Take-home test: The epic of Gilgamesh
In today’s society, many issues and actions have influenced and modified our present world in which we currently live in. Those things have helped us to develop and understand many different characteristics of this world. The epic of Gilgamesh has guided us to help understand multiple values that exist in this narrative poem such as the inevitability of death and mourning, the role of seduction and the power and dangerous forces of the gods. These lessons and themes not only helped Gilgamesh realize certain things but are relevant to the human world as well. The first theme consists of the inevitability of death. This epic makes us, humans, reflect on life and death. In the beginning of the poem, Gilgamesh …show more content…
In the epic, a temple prostitute was sent out to seduce the brother Enkidu. In modern western society, the man generally seduces the women first, not vice versa. It isn’t the same in this epic because prostitutes were considered sacred and it wasn’t morally degrading or seen as a weakness. It was an action that was praised. In our world, it is seen as a sort of an imperfection or an error. That gets people thinking about love seduction and how it was portrayed before. That we shouldn’t degrade such things. The act of seducing is also in relation with love. Gilgamesh was initially arrogant and selfish. He only cared about his own needs. For example, He sleeps with this bride who is a virgin before she even sleeps with her beloved husband. That is a great representation of his selfishness. When he finally met Enkidu, they became real friends and Gilgamesh learned to love him like is own brother. He learned about brotherhood and became less selfish and thought about someone else rather than himself for the first time. It showed our generation about the meaning of truly caring about another person more than themselves. It represented empathy and compassion. It also reflects on the importance of women in this story and in our world.
The final theme is the powerful and dangerous gods that were in this meaningful epic. The duo discovered fairly quickly that these gods were threatening to them, mortals. These immortals only go by personal rules and laws. The importance of this theme shows us how these gods react in such selfish ways because they are plain immortal. It shows us the good and the negative side in one world. It helps us think about the right and wrong, the good and the
In today’s society, many issues and actions have influenced and modified our present world in which we currently live in. Those things have helped us to develop and understand many different characteristics of this world. The epic of Gilgamesh has guided us to help understand multiple values that exist in this narrative poem such as the inevitability of death and mourning, the role of seduction and the power and dangerous forces of the gods. These lessons and themes not only helped Gilgamesh realize certain things but are relevant to the human world as well. The first theme consists of the inevitability of death. This epic makes us, humans, reflect on life and death. In the beginning of the poem, Gilgamesh …show more content…
In the epic, a temple prostitute was sent out to seduce the brother Enkidu. In modern western society, the man generally seduces the women first, not vice versa. It isn’t the same in this epic because prostitutes were considered sacred and it wasn’t morally degrading or seen as a weakness. It was an action that was praised. In our world, it is seen as a sort of an imperfection or an error. That gets people thinking about love seduction and how it was portrayed before. That we shouldn’t degrade such things. The act of seducing is also in relation with love. Gilgamesh was initially arrogant and selfish. He only cared about his own needs. For example, He sleeps with this bride who is a virgin before she even sleeps with her beloved husband. That is a great representation of his selfishness. When he finally met Enkidu, they became real friends and Gilgamesh learned to love him like is own brother. He learned about brotherhood and became less selfish and thought about someone else rather than himself for the first time. It showed our generation about the meaning of truly caring about another person more than themselves. It represented empathy and compassion. It also reflects on the importance of women in this story and in our world.
The final theme is the powerful and dangerous gods that were in this meaningful epic. The duo discovered fairly quickly that these gods were threatening to them, mortals. These immortals only go by personal rules and laws. The importance of this theme shows us how these gods react in such selfish ways because they are plain immortal. It shows us the good and the negative side in one world. It helps us think about the right and wrong, the good and the