The Significance Of Technē In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

Technē is that tool or method which man employs to alter the world around him. It is an extremely important concept to understand while studying literature. As such, this course gave it a fair amount of focus. Through every work we read, technē could be found. It served to demonstrate likenesses and differences among the different eras we studied: ancient, medieval, modern, and postmodern.

As far back as the ancient world, technē was present in the literature even before it was written down. One of the finest examples of the significance of this concept is The Epic of Gilgamesh. This epic tale shows the reader how technē was utilized in the ancient world. In effect, the story is about the manner in which King Gilgamesh uses technē to civilize nature. For instance, the King built the walls of his ramparted city of Uruk with “masonry of kiln-fire brick” thus using the technology of kiln masonry to usurp elements of nature – fire and clay – and transmute them into bricks for the walls that isolate his city from nature (38). Additionally, the technē of the epic is also heavily depicted as weaponry. For the bulk of the story,

Despite being a short piece, this poem has no lack of technē as it describes a couples concern with intimacy. Nonetheless, the technē found here is more subtle than that of the medieval or ancient periods which is fitting for its time and style. To begin with, all the scents described serve as a form of technē since they function to change the way in which someone is perceived; the smell of cinnamon marks the speaker’s wife as such. Moreover, the speaker “buried [his] hands in saffron, disguised them over smoking tar, helped the honey gatherers” making these scents tools for veiling his unique aroma (154). Similarly, the couple also made use of water to protect themselves from the scent. All of these uses of technē are rather personal to the