The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the earliest surviving literature pieces. The poem shares a tale of the life of Gilgamesh, a semi-mythical king. Gilgamesh, being two-thirds god, and one third human, ruled the city of Uruk. Uruk is located in the southern region of Sumer, now known as modern day Iraq. Gilgamesh was successful in building temples, and high walls surrounding his city. Despite his success and beauty, Gilgamesh was disliked for treating his people of Uruk cruelly. Gilgamesh forced his people into doing labor work, and slept with any woman he desired. “Gilgamesh will not leave young girls [alone], the daughters of warriors, the brides of young men. Anu often hears their complaints,” (14).
The gods heard the complaints from the people
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He finds his ancestor, Utanapishtim, who agrees to help him become immortal. Utanapishtim challenges Gilgamesh to stay awake for six days and seven nights in order to be worthy of immortal life. Gilgamesh fails, but Utanapishtim tells Gilgamesh where he can find a plant that will make him young again. Utanaspishtim says, “And let me tell you the secret of the gods. There is a plant whose root is like camel-thorn, whose thorn, like a rose’s will spike [your hands]. If you yourself can win this plant, you will find [rejuvenation],” (22). After Gilgamesh hears this, he embarks on his journey to find this plant. Gilgamesh ties stones to his feet and walks across the bottom of the ocean seeking this plant. When Gilgamesh finally approaches the plant he decides to have it tested first and feed it to an elder man back in Uruk. On his way back to Uruk, Gilgamesh stops to drink at a pool of cool water. Unknowingly in the pool, a snake that smelt the fragrance of the plant rises and snatches the plant away, its skin shedding as it returns to the water. Gilgamesh, left distraught and devastated by this, returns back to Uruk where he eventually meets his …show more content…
In the beginning of the story, Gilgamesh is portrayed as a very confident, stubborn, and cruel king. But throughout the story, Gilgamesh starts to learn about true friendship and honor through his best friend Enkidu. When Gilgamesh looses Enkidu, he shows sadness and humility for the first time. Gilgamesh became humble by the end of the story after the experience of losing his best friend, and the chance at immortal life. Realizing now that death is not in his control, and that he may never feel the love he felt with Enkidu again, Gilgamesh shows a changed side to him that had not been seen
This journey in particular was a hard one for Gilgamesh, not only because he was without his best friend but because it was just a physically demanding journey in and of itself. At several points during the journey it is easy to tell that Gilgamesh is growing afraid of death, and is frantic of sorts to find immortality. He is faced with many tests along the way, but in the end reached Utanapishtim, the survivor of the flood, and is at the verge of finding immortality. However things just do not go his way. Utanapishtim challenges Gilgamesh to a week without sleeping in order to gain the coveted virtue of immortality, however Gilgamesh fails almost instantly. Gilgamesh will not become immortal that way, but there is one other way. There is a plant that Gilgamesh can find and gain immortality from if he is pricked by it. However, after Gilgamesh finds the plant, he goes for a swim and a snake steals his plant and gains the immortality instead of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is simply not cut out for immortality like he thought he was. Gilgamesh is heartbroken about not gaining immortality and letting his best friend down, so he returns to
In the beginning of the book, Gilgamesh appears to be selfish. Gilgamesh’s “arrogance has no bounds by day or night” (62). Even though he is created by the Gods to be perfect, he misuses his powers and gifts for his own earthly pleasure. He has sexual intercourse with all the virgins of his city even if they are already engaged. Through all Gilgamesh’s imperfections and faults, he learns to change his amoral personality. The friendship of Enkidu helped to change his ways, for only Enkidu, who “is the strongest of wild creatures,” (66) is a match for Gilgamesh. Through this companionship with Enkidu, Gilgamesh starts to realize his incapabilities and need for his friend. When they fight Humbaba, they both give moral support to each other when the other is scared. Another event that changes Gilgamesh’s character is the death of Enkidu. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh goes through the suffering of losing a loved one. Gilgamesh experiences a pain, which no worldly pleasure can ease. By this experience Gilgamesh starts to understand his vulnerability toward death and pain. Losing his best friend causes Gilgamesh to be melancholic. At this point Gilgamesh is humbled by the fact that even he could not escape the wrath of death. Gilgamesh goes from this arrogant king to a lonely grieving person with fear of death in his heart.
