The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic work of literature from the historical Mesopotamia. The plot of the movie revolves around Gilgamesh, a king, and priest in a city called Uruk. The king rules through dictatorship who exploits people working them to exhaustion and even death. The king is also known for murdering young men while using women as he wishes. The oppressed people in the poem, thus seeing that they have nowhere else to turn to, resort to prayers for divine intervention (Kovacs 4). Their gods eventually hear their cry, and Anu one of the goddesses creates a twin for the king, Enkidu: who will be strong enough to confront him and in the process, deliver him from the tyranny that is consuming him. A trapper first sees Enkidu by a well. The trapper runs to his father, who advises him to notify the Gilgamesh.

The trapper then returns from the king with a prostitute, Shamhat. They wait until Enkidu returns by the well, after which the temple prostitute seduces him. They consequently engage in sexual intercourse and afterward return together to the city of Uruk.  It is at Uruk that Enkidu discovers that the king always sleeps with every newly married woman on the wedding night before their husband is allowed to sleep with them. Enkidu feels detested by the policy and as a result, embarks on a quest to stop the king. Enkidu and Gilgamesh finally meet in the streets of the city of Uruk and begin to fight (Kovacs 6). The king wins but is transformed by the fight. He becomes Enkidu’s friend, and one day Enkidu tells him of a monster that guards a forest.They embark on a quest to find and kill the monster, and with the help of a sun god called Shamash, defeat him. On their return to Uruk with the head of the monster, Ishtar falls in love with Gilgamesh then proposes to him with the promise of great riches and rewards.

The king, however, rejects Ishtar’s demands telling her that he is repulsed by her scornful nature. As a result, Ishtar is outraged and tells her father to release a bull from heaven to punish the king. The bull on its arrival at Uruk kills, any people in the city though it is killed by Gilgamesh with the help of Enkidu. Ishtar is frustrated by the series of events and as a result, appears to threated Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Enkidu hurls one of the bull’s haunches and hurls it at Ishtar (Kovacs 10). The gods are concerned about the situation on earth and meet in a council where they decide that either Enkidu or Gilgamesh must die. Enkidu is chosen between the two, after which he suffers for twelve days from a chronic disease before succumbing to it.

Gilgamesh is depressed by the turn of events, after which he sets out in search of the Utnapishtum: believed to have the gift of immortality. After a long odyssey, the king finally meets Utnapishtim, after which he tells of his desire to attain immortality. He is told of a certain plant at the bottom of the ocean that can restore a person’s youth (Kovacs 11). Gilgamesh manages to get the plant though it is stolen by a serpent on his way back. He returns to his city frustrated though he is impressed to be his legacy as the king.

In most literary works that involve the interactions between human beings and gods, gods are rarely given attributes similar to those of human beings. They are usually portrayed not only as higher beings but different motives from that of the normal man. The Epic of Gilgamesh is, however, different in the sense that while the gods interact and interfere with the lives of human beings, they are given almost similar attributes to human beings in terms of their desires, attitudes, and behaviors.

One of the places in the Epic of Gilgamesh where an immortal being behaves more like a mortal man than a deity is when Ishtar falls in love with Gilgamesh on their return from the Cedar forest. In most literary contexts, gods have what can be described as exclusive intimate love affairs among themselves. This is, however, not the case in the poem when Gilgamesh catches the eye of Ishtar, the goddess of war and love. Ishtar is hopelessly in love with the king and after getting rejected, is outraged and convinces her father to release the heaven bull to kill Gilgamesh. In this context, we can see the goddess of war, and love portraying the feelings of a typical human being.

Ishtar’s desire for a romantic relationship and her resultant jealousy after being rejected can be described as attributes of a mortal being. As a deity, Ishtar should have created a being of her own liking that resembled Gilgamesh — having a being that would hide to her personal wishes and desires would have prevented the conflict between her a Gilgamesh. Ishtar would also not have to convince the bull to be released by her father, and as a result, thousands of people at Uruk city would not have died.

A second instance where a god portrays what can be described as human attributes is when Shamash, a sun god, helps Gilgamesh and Enkidu to kill the monster at the Cedar forest. This was a show of empathy from a god, which is uncommon among deities. Deities in most narratives refrain from intervening in human beings’ conflicts unless it directly involves them. We can, therefore, conclude that it was purely out of empathy that Shamash helped Enkidu and Gilgamesh defeat the monster. As a deity, Shamash should have refrained from getting between the fight though this could have adverse implications on both the city and his kingdom.

Lastly, the gods in the epic of Gilgamesh can be described as irrational and easily angered. This is contrary to most narratives, where gods are more stealth in their reactions, wise and omniscient. The irrationality of the gods comes out first, where Ishtar asks her father to release a bull to kill Gilgamesh and Enkidu after getting rejected. She even threatens to resurrect the dead to devour humans. As a deity, Ishtar would have been hesitant after getting rejected by Gilgamesh. As an omniscient being, Ishtar should also have noticed that the bull was not enough to kill both Gilgamesh and Enkidu. She would, as a result, resorted to a more effective means of killing the king that would also be characterized by lesser collateral damage. We can, therefore, conclude that it is from the god’s irrational nature, like mortal human beings, that they are fast to interfere with the affairs of human beings on earth.