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The Hero Of The Epic Of Gilgamesh

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modern culture we are used to the stereotypical, sympathetic hero; the Batmans and Supermans who lose their parents in tragic circumstances and devote their lives to vanquishing evil. That however, is not the way heroes have always been portrayed. When we look at The Epic of Gilgamesh we see the archetype of every hero since, however, we are not overcome with a desire to see Gilgamesh succeed. On the hand, if we fast forward two thousand years and look at a hero from Africa named Sundiata who is very similar to Gilgamesh in many aspects, we do have desire for Sundiata’s success. Why do we root for one hero while casting away the other? It has to do with the way perceive that hero and their values as well as how we perceive the conditions each hero is faced with. If we can picture Sundiata as the evolution of Gilgamesh we see the differences and similarities between the two as culture moves toward embracing the sympathetic hero.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is estimated to be about three thousand years old while the story of Sundiata is roughly one thousand years old; this gives us an ample time frame to compare the two. In order to do that we must first compare the conditions in which each are raised and how they handle the situation they are in. To start with we know nothing of Gilgamesh’s birth or childhood just that he is now king and described as being two-thirds divine and one-third human (Gilgamesh 38). We get a sense that there is supernatural machinery at play in Sundiata

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