After encountering the death of his friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh realizes that all men will die. Gilgamesh evolves from the beginning of The Epic of Gilgamesh as an unruly king to a realistic king who’s life ends in death. In the end after accepting that he too must die and be subject to fate, Gilgamesh settles back into his city setting, only this time to be a wise king rather than the foolish hero he once was.
Gilgamesh’s mother, Ninsun, said to him, “Like a wife you’ll love him, caress and embrace him, he will be mighty, and often save you”. Gilgamesh has finally found his match, a friend who will serve as his life long companion. This new seal of friendship will cause a chang... ... middle of paper ... ...
As a young child everyone is much like Gilgamesh, in the beginning of the story, they are brave and will try new things, but few knew if what they were doing was wrong or right. Gilgamesh ran around with tons of energy and never let anyone slow down. “Gilgamesh sounds the tocsin for his amusement, his arrogance has no bounds by day or night. No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh takes them all, even the children; yet the king should be a shepherd to his people. His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior’s daughter nor the wife of the noble…” (Gilgamesh 1). He did the most outlandish things in order to please himself and make everything good for himself. Young children often get what they want by throwing fits, taking it, or finding it. They could be in a store and want some candy. In order for them to get the candy, they will throw a huge screaming and kicking fit to try and get it. However, young children have something Gilgamesh did not have at first, parents. Kids h...
He, however, ruled with a tyrannical behavior in ways such as sending young men to fight in senseless wars, fulfilling his sexual satisfaction with young brides on their wedding night, and treating his people as if they were beneath him as human beings. Upon wrestling and defeating Enkidu in a battle, the two became extremely close as friends. Their friendship influenced and shaped Gilgamesh’s perception of the world, especially upon the death of Enkidu. Once his close friend passed away, Gilgamesh became more self-aware of his own mortality and sought for the answers of gaining immortality. Although this may seem like a selfish act of his part, Gilgamesh underwent a major character transformation during his journey in the underworld. Upon meeting and hearing the story of how Utnapishtim was granted immortality by the gods, Gilgamesh accepts the challenge put forth by Utnapishtim to stay awake for six days and seven nights. After failing the challenge, Utnapishtim was persuaded by his wife to provide Gilgamesh with a consolation prize due to his extensive journey to the underworld. He informed Gilgamesh of the existence of a magic plant at
Utanapishtim, thanks to his wife, tells Gilgamesh of a plant that can be found at the bottom of the sea, if Gilgamesh eats the plant then he will become young again. Gilgamesh digs a hole until he reaches water, then he attaches rocks to he feet so he will sink, to reach the plant. Gilgamesh does not plan on using the plant at once, he plans on giving it to an old man in Uruk to see if the man becomes young again. If it works he will then use the plant on himself. However, Gilgamesh and Urshanabi stop by a spring on their way back and Gilgamesh leaves the plant on the ground as he takes a
Enkidu and Urshanabi serve as the threshold guardians by showing he needs to get past them and earn their trust throughout the story. Then, Shamash provides supernatural aid by helping him pass major obstacles. Gilgamesh enters the unexplored land when he goes into the cedar forest to destroy Humbaba and when he searches for the plant Utnapishtim told him about, and he faces a challenge when Utnapishtim tells him he must stay awake for six nights and seven days in order to become immortal. Finally, Gilgamesh undergoes his transformation when he decides he will give the plant to his people before himself, and once he returns to Uruk, he is proud of his city and passes his story on to others. Overall, Gilgamesh goes through all of the stages of the Sumerian archetype of a hero’s journey and is therefore considered an epic hero in Sumerian
Gilgamesh obtains the plant and sets out for home, but on the way, he loses it due to his own inattention
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a historic story of the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh. The story depicts the short lived friendship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The story begins as Shamat the harlot seduces Enkidu and convinces him to go to the city of Uruk and meet Gilgamesh. From that moment on, the two were very close. They planned a trip to the forest of cedars to defeat the monster known as Humbaba so that Gilgamesh could show his power to the citizens of Uruk. However, Enkidu tried “vainly to dissuade” (18) Gilgamesh in going to the forest. Despite Enkidu’s plead, the two continued on their voyage to the forest where Humbaba lives. Once they arrived, they found the monster and killed him.
