Gilgamesh and God
The cultures of ancient times were often dominated by the religious system and religious ideology of the populous. Many stories from ancient cultures define how that culture viewed those in power, either secular power such as their king or religious power such as their deity. Often, the two types of authority were combined so that the king was in some way descended or connected to their god or gods. The religious aspect of the Mesopotamian culture had a heavy impact on the way the civilization functioned. Each person was expected to believe in the god or gods of the majority population as well as to have a personal god to whom the individual would dedicate all their actions and to whom they would appeal in all things (Jacobsen 1976,-page 159). The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of a Sumerian king who was so powerful that he angered…...

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Works Cited:

Harris, R. (1997). Gilgamesh: sex, love and the ascent of knowledge. Gilgamesh: a Reader. Ed. J

Maier. Bolchazy-Carducci: Wauconda, Illinois. 79-94.

Jacobson, T. (1976). The Treasure of Darkness: a History of Mesopotamian Religion. Yale.

Mitchell, S. (2004). Gilgamesh: a New English Version. Simon and Schuster: New York, NY.

Gilgamesh
The character Gilgamesh from the Epic of Gilgamesh produced controversies regarding the real character that might have inspired the writer for this epic poem. The historical records that could provide the evidence to sustain the theory that Gilgamesh was a real Sumerian king are scarce. One of the sources to support the theory of a real king is provided by the Sumerian manuscript that is thought to have been created at around 1900 BC that list of Sumerian and Akkadian kings in ancient times. According to this list, Gilgamesh was a king from the Uruk dynasty that gave twelve kings.

Stories about the king Gilgamesh and the ancient city of Uruk have circulated before the actual epic that is translated today was written on the clay tablets that archeologists discovered in the nineteenth century. Historical evidence does not come only from historical records and archaeological sites. Literature can also provide a…...

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Kramer, Samuel Noah. History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History. 3rd Rev. ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981. Questia. Web. 8 Dec. 2009.

Rice, Michael. The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf, C. 5000-323 BC. New York: Routledge, 1994. Questia. Web. 8 Dec. 2009.

George, Andrew. The epic of Gilgamesh: the Babylonian epic poem and other texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. Penguin Classics, 2003

Whereas the perception and description of Gilgamesh changed from rash individualism to a more hesitant and socially conscious figure, the perception of Odysseus -- along with the other Greek heroes -- changed from the rather unflattering view that historical records took of him and became a more important individual with great heroic qualities. This reflects the differences both in the societies and the times and situations that produced both the standardized Epic of Gilgamesh and Homer's the Iliad; the former celebrated the growing social consciousness of its hero, and the latter celebrated the greater individual achievements as a way of singling out individuals.
There are also some qualities of heroism that are common to Odysseus and Gilgamesh in most of the accounts regarding them. According to renowned historian Will Durant, the basic standards of male heroism during the hunting stage and in early civilizations were "acquisitiveness, pugnacity, and ready sexuality"…...

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References

Durant, Will. (2003) Heroes of history. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Epic of Gilgamesh. Accessed 6 March 2009.  http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/ 

George, a. (1999). The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York: Penguin.

Herodotus. The history of Herodotus, George Rawlinson, trans. Excerpted in Understanding the Odyssey. Westport: Greenwood Publishing, 2003.

184-98). Nonetheless, the reason for the flood is never ultimately elucidated, and even the gods themselves admit that whatever the original reason, flooding the entire world was probably an overreaction. Thus, Enlil's granting of immortality to Utanapishtim may be seen as the recompense he must pay for having caused so much destruction; having taken the lives of most of humanity, Enlil must now give the remaining representatives of humanity, Utanapishtim and his wife, eternal life. At the same time that the story is lowering the status of the gods by including the scene of Enlil's humiliation, the narrative uses Gilgamesh's inability to attain immortality, either through divine intervention or the plant recommended by Utanapishtim, as a means of actually highlighting human's ability to remain nonetheless. Though Gilgamesh is thwarted in his attempts to live forever, he is ultimately comforted by the city of Uruk, instructing Ur-Shanabi to walk through the…...

