Gilgamesh Quiz

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Quiz 1 - Epic of Gilgamesh
Jorge Luis Casanas Marrero HUM 1020 MoWe 7:30pm – 9:10pm

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an Akkadian poem composed around 2500 B.C.E. It is the earliest known epic. The theme of the poem concerns human beings’ search for immortality. Answer the following questions briefly.
1. What is the relationship between human beings and their deities?
• The relationship shown in Gilgamesh between humans and their gods is a simply one of mutual dependency, even though the power of gods was superior to that shown by humans. They are described like humans being, in behavior as well as appearance. Just like humans, the gods have feeling. The gods feel that it is their duty to intervene if they feel that man is traveling off course from …show more content…

He tries in several ways to be immortal, but even when he faces the issue head on and goes on his last journey, he fails. If you see the link with world of nature and animals from the Enkidu character, you can see that he begins life as a human animal, who goes naked. He eats and drinks next to animal in the same drinking-hole. However, this situation changes when he met the prostitute to seduce him and teaches him that he is a man, in all the sense of that word. Once he parts next to them, he walks like a normal human, standing in two feet. He has made a transition from animal to …show more content…

What caused Gilgamesh live to want immortality?
• The Enkidu’s dead pushed to Gilgamesh to the despair but, the most important thing that this event brought was that it obliges him to accept that he was only a man and he was mortal like any other person. If Enkidu, who was created as his equal, as strong as him, could die then he could die too. Therefore, his own fear was the mean reason why Gilgamesh began to try achieving his immortality. He started fearing his own dead.
5. What tests did Gilgamesh face throughout his life?
• Gilgamesh face several tests throughout his life. His first test comes when he knows about the existent of Enkidu who was created as his equal, and he must beat him in a hand to hand fight. Then he must face and defeat Humbaba, in which he succeeds. Gilgamesh denies the love of Isthar, and she try to take revenge of that. Therefore, he should fight again The Bull of Heaven, which was released in Uruk by Isthar. Due to the fear caused on Gilgamesh after the Enkidu’s dead, he begins to try achieving his immortality, because he does not want to face the same fate as Enkidu. In his long way to reach the immortality, he beat lions in the mountain, try to resist sleep for seven days and sinks himself to recover the plant of eternal youth. He pass throughout Mash, where the sun is protected during the sunrise and sunset, so that he must walk almost twelve leagues without any light to reach the paradisaical land where Urshanabi

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