Essay On Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh
They are the stories, myths and legends that exist at the yellowed fringes of our memories, tales passed down to us from long ago. These are the epic poems of The Epic of Gilgamesh. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a poem written on stone tablets sometime between 2700 B.C. and around 600 B.C. in Mesopotamia. The Epic of Gilgamesh was translated by Nancy Katharine Sanders , a British archaeologist and prehistorian. She had published many books such as Bronze Age Cultures in France ( 1957), Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia (1971), The Sea Peoples: warriors of the ancient Mediterranean 1250-1150 B. C (1978) ,… The poem is about the hero Gilgamesh, who is half god and half human. Gilgamesh is stronger and more powerful
than the people of his village, Uruk, causing great unhappiness among the people. For this reason, they ask the gods to make another man who would rival Gilgamesh. This man is named Enkidu. Gilgamesh and Enkidu become good friends, but trouble follows them wherever they go.
Gilgamesh is the semi-mythic King of ramparted Uruk, known from the story “The Epic of Gilgamesh” The Sumerian story, earlier story of Gilgamesh as written 2100 BCE. More than a thousand years ago making the story the oldest epic western literature.
In Chapter The Story of The Flood, as we can see, there are many common between the Gilgamesh flood account and the biblical flood account ( Genesis 6:5-9:17). Comparing the flood stories in the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis, one is impressed with the numerous similarities between the two accounts. Beginning with most importantly with God choosing the righteous man to build an ark because on an impending great flood. In both stories one good man, Noah from Genesis and Utnapishtim form Gilgamesh, are saved and chosen to build an ark or boat. In Genesis God decides to destroy all but Noah, who "found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Gen. 6:8). Noah becomes the source of salvation for the creation of man in the future. A new hope for re-creation after the flood. They are also the symbol of God's mercy and grace. Ea warns Utnapishtim in a dream that he must help the human race survive. Both these men are symbols that God
and Ea want the good in mankind to survive. By doing this they give the human race a chance to survive. In both events, samples with all species of animals were to be on the ark, and birds were used after the rains to determine if flood waters had subsided anywhere to reveal dry land. The flood of Gilgamesh was written before 2000 B.C, while the Genesis story was written in 400 BC which was much later then the Gilgamesh flood. In both versions of the flood story, people angers God (in Genesis) and the gods (in Gilgamesh). "The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reasons of the babel" (in Gilgamesh). The Gilgamesh reason seems nonsense . The Gods decide to destroy mankind because they are making too much noise. It seems that the gods didn't think over their decision wisely. They are gods, wouldn't they have the power to block out the sound? One would think so, but obviously that was not the case. This is the first major difference between the two stories. In Genesis, the reason to eliminate mankind is much more reasonable since the human are so evil and savage. Gods destroys mankind with a very well thought out and logical decision. Another major difference between the two stories is how the floods began and how the whole event ended up. In both a great storm rages and wipes out everyone and everything except the passengers onboard the boat/ark. In the Gilgamesh flood story the gods cry and that creates the incredibly destructive flood. "The great gods of heaven and hell wept" (Gilgamesh 13). The rains lasted for 6 days and 6 nights in the Gilgamesh version, and finally when the waters receded the boat landed on Nisir. The boat had been on the mountain for seven days. This is one of many instances where the number 7 is used in context to the flood stories. It is a mystical number symbolizing when gods and men interact. In Genesis , God created the flood with his divine power. "After seven days the waters of the flood were upon the earth" (Gen.7:10). Here the number 7 is used again for the interaction of God and Noah. The rain lasted a lot longer in the Genesis version then in the Gilgamesh story. As the waters receded, the ark landed on Mt. Ararat. In both stories when the ark or boat were floating around the endless sea, Noah and Utnapishtim sent out birds. Utnapishtim sends out three different birds while Noah sends only two out. First, Utnapishtim sent out a dove but it returns. The same thing happens when he sends out a swallow. Finally when he sends out the raven it finds land and eats, so it does not return. "I loosed a dove...but finding no resting-place she returned...then I loosed a swallow, and she flew away but finding no resting-place she returned...I loosed a raven...and she did not come back" (Gilgamesh 13). Noah sends out raven once and it doesn't not find land. He sends out a dove twice and the second time it does not return. The final main similarity between the two stories is at the end. Noah and Utnapishtim both show proper reverence to the gods and are rewarded. Utnapishtim offers a sacrifice to the gods, but Enlil becomes very angry because he is excluded from this sacrifice and that Utnapishtim escaped his wishes for all man to be destroyed. Ea convinces Enlil that Utnapishtim escaped on his own and then Enlil granted Utnapishtim the gift of immortality.