The Wilderness And Environment In Ancient Epics

Next, Enkidu’s portrayal of society and the environment will be used as a counterpart to the paragraph above on King Gilgamesh. Before a relationship was formed between Enkidu and King Gilgamesh, Enkidu was the representation of a hunter-gather that relied and respected the natural world and was bewildered by the idea of civilization. Enkidu, as described by the hunter to King Gilgamesh before meeting him in tablet one, was a man who “Over the hills he roam[ed] all [day,] always with the herd [he grazes on grasses, [and] always his tracks [were] found] by the water-[hole.]” Because of this description, an inference can be made that

Abusch, T. (Oct-Dec 2001). The development and meaning of the Epic of Gilgamesh: An interpretive essay. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 121(4), 614-622.

The epic gives insight to the ways in which ancient Mesopotamians valued life. This becomes most obvious when Enkidu reveals to Gilgamesh his nightmare of the dark and enslaving afterlife as he is dying (The Epic of Gilgamesh, 2). This leaves Gilgamesh with extreme terror of death which provokes his desperate attempts to escape it. Giving death fearful and dark characteristics communicates that the afterlife is a harrowing experience and life is the individual’s harmonious experience. This serves to establish that ancient Mesopotamians sensed that life was something to be cherished and conceived of in a positive light. In addition, Mesopotamian life views are also illustrated when Gilgamesh must accept that he will not receive his requests for immortality from the gods (The Epic of Gilgamesh, 2). This suggests Mesopotamian society believed wise men should be grateful for their destiny and that he or she should not reach beyond what they are given. In doing so, this

The Epic of Gilgamesh not only told a story of the people of a Sumerian Civilization and the battles of their great ruler. The Epic spoke of current environmental and natural issues “It shows an understanding of ecological processes and the consequences of human action on the earth that anticipates current ecological work.”( Perlin 35)

The Odyssey, written in 725 BCE. in Greece is a tale of a great warrior Odysseus, trying to return home to his wife after fighting a great war. The Epic of Gilgamesh, written earlier in 2700 B.C. in Mesopotamia, is the tale of a King Gilgamesh who goes on a quest to find immortality. Throughout these two epics’ both Gilgamesh and Odysseus are required to fight for their survival.  In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk has to fight Humbaba, a giant beast who is the guardian of the Cedar Forest. While Odysseus lands in the island of the Cyclopes and is trapped in a cave with a giant.

The epic of Gilgamesh is a tale that displays multiple didactic messages throughout the course of the story. These morally oriented instructions that shape the epic’s characters are very much applicable to our current lives. Messages like: the importance of perseverance, that drive that pushes you to excel, the down side of sexual passion when not tempered, and how we need to keep our pride under control, not letting it cloud our judgement. These principled themes, among others, are clearly visible to the eyes of the audience.

The impermanence of these structures furthered their deterministic world view by instilling with this ancient society a strong sense of fatalism. Everything they built was bound to be destroyed by their geographic environment. All of their hard work could be taken away in the instance of a flash flood or doomed by harsh desert corrosion. Only a hero king who is “two-thirds god” could bring precious wood into the river valley. 2 In this light, Gilgamesh’s quest for wood offers a small window into the effects of geographic constraints within Mesopotamian society.

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.

The story about Gilgamesh is one of the earliest pieces of world literature dating back to the second millennium B.C.E. This story has been evolved gradually over a long span of a millennium, and has been enjoyed by many nations. The Epic of Gilgamesh teaches life lessons that apply to the past and present while revolving around the question of what it means to be human, and to experience the phenomenon of friendship, love, and death.

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.

In the words of Henry David Thoreau who is a poet state, "Nature and Human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another." Speaking of nature and life, I want to compare and contrast ancient Mesopotamians attitudes towards nature and life through the stories of Gilgamesh, the Epic of Creation, and Hymn to the Sun. Looking at these stories establishes three different views of nature and life which can either be negative or positive. The first story, you see a man who meets his match and then goes on an adventure together. The second story is about how the world was created from a small swirl of water and then became more. The third which is a poem describes the way of life and how Aten provides the means to survive on earth. While reading, the reader should get a sense of how each one differs and how they compare in the small aspects. Now, let's start our journey in ancient times which is a time people believed the world was ruled by gods.

Nature in the Epic of Gilgamesh appears to be either man’s greatest enemy or his ally, depending on whether he can conquer it at all. Those who cannot conquer nature, fear it greatly. Those who can conquer nature however, seem to gain immense personal power from doing so. Gilgamesh is an example of the latter. There is one aspect of nature that both parties fear, and will both inevitably be conquered by, that aspect is death. Gilgamesh himself is incredibly afraid and leery of death. After Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh mourns for him “six days and seven nights” then proceeds to wander the earth. However, before he sets off wandering, he “slaughtered fatted cattle and sheep” and “heaped them high for his friend”. Gilgamesh performed these

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.

As a child, one is brought up with stories such as Hercules, Jack and Jill, or even Cinderella. These stories are lined with an underling message to teach our children the different between right and wrong. However; before our time, many people would gather around to tell what were considered tall tales or epic adventures. Epic stories are quite different from tall tales, epics are stories in which take a course over a long length of time such as years rather than days.

In the chapter First the Forests in the book Forests: The Shadow of Civilization by Robert Harrison, used Greek mythology and modern day philosophers to connect how forests interact through civilization. The popular themes in this chapter plays along Vicos theory of the intuitional order with the quotation “This was the order of human institutions: first the forests, after that the huts, then the villages, next the cities, and finally the academies” (Pg.11). In the epic of Gilgamesh the first antagonist was the forest. This emphasized how the forest was wild and dangerous. The Greek god Artemis would roam in the forest hiding in the shadows of the trees. The forest is a place of wild and of disorder. Actaeon went to the forest and saw Artemis