In the cedar forest, Humbaba lay lifeless on the ground, surrounded by the regretful Gilgamesh and the triumphant Enkidu. Before Enkidu was able to convince Gilgamesh to kill Humbaba, Gilgamesh was considering doing the right thing by allowing him to live. However, Gilgamesh succumbed to Enkidu’s persuasion, decided to kill Humbaba, and allowed Enkidu to strike the final blow. Gilgamesh should have listened to his conscience and should not have let Enkidu affect his actions. Enkidu’s persuasion harmfully influenced Gilgamesh’s actions, subsequently having a negative impact on both Humbaba’s and Enkidu’s…
“"Come now, Harlot, I am going to decree your fate, a fate that will never come to an end for eternity! I will curse you with a Great Curse… may a crossroad be your home, may a wasteland be your sleeping place…” In the Epic of Gilgamesh, having crossed paths with Gilgamesh and his harlot, the life of our character, Enkidu, was turned to a wasteland. Enkidu lived freely. He ate with gazelles and drank with lions in a manner uncomplicated by pursuit or expectation. Unbeknownst to Enkidu, however, his life was never his own. He was created as a parallel to Gilgamesh, imparted with power meant to foil the rule exercised by the king without parry, “Let him be equal to [Gilgamesh’s] stormy heart, let them be a match for each other so that Uruk may find peace!”.…
Friendship in the third millennium BC must have been way different then how we see friendship today… Or is it? When you have a friendship with someone, you “fill their gaps” of what they don’t necessarily have. N. K. Sandars demonstrates that “filling of the gaps” in The Epic of Gilgamesh. The friendship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu benefits them both greatly by making up for each other’s limitations. You see this when they become stronger together to fight Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven, when Enkidu rationalizes with Gilgamesh and when Gilgamesh inspires Enkidu to become less of a cowardly man.…
Gilgamesh goes on this heroic journey in hope to bring his dear friend Enkidu back to life. He travels twelve leagues of darkness in order to find Utnapishtim. There are many factors in which Gilgamesh is considered an epic hero. Gilgamesh completed a long and dangerous journey into the afterlife, he wished to know the secret to life in order to gain fame, and Gilgamesh also has the physical qualities of a hero, considering he was made perfect by the Gods. Gilgamesh is a hero because he is determined, strong, powerful, and brave. He is also two thirds god. However, he has some qualities that gets him into trouble, such as his overconfidence and his violence. The Epic of Gilgamesh can be compared to the hero tale, The Odyssey. These…
The Epic of Gilgamesh is about a Tyrant, Gilgamesh, who terrorized the people from his kingdom. Enkidu was created to save the people and become a companion to Gilgamesh. From the beginning, a clear and invisible bond is created. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are complete opposites that complement each other; one was an arrogant city dweller, the other a quintessential "Wildman" of the woods and plains. Gilgamesh civilizes Enkidu and Enkidu helps Gilgamesh transform into a perfect leader to his people by allowing him to better understand and identify with them. Through their friendship, Gilgamesh becomes less narcissistic and less lonesome. Gilgamesh was lonely, but did not know the extent of wanting a friend, until the moment he meets Enkidu and then loses him afterwards in the Epic. The turning point of The Epic of Gilgamesh occurs when Enkidu enters Gilgamesh’s life, and then the text takes another turn when Enkidu dies. Enkidu changed Gilgamesh’s life completely, without him, Gilgamesh would not have become a great leader and epic hero. Gilgamesh would not have changed without Enkidu because he did not see a problem with his leadership skills, he had never loved anyone more than himself, and he had not expected death to affect him on a personal level.…
Following the passing of Enkidu, his closest companion, he transforms into a man with a new purpose. Throughout his life, Gilgamesh has ruled his kingdom from afar, never connecting with his people. He has always been envious of the immortal gods because, though he is two-thirds god, he will never be immortal. Along his journey, he constantly grasps with chances to prove his equality to the gods, depicted perfectly in his defeat of Humbaba. With that in mind, it is clear Gilgamesh demonstrates his power as a king whenever he is given the opportunity. Though Gilgamesh may think that demonstrating his power prove his equality to the deities, it actually makes him more human in many ways. After Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh begins to truly and deeply understand the capabilities of the gods he has strived his entire life to become. When he loses the plant of life, Gilgamesh realizes that he is not fit for immortal life and that he should move on because the dead will stay dead. Finally, because of this new found enlightenment, Gilgamesh is finally able to forgo his past desires and live freely without the weight of death, specifically Enkidu’s, on his shoulders. From Gilgamesh’s story of painful lessons turned positive, people can conclude and learn that at the end of every difficult journey, there will be development. However, in order to obtain the acceptance that although generations go by and people pass away, the cycle of life and the hand of time never stops, in essence, humanity never fades away. People going through hardships similar to that of Gilgamesh’s, need to learn the extremely difficult lesson, and undergo the journey, about life and more importantly, self-discovery. For Gilgamesh this means living in the moment, not in the past or the…
After both Enkidu and Gilgamesh returned from cleaning themselves and their weapons in the Euphrates, Ishtar was furious, and the gods decided to have a council. The topic of the council was who should be killed, Enkidu or Gilgamesh. It came down to the final answer and Enkidu was chosen. That night Enkidu fell sick. The night Enkidu died, Gilgamesh and Enkidu had a dream about the underworld, as soon as they woke up Enkidu said something, then “After that Gilgamesh heard the death rattle” (43). This is very important because it shows the death of Gilgamesh’s “brother”. The relationship they had was very strong, and for one to die like that was heartbreaking for Gilgamesh, thus forward you see the way Gilgamesh changes out of anger and sadness of the death of Enkidu, his companion. The next day Gilgamesh wakes up with a troubled heart, saying, “It is Enkidu, the companion, whom I weep for, / weeping for him as if I were a woman” (44). This shows that Gilgamesh is truly depressed, it said that he was weeping like a woman, showing that Enkidu really did mean a lot to Gilgamesh, which makes Gilgamesh’s idea of death more sad than death just being a normal thing that everyone has to go…
