Sexual Desire In Gilgamesh Essay

At a glance, the epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad and the Aeneid are some of the greatest works of literature pertaining to violence and its effects on the societies from which they’re derived from. In fact, these three works of literature are meant to teach the audience a lesson about what sin does to people all around the world. For this reason, the epics travel so well into the 21st century. We all can feel how sin pollutes our life. The sin of sexual desire hits us all at our core and tries to break down the barriers of our faith. Sexual desire itself is not sinful, when used in marriage. However, when sexual desire causes catastrophic effects and pollutes our everyday living, it becomes dangerously sinful. Which is gratified in these three epics. Consequently, the sin of sexual desire in Gilgamesh, the Iliad and Aeneid ultimately leads to the humiliation of
In addition to how women were perceived, sexual sin seemed to lead down a destructive path. As evidence of this, in Gilgamesh we see what Shamat seductive nature has done to poor Enkidu. Enkidu has been civilized and formed a friendship with the daring Gilgamesh and now they’re attempting to kill an innocent beast of the forest, “there dwells in the forest the fierce monster Humbaba, you and I shall kill him” (2.134-135)Gilgamesh is now able to kill Humbaba because, he has help from Enkidu, as backup support. Enkidu can fight now, because Shamat sexuality civilized him in a sense. This same sexualized civilizing leads to his early death. Which is proven in Tablet VII, “may your purple finery, be expropriated, may filthy underwear be what you are given, because you diminished me, an innocent, yes me, an innocent, you wronged me in my steppe.”(6.84-86) this scene tells the audience that Shamat is the cause of Enkidu’s death because if she wouldn’t had seduced him he would still be alive, uncivilized but