Gilgamesh

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Being the king of somewhere or half-god, does not give you the right to take other people's rights away. It doesn't make it okay to violate people against their will. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh takes his power of office a few steps too far. He does have specific and special rights, different from regular civilians, however he doesn't have rights that allow him to violate and harm other people. Gilgamesh has been accused of violating the morals of the young and abusing power of office. He has been rightfully accused on both charges and both charges are accurate.

Gilgamesh feels that just because he is 2/3 god and 1/3 man that he has more rights over regular people. The people of Uruk and myself do not feel that way at all. Gilgamesh is should not be treated better than us. Gilgamesh should be found guilty for the charge of violating the morals of the young for a number of wrong doings. First of all Gilgamesh forces young children to work as slaves. Children do not deserve to work as slaves; they are young and innocent and have done nothing wrong. Gilgamesh does not allow children to enjoy their childhood like they should. Instead, he forces them to work as slaves doing jobs that grown men should be doing.

Gilgamesh thinks he has the right to rape young women on their wedding night. He "leaves no virgin to her husband." He violates those women's rights to their virginity. He also takes robs them of their dignity. They are supposed to lose their virginity to their husband's on the night of their marriage. These young women did not spend all of their lives saving their virginity to give to Gilgamesh, a terrible man with no remorse for the crimes he commits every day.

Gilgamesh has special powers as the king and being 2/3 god. Those powers are not to be abused in any way. In this case, Gilgamesh has committed a serious crime because he has definitely abused his powers as king. He has taken our young, innocent children and turned them into slaves who work for him and do whatever he orders them to do whenever he wants.

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