Gilgamesh Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Gilgamesh - Assignment Example The basic epic is primitive or oral, such as Gilgamesh’s epic. The secondary epics include literary or written ones, such as The Aeneid. The Epic of Gilgamesh dates back to 2150-2000 BC and before that there were only two huge Indian epics called the Ramayana and Mahabharata, which date back to 1000-800 BC. There were also two epics of Greeks titled as ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘The Iliad’ as of 900-700 BC, which are older than epic of Gilgamesh (Campbell, 1949). The epic of Gilgamesh dwells on the difference between an animal, a man, and a god. Gilgamesh is both a god and a man. Enkidu is also a man and a god and this is the tale of these two becoming humans as they travel together. Utnapishtim is also called Noah as per the Hebraic myth. He is considered the immortal. Gilgamesh is indeed the hero of the epic. Enkidu is not only an advisor to Gilgamesh but also his friend and also referred to as Hercules in the greek legendary past. The huge massive monster is Humbaba. The story is about the cycle of a hero’s life based on initiation, departure, and return. It is based on Joseph Campbell’s idea of four functions of the heroic cycle. The traits that make a person a hero are to fight against one’s fear, quest for eternal life, facing death, and a lot of suffering dealt with wisdom (Campbell, 1949). Gilgamesh in the epic itself is one-third man and two-thirds god. Gilgamesh is a hero in the epic who is a brave person, beautiful as well and also horrifying as compared to most of us people. Hid attributes, achievements, and desires symbolize our own ambitions and feelings. But, he is mortal too and also must see and experience death like us. The philosophy is that this legend of Gilgamesh is 1/3rds mortal and 2/3rds divine. His huge emotional intelligence and power is great but tyrannize the people of his time. People of that time used to call the gods, the leading god called sky-god Anu is the god of the city. The wild man is known as Enkidu with adequate power to match that of Gilgamesh. Ultimately, the fight between two people makes any of them never succeed. The animosity turned into mutual respect in the end and long-lasting relationship (Campbell, 1949). Now the two newly met friends set on an adventure with each other but finally, the gods were able to murder Enkidu. Gilgamesh seriously weeps for the loss of his friend and a realization struck him that he will soon die too. Therefore, he came to know about Utnapishtim- the immortal. The only global food survivor is called Utnapishtim. Subsequently, Gilgamesh goes all across sea to go for his friend Utnapishtim, who talks about his extraordinary life adventures. The Flood of Gilgamesh is also called Utnapishtim’s flood. When the council of gods came up with the idea to devastate the mankind, the god who created man called ‘Ea’ warned against Shuruppak to Utnapishtim. Shuruppak was a town near Euphrates bank and instructed about the huge boat (Campbell, 1949). This Epic of Gilgamesh is the tale of the King Gilgamesh in Uruk who dominates the people of his town. As a sentence, the god gives him a friend known as Enkidu who became a good friend and a shadow of King Gilgamesh. When they both sets on an adventure together, Enkidu and Gilgamesh challenge the gods by murdering the huge Humbaba, also cutting the blessed forest of cedar which he protected, and killed the Bull of Heaven. The frightening dreams of tyrants’ destiny were seen by Enkidu and then these tyrants became slaves of House of Death. Finally, Enkidu dies because of sickness of gods. Devastated by the death of Enkidu and also perspective of his own death, a quest for the power of immortality was undertaken by Gilgamesh which brought