Epic of Gilgamesh: The Review - Essay Example

Compared to the protagonists of Greek mythology, the main character of The Epic of Gilgamesh is a real historical person. He was a Sumerian King of Uruk during 200 B.C. The later generations of Sumerians worshipped Gilgamesh as a hero of wisdom and justice. One prayer even retells him as a judge of the gods of the underworld. His city was part of the major Mesopotamian cities that had walls according to archaeologists. Nowadays the place is a ruins located near Warka, a town in Southern Iraq that was also near Baghdad.

Some archaeologists believed that the ruins had the tom of Gilgamesh but exploration stopped when the war broke out in Iraq. Many stories about Gilgamesh were created throughout history in the ancient Middle East. The texts were inscribed on clay tablets in various languages like Sumerian, Elamite, Hittite and Hurrian. The last king Of Assyrian Empire was responsible for archiving the long version of the epic. After the fall of the empire, the fame of the epic died down. The fame of the epic was revived during the Victorian era when Austen Henry Layard found the broken tablets from Nineveh.

The translation then began by Henry Rawlinson and the epic was then retold in English. The popularity grew as the epic had some similarities with the story of Noah from the Bible. Scientists believed that the melting ice during the time the epic was written, the Mediterranean overflow and the survivors went to various places (Hughes 33-35). The uniqueness of the epic is it retells a story of a once living person in a colorful and fantastic way for people of all ages to love. In the story, Gilgamesh pursued an adventure for immortality as he searched for answers about the meaning of his life as the story would be elaborated on the next paragraph.

The prelude introduces Gilgamesh as the king of Uruk who was also a two-thirds god and one-third human being. His manly appearance seemed perfect and his wise mind seemed to be on the level of the gods. He constructed enormous buildings and temples using cruel treatment on his workers. He even raped the women that he liked to harass. The gods heard the plea of the slaves and they made the man of the wild named Enkidu. He was in the same level of abilities and appearance as Gilgamesh. The two became friends after Enkidu fought against the oppression of Gilgamesh.

Enkidu was lucky enough as a hunter saw him with the animals in the wild and the hunter sent a temple harlot. The harlot taught Enkidu the way of the man through sex as ancient beliefs equate women and sex to civilization and pacifiers of men. The two enemies turned friends and decided to rob a faraway cedar forest. Since that place was forbidden for mortals, a demon called Humbaba was guarding it and the two killed the demon guard. The sun god named Shamash helped them in that quest. After getting the lumber of the forbidden trees, they went back to Uruk where the goddess of love Ishtar lusted for Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh rejected her and out of anger, Ishtar sought the help of her father, the God of sky called Anu. Anu sent the Bull of Heaven down to earth bringing seven years of suffering. Gilgamesh killed the bull with the assistance of Enkidu. The gods then decided to punish one of the two men for being aggressive. They chose to punish Enkidu through a contagious disease. Gilgamesh lamented for the death of his companion. Later on he preferred a wild life like that