bougayou the epic of gilgamesh

8/7/2019 Bougayou The epic of Gilgamesh

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Mohammed Bougayou

Prof.McCalla

HUM 2270 21z

3 Feb.2011

The human nature, love, and heroism in the world's oldest tale

I see that the epic of Gilgamesh is really popular because it is considered the oldest

story ever written. It is over well over 1000 years older than the New Testament and the

Iliad and Odyssey. Im so excited to read it. I believe that The essential story revolves

around the relationship between Gilgamesh, a king who has become distracted and

disheartened by his rule, and a friend, Enkidu, who is half-wild and who undertakes

dangerous quests with Gilgamesh. Much of the epic focuses on Gilgamesh's feelings of loss

following Enkidu's death, and is often credited by historians as being one of the first

literary works with high emphasis on immortality.

I think that Gilgamesh is an example of a civilized man, unlike Enkidu, who has to

become civilized through an intercourse with a courtesan, Gilgamesh is sort of a Hercules

of Sumerian legends I presume anyways, he is a winner and that's his loss. Also he is

destined to be alone in the end.

This ancient literature contains, among other compositions, The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Humankind's oldest recorded hero tale (dating from at least 2000 b.c.e.), the epic is builtaround Gilgamesh's quest for immortality and is full of dream accounts. A legendary king

who ruled the city-state of Uruk around 2600 b.c.e., Gilgamesh was said to be the son of the

goddess Ninsun and the king Lugalbanda. His divine heritage on his mother's side,

however, did not exempt him from mortality.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is more than just an archaeological curiosity. Despite its

innumerable omissions and obscurities, its strange cast of gods, and its unfamiliar theory

about the creation of the universe, the story of Gilgamesh is powerful and gripping. An

exciting adventure that celebrates kinship between men, it asks what price people pay to

be civilized and questions the proper role of a king, and it both acknowledges and

scrutinizes the attractions of earthly fame. Most of all, Gilgamesh describes the existential

struggles of a superlatively strong man who must reconcile himself to his mortality and

find meaning in his life despite the inevitability of death.

The epics prelude offers a general introduction to Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who

was two-thirds god and one-third man. He built magnificent ziggurats, or temple towers,


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surrounded his city with high walls, and laid out its orchards and fields. He was physically

beautiful, immensely strong, and very wise. Although Gilgamesh was godlike in body and

mind, he began his kingship as a cruel despot. He lorded over his subjects, raping any

woman who struck his fancy, whether she was the wife of one of his warriors or the

daughter of a nobleman. He accomplished his building projects with forced labor, and his

exhausted subjects groaned under his oppression. The gods heard his subjects pleas and

decided to keep Gilgamesh in check by creating a wild man named Enkidu, who was as

magnificent as Gilgamesh. Enkidu became Gilgameshs great friend, and Gilgameshs heart

was shattered when Enkidu died of an illness inflicted by the gods. Gilgamesh then traveled

to the edge of the world and learned about the days before the deluge and other secrets of

the gods, and he recorded them on stone tablets.

The epic begins with Enkidu. He lives with the animals, suckling at their breasts,

grazing in the meadows, and drinking at their watering places. A hunter discovers him and

sends a temple prostitute into the wilderness to tame him. In that time, people consideredwomen and sex calming forces that could domesticate wild men like Enkidu and bring them

into the civilized world. When Enkidu sleeps with the woman, the animals reject him since

he is no longer one of them. Now, he is part of the human world. Then the harlot teaches

him everything he needs to know to be a man. Enkidu is outraged by what he hears aboutGilgameshs excesses, so he travels to Uruk to challenge him. When he arrives, Gilgamesh is

about to force his way into a brides wedding chamber. Enkidu steps into the doorway andblocks his passage. The two men wrestle fiercely for a long time, and Gilgamesh finally

prevails. After that, they become friends and set about looking for an adventure to share.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu decide to steal trees from a distant cedar forest forbidden to

mortals. A terrifying demon named Humbaba, the devoted servant of Enlil, the god of earth,wind, and air, guards it. The two heroes make the perilous journey to the forest, and,

standing side by side, fight with the monster. With assistance from Shamash the sun god,they kill him. Then they cut down the forbidden trees, fashion the tallest into an enormous

gate, make the rest into a raft, and float on it back to Uruk. Upon their return, Ishtar, the

goddess of love, is overcome with lust for Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh spurns her. Enraged, the

goddess asks her father, Anu, the god of the sky, to send the Bull of Heaven to punish him.

The bull comes down from the sky, bringing with him seven years of famine. Gilgamesh and

Enkidu wrestle with the bull and kill it.

At the same time the Epic of Gilgamesh addresses these important metaphysical

themes, it is equally a story of two friends, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and their devotion to oneanother even after death. All in all, the Epic of Gilgamesh contains everything we have come

to expect from great epic literature: fantastic geographies and exotic characters; exhausting

quests and difficult journeys; heroic battles with monsters, supernatural beings, and

natural forces. It is, above all, the gripping story of an epic hero who is driven to meet his

destiny and who rises to every challenge with courage and determination.


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SparkNotes Editors. SparkNote on The Epic of Gilgamesh. SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC.2004. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.

Timothy R. Carnahan This site founded and copyrighted June 7, 2001, C.E.

http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/


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bougayou the epic of gilgamesh

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