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Works Cited

Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet XI. trans. Benjamin Foster. Lawall, Sarah N., ed. Norton

Anthology of Western Literature. 8. 1. New York, NY W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.

Print. pp. 18-25

Genesis 6-9. trans. Robert Alter. Lawall, Sarah N., ed. Norton Anthology of Western Literature.

In the Old Testament, Eden appears as a lush tropical rainforest full of fruit and life. In other words, it is presented as an image of perfection. In the Old Testament, the character of Cain is said to have a mark on him. This mark signifies his breaking of the covenant with God by committing the first murder. In the story of Job, Job suffers by losing everything, from food to family. The purpose of this suffering is to test Job's love and trust in God.
The Odyssey: The events that are of most importance in the Odyssey are the travels of Odysseus and his reestablishment as the rightful ruler. This theme of Odysseus takes up where the Iliad left off and thus completes the tale of Odysseus' journey in war, his battle back home, and his eventual homecoming. The fact that the women in Homer's works often play a…...

Similar to many other initiation myths, Gilgamesh has to overcome obstacles such as the scorpion monsters that bar his way.
The intense desire that Gilgamesh has to find the answer to eternal life is shown in the poem by the fact that he rejects the advice of Siduri to accept the limitations of the human condition. He also has to travel over the Waters of Death. When he meets Utnapishtim he is told the story of the flood and the decision of the gods to destroy mankind, and how Utnapishtim obtained everlasting life.

Utnapishtim makes Gilgamesh undergo certain tests in order to obtain the gift of immortality. However Gilgamesh fails the test to stay awake for a week. As he is departing, Utnapishtim's wife persuades her husband to tell Gilgamesh about a certain plant that restores youth. Gilgamesh takes the plant with him to share with others in Uruk. However this…...

It is obvious that there had been little materials available for the two characters to use at the time in order for them to glue their boats.
The fact that Noah and Utnapishtim take their families and their livestock to their boats with them is not surprising, since it is the first thing that a person in their position would be expected to do in case of a flood. Noah proves to be gentler than Utnapishtim, as he does not want his neighbors to perish as a result of the flood. The Babylonian character apparently is more practical, as he also takes a pilot and several skilled workers on his boat.

In spite of the fact that Noah and Utnapishtim have their boats rest on top of mountains at the ending of the flood, the two boats do not rest on top of the same mountain. hile the Biblical Flood refers…...

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Works cited:

1. Dunn, James D.G. Rogerson, John William. (2003). "Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible." Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

Dunn, James D.G. Rogerson, John William. (2003). "Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible." Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

At length, Anu releases the Bull of Heaven and Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight it as they have every other obstacle that has come their way. The hero and his friend represent the power of brute strength in taming wild nature. The Bull is "nature" at its worst, destructive and terrible. As the Bull was brought into being at Ishtar's behest, it is clear, once again, that she stands for the unbridled passions that lurk beneath the surface of cultured society. Gilgamesh and Enkidu attack the Bull as they would any dangerous animal:

After they had killed the bull they tore out his heart.

They set it before Shamash.

They withdrew and worshipped Shamash.

They sat down, blood-brothers, the two of them.

VI.v.153-156

The heart symbolizes the seat of passion and of the soul. The Bull is not merely killed in the physical sense - it is dismembered and deprived of the spirit that empowers it. By…...

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Works Cited

Gardner and Maier. NEED FULL CITATION.

A www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5006656993

Jones, Philip. "Embracing Inana: Legitimation and Mediation in the Ancient Mesopotamian Sacred Marriage Hymn Iddin-Dagan a." The Journal of the American Oriental Society 123.2 (2003): 291+.

A www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5006656993

Gilgamesh epic, 2000 B.C., is a work of three thousand lines, written on twelve tablets that was discovered amid the ruins of Nineveh and relates the adventures of the imperious Glgamesh and his friend Enkidu (Gilgamesh pp). The extraordinary essence of the poem lies not only in its antiquity but also in the quality of the writing and the comprehension of humanity (Jager pp).
The Gilgamesh Epic, the first epic bequeathed to history that antedates the Iliad and the Odyssey by more than a millennium, is of superb literary quality, and "the philosophical intricacy and the psychological depth" of this ancient work is truly remarkable and unequaled in quality and depth (Jager pp). Bernd Jager explains that unlike the gradual developments in other cultural endeavors such as pottery and weaving, "poetry seems to have sprung to life complete in all respects ... Even the oldest fragments of the Gilgamesh poem are…...

