The Epic of Gilgamesh is a fascinating story that has been one of the oldest tales known to mankind. Being a piece of literature from Mesopotamia, we see there is great relation between the Old Testament Hebrew Bible and The Epic of Gilgamesh. Many themes, motifs, and characters in the story point back and compare to the Hebrew Bible. In this essay, I will be discussing a few of these relationships between the Old Testament and The Epic of Gilgamesh. The ideas I will be presenting are the relationships of the Epic’s flood and its similarities to the Old Testament story of Noah’s Ark, the character of the serpent in The Epic of Gilgamesh and the events of the Garden of Eden, and the commonality of Samson in the Old Testament and Enkidu. The …show more content…
The hearts of the Great Gods moved them to inflict the Flood. (Tablet XI 9-14) From this quote from the poem above, Utanapishtim is warning Gilgamesh of this flood in order to give him warning so his life would be spared. Likewise, Genesis 6:13 warns Noah of the wrath that will upon the sinful people through the flood. This serves as a warning for him and his family too. Not only are the texts similar through the act of forewarning of the floods, but both The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament give instructions to Gilgamesh and Noah of how to protect themselves from the floods they …show more content…
In Genesis 3, Satan, in the form of serpent, convinces Eve to indulge in the fruit on the Tree of Knowledge, which God specifically said not to eat. This causes Adam and Eve to lose their immortality and perfection and eventually die (Genesis 3: 1-6). In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Utanapishtim tells Gilgamesh of a thorn bush type plant that will give youthfulness. As Gilgamesh proceeded home, they stopped to camp and Gilgamesh found a pond to bathe in, leaving behind the plant. In Tablet XI 308-310 in The Epic of Gilgamesh: “A snake caught the scent of the plant, Stealthily, it came up and carried the plant away, on its way back it shed its skin” (Tablet XI 308-310). Although the stories are different in the way the snake acts in order to steal the characters immorality: however, both stories we see how a deceptive serpent steals away eternal life to the characters through the means of plant or
The Epic of Gilgamesh. Trans. Benjamin R. Foster. Text. Martin Puncher. New York: W.W and Company, 2013.Print.
The Odyssey and Gilgamesh are two great epics that show two heroes from two different time periods trying to find the meaning of life. In this paper, I would like to talk to you about the two epics and how they were both alike and different in some ways. Mainly I want to focus on the qualities they shared or didn 't, what the god 's roles were in the epics, and how death and immortality are observed in these epics.
is the idea of a divine being or, in other words, god. Early humans were
One difference that backs it up is in The Epic of Gilgamesh the rains that cause the floods only last six days, six nights and in “The Flood Story in Genesis” the rains last forty days, forty nights. A quote that tells about the flood is when Utnapishtim said, “For six days and six nights the wind blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts (pg. 25).” This quote by Utnapishtim describes how bad the weather, rains, and wind were during the six days and six nights of the storm. On the other hand in “The Story of the Flood” it rained for forty days, forty nights. While God was talking to Noah he said, “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth (pg. 48 line 4).” This quote describes how long God will have the rain go for. It also says that he is doing it to destroy all of mankind.
In Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of the flood. When Utnapishtim hits land when there is a flood, he needed to know when the flood was gone. During the end of his story, he says, “When
To discuss the similarities and differences between the Old Testament (sometimes called the Hebrew Bible) and The Epic of Gilgamesh, it is important to first understand the separate stories as they are written in their respective texts. For the purposes of discussion here, the King James Version of the Bible has been used. However, the text and translation is relatively similar across all the major translations of the Bible. When discussing the Flood, God says to Noah: “And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch...And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is...
The Sumero-Babylonian version of the epic of Gilgamesh, after two and a half millennia of dormancy, was resurrected by British archaeologists in the nineteenth century. Amid the rubble of an Assyrian palace, the twelve clay tablets inscribed the adventures of the first hero of world literature – King Gilgamesh, whose oral folk tales go back to at least 3000 years before Christ (Harris 1). Tablet XI contains the story of the Flood. In this essay let us compare this flood account to the more recent Noah’s Flood account in Genesis of the Old Testament.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh Utnapishtim was the person who was chosen to build the arc and have the responsibility of the future where in the Biblical account of the flood narrative Noah was chosen to save part of the Earth that was important to the future. I also found a similarity on how these “heros” were chosen. If you look at the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament both Utnapishtim and Noah were very ethical and worthy of the task. They were both perfect for the task given. The task was given to them because they were known to follow through with any task given to them and do it well. The only difference I could find between Utnapishtim and Noah's character is Utnapishtim complained quite a bit where Noah on the other hand respectfully took the task and never
Centuries ago, two books were written with similar and different ideas. The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Book of Job have different settings although they both discuss friendship, death and mortality, pain and suffering, and characters, but individually the book of Job examines where human beings stand in the world.
