Females in both texts, Gilgamesh and Genesis/Exodus, are not talked about very much at all and I think that in its self says a lot. When women are brought up they are either being used or doing something great. Even though they are only talked about a few times, when they actually are talked about it makes an impact on the story. Women are put into this story to make a difference to one of the other characters in the story.
First in Gilgamesh women are really only talked about when Gilgamesh or Enkidu are using them for sexual interactions. In the beginning Gilgamesh would go around and just do whatever he wanted to the women in his city. He was disrespecting them and not caring about them in anyway what so ever. Another thing that added to the disrespect of women was when Enkidu was introduced to Shamhat (12). In the story she was
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with him for seven days while he did whatever he wanted to her. This shows that the women were just objects to Gilgamesh and Enkidu and nothing more. Then later on in the story women are portrayed in a better light than before. There is a woman, by the name of Shiduri, who helps Gilgamesh in wanting to become immortal and tries to snap him out of the funk he is in after Enkidu dies (76). She gives him great advice and tries to point him in the right direction, but he doesn’t take it. She is the one who knows how Gilgamesh can become immortal and when he doesn’t take he fails. She holds his future in her hands and this then shows women and being more powerful, which is nothing like earlier in the story. Shiduri is trying to help Gilgamesh, and since she is a woman he doesn’t really listen to her and ends up failing this journey to become immortal. Also unlike no other women in this story she knows more than the man and that is never portrayed anywhere else in this story. During this epic women are both portrayed as being submissive and also showing greatness, for example Shamhat, who just didn’t really say much and was just for Enkidu’s pleasure. Then you had Shiduri who did not need Gilgamesh in any way, but in actuality he needed her and didn’t even know it. These two examples don’t really give us a layout of the culture of women in this period, but you can get a feel of what people thought about the women. One of the main things is that the women in the story were just there to help the men out, just like in the above examples. That also says a lot because why are women only put into this story to help men out? The agenda of this text was to show Gilgamesh’s journey to find immortality, the people he met along the way and their contribution to that. Second in Genesis and Exodus woman are talked about a little more than in Gilgamesh, but for a lot of the wrong reasons.
Women were just there to serve their husbands in anyway the men wanted. The first example was in the second creation story God only created man and then realized he needed a helper and then he created a woman with a rib from the man (2). It is saying that women were only really created to help and support men, also its implying that the man helped make the women so he gets control over her. In Genesis 3:16 God says to eve, “your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you,” she ate from the tree so he is punishing her (3). Women were just objects for the men to control, but then in the first creation story God created men and women equally (1). He created them together and to worship the land and populate it. So the two creation stories contradict each other because one the women are equal and in the other story they are completely separate. It gives two different outlooks on the way women were portrayed, but throughout the story they are portrayed more like the second creation story than the
first. The fact that women for the most part are portrayed as servants to their husbands shows that back then that’s all that they could be. Women were put on the back burner so the men could shine and be the most powerful. The agenda of this text is to show that God is all mighty and powerful and that he wants men to be able to carry his word all around. During the stories God always propositions men, Noah, Abraham, Adam, just to name a few, and he never comes to a women and tells them to do something. That kind of makes me think that in the story they want people to think that back then women were not capable of doing the lords work. They are just to be property of the men and nothing more. That really shows in both stories, just in their own unique way. They way that the women are presented makes the men stand out more because there is no one fighting them for the spotlight, lets call it. There was never any completion between the two genders because God never really gave them the opportunity. More in Genesis and Exodus than Gilgamesh, but it was still pretty present in both stories. If women never have the opportunity to compete with the men, then they never have to chance to prove that they might actually be better at something than some men. In Gilgamesh women were seen, as less so when Shiduri tries to help Gilgamesh out he doesn’t listen because of that exact reason. Maybe if women played a bigger role back in this story he could of realized that she could be right and she actually knew how to help him out and maybe he could have become immortal. Since she was a woman he didn’t see her as someone who could be helpful, so he just ignored her. In todays societies men and women are competing for the same things and are give the same opportunities. In most societies in America women aren’t forced to do things that they don’t want to. Men can’t go around and force anyone to do anything they don’t want to, legally anyways. Women today aren’t just objects for men to push around. There are a lot of differences in today’s society than back then, but then there are also similarities, which we won’t really get into.
