Gilgamesh and the Poems - Essay Example

The history of a particular society can, therefore, so perfectly be revealed from the works of literature that are found within the society. Consequently, the literary epics in the Vintage book of contemporary poetry and Gilgamesh bear similar relevance. The authors of these literary works try to bring out various issues that affect societies in the time frames that they focused on within the context which the stories and poems are set. The proceeding part is an evaluative discussion into the thematic concerns in the two literatures.

From the epics of Gilgamesh, one theme that comes out so prominently is religion and beliefs in a supernatural being. The early Mesopotamians, as the book portrays, were people who believed in the existences of a creator; a being they could turn to in times of need. They performed rituals and sacrificed animals in attempts to appease their gods. Their beliefs as captured in the first Sumerian poem reveal that the people then could present to their supreme deity human sacrifices. This would be done in times of great societal need like in instances of drought when the entire community was in great need of rain.

They would sacrifice “a few souls” mostly from slaves and victims of war. In as much as it is not understandable, rain would always fall after the sacrifices and this strengthened their beliefs in their gods. In Gilgamesh, the existence of the gods is also largely covered in the conflict between Gilgamesh’s only companion, Enkedu, resulting into his death. This shows that the people believed in the existence of spirits and could attribute certain occurrences that were hard to explain to the spirits.

Gilgamesh finds it hard to explain the death of his friend and so the author tries to convince the reader that the death was caused by the Bull god. Intercommunity conflicts are another thematic concerns brought out in the narration. This is a theme that is so adversely covered in the book Gilgamesh and in the short poems. There existed large scale trade in slavery which portrays the severance of the human conflicts that existed then; the weak and those who were not considered worthy, may be from having lots of debts that they could not have paid, would be sold to those who could afford where the indebted persons would serve as slaves.

Slaves were despised within the social circles. They ran errands and worked in the mines doing hard labor which needed endurance. Some of these slaves would be captured from wars. This shows that there were animosities amongst the middle age communities that lived then. The struggle for superiority was imminent in all aspects of life. Societies would go on fights to defend their territories. The weaker communities would then later be assimilated by the superior ones. This was the way of life then and it so clearly shows how the society had little regard for human values.

Rights and freedom were unheard of. What was right was that said by the rulers or the masters in case one was a slave. From as early as then, there existed the institution of the family. Family ties are themes that the epics of Gilgamesh cover exhaustively. The most basic institution of leadership and authority was the family. The family was headed by a father who also played the role of a patriarch. The woman, who in most cases was a mother, played the role of taking care of the family in the absence of the man and making also taking care of the needs of the man.

The family, as a theme, bears relevance to love and