Gilgamesh the king is a myth beholding various heroic traits shared in multiple other stories and myths for that fact. Towards the beginning of Gilgamesh’s myth, he chooses to conquer the beast of the jungle, Humbaba, and sets himself the goal to do so. Heroes must have a goal or else there is nothing for that hero to accomplish, and create a story of. However, once Gilgamesh accomplished his goal of defeating the terrifying Humbaba, he experiences a greater loss than the hero ever imagined possible, the loss of his best friend Enkidu. Although, once Gilgamesh realized what he had done was certainly the wrong choice of action, he devoted all of his time and effort into reviving his friend. On his journey for the search of eternal life, hero Gilgamesh essentially “descends into darkness” both mentally and literally while he enters the underworld to obtain his desire. Here Gilgamesh realizes that what he did was selfish and wrong, and that he is also not the only person who is of value in his life. Subsequent to Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh becomes aware that his decision to murder Humbaba was once again wrong and resulted in his own depression and loss. Throughout the duration of a myth, the hero mu...
He feels that he is superior to others, due to the fact that he is two-thirds god, and one-third man. This arrogance leads to his being cruel at the beginning of the story. Gilgamesh is described as, two-thirds of him divine, one-third human. Gilgamesh does not allow the son to go with his father; day and night he oppresses the weak. Gilgamesh does not let the young woman go to her mother, the girl to the warrior, the bride to the young groomä (tablet I, column ii, 1, 12-13, 27-28).
Before the coming of Enkidu, Gilgamesh was a man of great power. A being for which there was no equal match, Gilgamesh boasted about his overwhelming glory and power. However, his arrogance was accompanied with an extensive abuse of power, which pushed the city of Uruk into a state of rage. Still Gilgamesh felt no despair; he lived to display to others his majestic power. The first sign of a sincere change in Gilgamesh arises as a result of the birth of Enkidu. From the beginning, a powerful link developed between man and woman. The wise Ninsun said to Gilgamesh,"You will love him as a woman and he will never forsake you". Gilgamesh had finally met his match, a friend that would serve as his life-long companion. Upon the seal of this great friendship, Gilgamesh began to change his selfish ways. Nevertheless, he shared with Enkidu the luxuries of kindness. Setting aside his great pride and power, Gilgamesh had opened a place in his heart, and in his sumptuous life, for his beloved brother.
... Gilgamesh is unable to go back to get another plant because he lost both the boat and his tools. Gilgamesh has the hope that this plant will free him from his burden of the idea of death; he says “I myself will eat it and so return to my carefree youth” (80). After the snake took the plant away Gilgamesh began to weep “Thereupon Gilgamesh sat down weeping, His tears flowed down his face” (81) showing that Gilgamesh is saddened by his reality. At this point Gilgamesh tells Ur-Shanabi “I have come much too far to go back, and I abandoned the boat on the shore” (81).
...reat flood. Gilgamesh was not worthy of being a full god. Instead, Utnapishtim granted Gilgamesh the opportunity of the life he wished for so deeply by challenging him to stay awake for six days and seven nights. Being the human being that he was, Gilgamesh was unable to stay awake for the duration of that time. Prior to Gilgamesh’s reluctant return to Uruk, Utnapishtim bestowed upon him the secret of the magical plant that grows in the depths of the seas that which makes man youthful again. After successfully retrieving the plant, Gilgamesh unfortunately loses possession of the motif to a snake whom according to mythology now acquires “eternal life” or “everlasting youth” due to the continuous shedding of the skin. So, once again, Gilgamesh had been cheated of his supernatural gift yet again, demonstrating his true identity of a mortal human being (Gresseth, 6).