Ancient World Writing Assignment - Essay Example

Ancient World Writing Assignment One of the most celebrated literary genres in world literature, an epic, is concerned with various themes such as myths, heroic legends, histories, etc of human history and it aims at enlightening upon religious stories and philosophies. An epic, as a literary genre, refers to comprehensive narrative poem which is written in an elevated or dignified language and it mainly deals with the feats of a legendary hero who frequently looks for immortality. It is the oldest form of poetry known in literature and has remained one of the most popular literary genres since the early days of Greek and Latin literature.

Some of the most essential features of the epic genre, as Kevin Sean Whetter (2008) explains, include an elevated style, a narrative of some length on a great and serious subject, the invocation of the subject or the Muse or both, the marvelous action or vast arena, the role of the gods or the supernatural, the treatment of the theme of vengeance, honor and glory, and especially the focus on heroic or semi-divine figure (Whetter 2008, p. 52). The Epic of Gilgamesh (second millennium B.C.) is a celebrated example of the literary genre of epic as it illustrates the most essential characteristics of an epic as a literary genre.

In a reflective analysis of the Epic of Gilgamesh, it becomes overtly evident that the work fits into the literary genre of an epic as it meets all the essential characteristics of the literary genre. Thus, this epic work in the form of a long narrative poem deals with an epic hero who searches for immortality and the assistance or involvement of gods can be traced in the work. As Richard Mathews maintains, “the narrative establishes many motifs and archetypes which recur in the Bible and in the Greek epics.

” (Mathews 2002, p. 7). As he explains, the epic hero Gilgamesh is presented as the wandering hero or king who quests for immortality. Some of the archetypes defining the characteristics of the epic genre include the wandering hero, the unlikely copanion, the combination of king and savage, the elemental adventures of the hero who faces challenges of earh, air, fire, and water, the conquest of a fire-breathing monster, and the hero’s disenchanted quest for immortality. (Mathews 2002, p. 7).

Obviously, the Epic of Gilgamesh is called an “epic” in the tradition of the Greek Iliad or the medieval Beowulf because shows all the characteristic features of an epic genre (Harris 2001, p. xiii). Genesis, the first book of the Bible, is another work which can be compared to the Epic of Gilgamesh in that both of them clearly bring about some of the major traits of epic. As John Frow (2006) argues, using the concept of prototype, one can well classify the Epic of Gilgamesh with religious narratives such as biblical Genesis (Frow 2006, p. 54). According to Donald K.

Sharpes (2005), there are a minimum of twelve similarities between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis and both of them clearly illustrate the various feature or traits of epic genre (Sharpes 2005, p. 89). The myth of a god mixing his own flesh and bleed with clay to make a man and breathing a spirit into it to give life is clearly celebrated in the epic of the Genesis and it has obvious reference to the myth of Enkidu, a god-like person formed of clay. In short, it is essential to maintain that both the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis clearly bring out some of the critical characteristics of the epic genre.

BibliographySharpes, Donald K. Lords of the Scrolls: Literary Traditions in the Bible and Gospels. New York: Peter Lang., 2005.Frow, John. Genre. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2006.Harris, John. The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Prose Rendition Based Upon the Original Akkadian, Babylonian, Hittite and Sumerian Tablets. New York: iUniverse, 2001.Whetter, Kevin Sean. Understanding Genre and Medieval Romance. New York: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008.Mathews, Richard. Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination.

London: Routledge, 2002.