The flood story that is told in The Epic of Gilgamesh has the same principle as the story of Noah told in the book of Genesis in the Bible, but there are some major differences. In the epic, Utnapishtim is immortal and, although Noah was extremely old when he died, he wasn’t immortal. Utnapishtim was a human, but because he saved mankind, Enlil said, “Hitherto Utnapishtim has been a human, now Utnapishtim and his wife shall become like us gods.” (Gilgamesh 11.206-207) In the Biblical story, God told Noah that he was going to send a flood and asked him specifically to make the ark in order to save mankind. In Genesis 6:13-22, God tells Noah why he’s flooding the earth and exact instructions to build the ark. “13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[b] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[c] high all arou...
Ancient world literature and early civilization stories are mostly centered on human’s relationship with higher beings. Ancient civilizations were extremely religious, holding the belief that their very lives were in the hands of their almighty god or goddess. This holds true for both the people of biblical times as well as those of the epic era. However, their stories have some differences according to cultural variation but the main structure, ideas, and themes are generally found correlative. It is hard to believe that one work did not affect the others. The first great heroic epic poem of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament are parts of two cultures that are hundreds of years apart. Whereas Gilgamesh is a myth and the book of Genesis is the basis of many religions, they both have notably similar accounts of symbols, motifs, meaningful events according to the relationship between the divine and humans in literature.
In both versions of the flood story something angers God (in Genesis) and the gods (in Gilgamesh). "The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reasons of the babel" (Gilgamesh 12). The Gilgamesh reason seems very illogical. The Gods decide to destroy mankind because they are making too much noise. It seems that the gods didn't think over their decision wisely. They are gods, wouldn't they have the power to block out the sound? One would think so, but obviously that was not the case. This is the first major difference between the two stories.
Some of the simpler similarities are that the extent of the flood reaches every part of the earth, the flood is intended to destroy mankind, aside from the heros and their families, Utnapishtim and Noah are found righteous by their God or gods, and they build an ark to certain qualifications. An example of a less obvious similarity is the location of where the arks first touche land. In the general sense, they both landed on a mountain: Noah’s “ ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventh day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 75) and Utnapishtim's “boat stuck fast beside Mt. Nimush” (Gilgamesh 57). Taking this information a Step deeper reveals that Mt. Ararat and Mt. Nimush are about 300 miles apart. Both boats land in a relatively close proximity. Further proving the idea that the Sumerians and Hebrews experience the same event. Utnapishtim’s and Noah’s lives are dramatically changed by the flood. They sacrifice all that is familiar to them in order to receive the blessings of God or the gods. The heroes are both examples of a term I will call the archetypal path of blessing. Utnapishtim and Noah are both comfortable with what they have before the flood, but as Christopher Columbus States “One can never cross the ocean until one has the courage to leave the shore.” Utnapishtim and Noah give up what is ordinary to receive what is great. The blessings of both characters exceed
You may think Jesus isn't an epic hero or you may ask how is he an epic hero, but his story is more of an epic than you would think. On the other hand, Gilgamesh has the story and the characteristics of a good old fashion epic hero, that was brave, a strong fighter, and didn't back down for nothing. But Jesus never fought his enemies he fought them with love, and he was one hundred percent god on earth but Gilgamesh was only ⅔ god. Gilgamesh and Jesus have a good amount of differences. And in this essay I will be explaining the differences and similarities between these two godly figures abilities, the purpose of their quest,and what makes them very different from all humans on earth.
The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey both are held in high respect by literature analysts and historians alike for the characterization of the hero and his companion, the imagery brought to mind when one of them is read, and the impressive length in relation to the time period it was written in. The similarities that these two epics share do not end with only those three; in fact, the comparability of these works extend to even the information on the author and the archetypes used. However, The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh contrast from one another in their writing styles, character details, and main ideas. Both epics weave together a story of a lost man who must find his way, but the path of their stories contrast from one another.