Is Gilgamesh Selfish Or Selfish

By the end of the epic, Gilgamesh has hardly changed from the ravenous man he was in the beginning of the poem. In the beginning of the epic, Gilgamesh is portrayed as a man who is selfish; someone will stop at nothing to satisfy his desires, however irrational his desires are. One of Gilgamesh’s many desires is to win fame and glory for himself and his descendants. To accomplish this, he decides to venture into the Cedar Forest to seek and destroy Huwawa. When Enkidu advises against this perilous quest, Gilgamesh simply replies with, “Where is your courage?/If I should fall, my fame will be secure. ‘It was Gilgamesh who fought against Huwawa!’” (17). Gilgamesh’s selfishness blinds him from seeing the negative repercussions that would affect