Cultures Values And Transformations In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The epic of Gilgamesh, a story written on multiple clay tablets by the ancient Mesopotamian. The story tells of the king of Uruk named Gilgamesh and can be broken into two parts. Part one involving Gilgamesh and Enkidu a wild man created by the gods the creatures they fought and finally Enkidu death which start the second part of the epic. The second part involves Gilgamesh sad about the death of Enkidu going on a journey to understand the secret of eternal life. It is through reading and understanding these ancient cultural stories that we gain knowledge of their ideas and beliefs. Which in turn we can then apply some of these aspects into our own lives. For myself reading the Epic of Gilgamesh gave me understanding of four things which are the values and culture of ancient Mesopotamian life, humans’ relationships to each other, Nature and the supernatural, how Gilgamesh undergoes psychological transformation and passes through several stages of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and finally universal concepts. While reading the epic of Gilgamesh I could understand some of the values and …show more content…
The first thing she did when she met him was to have sex with him for days. This shows that their view of sex was that it was sacred. The next insight was that the Mesopotamians believed in multiple gods. A good example of this is when the priestess warns Enkidu to curb his arrogance before they meet Gilgamesh explaining how he is blessed by the gods “Shamash, god of the sun, loves him. Anu and Enlil, who rule the heavenly gods, and Ea, god of wisdom, have made him very wise.” The final insight was that their form of government is a king male aided by a counsel of city elders. This was shown when Gilgamesh who is king of Uruk before leaving with Enkidu to kill Humbaba the watchman of the cedar forest he gathers the elders of Uruk to tell them of his