Quite an Epic change

Growing up, I only knew one type of hero, and that type was the fictional kind with superheroes, but my mentality changed as I got older and wiser and now I stand my ground that a hero is someone or something that changes in a good way which helps in their decision in the process of an action or deed . From this, I say both Gilgamesh and Enkidu match my own personal idea of a hero. Even though Gilgamesh and Enkidu are practically equals, they are heroes in their own way of changing throughout the epic. Supporting reasons for this are that, I think Enkidu fits my personal idea of a hero because he helped out Gilgamesh in times of need when he was against ideas in the first place such as going against Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven sent by Ishtar. On the other hand, even though he did not do any great deed, I still believe Gilgamesh fits my personal idea of a hero because he goes on a journey for eternal life but only to change to end up a new person which in my book means he becomes a hero.

So for Enkidu, he matches my own personal idea of a hero because of two instances. One instance was when he and Gilgamesh fought Humbaba. Enkidu was against the idea of fighting Humbaba for he was deemed a very scary and powerful being. This is shown by the imagery Enkidu says which represent Humbaba’s power like, “ His sound is like a flood’s sound,” meaning stuff in his path trembles in his wake and ,”..from his mouth springs fire,” which signifies him to be not a human but a strong creature. Even with that in mind though, Enkidu still decides to stick with Gilgamesh and work with him to slay Humbaba. In this doing, Enkidu might have prevented Gilgamesh from dieing alone against Humbaba.

The other instance is when Enkidu decides to kill the...

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.... “He looked at the walls, Awed at the heights His people had achieved And for a moment -- just a moment -- All that lay beside him Passed from view.” This stanza shows that Gilgamesh was not the person he was before. In the beginning he did not even care about what his subject had created, but from this journey, he changed in a way that can be perceived like that of a hero.

To wrap it all up, to me, both Enkidu and Gilgamesh are heroes, not because they achieved their goals of killing two of the God’s / Goddess’s servants, but in that they both changed in a good way that benefitted others or even themselves. Enkidu changed from a wild and uncivilized man to a friend to help Enkidu, while Gilgamesh changed to finally become a ruler that can appreciate all the things he has and did have instead of what he didn’t have. Both of them do fit my personal idea of a hero.