Gilgamesh

When it comes to the topic of Gilgamesh rejection towards Ishtar, most people will readily agree that his rejection was due to his feelings of inadequacy towards Ishtar. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of why Gilgamesh feels this inadequacy and how this is a crucial step on his journey to consciousness. Whereas some are convinced this was not a crucial step, but only a supplementary step to the beginning to his consciousness, others maintain that this rejection was the crucial turning point in Gilgamesh’s life and the direct cause to his journey to consciousness. This is where all Gilgamesh journeys began and where they would all bring him back to in the end. It is true that Gilgamesh’s rejection of Ishtar was the first step in his journey to consciousness, because his feeling of vulnerability, he also lost his very close friend Enkidu, which he never experienced before, caused him to seek immorality, although in the end he remained moral.
Gilgamesh was destined to perfection from birth. He was created as a divine mortal, two-thirds god and one third human. He was a man destined to live a lavish life with all the riches a man could ever want. Unfortunately, his arrogance and superior strength got in the way; in the beginning of the book one realizes that Gilgamesh is an arrogant person who needs to make it known he is the strongest, bravest man there could ever be. The men of Uruk would explain how, “Gilgamesh sounds the tocsin for his amusement, his arrogance has no bounds by day or night. No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh takes them all, even the children; yet the king should be a shepherd to his people. His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior’s daughter nor the wife of the noble… (62).” The gods heard these cries from the people and the gods decided to create his equal, Enkidu. To challenge Gilgamesh in a battle, once the two started to grapple like wild bulls, once Gilgamesh had defeated Enkidu,