Genesis And Gilgamesh Comparative Essay

Compare Gilgamesh and Enuma Elish and Genesis

There are multiple differences in sumerian stories and babylonian stories. The lessons that each of them teach the reader are different, and the societies in each story are also very different from each other. All three of these stories, Gilgamesh, Enuma Elish, and Genesis, are creation stories with a hero and god in each one of the creations. They are all similar in the way that one hero has to overcome issues and problems in his society in order to eventually make his civilization stronger and more powerful than any ones else. The differences in the way that each power is brought to reality is the part that is most important and different from one another. In Gilgamesh, the epic demonstrates …show more content…
In Enuma Elish, Apsu, who is the hero, must go through some of his own struggles in order to eventually succeed. He must create everything, and appoint a god to everything in their society. He can be portrayed as a heroic character because without him there would have been no society created, especially not one as strong and organized as Apsu’s. In Genesis, God is portrayed as a major hero because in this story, he must do everything. “When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth was then welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering over the waters, God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. [...]” This quote demonstrates just how powerful he is, everything happens when he wants it to happen, and he creates the world. Without God creating everything from heaven to earth, it cannot be determined what else would have been, if anything at all, this makes God such a hero to the Jewish community and to the creation story as a whole. All of the heroes or kings in their societies had a great burden to overcome, and are all similar through the fact that they had to create their own strong societies; but they are different in the way that each of them