However, when reading the Iliad, there is a shock factor of how some of the men weren’t as kindly receptive to the influences of women as Enkidu was. Enkidu treasured Shamhat, but Agamemnon treated Chryseis and Briseis as mere objects of pleasure. Chryses was influenced by Chyseis’, his daughter’s, capture to call on Apollo, the health god, to place a deadly plague over the Greeks. This resulted in Achilles confronting Agamemnon who reluctantly stated, “Still, I’ll give her back, if that’s what’s best. / I don’t want to see the army destroyed like this. /
As human beings, we are designed to belive in something. Although the belief in a higher power or religion is diverse, many theologies share common themes. “The Epic of Gilgamesh” and the Hebrew book of “Genesis” are seemingly polar opposites. Christianity, demonstrated in Genesis, is monotheistic, and the Hebrews base their faith on their relationship with God. On the other hand, Sumerian philosophy, found in Gilgamesh, is polytheistic, and the Sumerian people base their theology on fear. Ancient polytheistic literature forms an archetypical pattern of the mortals trying desperately to please the gods. A mortal’s entire existence rests in the hands of the sometimes childish gods. In spite of this, these two stories
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender plays a very significant role. While women were not the most powerful gods nor the strongest or wisest of humans, they still had tremendous influence. Though the main characters of the story, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, are male, women did not play a necessarily minor role. With all the women that play a role in the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender is a topic worthy of discussion.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a story of Gilgamesh, a man who was two-thirds god that was saved by companionship. Gilgamesh was a cruel and careless king, who spent his time raping women, exhausting citizens, and conquering foes and foreign lands until he met, fought and was guided by his great friend and soul mate, Enkidu. With the help of Enkidu and his influence, he learned compassion as well as wisdom and integrity, and eventually Gilgamesh became a great and fair king. Though the story focuses mainly on Gilgamesh and his friendship with Enkidu, there are several roles played by women that help to make and move the story along. Without these important women who show great strength and feminine qualities despite being oppressed by the patriarchy, Gilgamesh would not have been the great king he was meant to be.
Both, The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey are a balance of the male and feminine principles. It is the prostitute that brings humanity to Enkidu and it is Athena that shields Odysseus from all harm and brings him safely back to Ithaca. The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey take place in a rigid patriarchal society, but both epics reveal the hidden workings of the feminine figure throughout journey. Perfectly said: “ . . . the initiatory journey of the hero,
The struggle for women to play an important role in history can be traced from the ancient Mesopotamians to the 1900’s. There has been a continuous battle for women to gain equal rights and to be treated equally in all aspects of life. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest recorded account of the roles of women and their importance in a functional society. Women have been viewed as anything from goddesses to unwanted servants throughout history, regardless of a variety of changes in rulers, religions, and simply time periods. The Epic of Gilgamesh might lead one to consider the roles of women a small and insignificant part compared to the man's role.
They were women of God, and they were very important in the development of Gods image, and well as playing significant roles in Jesus’ life and mission. Women contributed to the movement, and the experienced belonging to his community just as much as the men. However, some may view the presence of women in the bible as a negative thing. Elizabeth Cady Scanton said that the bible can be used to exclude women from the public sphere. The Bible promotes marriage and childbirth as the most important things for a woman to do, as these things would make the woman stay home and create a better environment for her husband. The images of women in the bible, however, can help women connect to God more intimately and see themselves as an image of God. Women were included in the first followers of Jesus, and he treated them as equals.Women were seen as ministers, opened their home to the less fortunate, and even witnessed Jesus’ resurrection. Since it’s beginning, women had roles of power in Christianity. Women gave birth to the men of the Lord, but only if they were women of the
Gilgamesh thinks he has the right to rape young women on their wedding night. He "leaves no virgin to her husband." He violates those women's rights to their virginity. He also takes robs them of their dignity. They are supposed to lose their virginity to their husband's on the night of their marriage. These young women did not spend all of their lives saving their virginity to give to Gilgamesh, a terrible man with no remorse for the crimes he commits every day.
