Analysis of Gilgamesh
Epic
of Gilgamesh is the first written story in our world. It is said that Sumerian
people wrote this poem more than 2000 years ago and this poem was only
discovered in 1853. Lots of lines are missing from the book but it’s still very
interesting. In the book there is said about Sumerian period, we can see that
Sumerian’s were quit developed for their time, the agriculture was developed
the city’s looked like modern day ones and everything seemed as if it just 2 or
3 centuries ago. The writing of the Gilgamesh proves their developing skills;
they were the first who wrote on clay tablets, the first whoever wrote a poem.
Despite of its time the epic of Gilgamesh is still very interesting and
fascinating. The story tells about Gilgamesh who by author is thought as the
first and most powerful king who during the story meets as powerful man as him
Enkidu. With him he goes through many obstacles and finally Enkidu dies,
Gilgamesh tries to find a man who became immortal as Gilgamesh gets frightened
by the death of Enkidu.
As
I read the whole story lots of parts interested me but I decided to analyze a
part from the second tablet when Enkidu decides to come to Uruk and meet
Gilgamesh.
Here is the part:
Then he raised his
eyes and saw a man.
He said to the harlot:
"Shamhat, have that man go away!
Why has he come'? I will call out his
name!"
The harlot called out to the man
and went over to him and spoke with him.
"Young man, where are you hurrying!
Why this arduous pace!"
The young man spoke, saying to Enkidu:
"They have invited me to a wedding,
as is the custom of the people.
... the selection(!) of brides(!) ..
I have heaped up
tasty delights for the wedding on the ceremonial(!) platter.
For the King of Broad-Marted Uruk,
open is the veil(!) of the people for choosing
(a girl).
For Gilgamesh, the King of Broad-Marted Uruk,
open is the veil(?) of the people for
choosing.
He will have intercourse with the 'destined
wife,'
he first, the husband afterward.
This is ordered by the counsel of Anu,
from the severing of his umbilical cord it has
been destined
for him."
At the young man's speech his (Enkidu's) face
flushed (with anger).
[Several lines are missing.]
Enkidu walked in front, and Shamhat after him.
[The Standard Version resumes.]
He (Enkidu) walked down the street of
Uruk-Haven,
... mighty...
He blocked the way through Uruk the Sheepfold.
The land of Uruk stood around him,
the whole land assembled about him,
the populace was thronging around him,
the men were clustered about him,
and kissed his feet as if he were a little
baby(!).
Suddenly a handsome young man ...
For Ishara the bed of night(?)/marriage(?) is
ready,
for Gilgamesh as for a god a counterpart(!) is
set up.
Enkidu blocked the entry to the marital
chamber,
and would not allow Gilgamreh to be brought
in.
They grappled with each other at the entry to
the marital chamber,
in the street they attacked each other, the
public square of the land.
The doorposts trembled and the wall shook,
[About 42 lines are
missing from the Standard Version; lines 103-129 are taken from
the Old Babylonian version.]
Gilgamesh bent his
knees, with his other foot on the ground,
his anger abated and he turned his chest away.
After he turned his chest Enkidu said to
Gilgamesh:
"Your mother bore you ever unique(!),
the Wild Cow of the Enclosure, Ninsun,
your head is elevated over (other) men,
Enlil has destined for you the kingship over
the people."
[19 lines are missing here.]
They kissed each
other and became friends.
[The Old Babylonian becomes fragmentary. The
Standard Version resumes]
"His strength is the mightiest in the
land!
His strength is as mighty as the meteorite(?)
of Anu,
The mother of Gilgamesh spoke to Gilgamesh,
saying;
Rimat-Ninsun said to her son:
"(I!), Rimar-Ninsun...
My son...
Plaintively ...
She went up into his (Shamash's) gateway,
plaintively she implored ...:
"Enkidu has no father or mother,
his shaggy hair no one cuts.
He was born in the wilderness, no one raised
him.
