Essay Comparing The Bible And The Epic Of Gilgamesh

For many people, a belief system dictates most of their lives. Whether they believe in one god, or a dozen, their everyday actions are determined by their faith. This proves especially true in The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible. The events of both works of literature are prompted by the involvement of some sort of overlying, supreme being. Both The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible contain the theme that human beings are at the mercy of the gods. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods rule freely over the people. The people are given no voice in this relationship, and they willingly step back, handing over the reigns to their superiors. This results in a situation where the people are dutiful and compliant, rendering themselves at the mercy of their gods. For example, in Chapter Five of The Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods realize that “the uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible.” The use of the phrase “the uproar of mankind” is a metaphor for the people’s love of both war and procreation, two key traits that define the human race. But the gods decide that they have grown weary of the resulting chaos and on a whim, resolve to exterminate the human race. This illustrates how the gods hold all the authority, and how the people are powerless under them. Another instance of the gods’ ascendancy over the human race is when Ishtar grows angry at Gilgamesh in Chapter Three of the piece and decides that he must be killed. She declares, “Give me the Bull of Heaven to destroy Gilgamesh. Fill Gilgamesh, I say, with arrogance to his destruction; …show more content…
Both works characterize gods as the dominant and the people as the submissive. The gods hold all the authority and control and humans are impotent.This theme is evidenced even in many religions today proving that the supremacy of the gods has prevailed even as most other marks of history have faded