...The comparison and contrast of “The Story of the Flood” and “Noah’s Ark” The Epic of Gilgamesh “The Story of the Flood” and the biblical story of “Noah’s Ark” founded in (Genesis 6-9) story titles are very similar. The flood occurred in the Mesopotamian plains. The tale of the “Great Flood” was around before the story of Noah’s Ark. Some say that the biblical story of Noah was a revised copy of “The Story of the Flood”. Although, the details in each story is different, there are so many smalls ways they similar. Things that both stories have in common were, that Utnapishtim and Noah were warned to build a boat to escape the flood, told to save himself, his family, and a sampling if animals, boats came to rest on a mountain top, birds were released to see if the water receded from the earth. Noah and Utnapishtim both made sacrifices and offerings to their God. Each man were given the assignment to warn and save mankind from the destruction that was about to come upon the earth. Noah’s story the earth was full of people who once pleased God. They were people who had ambition to continue making the...
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...seems to emphasize the power and reverence the civilization who wrote Gilgamesh had for nature. This reverence seems to have a negative connotation, however. Just as in the Judeo-Christian tradition, most are taught to fear God, the same is true for the civilization who wrote Gilgamesh, although in a different manner. Many of the deities within the Epic are commanders of some form of nature or another. Hadad, for example, God of the storm, or Shamash the sun god, or even Humbaba, the guardian of the forest, a great terror to human beings. This seems to show that many of...
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...The two stories, The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis are very similar. Both of them describe a flood. There are many similarities in how they describe the flood. There are some differences but not many, and because stories are passed down generations it’s quite possible they are the same event. Before the flood, the descriptions in both stories are very similar. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, a god ,Ea, comes to Utnapishtim and tells him to build a boat and take the seed of all creatures. He says “ Tear down your house, I say, and build a boat. These are the measurements of the barque as you shall build her: let her beam equal her length, let her deck be roofed like the vault that covers the abyss; then take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures.” It took him seven days to build the boat and then the flood came. It rained and stormed for six days and nights. Something very similar happened in the story from the genesis. God tells noah to build a boat and tells him the measurements. He...
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...Primary Source Reading for week 2 By: Mandi Williamson HIST-2233-M02 10:30am-11:20am This week I was assigned to read the following passages, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Laws of Hammurabi, Hymn to the Pharaoh, The Aton Hymn and Psalm 104. The Epic of Gilgamesh the author of this tale is current unknown or anonymous, but was considered to be a great story among the people of Mesopotamia. It was most likely written around 2000B.C. The Epic tells a story of Gilgamesh, the king of a Sumerian city of Uruk. It tells how he was in search of the secret of immortality. He found a man by the name of Utnapishtim, who was granted eternal life by the gods. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of how he came to be immortal. He started off by saying how he...
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...In ancient times, the epithet was a commonly used byname in both the oral and written traditions. The epithet was a descriptive name, not unlike a modern nickname, and was used extensively in epic poetry. The most famous use of the epithet was those used in the Homeric epics the Iliad and the Odyssey. The use of epithets was used as well in a much earlier Mesopotamian poem known as the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Homeric Poems and the Poem of Gilgamesh the two stories share stock epithets and epic similes. The paper will first discuss epithets in the Homeric poems, then discuss the epithets in the Epic of Gilgamesh in comparison. Homeric Epithets Places The epithet, as previously mentioned, was essentially a byname. It saw its full use in the Homeric Epic which is why this paper chooses to discuss the Homeric poems first. While it was defiantly used to describe individuals such as Gods and certain characters, it was also used to describe certain places as well. Homeric scholar Bowra discussed this in her analysis: “Homeric...
