Gilgamesh Humanism Essay

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, humanism is a system of values and beliefs that is based on the idea that people are basically good and that problems can be solved using reason instead of religion. Personally, humanism is an aspect of study that focuses on shaping the core values of a person. It shifts away from the traditional beliefs. Humanism stresses the liveliness of the individual figure in society. Throughout the semester there were books that had to be read from three different periods to meet the requirements of the course. There were specific stories that related to humanism better than others. The Ancient period refers to the first records of writing that ever existed. The Middle Age appears after the fall of major civilizations.
This is when urbanization began to appear in different works. Finally, the Early Modern period, which is where concepts and ideas developed more rapidly. Humanism can be shown through these periods in stories such as, Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, The Mahabharata, The Thousand and One Nights, Inferno, Decameron, The Prince, Gargantua and Pantagruel, and Don Quixote. Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Babylonia and is one of the oldest works of literature known to mankind.
This epic seems to have been widely known during the ancient period. It is a story of a powerful man who seeks to become immortal, so he seeks out the gods and the key to immortality. The story of Gilgamesh was more about what it is to be a man than what it is to serve the Gods. As the beginning and the end of the epic make clear, Gilgamesh is celebrated more for his human achievement than for his relationship with the divine. Which is a clear example of humanism because it focuses on the importance to humans rather than divine
matters. The Odyssey written by Homer can serve as a good source of the definition of Humanism. Throughout the epic, Odysseus goes through multiple harsh obstacles in his efforts to return home. Even though he deals with problem, after problem he still continues to try and move forward. For example, he was stranded on an islands, held captive, and blown across the seas for around twenty years. It seems as if the Gods remain as fixtures of the story that come in from time to time. Each time Odysseus faces a problem the Gods seem to intervene by provided him with insight and help. Odysseus then can choose to heed or ignore what they have to say. This also happened to his son Telemachus as well. For example, he was approached by Athena, and she told him to stand up and fulfill his desire to rid the house of the suitors and see his father again. Telemachus decides to pursue the challenge despite the odds. This shows humanism because he is worried about other people’s needs. For example, his mother was in a very bad situation with the suitors being in the house and if his father was to ever return home it would be a bad situation as well. Telemachus was worried about his parents so he done what he thought was right. Mahabharata is an Indian epic that explains what we should and shouldn’t do. The Mahabharata has been a source of inspiration for people since its creation. It’s a story about these five brothers who try to try to hold an emperor against their wicked cousins. It has a beneficial influence on most people’s minds. Many of the passages in this story are there for a purpose. They are there to enlighten people about what they have done in the past and what they can do where they don’t experience the same problems. The lessons given in this epic teaches one to work for the wellbeing of other people that are surrounding you. There are multiple test that occur throughout the epic that show how the characters really are as a person. For example, one of the brothers named Yudhishthira was told that he was the only one out of his brothers that made it to heaven, the rest of them were in hell. Yudhishthira then insist on leaving heaven to go join his brothers in hell. Once he showed this aspect of himself they revealed that his brothers were really in heaven and that was the final test for him. A Thousand and One Nights is a series of anonymous short stories.
These stories were orally told for centuries and were finally written down. The stories offer a great deal of entertainment for the reader. They have been inspiration to many people under different circumstances. The series of these stories contribute to humanism development because these stories show different ways of solving human problems. In the Inferno by Dante it is telling the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by Virgil. This shows how Virgil is trying to help others, Dante is relying on him for help as a person not as a God. Dealing with humanism this story shows how Virgil helped Dante in a way. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings and that’s what happens in the Inferno. Giovanni Boccaccio’s, Decameron is a collection of 100 short stories known as a frame story. It can be looked at as a story within a story. The tale deals with 7 women and 3 men who move in order to escape the Black Death. They are there for fourteen days and on ten of those days they each tell a different story. Which each story comes a different lesson that can be learned from. This shows humanism because it shows how one solves human problems and the thought that they put into
it. The Prince written by Machiavelli is an analysis on how to maintain political power. He is basically outlining how one should act, you can look at it as a mirror for princes. He gives qualities of a prince while giving practical advice. Machiavelli contributes to humanism because he shows an outlook of thought that attaches importance to humans. He is stressing the value of goodness for all princes. Gargantua and Pantagruel written by Francois Rabelais describes life and the adventures of Pantagruel. It is very entertaining to the audience and contains comical satire. Gargantua essentially sends his son, Pantagruel off to school to study and learn new things that he couldn’t learn at home. Gargantua stresses the importance of his son getting a good learning experience, because he knows he will need it in the future. It is an outlook of thought that he has taken that shows importance. Don Quixote is a book that expresses humanistic beliefs. The character Don Quixote shows this perfectly. He thinks that he is doing things that are okay in everyone’s standards when really he is just blinded by his title as a knight. Since he is a knight he is sworn to protect the citizens in his town yet, he keeps doing foolish things that cause harm. He seems as if he has trouble finding justice within himself. This World Literature class challenges one to look for the deeper meaning in something rather than the obvious. As one traces through the development humanism had on each work, whether it be in Ancient, Middle, or the Early Modern period one can see that it contributes to each story and helps develop the deeper meaning the author is trying to get across to the reader. There are multiple different aspects on can look at when trying to figure out what humanism really is. However, what humanism really relied on was flexible thinking and being more open to all the possibilities of life.