Gilgamesh

[Jeffery L]

I know that this piece of literature predates any other piece in our
knowledge. I am sure that we all noticed that there were many
similarities to beliefs that are held in the religions of the world
today. Many different religions recall great floods in their
encompasssed bodies of work. This is the easy one. But I are many
other occassions which we can notice similarities across the board.
For example, the serpent. In the Bible was it not the serpent who
also stole everlasting life from Adam and Eve. This idea even shows
in Paradise Lost by John Milton. But without the serpent, we as
humans would be absent of two things: knowledge and experience. What
is it about the serpent across literature? The serpent carries a very
negative connotation, but it actually has given us the ability to do
many things. Is the serpent then some sort of Promethean hero?
Prometheus, as stated in class, gave us fire, and without it we could
not do many things in life. He gave us the power to live without the
gods. Do we no longer need a higher power to survive thanks to the
"serpent." In Gilgamesh, the serpent, in my opinion, gave Gilgamesh
peace, or the knowledge that death is inevitable; he should not be
disheartened by the upcoming event. Does anyone else think that the
serpent is just a symbol that either steals something great from human
nature, or the serpent gives us something which makes us great? If
there really was a snake, did it then actually bite Gilgamesh? Think
about the setting of Gilgamesh. There were probably a few highly
poisonous cobras and no doctors or medicine to actually treat a bite.
Why did it have to be a snake that actually brought about the death
Gilgamesh? Are there any other instances in this epic that anyone can
think of which spark the idea of being compared to other cultures
other than the snake or the infamous flood?

[Vols fan]

When discussing Gilgamesh as a class there was so many aspects of his
character that became clearer. When you open up to input from others,
and see the questions posed from one passage, it becomes more apparent
that each person interprets things quite differently. Gilgamesh takes
a journey that we all take. We look for the meaning of life, and each
person may have a different view of what is important that will make
their journey unique to them.

One question that I brought with me was what causes Enkidu's illness
that leads to his death. When I wrote the question down, I had one
answer in mind, that he became ill after a dream. WHEW, I missed so
much with that. Enkidu had become Gilgamesh's friend, but was also a
"foil figure" to him. In the destiny, that one must die for killing
the Bull of Heaven, and Gilgamesh was the king. Logically Enkidu had
to be the one to die so that Gilgamesh may live. In some ways, Enkidu
has been immortalized because Gilgamesh included the story of Enkidu
in his Epic.

Is there a little bit of Gilgamesh in all of us? Egotistical and vane
at times, and in search of our own immortality. But in true times of
need, we let down our guard to those around us we trust the most.

[Mina]

The lecture helped me understand the significance of some of the
characters and symbols in the epic. However, I still would like to
know more about why the epic was repetitious. Also, what was the
significance of numbers, if any significance at all.

Also, through the lecture I learned that being older does not make
someone a man, a man is made by overcoming challenges and obstacles
which may be in the way. When a challenge came in the way and
Gilgamesh faced that challenge he showed that he was a man. With that
said, real men cry or mourn. Gilgamesh showed that he was a man when
he mourns over the death of Enkidu.

All in all, the epic taught me that no matter how far you try to go in
life, you still end up back where you came from. That is one of the
valuable lessons I got from the lecture today. Gilgamesh is not
physically everlasting however he did achieve everlasting life through
literature. Otherwise, we wouldn't be reading it today.

[niece]

I think that the hero, Gilgamesh is completey selfish. The friendship
with Enkidu is the closest he comes to not thinking of himself. He
forms a bond with him based on the fact that he is his equal and that
Enkidu submits to him. He undertakes his quest for his own glory and
emboldens Enkidu for that same purpose.And when he mourns Enkidu it is
because he now has to face his own mortality and there is now noone
who will support him the way that he did.

I think it is questionable whether or not he did something for the
city of Uruk.He built the walled city up but he essentially terrorized
his own subjects. Perhaps, in some way he gained imortality for the
city and thus to a small degree the people of the city. The people now
would have a legacy that they could pass on in their offspring, being
from the great city Uruk and having lived during the time of the hero
Gilgamesh. A hero in the sense of his god stature and his fame. Not
any noble character or selflessness.

[niece]

Of course the serpent was just manipulated by a spirit creature who
came to be called Satan.
The reason Eve ate from the tree was not because of the serpent but
because of her own desire
to have what did not belong to her and to be independant of God. To
know for herself what was
good and bad. Gilgamesh was sort of seeking the same thing. He did not
want to be subject to
the gods as he was two-thirds god and one third human but subject ones
to himself.

But it is too easy to see the similarities to events of the Bible. The
flood being the most obvious.
A primary theme of the Bible is how to get everlasting life. Through
Christ who taught people how
to please God both by word and by deed. He also learned obedience to
death and he chose to do
this, be obedient I mean. Gilgamesh sort of learned obedience in that
he took the journey and
returned to his inevitability-death.His heart though was still set on
HIS name.