“Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom though failures. We get very little wisdom from success you know”, said by William Sacoyan is a very important quote. This quote is a true statement since it means that a person learns from his or her mistakes. To be old and wise a person must first be young and foolish. They must fail so they can learn. This quote is valid since it has taught millions of people that as you grow you learn and even become stronger from mistakes. In both Giligamesh and Oedipus Rex a reader can bridge ideas together that go along with the theme of good people having bad things happen to them. Giligamesh is an epic poem, whose author is unknown. This epic poem …show more content…
Giligamesh and Oedipus don’t look the same or think the same, but the two of them are very similar in many ways. Both heroes can be seen as brave individuals, but as I read both passages my opinion is that Giligamesh was a braver and more heroic character. Giligamesh always seemed to push himself to the extreme and always could be found in a dangerous situation. Unfortunately both of these characters are extremely cocky and self righteous. In the began of the epic poem the reader may notice that Giligamesh is a very authoritative and overbearing ruler, he looks highly on himself and is seen as an unfair King. However the reader may see the opposite happen in Oedipus Rex, it is very noticeable that Oedipus goes from starting off as a good person who’s intentions are well change to a tyrannical leader who lets his hubris attitude take over. Another similarity found in both passages is the fact that both have tragic outcomes. Oedipus’s outcome is way more worse, then Giligamesh’s outcome, since Oedipus ends up having children with his mother and he kills his own father. Although both works share many similarities, they have just as many differences. The main difference is that an epic hero, like Giligamesh, makes the journey and success throughout the story, where in a tragic hero, like Oedipus, doesn’t success and tries to run from his problems. Another difference is that Giligamesh didnt have a tragic flaw were Oedipus did. Also one writing was about a person who was a victim of there own fate were the other writing was about a person enteral responsibility for his own sake and
Gilgamesh and Odysseus are two heroes from two different time periods that were both in search of the meaning of life. The epics that the two characters are featured in Gilgamesh, was developed from early Mesopotamia and the Odyssey in early Greece. Gilgamesh was a very popular and it was very valuable to the historian of Mesopotamian culture because it reveals much about the religious world, such as their attitudes toward the gods, how a hero was defined and regarded, views about death and friendship.
The choir represents the voice of the people, the voice of the masses. People often conform to this uniform truth, they want to be like other people. This conformation leads to a uniform voice from the public. This voice is often ignorant to the truth, seemingly to the point that it creates its own truth.
Oedipus as the Hero Archetype. The character Oedipus in Sophocles' Oedipus the King follows a literary pattern known as the hero archetype. The hero archetype is a pattern involved in transformation and redemption. Manifested in three stages called the quest, the initiation, and the sacrifice, Oedipus is transformed from the redeemer of the city to the cause of its downfall.
'No two men are alike in the way they act, the way they think, or the way they look. However, every man has a little something from the other. Although Oedipus and Gilgamesh are entirely different people, they are still very similar. Each one, in their own way, is exceptionally brave, heroically tragic, and both encompass diverse strengths and weaknesses. One is strictly a victim of fate and the other is entirely responsible for his own plight.
... and he succeeded. His lack of self-discipline did not hurt his character, for he won each battle, and his people viewed him as a hero. In contrast, Odysseus at times did not show restraint and was punished for his actions. He only succeeded when he was able to hold back his raging emotions and wait for the time to strike. For this, Odysseus was praised as a leader and hero. Homer and the author of Gilgamesh both tell wonderful stories of adventure and conquest, but their stories also reflect the societies in which each lived. Regardless of the fact that Gilgamesh and Odysseus gained character in opposite ways, both societies in which they lived recognized their accomplishments and how they were achieved. Both societies accepted Odysseus and Gilgamesh as great heroes, and Homer and the author of Gilgamesh were successful in creating such developed characters.
The ancient Greeks were fond believers of Fate. Fate, defined according to Webster’s, is “the principle or determining cause or will by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as the do.” The Greeks take on Fate was slightly modified. They believed that the gods determined Fate: “…fate, to which in a mysterious way the gods themselves were subject, was an impersonal force decreeing ultimate things only, and unconcerned with day by day affairs.” It was thought that these gods worked in subtle ways; this accounts for character flaws (called harmatia in Greek). Ancient Greeks thought the gods would alter a person’s character, in order for that person to suffer (or gain from) the appropriate outcome. Such was the case in Oedipus’s story.
The idea of fate has baffled mankind for centuries. Can humans control what happens to them, or is everyone placed in a predestined world designed by a higher power? The Epic of Gilgamesh and Oedipus The King highlight on the notion that no matter what, people cannot control what is destined to occur. Interestingly enough, many other distantly connected cultures had, and have similar gods or goddesses who play a role in the fate of individuals. Oedipus, King of Thebes, was told by the Oracle at Delphi that he would one day kill his father and marry his mother. Determined not to let this prophecy verify his fears, Oedipus does all in his power to prevent this from happening, yet fails. Similarly, Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, attempts to obtain immortality, but fails as well. Gilgamesh's and Oedipus's intense fear and ignorance cause them to try to interfere with their fates, leading to their failures and realization of the futility of trying to control destiny.
