Epic Of Gilgamesh Essay

The Epic of Gilgamesh Analysis

“The Epic of Gilgamesh” was written in 1800 BCE. This is the oldest existing written story. Gilgamesh, a mighty king of Uruk, who is one-third man and two-thirds God, abuses his power. Gilgamesh does multiple of things that no one else in this time period could do. Although Gilgamesh is more powerful than others, he faces many obstacles that hurt him mentally.

Gilgamesh is a king who works his people to death and takes what he wants from them. Gilgamesh is afraid that someone will take his fame and his spot as being king. He uses the women for sex whenever he wants it and also manipulates them. The people of Uruk cry out to the Gods for help so that they can have peace. The gods hear them after so long and sends

He tells the trapper to go see Gilgamesh. He tells his son to ask the king for a temple prostitute to bring back with him to seduce Enkidu. The trapper returns with Shamhat, a prostitute from the temple of Ishtar and the goddess of love. They waited until Enkidu reappears and when he returns, Shamhat revealed herself to him. They mess around for six days and seven nights. When Enkidu is satisfied, he finds that the animals no longer accepts him. Shamhat tells him to come back with her to Uruk. When Enkidu hears about Gilgamesh he decides he want to meet him. After they’ve met they went to a shepherd’s camp. At the shepherd’s camp Enkidu learned that Gilgamesh will sleep with a newly married bride on her wedding night before her husband gets to sleep with her. Enkidu realizes Gilgamesh’s wrong doings and tries to stop

Ishtar is hurt from being rejected so she tells her dad to send the bull to punish Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and Enkidu fought the bull and killed it. After they killed the bull the meet up and came to conclusion that one of them must die because together they are too powerful. Once Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh's life loses all meaning, and he becomes tormented with the fear of death. He decides that the only thing to do is to meet Utanapishtim, the one human being who has been granted immortality by the gods. He sets off on a4 journey beyond the Eastern edge of the earth, where the sun rises, to find out the secret of immoality. Later, Gilgamesh traveled to the edge of the world and learned other Gods secrets. Gilgamesh then goes into the wilderness and is destined to find Utnapishtim, the Mesopotamian Noah, to figure out how could he avoid dying. Gilgamesh wanted to live forever so Utnapishtim tested him to see if he could stay awake for a whole week but Gilgamesh failed. Utnapishtim’s Wife told Gilgamesh about a plant that restores youth so Gilgamesh took it back with him to Uruk. Although the plant was stolen from him he realizes that the city he was trying to escape was a better place for him to