Gilgamesh Humanism Essay

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, humanism is a system of values and beliefs that is based on the idea that people are basically good and that problems can be solved using reason instead of religion. Personally, humanism is an aspect of study that focuses on shaping the core values of a person. It shifts away from the traditional beliefs. Humanism stresses the liveliness of the individual figure in society. Throughout the semester there were books that had to be read from three different periods to meet the requirements of the course. There were specific stories that related to humanism better than others. The Ancient period refers to the first records of writing that ever existed. The Middle Age appears after the fall of major civilizations.
This epic seems to have been widely known during the ancient period. It is a story of a powerful man who seeks to become immortal, so he seeks out the gods and the key to immortality. The story of Gilgamesh was more about what it is to be a man than what it is to serve the Gods. As the beginning and the end of the epic make clear, Gilgamesh is celebrated more for his human achievement than for his relationship with the divine. Which is a clear example of humanism because it focuses on the importance to humans rather than divine
These stories were orally told for centuries and were finally written down. The stories offer a great deal of entertainment for the reader. They have been inspiration to many people under different circumstances. The series of these stories contribute to humanism development because these stories show different ways of solving human problems. In the Inferno by Dante it is telling the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by Virgil. This shows how Virgil is trying to help others, Dante is relying on him for help as a person not as a God. Dealing with humanism this story shows how Virgil helped Dante in a way. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings and that’s what happens in the Inferno. Giovanni Boccaccio’s, Decameron is a collection of 100 short stories known as a frame story. It can be looked at as a story within a story. The tale deals with 7 women and 3 men who move in order to escape the Black Death. They are there for fourteen days and on ten of those days they each tell a different story. Which each story comes a different lesson that can be learned from. This shows humanism because it shows how one solves human problems and the thought that they put into