The Themes Of Dreams In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a legendary poem dated way back to early Mesopotamia. This book is extremely important because is often refereed to as the first surviving epic poems in literature. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written and amazingly preserved on clay tablets. This story revels the adventures and journeys that the great king of Uruk, Gilgamesh, embarked on. In Mesopotamian culture, dreams were very important to Mesopotamians. In the book, dreams were repeatedly discussed and considerably focused on. I will be discussing and breaking down what dreams all meant to the characters and people of Mesopotamia in the book of The Epic of Gilgamesh. I will bring up about how these dreams were visions, symbols, and, a way of communicating from the

A lot of these dreams were also made to emphasis the concept of fated heroes and brought to light there chosen destiny. Knowing this, it is easy to say that Mesopotamians at this time, strongly believed in predestination and that everything is picked out for you no matter what and can’t be changed. For example, in the book the goddess Ninsin, Gilagamesh’s mother, interprets Gilgamesh’s dream. “…He is the strongest of wild creatures, the stuff of Anu; born in the grass-lands and the wild hills reared him; when you see him you will be glass; you will love him as a woman and he will never forsake you. This is the meaning of the dream.’ Ninsum is accurately explaining Gilgamesh the dream he had. She interpreted the dream and knew someone was coming soon in the future, which was Enkidu. (The Epic of Gilgamesh page

For example, the axe and the meteor that appear in Gilgamesh’s first couple dreams all represent the character Enkidu. “Mother, I dreamed a second dream. In the streets of strong-walled Uruk there lay an axe; the shape of it was strange and the people thronged round. I saw it and I was gal. I bent down, deeply drawn towards it; I loved it like a woman and wore it at my side.” (The Epic of Gilgamesh Page 67). As I mentioned earlier, the axe that Gilgamesh is talking about represents the character Enkidu. The axe that Gilgamesh dreamed about specifically symbolized Enkidu’s battle performances. In the dream Gilgamesh loves the axe and wears it on his side which represents that in battle they are partners and protectors of each other. In the dream, Gilgamesh also talks about a meteor. The meteor also represents Enkidu’s and symbolizes that were viewed to Gilgamesh as a god-sent and fell from heavens above down to him. The feelings that Gilgamesh has for Enkidu’s symbols was compared to the love of a woman. This means that Gilgamesh has strong feelings for Enkidu’s that he is most likely lonely and wanting a relationship of some