Theme Of Gender Roles In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

Overall women are very important and powerful parts in Gilgamesh, and technically there would not be an Epic of Gilgamesh without the powerful roles that they

I feel as though all of the books show different characters from different places having to deal with their own struggles also having different beliefs such as religion. But what all these books seem to have in common is gender bias against women. Women play pretty important roles in the books we have read this year.

The story starts off with Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk, who is one third man and two thirds god. This story is about a man's quest for immortality in addition to the importance of boundaries between the realms of animal, man and gods. Women symbolize the importance of locative boundaries in the text. These boundaries are set by the harlot Shamhat, Ishtar, Siduri, the tavern keeper, Ninsun and Utanapishtim's wife. By giving women this role of wisdom and boundary enforcement, The Epic of Gilgamesh reflects how Mesopotamian society actually valued women.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender plays a very significant role, because while women were not the most powerful gods nor the strongest or wisest of all humans, they still had tremendous influence over others around them, and even today, over those who study and learn about the women of the time of Mesopotamia. Though the main characters of the story, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, are male, women did not necessarily play a minor role. One particular issue that is demonstrated among several others in the Epic of Gilgamesh is the status of women. Since this is a story of women's status many years ago, it is indeed an interesting issue to discuss,

The Epic of Gilgamesh follows a tale of two brothers tasked with defeating an all-powerful beast, yet they aren’t the most important characters in this story. Without their wisdom and guidance, Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s journey would have ended a lot sooner, and Gilgamesh would have still rampaged in Uruk, never bringing peace to those who were below him. Aruru, Shamhat, Ninsun, Ishtar, Siduri, and Utanapishtim’s wife all contribute to Gilgamesh’s journey, and in the end, provide Gilgamesh with the necessary tools in order to transform his character. These women in The Epic of Gilgamesh are essential to the plot, and provide both wisdom and perfection, but can also bring temptation and destruction if given the power to do so.

For thousands of years there has been a strong distinction between the roles of men and women. Often times in stories there will be women that are only mentioned for their beauty and charisma. Hardly ever will you see pages upon pages being spent talking about the true character and accomplishments of women characters. Even though stories like The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of Genesis were written thousands of year ago, (when stories were told mostly told from a males perspective) the light shined on women in the texts show them as wise, strong, and greatly influential beings. In The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of  Genesis, the writer shows the women as bringers of knowledge,  guidance, and care to the men in the texts that are lacking thereof.

Throughout The Epic of Gilgamesh, women treated the men like gods. When Shamhat was sent to seduce and recover Enkidu, she did so without any struggle or fight. After she had successfully turned him from his animal ways by spending six days and seven nights laying with him, she praised him. “You are so handsome, Enkidu, you are become like a god” (The Epic of Gilgamesh 107), She then uses her own clothing to dress him before leading him to food and shelter. Because she saw him as a god, she sacrifices her own clothing to clothe

About 2700 years ago there lived a king by the name of Gilgamesh who ruled the city of Uruk in Mesopotamia now known to us as modern day Iraq. Parts of his life are written on clay tablets believed to be the oldest existing written story of a man’s life. (XI). “The epic of Gilgamesh”, is the story of his quest for eternal life. In this paper I will be writing about the influence that the women in his life have played in his quest.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender plays a very significant role. While women were not the most powerful gods nor the strongest or wisest of humans, they still had tremendous influence. Though the main characters of the story, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, are male, women did not play a necessarily minor role. With all the women that play a role in the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender is a topic worthy of discussion.

Although men are the Epic characters of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey, women also play a very important role in both stories. In general, these two stories portray women as being overly sexual, deceptive, and having a power over men. Women use their sexuality to hold control over men, to confuse and deceive them.

The Epic of Gilgamesh chronicles the life of the great warrior and hero Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is not great hero because he is moral. In fact he is feared because "a goddess made him, strong as a savage bull, none can withstand his arms" (1). This phrase underlines the terrible power of femininity, in the view of the Mesopotamian culture that produced the text. On one hand, the female principle is responsible for creation. On the other hand, the female principle also has the ability to destroy: the epic takes a largely dim perspective of humanity, and often, by extension of women, because the source of all creation is a goddess, Aruru. Aruru creates but she also generates suffering.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a tale from ancient Babylon. Its hero, Gilgamesh the king of Uruk, is two-thirds god and one-third man. Throughout the epic, which consists of three stories, the character of Gilgamesh is developed. This is accomplished by changing the vices he possesses at the start of the epic, and replacing them with virtues he receives by its completion. “A virtue is a quality of righteousness, goodness, or moral excellence; any good quality or admirable trait of a character.” (Halsey Collier’s Dictionary 1114) “A vice is an immoral or harmful habit or practice; fault or fall” (Halsey Collier’s Dictionary 1111). Gilgamesh is not the only character in the

Changing Women's Roles in The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales

Moreover, in Gilgamesh the women were living with unfair lives. They were weak, do not have their own rights to live happily. They were living to satisfy men’s rights and makes them satisfied. For example, “This is he, shamhat cradle your bosom, bare your sex, let him take in your charms! Do not recoil, but take in his scent: he will see you, and approach you” (Tablet I 180).

Specifically Eve from the excerpt; The Genesis from the Hebrew Bible, and Shamat from The Epic of Gilgamesh, they both portray a significant importance in that of the equivalence of men, their passive position in these conservative texts is nothing but the matter of interpretation. This will be further demonstrated by how these two female characters manifest the idea of how “men need women.” Epics are all about journeys, where wisdom is gained with trials and troubles. Throughout The Epic of Gilgamesh it is demonstrated: ‘much of what Gilgamesh accomplishes is ultimately due to women’ (Foster 37), to give a better understanding, many of these journeys are influenced by women: His mother pleas with the sun god Shamash allow him to kill Humbaba; the wife of the scorpion monster persuades her husband to give Gilgamesh entrance to the tunnel leading to the jeweled garden; and the mysterious woman he finds at the end of the world, the tavern keeper Siduri, helps him find