Compare And Contrast Enkidu And Gilgamesh

Because both Gilgamesh and Enkidu are demigods, only part of them is godlike. In my interpretation, though Enkidu was created to be Gilgamesh 's equal, their godlike attributes juxtapose each other. Gilgamesh was partially God simply because of his physicality—his immense stature and strength. Enkidu, on the other hand, I considered godlike because of his natural intuition and connection with the natural world. Upon his creation, for example, the goddess Aruru molded him into existence as almost an animal himself. “In the wild she created Enkidu, the hero,/…he knows not a people, nor even a country. Coated in hair like the god of animals,/ with gazelles he grazes on grasses,/ joining the throng with the game at the water-hole,/ his heart delighting …show more content…
“Enkidu had defiled his body so pure/… Enkidu was weakened, could not run as before,/ but now he had reason, and wide understanding” (I 199-202) The root of all life is through reproduction, usually by means of sex, so the simple act of Enkidu having sex with Shamhat is not the reason he starts to drift toward the human mindset. The shift arises through the purpose; instead of for reproduction, Enkidu had sex solely for pleasure, which in itself is humanistic. Even the animals with which he flocked no longer recognized him as one of their own; “the gazelles saw Enkidu, they started to run,/ the beasts of the field shied away from his presence” (I 197-198). Not soon after he took his first step out of the wilderness into civilization, he was groomed, clothed and fed a feast among shepherds and made presentable to enter …show more content…
So when Gilgamesh decided that Humbaba would be his next victim, I found Enkidu’s response to be on par with his character traits. He first described the battle as “a journey which must not be made,” (II 275), warning Gilgamesh “his speech is fire, and his breath is death!/ Why do you desire to do this thing?/ An unwinnable battle is *Humbaba’s ambush!” (II Y111-115). Just as Enkidu predicted, not only was Humbaba a fierce competitor, but also a powerful and respected God of nature, and Enkidu’s concerns paralleled exactly his original morals of respecting nature. So imagine my surprise power roles between Gilgamesh and Enkidu flipped during the battle against Humbaba. Now a coward, Gilgamesh second guessed himself right as he was about to finish the job and conquer Humbaba, and Enkidu stepped up as a ruthless motivator, actually rooting for the slaughter of this God of nature, saying “ [finish him,] slay him, [do away with his power,]” (V 243). To think of the stark difference FINISH