The Role Of Mythology In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

Mythology is the study of myths in sacred stories that connect humans, Gods, life, death, and afterlife. Gilgamesh has many different connections between Gods and humans. It is the oldest surviving piece of literature, but is incomplete, written only on clay tablets in cuneiform ("Notes on Gilgamesh."). The mythology from the stories is talked highly about amongst historians. Many have translated the text and tried to analyze it. There is one idea that the Gods played a big role in what the Uruk people did in their everyday lives. Since the Gods were connected to them so closely, it must have an effect on their society. The question is, did mythology have a big influence on the Uruk civilization? The story begins with Gilgamesh, a demigod;
This was going against something that the Gods did to protect the forest, but Gilgamesh still wanted to do it, so he convinced Enkidu to help him. Before they left to fight Humbaba, Gilgamesh told the people of Uruk about what their plans were (Mitchell, Stephen, 94-95). This was more for the Gods to hear about it before it happened, so they could get the okay from them. Ninsun prayed to Shamash to help Enkidu and Gilgamesh defeat Humbaba in the Cedar Forest (Mitchell, Stephen, 100). The whole journey to the Cedar Forest Gilgamesh kept having dreams that they couldn’t defeat Humbaba, but every night Enkidu convinced Gilgamesh that he was interpreting the dreams wrong (Mitchell, Stephen, 105-116). After defeating Humbaba, they came back to Uruk. Gilgamesh knew that he could not be King forever so he tried to do these “godly” like things, so that he would always be remembered ("Myths Encyclopedia."). After Gilgamesh completed this “godly” thing with Enkidu, Ishtar proposed to Gilgamesh. He denied her, because of all her past husbands. This made Ishtar upset so she convinced Anu to send the sacred bull of heaven after him. Enkidu and Gilgamesh defeated the bull together. That night Enkidu had a dream that one of them must be killed because this upset the Gods. They wanted Enkidu dead, not Gilgamesh. ("Myths Encyclopedia.").When he told Gilgamesh about it, he did not believe him. Then Enkidu had another bad dream, and when he told Gilgamesh about this one, he believed him. Gilgamesh prayed to the Gods to save them both. Enkidu knows his fate now and calls out to curse Shamata, since she tricked him into becoming civilized. Gilgamesh convinces him that she changed him for the better and not worse, so Enkidu takes back the horrible things he said (Mitchell, Stephen, 146-148). They destroyed Humbaba first and now the sacred bull of heaven, the Gods made