Gilgamesh Akkadian Epic Analysis

In this article, it tells the tale of Gilgamesh and how his life transpired over the course of years. “The fullest surviving text is the Assyrian one from the library of King Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, and therefore no older than the seventh century BC, at least a millennium later than composition” (1). Gilgamesh was lost in the beginning his life was spinning out of control and the people looked to the God’s for help. Cotterell writes, “The Akkadian epic portrays Gilgamesh as a tyrant, overbearing and prone to sexual misdemeanours. His people beseeched the gods for help, and on the steppe, the mother goddess Aruru fashioned from spittle and clay a hairy, grass-eating, wild man called Enkidu” (1). He had one purpose and held strong to the purpose until his death. The article text notes, “the fight ended with Enkidu 's defeat and the start of a lifelong friendship between the heroes” (1). The start of their friendship is …show more content…
And later bereaved by the death of his beloved Enkidu, Gilgamesh does something even more astonishing: He travels to the ends of the earth, braving all sorts of threats, in an effort to discover the secret of life” (1). It tells of the time spent between the two friends and all they accomplished on their journeys. “Enkidu and Gilgamesh kill the Bull of Heaven, another successful heroic venture against the divine, paralleling their murder of Humbaba” (Moseley 3). They felt Humbaba did nothing to the people of but was killed for nothing or for the popularity of Gilgamesh. The article also compares Gilgamesh to the modern-day hero and says he “falls short in all but bravery” when it comes to “self-sacrificing, noble modest, and good” (Moseley 3). These are important because it relates to the friendship that I so much love and am writing