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...Adva Asraf English 391-0500- Pamplin January 14th, 2016 Essay #1 Epic heroism usually denotes to an individual of highest social class such as great kings or leaders. Epic heroes are outstanding fighters, sometimes carrying some divine powers. To show his heroic elements, the hero must confront some supernatural enemies, quests, war, or adversity. The Epic of Gilgamesh depicts most of these characteristics of epic heroism. The description about his birth to the journey and adventures in his life meets the characteristics of an epic hero. Although, at some points, Gilgamesh engages in acts of selfishness and arrogance, I believe he achieves the characteristics of an epic hero and portrays those characteristics throughout the epic. Gilgamesh is described as a son of a mortal man and a goddess, which makes him a one-third man and a two-thirds god. During his birth, Gilgamesh is marked out as a unique type of a person who has connections with both the mortal world and the divine world. The divine birth is very central and important to the various adventures and achievements to come into his life. “When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body…..Two-thirds they made him a god and one-third man (Mitchell, 13). Like most epic heroes, Gilgamesh embarks on heroic quests where he fights with the guardian Humbaba, which was a monster of the holy forest in order to achieve immortal status. Gilgamesh reveals his courageous nature by defying his advisers, including...
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...Short Essay #1: Thanatology The Sumerians had a mature view of death that mortality is inevitable for all except Utnapishtim. As the great king of Uruk, Gilgamesh was not afraid of anything except death. Gilgamesh was extremely sadddened by the death of Enkidu. His life fell apart because he suddenly realized that he would die one day and this thought gave him a lot of panic. He decided to take a perilous journey to find Utnapishtim and get eternal life, because the gods had granted eternal life for Utnapishtim. However, Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh that death is unavoidable because of the will of the gods. The Epic of Gilgamesh sends the message that all human effort is not permanent and death is an inevitable fact in everyone’s life. Humans are exploring the mysteries of life all the time. Everyone wants to get eternal life. However, it is impossible to achieve, even for Gilgamesh. The Sumerians have to accept the fact that people will die and dead people will never come back. For example, in the sixth tablet, Ishtar talks to her father, Anu that if her father does not give her the Bull of Heaven, she would crush the gates of the Netherworld and let the dead out to consume the living (George, page51). According to this part, the Sumerians realized that people will die and dead people will go to the Netherworld, also dead people can’t leave the Netherworld unless the gods destroy the gate, which means dead people are forbidden to come back. Then the Sumerians advocated people...
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...Irene Wanja Dr Lancaster Eng 230.06 24 February 2014 Role of women in “the epic of Gilgamesh” The epic of Gilgamesh (King of Uruk) is a story his personality and his beliefs. Gilgamesh is a tyrant, a “powerful warrior who shows his mettle in battle” (Abusch 2001). This Mesopotamian hero is a tyrant, big and prominent. He goes through some things in his life that have him making a three hundred and sixty degree turn around in all aspects of his life. It is not written by just one author but has been an evolving story over a millennium. Women in ancient Mesopotamia were considered property of the husband. The man was the head of the house, and the woman’s duty was to cook, bare children for the men and raise them. The main value of women in ancient Mesopotamia was child bearing. The stages of life for the women of Mesopotamia went from being a daughter to being a bride, then a spouse and finally a housekeeper. Though they are not prominently features, the epic of Gilgamesh shows the importance of women and their role in everyday life. They are valuable in the story because without them, the men would not have gotten as far as they did. They are highly influential because they have power, which they each use differently. Shamhat is the temple prostitute, very morally loose woman who will lay with any man. She is sent by Gilgamesh to give herself to Enkidu and have sex with him so that the animals will see and not want to be associated with him anymore. The king’s thinking is that...