In his final moments he told Gilgamesh the story about Utnapishtim and how the gods granted him immortality. Seeing Enkidu sick was very hard on Gilgamesh, but he couldn’t pull through the sickness. Enkidu was Gilgamesh’s weakness all along. He was this wild man whom Gilgamesh had taken under his wing to tame and now he was dead. Gilgamesh had grown quite fond of Enkidu and he mourned over this loss 7 days. It wasn’t until there were bugs coming out of the corpse that Gilgamesh finally left the body.…
Divided by different episodes, it tells a trilling tale of adventure of “meeting of friends, a forest journey, the flouting of a fickle goddess, the death of the companion and the search for ancestral wisdom and immortality” (Sandars 22). It’s similar to other ancient tales, like Odyssey, it very different all the same. In tales such as Odyssey the main character is always the hero and could do no wrong. In The Epic of Gilgamesh is instead portrays the main character in a different light, making Gilgamesh a dark character and doing that teaches the most important lesson, human nature. Though gifted, being half god and half man, the leader of his people who “knew the countries of the world” (Sandars 61) was very cruel and arrogant. Upon meeting Enkidu, who is “innocent of mankind: he knew nothing of the cultivated land” becomes Gilgamesh’s equal and it’s his death that shows him how to value life. That it’s never too late to change, or impossible and anybody can be…
While Gilgamesh is finding friendship in Enkidu, the fact that death will come to him begins to bother him. Another thought I had as I read the story was, why did it mean so much to him to be remembered by his people? Was it his thought that his legend would…
Gilgamesh and Enkidu became friends in a very strange way, but I guess back then it was normal. To see someone being honor at, rather than oneself drove Gilgamesh mad. Gilgamesh was king and everyone should praise him, but along came Enkidu who was given a special treatment, and that brought displeasure to Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh was the first one to attack and they ended up in a crazy physical fight, breaking things left and right. They hit each other till they were exhausted and with a last look in one another's eyes, they start laughing it off leading to the beginning of the new friendship. Immediately after becoming friends they set off to the forest of Humbaba.…
“Ever since Enkidu died, I have felt that he took my life with him on his journey to the House of Darkness and Dust” (Rosenberg 195). Enkidu’s death stripped Gilgamesh of his innocence, and proved that Gilgamesh had the same tragic fate as Enkidu as long as he was mortal. Looking at the overall meaning of the text, this climax really changed the pace of the passage, and showed Gilgamesh’s vulnerability. “‘I must travel as quickly as my feet will take me to the home of Utanapishtim… he has found everlasting life’” (Rosenberg 191). Other than his loss of innocence, Enkidu’s death also caused Gilgamesh to gain willpower, and determination to go on his almost impossible journey to find the secret of avoiding death. Moreover, the quote explains how desperate he was to become immortal, since the idea of being able to live forever was the one last thing he needed as a man to be the mightiest, and everlasting king of Uruk. Overall, the unbreakable wound is one of the key archetypes which stands for Enkidu’s death and how it changed Gilgamesh, that really stressed the way that Gilgamesh felt about being…
He transforms from being selfish to selfless. After feeling helpless when Enkidu was dying so, a statue was built for him. Gilgamesh ruling over his subjects, meant that he thought he had the right to interfere with his subjects private life. But once Enkidu dies he is scared of death. That shows Gilgamesh transforming from being arrogant to realistic. Since Gilgamesh was a god and human it meant that he could die on his journeys. Being one third human was a part of him becoming a hero. Gilgamesh being a king meant that he had to be a great role model for Uruk. He improved people’s lives and has given them knowledge. In this epic poem, Gilgamesh is an epic hero. His origin and his transformation affected him being a hero. Being a hero meant that Gilgamesh had many challenges along the way. Having a path with many obstacles meant that it would lead Gilgamesh to what he is now, a hero. But throughout all the challenges like slaying Humbaba to get rid of evil in the world or finding out how he can be immortal, Gilgamesh never gave up. In life when challenges or sorrow comes upon, there will always be ways to face them. In our world there are never situations that are unsolved no matter how big the problem is. There are solutions to every little…
The friendship between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza greatly relates to the bond between Gilgamesh and Enkidu in The Epic of Gilgamesh. There is one major difference in the friendships however, Don and Sancho have a bond were Don leads and Sancho follows. Whereas, Gilgamesh and Enkidu have more of a brotherhood type relationship. In which they both mutually make decisions before any act of battle is taken. In Tablet III of the Epic, Gilgamesh and Enkidu are planning a trip to the palace to speak with Ninsun. In reading it states they grasp each other’s hands and begin their journey to talk to the queen. Gilgamesh said to Enkidu ‘“Come, my friend, let us go to the great palace, to Ninsun, the great queen. Ninsun is wise, all-knowing, she understands,…
However, his search fails owing to the fact that the death is the inevitable part of life and this is the greatest lesson which Gilgamesh has learnt. Moreover, he starts to aware that one’s life is measured not by fame, but by the time which he spent while alive and people who surrounded him. As a final point it should be mentioned that after the battle with Humbaba, both Enkidu and Gilgamesh learnt that gods are hazardous. It seems obvious that sometimes Gods can be beneficial. As an example can be the God of light and the sun Shamash who aim to Enkidu and Gilgamesh in their first battle with Humbaba. Nevertheless, making gods anger and disagreeing with their rules is really unsafe because Gods live by their own laws. For instance, after Gilgamesh…