt to stop Gilgamesh, Enkidu fought him. Likewise, in the movie Step Brothers, two strangers, Brennan and Dale, are forced to meet one another and from the get go had a strong urge of hate towards each other that resulted in fighting. However, the reasons behind the arguments

(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 themes of myths speak to concerns for every human being. This shows that different cultures are interconnected and share ideas. From reading the Epic of Gilgamesh we can begin to understand the values help by ancient Mesopotamian society. By reading the Ramayana we can analysis the religion and world view of Hinduism. Many ancient stories seem to parallel each other. Although stories are written in diverse cultures, there tend to be likenesses, especially between the protagonists. This is true with the stories of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Ramayana when it comes to the depictions of their hero’s.

Perhaps one of the main reasons the Epic of Gilgamesh is so popular and has lasted such a long time, is because it offers insight into the human concerns of people four thousand years ago, many of which are still relevant today. Some of these human concerns found in the book that are still applicable today include: the fear and concerns people have in relation to death, overwhelming desires to be immortal, and the impact a friendship has on a person’s life. It does not take a great deal of insight into The Epic of Gilgamesh for a person to locate these themes in the story, and even less introspection to relate to them.

There once lived a king, the great king of Uruk in Mesopotamia. This great leader was Gilgamesh. His preserved epic is of great significance to modern day culture. Through Gilgamesh, the fate of mankind is revealed, and the inevitable factor of change is expressed. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, it is a great love, followed by a lingering grief that cause a significant change in the character of Gilgamesh.

      Another quality that the two heroes share -- and that softens their strong characters -- is loyalty to a friend. Gilgamesh is so embittered by the death of his friend Enkidu that he risks his life "crossing over the waters of death" in an attempt to bring Enkidu

In these two epics, the major themes are the concept of good versus evil and the conflicts of man versus man, man versus self, and man versus nature. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk represented good while Humbaba and the snake represented evil. Compared to The Odyssey, the Sumerian epic consists of a smaller representation for both good and evil. Odysseus represented good, but so does his son, Athena, and many of the gods that help him. Antinous, the rest of the suitors, Polyphemus, Circe, as well as many others were on the evil side of the equation for this epic. The concept of good versus evil coincides with the conflict of both man versus man and man versus self. Odysseus and Gilgamesh both engaged in both types of conflict, but Gilgamesh experienced more of the latter conflict while Odysseus experienced more of the former. Odysseus’s adventures involved more of man versus man conflicts because of how often he had to fight a physical being. For example, Odysseus and his men blinded Polyphemus by ramming a hot spear “deep into his [Polyphemus] crater eye” (qtd. in Prentice Hall Lit. 992). In addition, Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, had to fight off more than a hundred suitors near the end of the epic. Gilgamesh had plenty of experiences with man versus man conflict, such as his first fight with Enkidu, his fight with Humbaba, as well as his arguments with the gods. However, the man versus self conflict seemed

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.