Gilgamesh and Iliad Term Paper

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deities -- Gilgamesh -- iliad

A Comaprison Of The Deities In

the epic of gilgamesh and the iliad

In what is now the country of Iraq, part of the great "Fertile Crescent" between the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates, and where Hammurabi created his famous legal codes, ancient Babylon was the home of the epic story of Gilgamesh, written circa 1700 B.C.E and the oldest known story in the world which predates Homer's Iliad and Odyssey by a thousand years. The hero in The Epic of Gilgamesh was an historical king who reigned supreme in the Mesopotamian city of Uruk sometime around 2750 B.C.E. In this tale, the king of Uruk encounters a man named Enkidu who has been civilized by the art and magic of temple priestess. But when Enkidu dies, the king is overwrought with emotion and sadness and then sets out to on a long journey of discovery to find the only person in the known world who knows the secrets of life and death.

Of course, The Epic of Gilgamesh contains many references to various gods and goddesses, all of whom play major roles in the epic. Gilgamesh himself, described as a warrior and of gigantic proportions, is at first a tyrant, a human monster filled with great loathing and selfishness. He oppresses everyone in his orbit, both men and women, which prompts the people of Babylonia to pray to heaven. The main god Anu, the father of the Babylonian gods, hears their cries for help, but he does not assist them right away, a sign of his great ego and inability to lower himself to the status of a mere mortal. What he does instead is summon the great mother goddess Aruru to create another human being like Gilgamesh, but this time it is his double, his doppleganger; it is Enkidu: "Now go and create/A double for Gilgamesh, his second self/A man who equals his strength and courage/A man who equals his stormy heart/Create a new hero, let them balance each other/Perfectly, so that Uruk has peace" (Book I, pg. )

When Gilgamesh is sent on a long adventure to kill the monster known as Humbaba, he receives a great deal of motivation from Shamash, the god of the sun and the god of justice and the protector of Gilgamesh.

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Gilgamesh's mother, the goddess Ninsun, makes a prayer to Shamash: "You have granted my son/Beauty and strength and courage -- why/Have you burdened him with a restless heart?" (Book III, pg. ). In this passage, Ninsun is portrayed as almost human in nature, for although she too is a god, she prays to another god for answers to her questions concerning Gilgamesh. Shamash, as the god of justice, is clearly in control and obviously must be summoned in order to bring about justice, even for the son of a god.

In Book IV of The Epic of Gilgamesh, another goddess, namely Ishtar, the goddess of love and the patron deity of Uruk, is not described with such honorable prestige as is Ninsun or Aruru, for she is utterly rejected by Gilgamesh and Enkidu, despite the fact that her temple is viewed as full of reverence and awe. Also, the fact that Ishtar was known as Inanna, the Queen of Heaven, in ancient Sumerian culture, makes this even more surprising,….....

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