Gilgamesh
What makes the story of Gilgamesh an epic? Gilgamesh, the hero of this epic, achieves many feats of skill, which makes him famous, but that is not the reason it is an epic. The epic of Gilgamesh fulfills the requirements of an epic by being consistently relevant to a human society and has specific themes of immortality, friendship, grief, ect. Looking at literature throughout history, one can come to the conclusion that these theme are constantly passed on from one generation to another of humans. It is human nature for people to want to excel in life and strive to make a name in this world for themselves.
Gilgamesh is not only a character of a story; he is actually a portrayal of people and how they act out of human nature. he like many of us, does not want his existence to end when he leaves this world. He is not content with what he has, good looks, money, and power and desires more in life. In the story of Gilgamesh we, as people, can relate to. There are similarities between Gilgamesh’s journey and our own journey through life.
Gilgamesh is constantly searching and going on adventures to distance places, defeating the Bull of Heaven, Humbaba, and the lions in the passes of the mountain. He searches for these adventures because he wants to make the most out of life. Just being king and never leaving the city can be boring. Gilgamesh travels to distant forests and crosses “the water of death.” He is searching for something worth living for. Just as we cannot live everyday doing nothing. Gilgamesh and all of us were born with the desire to explore and live dangerously because the feeling of adventure and adrenaline helps us to believe that we are truly “living” life to the fullest.
In his search for everlasting life, we realize that being two-thirds god was not enough for Gilgamesh. He wants to live forever so that no one would ever forget him. But Gilgamesh isn’t the only person who searches for immortality. In many stories there is a search for the “Fountain of Youth.” By drinking this water you would have everlasting life. Fear of death and desire to live forever has driven people to do all they can so that they can extend their existence to as long as possible. This is one of the major themes of Gilgamesh and one of the reasons it is an epic.
The everglades are home to the most dangerous species in the world, snakes. According to "Are the everglades forever" , paragraph 3 says "Reports says that over thousands of pythons and anacondas are make their homes in the everglades. All the snakes managed to upset the food chain by feasting on most of the animals that live there. There is biodiversity in the ecosystem which is good because it helps the animals communicate and work together on food more better.
The first part of the hero’s journey is the call to adventure. This is the voyage that the hero is asked to go on in order to accomplish greater good for human kind. This is the hero’s chance to help his or her community, family or friends by embarking on a long journey and challenging his, or herself. Gilgamesh does not go on a journey to help others, he goes to make himself look better. “ I have not established my name stamped on bricks as my destiny decreed, therefore I will go to the country where the cedar is felled” (page 70). This passage shows that the only reason that Gilgamesh wants to go on a journey is for fame and popularity.
Water management is one of the most critical environmental issues facing the Florida Everglades at this point in time. The everglades watershed originates in the central Florida Kissimmee River basin north of Lake Okeechobee. Summer thunderstorms would flood this region, the big lake, and extensive areas of everglades marsh. This created a shallow, wide river which flowed slowly south through the everglades to the mangrove estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico. The summer rains would then give way to a ...
The first thing is that Gilgamesh is a selfish person till the end. He was the King of Uruk and blessed with divine blood, however, he was a cruel king. He would fight every young man in search for someone that can challenge him, and he would ravage every girl and woman he found attractive regardless if they were married or not (The Epic of Gilgamesh tablet I line 59-66). His pursuit of immortality was for a selfish reason because he didn’t want to share the fate of his dear friend Enkidu. Another common aspect of a hero that Gilgamesh didn’t experience was entering and returning from the dead. He did not go to any underworld in pursuit of guidance like Odysseus did. Gilgamesh also did not prove his worth to anyone like Odysseus did. Gilgamesh was a king with divine blood so he never proved himself because he felt he was the best by default. One thing the Gilgamesh did do that Odysseus did not do was experience a rebirth. At the end of Gilgamesh journey, after he fails to obtain immortality, he is given a plant that with returns him to his youth. Unfortunately, the plant was consumed by a snake and Gilgamesh had nothing to show for his journey. However, Gilgamesh gained a new outlook on his mortality and, presumably, became a better man in the end (The Epic of Gilgamesh tablet XII line
With the dramatic appeal that it has, you probably heard the name, Florida's Everglades. Nicknamed as "Nurseries of Life" for their many rare and endangered animals. But over the years, Florida's Everglades has been losing much of its' value. What with wetlands being historically regarded as wastelands and centers of disease and insect infestation, more than half of the original wetlands in the United States have been degraded or destroyed. Florida's Everglades are one of the few wetlands that have government protection, though that hasn't stopped pet owners from dumping their previous pets into this diversity of life. In fact, there are now invasive pythons going around the Everglades and ruining the food cycle. How about that as a storyline for a comic book series?
The Everglades has been a foundational part of Florida ever since it was discovered. Its swamps have taken hold of the bottom quadrant of the Florida peninsula with its majestic swamps and exotic wildlife within. However, with Florida's population growth since the turn of the twenty-first century, the Everglades has been threatened by man (Everglades). The Everglades has sustained substantial damage due to over-drainage, runoff of nutrient pollutants, like phosphorus, and the spreading of algae and other plants that upset the ecosystem of the swamp. A greater amount of restoration must be done in the Everglades, otherwise, the whole ecosystem of the swamp could be destroyed.
