Most female characters in stories are written to provide a particular condition to the main character; the women in these stories are no different. The female characters that I will be discussing from the previously mentioned stories are in some way or another a support system, …show more content…
She guides Gilgamesh and she forewarns him of Enkidu’s arrival. She also counsels him that he and Gilgamesh will be great friends. She has a small part in the story; however, it has a great impact on Gilgamesh’s outcome with Enkidu. He knows that he and Enkidu are destined to be friends, it is his fate. Another goddess that affects Gilgamesh, not as a friend, but as an obstacle on his path to greatness is Ishtar. Ishtar is the goddess of love, war, and fertility. After seeing Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight and kill Humbaba, Ishtar decides that she wants Gilgamesh as her husband. Gilgamesh refuses Ishtar’s proposal of marriage, he says to her “…as for making you my wife—that I will not. How would it go for me? Your lovers have found you like a brazier which smoulders in the cold...Which of your lovers did you ever love for ever? What shepherd of yours has pleased you for all time?” (Gilgamesh 86). This refusal of marriage enrages Ishtar and she unleashes the Bull of Heaven onto Gilgamesh, and when Gilgamesh kills the bull, Ishtar releases a curse onto him. Ishtar is a distraction to Gilgamesh and she causes him great pain by taking Enkidu from him. Once Enkidu is gone, Gilgamesh realizes he does not want to die so he begins his quest for immortality; it is on this quest that he encounters Siduri. Siduri is a wine maker that Gilgamesh meets that tells him he is not meant to be immortal. She tells him “When the …show more content…
The shero in the story is Inanna. Inanna is the same character as Ishtar in Gilgamesh. Only Inanna is a different form of Ishtar, she is less violent; this story tells the origins of Inanna. She is powerful, but she does have an angry streak in her. Her main supporter in this story is her servant Ninshubur. Ninshubur was the Queen of the East; she is also a minor goddess. She is described as having godly powers when she travels with Inanna, and she saves Inanna’s life several times. Her role to Inanna provides protection and guidance. Inanna says to Ninshubur before she heads to the underworld, “Ninshubur, my constant support, my sukkul who gives me wise advice, my warrior who fights by my side…” so to Inanna, Ninshubur is all of these things to her (Inanna 53). She is important to