You see the part
which interested me, because I thought that this part would have been very
important in the story, I thought that major turning point had to happen here
and as I was reading it I predicted that whether Gilgamesh and Enkidu will
fight and become enemy’s or whether Gilgamesh would just destroy Enkidu and
kill him. My predictions were wrong and that’s why I liked the part for me it
was something unexpected but at the same time very interesting. Let’s start the
analyzing from the first part of this conversation. As we can see the action
starts with Enkidu going towards a young shepherd who seems to live the place
for some time. Enkidu gets interested and finds out that the young man is going
to town to choose a wife for Gilgamesh, we know that there was a rule that
future wife of Uruk’s citizen at first had to spend night with Gilgamesh and
then with her husband. From this little part Enkidu decides to go to Uruk and
finally battle Gilgamesh who one more time proves his arrogance, selfishness
and dictatorship over his people, we can also say that despite this territory
being far away from Uruk Gilgamesh was still very eminent in this states and
even an ordinary shepherd knew him. From this little part we can also see that
Enkidu gets very angry after hearing the story about wife’s, we can see his
motivation towards battling Gilgamesh and Enkidu from the very beginning
disliked Gilgamesh and wanted to see him defeated, this little scene already
gets us ready towards a big clash between world’s 2 most powerful people it was
the same as two heaven of bulls fighting against each other or two lion hearted
man battling each other for the pride and title of the strongest and fair full
person. Enkidu angry and full of energy decided to go to Uruk what again proves
us his braveness he didn’t stay to get prepare but immediately after hearing
the news about wife he left the place to battle Gilgamesh. As we know Enkidu
was a powerful man his appearance was totally different from other people, he
was strong, high, hairy and very powerful this fact is proved in the next lines
as Enkidu enters the Uruk. People thrive around him because for them it was a
shock they had only seen one person like this and it was Gilgamesh, maybe
Enkidu gave them an opportunity for the future, a hope that this could be the
person who will change or overthrow Gilgamesh and who can bring us good and
peaceful living, the people were desperate for some change they were fed up
with old ruling and wanted either Gilgamesh to become a better person or to just
to dethrone him from his place what was very hard and what only a person like
Enkidu could do. Enkidu was ready so he blocked the way for Gilgamesh and the
battle started for which I waited since starting reading of “epic of Gilgamesh”,
I was looking forward to more describing but unfortunately the lines are
missing, but anyway it was interesting but what’s most important and exciting
is that they didn’t beat each other they physically could not as both of them
had exactly the same power. When the battle finished I think all of us expected
some different turn of the story but it came out to be totally different. After
the fight Enkidu praised Gilgamesh as a king, they kissed and became friend.
From that time on they were heroes that the Uruk needed, Enkidu was the person
who changed the faith of Uruk and finally they were two friends who were ready
to sacrifice each other for one another. After this analysis a new topic came
to my mind and it was “Do heroes exist today?”
This question
really bothered me and I decided to compare today’s heroes to heroes like
Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
At early times
heroes were measured by strength by their appearance, power, popularity and how
many people they had killed. In the early centuries for people heroes was more
of a patriot than hero because he only did good things for one country like
killing people winning battles and just doing violent things. They thought that
this was heroism but in my opinion real heroes come from the middle or later
centuries like for example for Georgia David the Builder is a hero but still he
became a hero for only Georgia and for only our people because we saw him as a
savior. In fact real heroes are people who fight not only for their people but
for the whole humankind. For example: Martin Luther King who fought for the
rights of all black people, it was not that he fought only for Americas black
people in fact he was fighting for the whole black race. Mahatma Gandhi is the
same example maybe he mainly fought for India but his approach towards violence
and war changed the way the whole world thinks.
In my opinion
heroes are not people who are strong and killing everybody like Gilgamesh
heroes are people who change the world who change the attitude towards
different things and the way people think about them. In the world there are
also small heroes who helped their countries and are considered as heroes in
their countries.
