The Role Of Leadership In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the world’s oldest existing stories that were collected in Mesopotamia. It is a story about a heroic king named Gilgamesh, who treated his people in a nasty way. He was a domineering, and cruel leader, feared by many because of his unnatural strength. He forced his people into labor in order to expand his kingdom. The people cried unto the gods and they created Gilgamesh’s equal Enkidu, who they later became friends. Gilgamesh witnessed the death of his close friend Enkidu, and this made him to search for immortality because, he was afraid to die. However, he learnt that, no human was immortal, and that he was destined to die, just like his friend Enkidu.

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.

“The Epic of Gilgamesh” is a didactic story set out to expose the inevitability of death. The true meaning of this story is sometimes overlooked because the story is told in heighten language not easily understood. The epic hero in this story is Gilgamesh; he undertakes a quest for knowledge which is overshadowed by his ignorance. The tragic death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh’s trusted companion forces the epic hero to change his perception of death. To overcome great obstacles one must be willing to put their ignorance aside. Tzvi Abusch’s analyzes “The Epic of Gilgamesh” in his article “The development and meaning of the Epic of Gilgamesh”. Abusch’s explication of Gilgamesh’s identity, friendship, achievements and ignorance towards death lacks substance.

Leadership is all about having the right amount of heart and determination to help make a difference in someone’s life. It takes certain qualities to be considered a good leader. A leader should want to help inspire others to make a change and to be the best that they can be. A true leader does not need to feel powerful, instead they empower those around them. Throughout my life I have come across various leaders who have made an impact on my life. It takes a very special person to inspire and touch people’s lives. Leadership is so much deeper than having power and bossing people around.

He shows he is weak and not ready to lead. (1 Samuel 9:21). Saul even hides when he is supposed to show himself to the Israelites as the chosen King (1 Samuel 11: 22). Although Saul knows that he cannot lead, he has no choice, he has to follow the Lord’s order. At last, God realizes that Saul was indeed not a leader-type person and chooses another person. God must have known that people are not forced to be leaders, but they themselves should be aware of the ability to be leaders.

In The Epic of Gilgamesh a young man meets and befriends a wild man named Enkidu. Enkidu, once a man who lived among animals, became civilized after having sex with a female. From this point on Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s relationship start, but shortly into the novel Enkidu becomes sick and dies. This is the start to Gilgamesh journey in attempting to avoid death by seeking immortality. In his quest Gilgamesh meets several people all who assign different routes to the next person he should speak to. Eventually he comes up and meets Urshanabi; the ferryman who then takes him to Utnapishtim. Urshanabi explains to Gilgamesh how the Gods met up and decided to destroy mankind through a flood. Also how Utnapishtim was informed of this and he built a huge wooden boat where he would take the seed of many different species of animals. Utnapishtim does not believe he is worthy of the gift so challenges him to a task where Gilgamesh must stay awake for days, he fails the challenge. Instead Utnapishtim advises Gilgamesh to retrieve a plant on the bottom of the ocean that will restore youth to anyone who eats it. When Gilgamesh goes back home he showers and in the midst of it a snake eats the flowers he returns to the city empty handed but full of wisdom. His journey has taught him that although he cannot live forever the human species will remain to live as an immortal species as long as they reproduce.

Throughout history, there have been many systems of government that have been created, and have revolutionised todays modern forms of government. Democracy, Monarchy, Dictatorship, Theocracy, and Anarchy all use various, unique techniques on how to run a civilization. Each of them require different leadership traits in order for it to work properly.

Leadership is a personal skill that has to be developed and improved upon daily, just like an athlete works on his craft. We all come from different walks of life and that is often a factor in the way our leadership styles are shaped. Our differences of race, gender, religion, home environment, and lifestyle all have an effect on the way we are led growing up. It is a skill that is mastered over time, while never being perfected. Like anything else in life, leadership skills are often developed from who we are, where we come from and the people in our life who have taught us their knowledge.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a Mesopotamian epic poem loosely based on a real king who ruled sometime around 2700 BCE. The standard version of this epic was written in the Akkadian language. In this epic poem, Gilgamesh is King of Uruk, he is one third mortal and two-thirds god; he is described as a strong, arrogant, and unruly king that does not show much consideration for his actions. Gilgamesh is a very egocentric person; he has no respect for the feelings of others and does not care about how his actions affect the citizens of Uruk. The Gods notice the unruliness of Gilgamesh and conjure up Enkidu to defeat Gilgamesh. Instead of becoming enemies, Enkidu and Gilgamesh become friends, but their friendship is short lived when Enkidu dies, which leaves Gilgamesh to extremely grieve for the loss of his friend. In order to avoid death Gilgamesh seeks out immortality from a man called Utanapishtam. Unfortunately Gilgamesh soon learns that he cannot escape death because he finally comes to terms with his own mortality and discovers that death is inevitable. The contrasting themes of love and friendship, fear of failure, inevitability of death, and wisdom of experience that occur throughout the Epic of Gilgamesh show how man cannot escape his own mortality no matter how hard he tries.

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.

Both Saul and David were men of war. Each led armies against the enemies of Israel. They were both politically perceptive and operated prophetically. The difference between these two

The literal definition of a leader is “the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country” but to others, it can mean so much more than that, they don't just lead a country, they protect their people and do everything in their power to make things better for them. Examples of leaders are King Arthur, Martin Luther King Jr., Pope Francis, Nelson Mandela and etc. Max Weber discusses three things that a leader should have and those things are: Rational grounds, Traditional grounds, and Charismatic grounds. There are many people who exhibit all of these things that make them a great leader, but a good example of a leader who possesses all of these things is Gilgamesh, the King of

According to Webster’s Dictionary, leadership is the power or ability to lead other people, the act or instance of leading. I believe that Leadership is an art, the art to get others to follow and accomplish a common goal or task in a harmonic manner. A leader can be shown in all kinds of shapes and forms. To be a great leader many people believe it consists of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. Over the course of me learning how to become a better leader and being in leadership roles, I’ve learned that all these are very necessary to be a great leader.

The nation of Israel was set apart as holy to the LORD. But they When the children of Israel demanded a king, they did so to be like the other nations. The first three kings were Saul, (outwardly tall, handsome and strong—a seemingly good choice for a king, but inwardly arrogant, proud and unrepentant—not God’s choice), David (a man after God’s own heart who repented of his sins and as such was God’s choice), and Solomon (the wisest man who ever lived, but because of covenant disobedience became the catalyst for the division and ultimate exile of Israel.

God has placed David in the present of King Saul even through David has been anointed by Samuel as king of Israel; God still allows the people’s King as his own servants raise David above their King through