Heroism In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

Older with over thousand years than the Holy Bible, The Epic of Gilgamesh narrates a series of heroic deeds and sufferings of the same name king of Uruk, in ancient Mesopotamia. It is believed that the protagonist of the epic reigned sometime between 2800 and 2500 B.C.E., as his name was mentioned in lists with Sumerian kings. The Epic of Gilgamesh was discovered along the river of Tigris, when the archaeological excavations revealed the ancient library of Assurbanipal, the Assyrian king, and this is believed to be among others, the most complete version of the first and the oldest epic of the world. The clay tablets were slowly translated from cuneiform, and part of the epic was lost due to illegible, missing or broken fragments. The Epic of Gilgamesh represents for Occidental Asia what the Homeric poems represent for ancient Greece or Roland for France in the 12th century: the glorification of a hero, quintessence of his people's bravery. The art of the anonymous author of this epic consists of sober, precise, imagery description of the plot and settings. Literary critics spoke about the realism within the fantastic, bringing into discussion the extraordinary stories of Hoffmann or Swift's Gulliver's trips. Nevertheless, we can find the same theme in The Epic of Gilgamesh. The oscillation between fairytale and legend leans towards legend, in my opinion. The fairytale is certainly more imaginative, fabulous and its tangencies with legend are precarious, while the legend never loses its historical echo.

The Epic does not have an honored place in the universal literature only due to its antiquity, but mainly because of its mixture of fantastic, and even dramatic turn of events with reflective morals. Gilgamesh is the first tragic c...

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...rarat and Mt. Nisir, located at only 300 miles apart). Both heroes receive blessings after the deluge, but they are quite different. Utnapishtim is offered eternal life, while Noah has to multiply and fill the earth and have dominance over the animals.

The extensive nature of deluge traditions throughout the mankind is perfect proof for the existence of a flood from a historical point of view. It was even stated that either the writer of the Bible was acquainted with the Babylonian flood, in one way or another, or the two works had a common source. The Book of Genesis is considered for the most part as a historical work, while The Epic of Gilgamesh is viewed as mythological. To those who believe in the inspiration and infallibility of the Holy Bible, it should not be a revelation that God would conserve the true version of the flood in the traditions of His people.