Knowledge in Gilgamesh and Genesis Essay

The story of “Gilgamesh” depicts all of the heroic triumphs and heart-breaking pitfalls a heroic narrative should depict to be able to relate to today’s audience. However, “Gilgamesh” was once considered a lost and forgotten piece of literature for thousands of years, so there is a tremendous gap between the time it was created and the time it was translated into language that today’s audience can understand. That gap in history makes several aspects of the story of “Gilgamesh” strange and unfamiliar because what we now know about ancient Middle Eastern cultures and languages is a lot less than what we know about the cultures that prospered after ancient Middle Eastern cultures. Much of the content in the story of

These actions define the king as despotic by Babylonian standards. Further, his entrapment of Enkidu shows Gilgamesh using sex to corrupt. Enkidu lived a life of ignorance and bliss in the wilderness. He did not know fear, age, and many human constructs that make life arduous. Gilgamesh weaponizes sex by sending a prostitute to Enkidu, in aims of domesticating him. This sex removes Enkidu from the natural world and forces him to adopt attributes of humanity (alcohol, clothing, shaving). The Mitchell translation of the scene shows Enkidu’s sudden loss of power and separation from his natural life, explaining “He set off towards his beasts. When they saw him, Enkidu, the gazelles shied off . . . he could not run as before” (Mitchell 13). Therefore the act of sex marks his irrevocable entrance into civil society; through sex, Enkidu desecrates his innocence and is barred from his pure life. In this sense, Gilgamesh begins with one man the abuser of sex, and the other the abused. As both men build their relationship, Gilgamesh begins to incorporate Enkidu’s mature understanding of compassion into his character and diverges from his initial status as a cruel tyrant.

There was a time when gods and demons roamed the earth. A time when humanity lived at the mercy of divine beings, who executed their wills against the humans, following their own selfish desires and placing humans in a position of piety to these dominant beings. This time on earth is one of great men who fought against these demigods, giving them great fame passed on as stories in the oral tradition. Though it is unrealistic to believe that these men truly fought against divine beings, their stories played a role in the ancient world, which was the beginning of the formation of society and civilization. The epics of “Gilgamesh” and “The Ramayana of Valmiki” both served their societies as an outline of a moral code,

The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Hebrew Bible are considered by their audiences’ as two of the greatest literary works of ancient literature. The universal truths on The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Hebrew Bible, are most fundamental when viewed from both the contemporary and traditional audiences. Fundamentally, both audiences develop their own universal truths during the time in which the events transpired or by reading the scenic events from an anthology or other literary works.

This journal article examines 3 versions of the Gilgamesh Epic: the Old Babylonian version; the Eleven-Tablet version; and the Twelve-Tablet version. Though all 3 versions deal with the issues and choices of human beings and also with the inescapable issue of Death, the 3 different versions focus on 3 different aspects of Gilgamesh. The Old Babylonian version is the oldest, probably written during the Old Babylonian Period of 2003-1595 BC, and focuses on the fight of hero vs. man. The Old Babylonian version was circulated in the Near East and underwent many revisions. One of those revisions was the Eleven-Tablet version, which focused on the fight of hero vs. king. The Eleven-Tablet version, written in the later second millennium, adds to the beginning and end of the Epic, plus the Utnapishtim meeting, and shows the Gilgamesh-Ishtar passage that was added in Tablet 6. Another revision of the Epic was the Twelve-Table version, which focused on the fight of hero vs. god. The Twelve-Tablet version adds a translation of the second half of "Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld" and changes the nature of the Epic by showing a conflict between Gilgamesh's two identities as god and man, and the rules controlling life in the

1. At the very beginning of the work, Gilgamesh is described as one “who knew the ways, was wise in all things” (1.2). How does this establish the central role of knowledge and wisdom in the epic?

In both Gilgamesh and Noah and the Flood, man’s wickedness leads to death, destruction, and rebirth all caused by billions of gallons of water sweeping the earth’s surface. The flood in both stories destroys most of mankind. The floods represent rebirth and a new beginning for mankind, as well as the gods and God’s wrath. In Gilgamesh the gods decide to destroy mankind by flooding the earth for six days and nights. Utnapishtim is chosen to build a boat in order to restart mankind after the flood. In the Bible God also decides to flood the earth due to the increase in wickedness. God chooses Noah to build an ark and store seven pairs of every clean animal and two of every other kind of animal on it

