Women In Gilgamesh

Throughout mythology, women are suppressed to being inferior to men, which they are looked upon as sinful and evil things. In the epic poem, Gilgamesh, translated by Herbert Mason, the tyrant king Gilgamesh seek ways to show himself more powerful than nature, which symbolizes women. This however shows his weaknesses and deficiencies. Although Gilgamesh searches for eternal life, symbolism and irony reveal that he is actually afraid of nature, and since nature symbolizes women, he is hostile towards women, so he projects those insecurities on women to compensate for his weaknesses, which illuminates to his hatred towards women.
Gilgamesh is a god and a man, so he thought he had power over other people. At the beginning, Gilgamesh showed his
After Gilgamesh leaves Siduri to find Urshanabi to take him to Utnapishtim, he comes upon the Sacred Stone, which he destroys. “Coming upon some stones that stood in his way he smashed them into a thousand pieces. Urshanabi, a lean old man...laughed at the stranger’s folly and even danced to mock the crazed man’s act. You have destroyed the Sacred Stones that might have taken you across” (67). Gilgamesh finds the Sacred Stones that may lead him the way, but ignore and destroys them. He is trying so hard to find a way to Utnapishtim but when finds the stones standing in his way, so he does not see the things in front of him that may lead him the way. Furthermore, after Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that there is a plant that will give him a new life, he goes into the river to search for it. “He tied stones to his feet and descended into the river. When he saw the plant of rich color and ambrosial shimmering in the water like a prism of the sunlight, he seized it, and it cut into his palms. He saw his blood flow in the water” (85). Gilgamesh felts that he finally found eternal life by seizing the plant. However as he pricked the plant, the thorns of the plant cut into his hand and made him bleed. So even though he found the blossoming plant, he also realized that he bleeds just like a normal person. Therefore show that he is not an immortal and that he cannot find eternal life.
Ultimately, Gilgamesh wants to find eternal life not only to become immortal but also to avoid death. He does not accept death and the whole cycle of life and death. Since he has not faced death, he is afraid of the unknown. Thus, he projects that insecurity on women by showing power and strength over them to compensate for his own