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...Aylin Sipahi CMLT C110 Final Essay for Epic of Gilgamesh February 19, 2013 The Epic of Gilgamesh serves as a great looking glass into a long lost culture in which most artifacts are lost. The story centers on Gilgamesh, a ruthless king who is two thirds god and one third man. As king, he does not meet his potentials of leadership as he is often self-centered and sometimes depicted as inhumane. When his dear friend Enkidu dies, he sets off to find immortality. He eventually fails, but during his journey, he came to terms with his mortality and became a more compassionate person. Even though the main characters are men, the women play small but vital roles along his journey. The women in this epic reveal that they are solely responsible for the civilization of Gilgamesh and Enkidu by means of dream interpretation, sex, and motherly instincts, because the men of this epic do not have the ability to do them on their own. As king, Gilgamesh does things of his own accord and with his own judgment. He terrifies his city with his ruthless behavior, and even upsets the gods. He takes away sons from families, and has his way with newly wedded brides on their honeymoon before the grooms. As Gilgamesh sees women as merely sex objects, it’s difficult to imagine that when he needs direction he goes to his mother, Ninsun “who is well-beloved and wise (page 66).” It is interesting to see that Gilgamesh sees every other woman as a sex object, except his mother. Some theories to support...
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...Zachary Nichols Nichols 1 CLT 3378-03 Essay 2 Due April 10, 2013 Word count 1528 The Old Verses the New Throughout history man has questioned the existence of gods, and why the world is the way it is. Many cultures have their own myths of gods, heroes and their interactions with humans. Each myth is specific to that culture and from them a lot about how the people lived and their day to day lives. I am going to compare one ancient, non-western myth with one modern, western-made myth. I have chosen to compare the Mesopotamian version of The Epic of Gilgamesh and Walt Disney’s Heracles. Heracles has become a western classic and while it defiantly does not have the same cultural and spiritual effects Gilgamesh’s myth does there are still many similarities between the two myths. Both myths are epic tails of Heroes who go on a journey to become all they can be; fighting Monsters and even gods along the way. Each of these myths is started with a sort of introduction from outside the story, Heracles by the muses and Gilgamesh by narration. The introductions tell of the deeds both heroes would come to do and give some background of why they were so famous. While they are both described as great heroes, the journeys of Gilgamesh and Heracles have some similarities and differences. Both have parts with our heroes valiantly battling monsters, saving cities from monsters and even meeting companions along the way; there are also many differences in their stories, like the...
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...Essay: Gilgamesh and Enkidu by Omar Ahmed The relationship between Enkidu and Gilgamesh is a complex bond of true friendship. Enkidu not only serves as a friend, but also a loving brother, a soul mate and a mirror of Gilgamesh. However; this relationship is more than just a bond between friends. Enkidu's life and death serve a great purpose as a catalyst for Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is deeply affected by Enkidu and this is primarily because of the strength of their relationship. Anne Kelly cites Aristotle when defining this bond as a true friendship. Aristotle believed in four types of friendships. First, a friendship of utility. This is based on what the friends can gain from each other. Second, a friendship of pleasure, which is based on the pleasure gained from each other. The third type of friendship is of inequality, where both parties gain something different than what they give. And finally, the fourth type is a true friendship, which grows slowly over time. This type involves love and trust between equals. (Kelly, 1) The relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is a good example of the fourth type of friendship. At first, they are not friends at all. Enkidu was created as a test for Gilgamesh. Once this trial is overcome, their bond slowly starts to build. Although Enkidu is uncivilized when they first meet, Gilgamesh takes him under his wing and humanizes him. By doing this, Gilgamesh treats Enkidu as an equal and a friend. Kelly goes on to state that Aristotle also...
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...Women in Gilgamesh and Joseph’s Story In many societies, women play various functions like mothers, sisters, and leaders. Historical literatures like the Bible, Gilgamesh or even the Koran has had many women play diverse functions in the society or in the religious sector. By comparing the different roles that women played in both literatures like the Bible and Gilgamesh, we can be able to comprehend the role of women in both societies (Mitchell 80). Furthermore, these roles will be an eye opener to the type of society that these women lived in. These women managed to expand themselves to fit into the various circumstances that they found themselves in as well as become important in their society. Through Potiphar’s wife in Joseph’s story and the women of Gilgamesh, this essay seeks to understand how literature represents women in the society. Women in Gilgamesh are represented by employing various characters. For instance, the character Ishtar has been depicted to take the role of a lover. In the novel, she is the goddess who desires to win the heart of Gilgamesh at all cost. When her mission fails, she endeavors to murder him. This destroyer-goddess known as Ishtar asks Gilgamesh to marry her when he returned victorious over Humbaba. Ishtar descends to Uruk talks to the king Gilgamesh saying “Marry me, give me your luscious fruits, be my husband, be my sweet man. I will give you abundance beyond your dreams” (Mitchell 130-1). Moreover, Ishtar desired to make Gilgamesh respected...