In considering the relationship between the meanings of myths and their representation of women, we learned that the major role in shaping the narratives was played by men. Myths reveal to us the experiences of women living in the patriarchal society and we gain the symbol value accorded to women and we come to realize what the term "Woman" meant to the ancient Greek man. Reading through the various stories on Goddesses and queens, monsters and more. Princesses, we learn that there are three major levels of women in Greek mythology. The first level is composed of the divine beings known as the goddesses.
The stories about women in the bible illustrate the importance of their role and contribution to society. Women were slaves, concubines, and child bearers; they were also wives, matriarchs, and prophets. Although, some women had less important titles than others each served a purpose. Even if the Bible does not explain God’s relationship with women as with Moses and other prophets, it illustrates the love and dedication women had for Him. The scriptures describe brave, nurturing, and God fearing women whose decisions impacted the existence of the Israelites.
With these interpretations of God’s words, society as a whole has held women back. This is caused by the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge and because Eve gave Adam the fruit, women have been held in responsibility for all of man’s mistakes. It also forced God to punish mankind with an ending life. This confirms why women have been discriminated on by men throughout time in religious scripture.
The Epic of Gilgamesh has many similarities to the Bible, especially in Genesis and it’s not just that the both begin with the letter “g”’! One major similarity being the flood story that is told in both works. The two stories are very similar but also very different. Another being the use of serpents in both works and how they represent the same thing. A third similarity being the power of God or gods and the influence they have on the people of the stories. Within these similarities there are also differences that need to be pointed out as well.
Women in The Epic of Gilgamesh plays a very significant role. Women were not considered as the most powerful gods nor the strongest or wisest of all humans but they still had great influence over others around them, at that time of Mesopotamia. Though the main characters of the story, Gilgamesh and Enkidu were men, women did not necessarily play a minor role. The roles of women in The Epic of Gilgamesh were mixed. Women are represented as harlots (Shamhat), wise (Ninsun) and as gods (Ishtar. In the epic of Gilgamesh, it can be seen that while men were considered to be the most powerful and wisest humans and gods, women had the power to significantly influence these men. Several women mentioned and described in the Epic of Gilgamesh carried roles that had important effects on the men they encountered. One woman I found very interesting is Ishtar, the goddess of love and fertility. I will discuss how women were being portrayed in the story using her character to support my analysis and how the creators of this epic portrayed women in Mesopotamia through this character.
In the creation, Eve was creating from “the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man” (Genesis 2). From this context one can see that this society believes that males were created first and women are created from men. The writer of the creation also makes the women seem like the ignorant one since she is the one that is tricked by the snake to consume the forbidden fruit. Thus, we start to see a society that belittle women. This is confirm when God punish Even by stating, “yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3). Furthermore, this line directly tells all readers that the wife is submissive to the husband and the husband has control over his wife. The key component of Genesis is that it gives a religious reasoning to why women are less superior to men. Genesis tells the Hebrew society that women are not equal to men because they are made from men, therefore, they have to be controlled by their husband or else they will get tricked like Eve. This time period uses religion to give reasoning to certain societal
She defends the position that one immoral women does not make all women the same. Not only does this argument lack logical value, it also confines women to a biased stereotype. On the other hand, Judith Plaskow incorporates elements of women’s inequality through discussion of the Torah. She identifies areas for improvement that cultivate gender equality to be in creating equal distance to God, being able to tell their own stories and ultimately allowing women to claim the Torah as their own. Further, the aspects of Lilith involving her rebellion of divine intervention are understood as the society being unable to understand or interpret the actions of a strong woman. Therefore, her actions are innately attuned with demonic aspects of existence in order to provide efficient explanation. Overall these two examples show how immoral implications of one woman influence the ultimate discernment of all women in an unfair way. They represent two aspects of creation story that cast a stigma without clear enumeration or valid examples beyond single