Of all the many similarities of The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey, the sharing of the main character’s archetype can be considered to be the most significant similarity of the two epics. Odysseus, the main character of The Odyssey, and Gilgamesh, the main character of The Epic of Gilgamesh, both fall under the character archetype of a hero, the man in charge of saving the day. This sameness implies that the two characters had similar fates and characteristics; both had the distinct traits of a hero. Both Odysseus and Gilgamesh were kings, strong, brave, and blessed by the gods. In addition, they both angered a god and suffered from the consequences. In The Odyssey, Odysseus had to change his route to avoid Poseidon’s wrath. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh angered Ishtar which consequently led to Enkidu’s death as a punishment ( “The Epic of Gilgamesh” 29). Both Gilgamesh and Odysseus had elements of arrogance in their personalities, and it was their arrogance that backlashed and caused...
Oedipus is a hero, as defined by Johnston. According to Johnston, ‘a hero is someone who confronts fate in a very personal manner and whose reaction to that encounter serves to illuminate for us our own particular condition’ (Johnston, Part 2). Oedipus definitely confronts fate in a personal manner. Among other things, he challenges the mysterious qualities of fate by pursuing the Shepherd despite warnings from Jocasta (Sophocles, 71). Oedipus follows through on confronting fate with his individual approach of uncompromising persistence and integrity (Johnston, Part 3). Even at the end of his downfall, Oedipus maintains that Kreon should banish him and that he must obey the curses he himself ordered for the murderer of King Laios (Sophocles, 89-90). Despite being so broken and publicly shamed, Oedipus still persists with his former way of interacting with fate : noble defiance (Johnston, Part 3). Although this quality itself is admirable, Oedipus takes uncompromising to the extreme, losing insight on everything else. Oedipus becomes ignorant to his surroundings, leading to his downfall (Johnston, Part 3). Oedipus’ story also challenges the fundamental belief that life should be rational and just. (Johnston, Part 3) His story illuminates that fate is arbitrarily cruel and will sometimes pick the gre...
Oedipus’ pride, strung from his own heroic qualities, is one factor that ruined him. A hero prizes above all else his honor and the excellence of his life. When his honor is at stake, all other considerations become irrelevant. The hero "valued strength and skill, courage and determination, for these attributes enabled the person who possessed them to achieve glory and honor, both in his lifetime and after he died" (Rosenburg 38). Oedipus was certainly a hero who was exceptionally intelligent though one can argue that killing four men at Phokis single-handedly more than qualified him as a physical force of reckoning. He obviously knew his heroic status when he greeted the supplicating citizens of Thebes before the palace doors saying, "I would not have you speak through messengers, and therefore I have come myself to hear you - I, Oedipus, who bear the famous name"(Sophocles 1088). Oedipus is "guilty of Hubris- that is, that he is too sure of himself, too confident in his own powers [and] a little undermindful of the gods" (Brooks 573).
When two people are so much alike yet so different, it makes a comparison of Gilgamesh and Odysseus an interesting subject. Both the stories of “Gilgamesh” and “The Odyssey” show that the characters were successful warriors with many adventures to be told. Gilgamesh and Odysseus are human with many god-like qualities. Their perception of immortality, as well as regard for death and the influences of the gods in their lives and adventures, are similar; however, the characters have many differences.
Here is a story where Oedipus the King, who has accomplished great things in his life, discovers that the gods were only playing with him. He has everything a man of that time could want; he is king of Thebes, he has a wonderful wife and children, and great fame through out the lands. He has lived a good life, but in the end everything is taken from him.
According to Aristotle, a tragedy must be an imitation of life in the form of a serious story that is complete in itself among many other things. Oedipus is often portrayed as the perfect example of what a tragedy should be in terms of Aristotle’s Poetics. Reason being that Oedipus seems to include correctly all of the concepts that Aristotle describes as inherent to dramatic tragedy. These elements include: the importance of plot, reversal and recognition, unity of time, the cathartic purging and evocation of pity and fear, the presence of a fatal flaw in the “hero”, and the use of law of probability.
Greek Drama had three main categories The Comedy, Satyr Plays, and The Tragedy. The most popular of the three is The Tragedy, its themes are often such as loss of love, complex relationships between men and the gods, and corruption of power. These dramas taught the people of the city the difference between good and bad behavior and the ramifications of going against the gods. According to Aristotle, the perfect tragedy consisted of the downfall of the hero through a great misunderstanding, causing suffering and awareness for the protagonist meanwhile making the audience feel pity and fear. The prominent writer who Aristotle based his perfect tragedy theory was Sophocles, his drama Oedipus the King had all the elements of a perfect tragedy.
Oedipus is depicted as a “marionette in the hands of a daemonic power”(pg150), but like all tragic hero’s he fights and struggles against fate even when the odds are against him. His most tragic flaw is his morality, as he struggles between the good and the evil of his life. The good is that he was pitied by the Shepard who saved him from death as a baby. The evil is his fate, where he is to kill his father and marry his mother. His hubris or excessive pride and self-righteousness are the lead causes to his downfall. Oedipus is a tragic hero who suffers the consequences of his immoral actions, and must learn from these mistakes. This Aristotelian theory of tragedy exists today, as an example of what happens when men and women that fall from high positions politically and socially.