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Gilgamesh Honor Theme

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The theme of honor in the Iliad and “Gilgamesh” effect the characters actions and the way how they view their culture. In the Iliad, Achilles honor is very important to him because in Homeric culture it is apart of everyday life and a hero must uphold his reputation (CliffNotes: The Hero and Homeric Culture). When Achilles slain Hector he stated “We have brought magnificent Hector down, the man the Trojans glorified in their city like a god! So he triumphed and now he is bent on outrage, on shaming noble Hector [...] a thick cloud of dust rose up from the man they dragged” (Beers 66) because he had overcome his greatest enemy at the time. In Achilles culture, in order to remain a good hero, the hero must present this through combat on the battlefield (CliffNotes: The Hero and Homeric Culture). As a result of culture embracing honor, the theme of honor is …show more content…
The theme of pride in “Gilgamesh” is the reason why Gilgamesh went after Humbaba, the monster that would guard the woods, in order to defeat him. Gilgamesh's thought process was “If I die I will at least have the reward of having people say: He died in war against Humbaba” (Beers 48) because he knew that if he died for a noble cause, his people would forever remember him. The concept of remembrance and that Gilgamesh would die with pride was because in ancient Mesopotamian culture it was not believed that death was the ultimate end but that it was just another step to get to the afterlife (Choksi). If someone died, they would be judged during death but since immortality was not possible, all people could do was possess greatness through their actions and accomplishments and hope to be judged fairly (Choksi). Moreover, the theme of one's pride and honor that is present in the Iliad and “Gilgamesh” is highly influenced by the culture that thrived during the time period of both

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