Questions On The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient artifact from Sumerian literature. There actually was a King in Sumer by the name of Gilgamesh, who lived at about 2700 BC. The Epic casts Gilgamesh as a ruler and great hero and cast as being part man and part god. The story has Gilgamesh set off with a companion in search of cedar wood to bring back to their woodless land. His companion is killed during a violent storm. The Sumerian Epic blames the death upon the storm god, Enlil. Gilgamesh then searches for the plant that restores youth, a recurring theme throughout centuries of literature. The Epic concludes with Gilgamesh dying.

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.

(Gilgamesh 71)” Gilgamesh's grief for his friend was natural, but he shouldn't have abandoned his people and his royal duties. As ruler, his people have to follow his decree, and need his support to thrive. By forcing them to grief, and abandoning his position, he left them in a very vulnerable position. His last and final abandonment of his people began with Gilgamesh's quest for immortality. He was so upset and shocked by what occurred to Enkidu's body after death, that he vowed he would never die. His selfishness has grown so far, that when he finds his cure for mortality, he chooses to let an old man test the plant in case it brings death instead. “I will bring it to Uruk-Haven, and have an old man eat the plant to test it. The plant's name is “The Old Man Becomes a Young Man.” Then I will eat it and return to the condition of my youth. (Gilgamesh 106)” Gilgamesh was a powerful man with a lot of ambition, and potential. It was just ruined by his selfish nature. He was, all-in-all, a famous and great ruler... but not a just one.

Further analysis of the poem The Epic of Gilgamesh, described the characteristic of king Gilgamesh from the beginning, middle, and end. Throughout the poem, there are immature and petrified moments of Gilgamesh, but more importantly he learned to grow as he explore his journey. Friendship, love, and fear appears to be essential in this poem. Why are those terms relevant ? and how does it connect with the trait of Gilgamesh ?, let’s continue to find out the truth about Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh, on the other hand, is not so lucky. His weakness is something that he cannot escape. Since Gilgamesh is part human, death is an inevitable fact of life. Gilgamesh’s fate is first foreseen when he has a dream about a wild man Enkidu. Gilgamesh tells his mother,” Stars of the sky appeared, and some kind of meteorite of Anu fell next to me. I tried to lift it but it was too mighty for me, I tried to turn it but I could not budge it. – I loved it and embraced it as a wife. I laid it down at your feet, and you made it compete with me. (220-231)” Gilgamesh learns his destiny is to love Enkidu, but the gods create Enkidu to destroy Gilgamesh. When the goddess of love sends the bull of heaven to kill Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeat the bull, but the gods are not happy. As punishment, they speak the curse of death upon Enkidu. Heart-broken

     Gilgamesh sets out on his journey for immortality, leaving his kingdom and people behind to fend for themselves. He starts to become self-seeking just as he had before. He spends every waking moment searching for immortality only to benefit himself. The whole purpose of the journey itself is so that Gilgamesh can gain immortality for himself and be remembered forever. He doesn’t realize that his people are off on there own with no king to control the empire. Even when

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 Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh’s pursuit for immortality is marked by ignorance and selfish desire. Desire and ignorance, as The Buddha-karita of Asvaghosha suggests, pollutes man’s judgment resulting in his inability to break the cycle of birth and death. At the core of Gilgamesh’s desire resides his inability to accept the inevitability of death, making his rationality behind the pursuit of immortality ignorant and selfish. Implicitly, Gilgamesh’s corrupt desire for immortality conveys that Gilgamesh does not mature as a character.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a very popular epic that is difficult to understand at first, which is why there is different translations of the same book. Although Foster and Sander’s translations have a lot of similar words and the stories are basically the same, there are also a lot of differences between the two. One of which is more straightforward and easier to understand, whereas the other is more of an in depth thoughtful read for the reader. Both translations differences have their own particular reasons for doing so, and add to the depiction of the story. I feel like the translation in the Anthology is a more complex read, whereas Sander’s translation is much easier to understand.

(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.

Even though it was very evident that Gilgamesh was connected to the supernatural through Humbaba, he did not further his spiritual journey. His fights with Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven delay Gilgamesh’s journey to becoming a great king. This journey begins upon the death of his closest companion, Enkidu. The slaying of Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven are only distractions for Gilgamesh. These two fights side tract him from becoming a great king. The death of his friend at the hands of the Gods makes Gilgamesh realize the value of life. He then searches for the key to eternal life; to escape the fate that his friend met. He tries multiple times to obtain his goal but is defeated by all the tasks. He then returns home and begs the gods for a chance to see Enkidu

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.

At the beginning of the story, Gilgamesh is shown as someone who doesn’t really care about death as long as he dies for a cause that would make everyone remember him for his deeds. As a result, he would be physically dead but spiritually alive because every single person would know who he was and what he did. However, this idea of him changes when he witnesses the way his beloved friend Enkidu dies, and therefore he embarks on a journey to find eternal life. It was better for him to live forever rather than die and be forgotten. Hence, two important themes can be seen throughout the whole story which is friendship and death.

Gilgamesh was devastated by Enkidu's death. The immense grief and excruciating pain and also fear for death, that it caused to him had made him eager to seek immortality. Gilgamesh met Siduri in a very delicate state of mind. He had just witnessed the death of his soul brother and only friend. Life had brought him to a stage where he could gain some humanity and get rid of his selfish, arrogant attitude. He met Siduri by coincidence. Siduri came as a gift, which made him familiar with the simple ways of leading life. Her small words meant a lot that taught a lot about life. Gilgamesh was an arrogant ruler with no humanly feelings of love and compassion. Having lost Enkidu, his only friend, had stirred mixed feeling in his soul. On the one hand he felt grieved about Enkidu's death but on the other hand he was going against the rule of nature. The fear for death made him feel that he was strong and powerful. So he would not want to die ever. And so he set out in search of Utnapishtim. Siduri tried to put light on him important aspects of life in that human life is ordained by God and that humans do not have a control over their own lives. She says to him" Remember always, mighty king, that Gods decreed the fates of all many years ago. They alone are to be eternal, while we frail humans die as you yourself must someday too." (Gilgamesh, tablet 10, column 3, lines88-91, p.51) She explains

Gilgamesh fear of death is completely understandable. From the beginning of the story it shows how much power the Gods had over the people. Their main interest was the people having the Kings in higher power. “This was important for the traditional beliefs was that the gods had supplied all that was needed for humans to flourish, cities agriculture, the arts of civilization at the outset of human history, in the antediluvian age.”- george xlvi. The Gods had positive interest in the people but established a right and wrong way for the people to live. Gilgamesh never payed attention to any of this in the beginning. As a King he had a lot of confidence in himself to conquer and change everything around him. Which is what he was mostly known for. Throughout the story he realizes there is one thing he can't change which was one of the saddest point in the story. Death was his greatest burden. Gilgamesh arrogance brought to the brink of self cruelty trying to defy the ways of living the Gods set in place for humans. While reading this story I myself started to understand the main point in the story. We as humans have a choice to either stay in a certain circle for life or wonder the world to see what fits our interest and needs the most. As we find these amazing addition to our being there is one thing we can't fight and that is death. It is bound to happen which brings me to my next point.