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Work Cited

Castillo, Jorge Silva. "Isdi mati, The Foundations Of The Earth?"

The Journal of the American Oriental Society; 1/1/2001; pp.

Miller, John J. "The world's first story." New Criterion; 10/1/2004; pp.

Westling, Louise. "Women, landscape and the legacy of Gilgamesh in 'Absalom,

This is quite valuable in his culture, because he is a leader to his people, and he is leading them to a new home, but to a new faith as well. Defying Satan shows that he is a man to be reckoned with, and a man to follow. Both men are strong, capable leaders and good men, but one believes in God, and the other believes in many gods, which may be the biggest difference between them. Gilgamesh, on the other hand, is a king, and his powers seem to come more from himself and the Gods of his time, helping him defeat evil monsters, much like Moses can turn away Satan. This is also valuable in his culture, because Gilgamesh lived long before Moses, and his culture worshipped many gods and believed in many monster beings - they needed a leader they believed could keep them in harmony…...

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References

The Epic of Gilgamesh. Trans. Kovacs, Maureen Gallery. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989.

The Bible. Old Testament.

Gilgamesh
The story of Gilgamesh is one of the first epic poems ever written. Not surprisingly, it parallels a number of other creation myths, particularly in its references to a great flood which cleansed the earth. Such a flood can be found not only in the Sumarian and Babylonian tradition in which Gilgamesh was composed, but also in various Chinese and Indian (from the country of India, not Native Americans) creation myths as well.

It is fairly obvious that the flood story chronicled in Gilgamesh bears a striking number of similarities to the flood story told within the Bible in the Book of Genesis. In this latter tale, Noah is told by God that due to the wickedness taking place throughout the earth, he is going to destroy the entire world and everything in it to make way for a new race of people -- except for Noah and his family. In…...

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Works Cited

Anonymous. The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York: Penguin Classics. 1960. Print.

Anonymous. The Book of Genesis. www.biblegateway.com. No date. Web.  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+1&version=NIV

However, the Egyptians worshipped many Gods, all of which ruled the earth and determined man's fate and destiny. According to Don Nardo, the Egyptians appreciated "the goodness of order (and) justice... embodied in the movement of the god e (which) regulated Egyptian lives" (2002, p. 129).
Definitions of Justice:

For the Hebrews, justice was solely in the hands of God and could be meted out only according to His laws and commandments. For the Mesopotamians, justice was determined by the Kings of the land, such as Sargon, and was defined by the Code of Hammurabi which listed penalties for certain crimes which formed the basis of justice for the Mesopotamian people. For the Egyptians, justice was solely determined by the Pharaoh who sought guidance from the Gods in order to convey what was just and unjust. Basically, all of these civilizations defined justice as that which pleased the Gods.

Human Nature:

The Hebrews…...

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References

Mitchell, Stephen. (2004). Gligamesh: A New English Version. New York: The Free Press.

Nardo, Don. (2002). Ancient Civilizations: Volume 1. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.

" (97). However, as both Utnapishtim and Siduri (the tavern keeper Gilgamesh meets on his journey) stress, and Gilgamesh eventually embraces "death is inevitable…" (107-108). "When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping. As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man." ([OBV] 151). So, to look for immortality in life is to waste life entirely.
When Gilgamesh asks Utnapishtim, at the ends of the Earth, for the secret to eternal life, Utnapishtim explains to Gilgamesh that from the days of old there is no permanence. But he reveals the mystery of his own…...

Gilgamesh the King
Gilgamesh is properly the oldest written and most widely read ancient stories. The man, his desires and achievements have been discussed several times by several different authors, thereby immortalizing the king. Interestingly this was what the king had always dreamed of- to become immortal and his quest for a life devoid of death turned him into a more considerate, compassionate and just ruler. In this paper we shall therefore discuss Gilgamesh's quest for immortality and whether or not he finally managed achieve it.

