Gilgamesh

GIlgamesh Notes

Though both men felt mighty, unstoppable, arrogant and powerful, they couldn’t have done it without each other’s friendship.
Enkidu made Gilgamesh shelter, interpreted dreams, watched over and guarded him, encouraging,
No matter how mighty a king you are, you can always use help. You can’t always do it on your own.
Mother adopted him, became his brother.
“Two cubs are [stronger] than a mighty lion” Gilgamesh pg 40
Sometimes you need someone to balance you out, bring you back to reality
Gilgamesh treats people unfairly so they have Enkidu made and brought in to balance things out. He is part animal, part human and drinks/eats with the forest creatures. They send a prostitute to lure him away and his herd turns on him. He becomes wrapped in her for a week and grows weak. She tells him of Gilgamesh and Urak and they journey back. Gilgamesh has dreams of his arrival where they are great friends and he falls to love him. His mother deciphers these. Enkidu arrives and is saddened because he has no friends or family, and Gilgamesh and his mother take him in and they plan to set off to defeat the creature of the cedar woods to be famous and have immortality. Tries to talk Gilgamesh out of it but fails, so do the elders and young men, but they gather and make weapons and set off with the prayers their mother has asked of the gods to keep them safe.
Humbaba is guardian of the forest of cedars, begs for mercy and cast a curse upon them at his death
Journeyed to the mountains of Lebanon
Make a door out of the cedars and send to Enlil as a gift
Gilgamesh rejects Ishtar, the god of love, and she decides to punish them by releasing her father’s bull (The Bull of Heaven)
They killed the bull and gave its heart to Shamash (god of justice), gilgamesh hung the horns on his wall and they parade the streets in triumph

Gilgamesh is an almighty and powerful man who has been singled out from birth. He is divine and perfect in every way and able to proclaim, “I am king!” Because of this he has all the riches and fame a man should ever want, but for him that isn’t enough. His strength and power gives him so much arrogance that he feels that he can treat people any way he wishes, and even believes he deserves to be the first to have a bride, before she lays with her husband.
When he forms his friendship with Enkidu he creates this plan to go into the cedar forest, overpower Humbaba, and cut down a tree to earn a bigger name for himself. “If I fall on the way, I’ll establish my name: ‘Gilgamesh, who joined battle with fierce Humbaba.’” Because of this journey his blood brother and friend Enkidu is cursed and loses his life. Throughout the entire story Gilgamesh is constantly wanting and running after more, never having enough or being satisfied with the power he currently holds.
I think this should be a lesson in modern times that too much power is not always a positive thing, and you should stop and look at what you already have. People should be careful not to let their accomplishments go to their head. In the long run, you may end up worse off than you initially started, like Gilgamesh, who now mourns the loss of his companion and lives in constant fear of death.

Knox and Clinton. The Norton Anthology World Literature. New York; London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print.