Similarities Between The Odyssey And Gilgamesh

Stories have been around since the beginning of time as a way to communicate ideas, past experiences and history passed down from generation to generation. According to the presentation in class a hero story deals with adventures, a fight/quest and a transformation. In the stories of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey both characters possess different and similar qualities involving the characteristic of a traditional hero story. A hero story by definition “Informs the reader that a hero is setting out from an everyday home to pursue an adventure where he defeats a shadowy presence, enters death, pass tests and receives aid, after gaining a reward the hero returns home transformed.” Gilgamesh portrays a very astute, handsome and masculine mortal, which at the beginning of his story is a greedy dictator that takes for his own pleasure regardless of who he offends. After becoming friends with Enkidu, who was sent to originally stop his evil wrongdoings, Gilgamesh started showing the characteristics that corresponded to an epic hero. He started doing worthy actions that involved him conquering Humbaba and vanquishing the Bull of Heaven, these acts began making him seem more immortal. Gilgamesh began accomplishing treacherous journeys; such as when he and Enkidu built a raft and sailed back to Uruk and when they battled the Bull of Heaven after he rejected the oncoming’s of Ishtrake. He went into the underworld to find Enkidu after he was sent to
Both Odysseus in The Odyssey and Gilgamesh portray many hero-like qualities, and are face with many obstacles in their path. Overall Gilgamesh is more hero-like because he makes the ultimate quest to the underworld and returns, he also starts off as a manipulative, heathen of a dictator and after his many journeys and quests he returns home a transformed