Background of Gilgamesh's quest

Gilgamesh was not born with a desire to live forever but one major event turned his life upside down generating in him an intense fear of death. Being a god-like figure, Gilgamesh was widely feared because of his despotic and rather ruthless style of governing the country. He was king of Uruk and was born to a mortal and a goddess, which accounted…...

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Once he accepts the truth about life and death, Gilgamesh give sup his old ways and instead starts ruling with compassion and kindness. We must understand that one part of Gilgamesh's was not human and thus while his human side had to die, his god-like side was indeed immortal. But one person cannot be expected to die as well as live forever. Therefore we notice that while the physical side of Gilgamesh was meant to die, his spiritual side was destined to remain immortal. Gilgamesh attains this kind of immorality through his virtues and compassion. It is because of Gilgamesh's spiritual immortality that he is still one of the most widely talked and written about figures in the world.

REFERENCE

Kirk, G.S. Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures. Cambridge U.P. And California U.P., 1970

Things Fall Apart and Gilgamesh
Despite being conceived and written during distinctly different eras in human history, both Chinua Achebe's modern indictment of colonial conquest in Africa Things Fall Apart, and the anonymously authored tale of legendary heroism The Epic of Gilgamesh share the common thread of a protagonist struggling to reconcile personal expectations with the rapidly changing world around him. One of the earliest known surviving examples of ancient literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the sprawling story of a hero-king reigning over the land of Uruk, using a beautifully poetic structure and style to tell of Gilgamesh and his tempestuous style of rule. The narrative structure of Things Fall Apart centers on Okonkwo, the respected leader of his small Umuofia clan during a time of intense cultural upheaval, who struggles to maintain his sense of authority, and ultimately his people's very identity. hile the characters of Gilgamesh and Okonkwo…...

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Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann Press, 1958. Print.

Anonymous. The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian

and Sumerian. Trans. Andrew George. London: Penguin, 1999. Print.

Franklin, Ruth. "After Empire: Chinua Achebe and the great African novel." New Yorker. May 26, 2008: Print.

Oral Tradition: The Ancient Roots of Storytelling

Literature has its primordial origins in the spoken word, as stories were passed down through generations of oral tradition. This rich tapestry of storytelling served as a means of cultural preservation, historical documentation, and moral instruction.

In ancient civilizations, storytellers known as bards, rhapsodes, or griots played a pivotal role in transmitting cultural narratives. They memorized and recited epics, myths, and legends, weaving them into elaborate performances that captivated their audiences.

The oral tradition allowed for stories to evolve and adapt with each telling, as performers embellished them with personal experiences, local customs, and the prevailing....

1. Gilgamesh and Odysseus: Examining Heroic Journeys Through the Lens of Ancient Epics

2. The Heroic Quests of Gilgamesh and Odysseus: A Comparative Analysis

3. The Journey of the Soul: Exploring the Spiritual Transformation of Gilgamesh and Odysseus

4. Epic Heroes in Contrast: Gilgamesh and Odysseus as Archetypal Figures

5. Gilgamesh and Odysseus: Lessons in Leadership and Heroism

6. The Role of Women in Gilgamesh and The Odyssey: A Comparative Study of Ishtar and Penelope

7. Gilgamesh and Odysseus: The Pursuit of Immortality and its Consequences

8. The Human Condition in Ancient Epics: Gilgamesh and Odysseus' Search for Meaning

9. The Representation of Gods and Goddesses in Gilgamesh....

Gilgamesh and the Quest for Immortality in Epic Poetry

Immortality has captivated human imagination since time immemorial. The enduring epics of ancient civilizations often explore this tantalizing concept, with protagonists embarking on arduous quests to attain eternal life. Among these literary masterpieces, two stand out: "The Epic of Gilgamesh" from Mesopotamia and "The Odyssey" from Greece. While both feature protagonists with extraordinary journeys, only one is driven by an unyielding desire for immortality: Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh: The Mortal King with Immortal Dreams

"The Epic of Gilgamesh," composed around 2150 BCE, narrates the extraordinary life of Gilgamesh, a legendary king of Uruk. Gilgamesh is portrayed....