The division becomes prominent between the power-struggle of Gilgamesh vs. Enkidu. Gilgamesh represents the civilized person and Enkidu represents the natural world. Therefore, he represents the gifts of nature, such as the forests, vineyards and gates. Gilgamesh directly ties in with books 1-3 of The Genesis. The relationship between Adam and Eve is extremely proportionate to the relationship between Enkidu and Harlot. Both of the stories have far reaching implications on the contrast between men and women and their role in the natural world. All Adam, Enkidu and Harlot face isolation and rejection from the women they used to depend on them for support and assistance. Harlot entices Enkidu. He chooses to bring him to the world of humans. Similarly, Eve persuades Adam to have the apple of their sin. This causes the rejection by God. Although in Gilgamesh women were subordinate to men, the Book of Genesis provides an extremely different light. In the Book of Genesis women take center stage. Their triumph has them dominate the center of the universe and this enables them to maintain female position dominate in the world of

In both Mesopotamia circa 2100 BCE and Israel circa 367 CE, two very different forms of religion were being practiced. However, key concepts in both religions remain strikingly similar, and in some cases, nearly identical. The relationship between people and their deities is a strong one based entirely on literature, whether that be oral or written. And while this relationship is characterized mainly by love and admiration, fear of and punishment by deities was not an uncommon practice in any religion. The Epic Of Gilgamesh and The David Story both work to prove that the relationship between a people and the divine is characterized by both love for and fear of deities. This relationship based on love and fear directly impacts both the decisions made with the guidance of deities and the punishments inflicted for decisions made without approval of these deities.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of earliest known pieces of literature. Through years of storytelling and translation, The Epic of Gilgamesh became a timeless classic. This story is believed to have originated from Sumerian poems and legends about the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh. Throughout the epic, many themes arose about women, love, and journeys and the one I would like to discuss is the theme of death. Also, I will discuss if Gilgamesh accepts morality at the end of the story and the development of Gilgamesh’s character throughout the story.

In the process of becoming civilized, the first thing Enkidu does is leaving his wildness behind. After his encounter with the harlot Shamhat, Enkidu immediately forms an attachment to this woman. The author writes, “While the two of them together were making love, he forgot the wild where he was born” (II, P: 46-7). Enkidu’s evolution into a civilized man is shown as he forgets about his birthplace after spending only a few nights living and coupling with the harlot. While love and sex are temptations often irresistible to human beings, Enkidu also adapts this human trait of lust. While his abandonment of the wild self is shown through his desertion of his birthplace, it is also revealed through his physical makeover while he enters the city. The author

Since this was the prevailing opinions, the authors, few may it be, tended to define their heroes as men of quick, vicious action. Those who hesitated were run over by those who didn’t. Character was built based on one’s ability to act quickly and without uncertainty. Gilgamesh was involved in several situations in which he could choose to wait and act later or push forward and complete the task at hand. Gilgamesh’s brother, Enkidu, also did not use restraint in several of his performances. The very first instance of Enkidu doing such is when he is tempted by the harlot. Enkidu is half man and half beast when this happens. “There he is. Now, woman, make your breasts bare, have no shame, do not delay, but welcome his love… She was not ashamed to take him, she made herself naked and welcomed his eagerness” (Gilgamesh 20). Enkidu did not refrain in the least from leaving his animal ways to go to the tempting woman.

Once Enkidu tragically died, Gilgamesh decided to search for eternal life because of his own fear of death. This story was important to the Sumerians due to the references of their gods, goddesses, and the hero king Gilgamesh. However, the story proved important to all later religions, which told of similar events, attitudes and actions of the gods and goddesses, the journey of a demigod, and the search for immortality. Similar to most religious texts, “The Epic of Gilgamesh” begins with a tale of creation.

In the required reading of "The Hebrew Bible", the character referred to as God is represented as a very mysterious character in several different instances. God appears to test the humans He creates periodically without cause. He punishes more than just the guilty offenders with His wrath and yet will reward the unfavorable actions of others. He appears to be a constant contradiction of His own ethical code leaving a sense of confusion towards any definition of morality.

The first passage of “Gilgamesh” translated by N.K. Sanders i.e. The Coming of Enkidu presents readers with an introduction to the relationship between the two prominent characters, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, where a prominent quote lies on page 16, “I[Enkidu] will go to the place where Gilgamesh lords it over the people, I will challenge him boldly, and I will cry aloud in Uruk, ‘I have come to change the old order, for I am the strongest here’”. The statement mentioned above is significantly crucial due to two elements it holds, irony and its effects on the course of the ancient text’s plot. Initially, Enkidu, possessed his given life while preserving the simplicity with his fellow herds of animals, albeit his presence as a human. He, however,