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...am in compliance with the Academic Honesty policy. In particular, I have not committed any kind of plagiarism. There are no un-attributed direct or indirect quotations or paraphrases from printed materials, websites, other students' papers, or any other sources in my essay." Professor Iglesias, Valint, and Nathanael English 203 10 April 2014 The Substance I Lack I Find in You When looking for love we may not realize that many times we are merely looking to improve our own areas of opportunity. We subconsciously look for counterparts that create a balance by contributing to what attributes are lacking within ourselves. In “The Epic of Gilgamesh” and Ama Ata Aidoo’s “Anowa” we see two character’s Gilgamesh and Anowa searching for substance in people who are unlike themselves. Their life’s counterparts have what they are lacking within themselves; security. In both Anowa and Gilgamesh’s relationships we are able to see their true characteristics through their choice of mates. Both characters are portrayed to be powerful but when we see who they fall in love with we learn the nature of their true self. We learn that though they may appear strong and confident are in actuality both insecure. Gilgamesh is described in the beginning of the story as “like a bull he makes himself mighty head raised (over others)” (Iglesias, Mays and Pierce 8). He is boastful and constantly ensuring everyone feels his presence when around. He acts as though he is all powerful, filled with...
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...identity. Identity is how a person sees themselves and those that are not at the same class or level of knowledge as them. This starts the theme of oppression. Oppression is when someone has control or power over someone or a group of people and controls their actions and way of life. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the city of Uruk is ruled by Gilgamesh, who is part god and part human that was created by the gods. With his power as a ruler of Uruk, he created his own set of rules for the people of Uruk to follow that may not have been a part of their everyday lives before Gilgamesh arrived in their city. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, a townsperson tells Enkidu “Gilgamesh the king is about to celebrate marriage with the Queen of Love, and he still demands to be first with the bride, the king to be first, and the husband to follow”(6). This is one example of how Gilgamesh uses his power to oppress the lives of the people of Uruk to do as he says. Gilgamesh also takes the young sons of the townspeople to use as he sees fit. The fact that the men of Uruk complain about the rules that Gilgamesh has in place, proves that they are not happy with how most things are within their city. Since Gilgamesh knows he is part god, he uses this as an advantage and thinks it gives him the right to have authority and power over the people of Uruk to have them do anything he says. The...
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...In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is credited with the building of the legendary walls of Uruk. An alternative version has Gilgamesh telling Urshanabi, the ferryman, that the city's walls were built by the Seven Sages. In historical times, Sargon of Akkad claimed to have destroyed these walls to prove his military power. Fragments of an epic text found in Me-Turan (modern Tell Haddad) relate that at the end of his life Gilgamesh was buried under the river bed. The people of Uruk diverted the flow of the Euphrates passing Uruk for the purpose of burying the dead king within the river bed. In April 2003, a German expedition claimed to have discovered his last resting place.[3] It is generally accepted that Gilgamesh was a historical figure, since inscriptions have been found which confirm the historical existence of other figures associated with him: such as the kings Enmebaragesi and Aga of Kish. If Gilgamesh was a historical king, he probably reigned in about the 26th century BC. Some of the earliest Sumerian texts spell his name as Bilgames. Initial difficulties in reading cuneiform resulted in Gilgamesh's making his re-entrance into world culture in 1872 as "Izdubar".[4][5] In most texts, Gilgamesh is written with the determinative for divine beings (DINGIR) - but there is no evidence for a contemporary cult, and the Sumerian Gilgamesh myths suggest that deification was a later development (unlike the case of the Akkadian god-kings). Over the centuries there was...
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