The main character in the book The Epic of Gilgamesh, is Gilgamesh himself. In the beginning of the book one realizes that Gilgamesh is an arrogant person. Gilgamesh is full of himself and abuses his rights as king. He has sexual intercourse with the virgins of his town and acts as though he is a god. Throughout the story, many things cause Gilgamesh to change. He gains a friend, he makes a name for himself by killing Humbaba, and he tries to become immortal because of the death of Enkidu. Through these main actions his personality changes and he becomes a better person.
Many different organisms live in the Everglades as there primary home. It can be from alligators and birds and a huge variety of different plants. According to "Are the Everglades Forever?", it mentions, " the Everglades’ populations of opossums, rabbits, bobcats and foxes." So many different living things in one ecosystem shows how important how important and valuable the Everglades are.
After being rejected from human society, the creation “declare[s] everlasting war against the species, and more than all against him who had formed [the creation], and sent [the creation] forth to this insupportable misery” (Shelley 97). The creation’s new-found passion for revenge dominates his last innocent and pure feelings. Each hate-oriented action, committed by the creation, traces directly back to the unjust villagers and his cruel abandonment. The murders of William, Clerval, and Elizabeth represent the creation’s spite toward Frankenstein while framing Justine for William’s death portrays the creations hatred for even the best of humanity. However, without exposure to the corrupt ways of humans, the creation could not posses enough wickedness to follow through with his hateful actions. Therefore, the corrupt taint the creation with vengeance. On the other side, the corrupt taint Dorian Gray with a loss of remorse. Devoting himself to the words of Lord Henry, “He becomes indifferent to the effects of his actions which not only destroys others (in ways never specified) but also leaves him fatally marred” (Aubrey). Before Lord Henry’s influence, Gray possesses a kind spirit that would be unable to bear such burdens. Lord Henry’s leadership desensitizes Gray to the effects of his own sin. Although people cannot
One of the main themes in the epic is that death is inevitable, which is shown through Enkidu's death. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh becomes very worried, because he realizes for the first time that everyone is going to die at some point in time. The fact that Enkidu is a close friend makes it even more visible to Gilgamesh that everyone is mortal. Then, along with this realization, comes the theme of denial. Gilgamesh does not want to accept the fact that he will die. He denies the truth, because he does not want to think about the truth or cope with the tragedy that has struck him. "And he-he does not lift his head. 'I touched his heart, it does not beat'" (Tablet VIII, Column II, 15-16). "'Me! Will I too not die like Enkidu? Sorrow was come into my belly. I fear death; I roam over the hills. I will seize the road; quickly I will go to the house of Utnapishtim, offspring of Ubaratutu. I approach the entrance of the mountain at night. Lions I see, and I am terrified. I lift my head to pray to the mood god Sin: For...a dream I go to the gods in prayer: ...preserve me!'" (Tablet IX, Column I, 3-12).
This story teaches that death is an unavoidable and inevitable circumstance of mortal life, which is the most significant precept Gilgamesh learns. Gilgamesh is resentful that only the gods can exist eternally. Gilgamesh is frightened by the idea of his own destiny. Mesopotamian divinity proposes a perception of an afterlife; the deceased spend their period being dead in a netherworld. Death is inevitably entwined within the structure of creation. Life is also entwined, although mortals die, humanity maintains to live. The message that Gilgamesh returns with from his adventure is not primarily about death, but about life. Fragment of a tablet of The Epic of Gilgamesh is figure C down
In many literary works we see significant transitions in the hero's character as the story is developed. This is also true in the Epic of Gilgamesh with its hero, Gilgamesh. In this narrative poem, we get glimpses of who Gilgamesh is and what his purposes and goals are. We see Gilgamesh act in many different ways -- as an overbearing ruler resented by his people, a courageous and strong fighter, a deflated, depressed man, and finally as a man who seems content with what he's accomplished. Through all of these transitions, we see Gilgamesh's attitude toward life change. The goals he has for his own life alter dramatically, and it is in these goals that we see Gilgamesh's transition from being a shallow, ruthless ruler to being an introspective, content man.
In the epic of Gilgamesh, there are many complex characters. Every character involved in the story has their own personality and traits.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a moving tale of the friendship between Gilgamesh, the demigod king of Uruk, and the wild man Enkidu. Accepting ones own mortality is the overarching theme of the epic as Gilgamesh and Enkidu find their highest purpose in the pursuit of eternal life.
In order to be considered an epic poem there has to be a hero who goes on a journey and returns having obtained some object or knowledge that will help them throughout their life. This was also the argument of a famous scholar of Greek myth who said, “all heroic quests can be summarized in one verb: ‘to get.’” He also said that they must realize that there is something that they are lacking or receive some order to search for something. He believes that the only way for this quest to be a success would be for the hero to bring something back after having used force or a form of negotiation. In the epic of Gilgamesh, however, he goes on this quest in order to find immortality but he doesn’t come back with what he was initially searching for.