The Journeys of Gilgamesh and Odysseus The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey are long narrative poems that portray hardship, love, and war. Along their journeys, they experience new things and learn lessons that improve them as a human being. The stories include long journeys, interactions with the gods, love for their family, and heroes that are victorious in battle. However, the two epic’s cultural backgrounds, motives, and characters are different. Both stories provide knowledge about the long journeys the characters travel, the relationships with gods, and the character’s strength in battle. Gilgamesh and Odysseus both go on long journeys and the gods protect them wherever they go. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Ninsun prays to the gods to
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After the Trojan War, Odysseus travels to different places, with Athena’s help, to get back to his family. The different people that Odysseus meets along his journey are very welcoming and respectful. The hospitality that they show towards Odysseus describes the Greek word xenia. As he spends time with them, he is exposed to different cultures, such as the Phaecians who welcome him with a feast and sing about Odysseus’s experiences at war. In ancient Greece, oral poets would sing and they “relied on common themes, traditional stories, traditional characters, and traditional adjectives” (223). When Odysseus finally gets to travel back to his hometown, he arrives dressed as a beggar and the men who took advantage of his family and home create a contest to see who will win over Odysseus’s wife and marry her. Odysseus also engages in the competition and wins by throwing an arrow through twelve axes. The men in Odysseus’s home reflect the Greek culture through conflict and competing against others, because they wanted to outshine the other competitors and feel better about themselves (19). For this reason, Odysseus kills all the men who disrespected him and his home and rules Ithaca
After the Trojan War, Odysseus travels to different places, with Athena’s help, to get back to his family. The different people that Odysseus meets along his journey are very welcoming and respectful. The hospitality that they show towards Odysseus describes the Greek word xenia. As he spends time with them, he is exposed to different cultures, such as the Phaecians who welcome him with a feast and sing about Odysseus’s experiences at war. In ancient Greece, oral poets would sing and they “relied on common themes, traditional stories, traditional characters, and traditional adjectives” (223). When Odysseus finally gets to travel back to his hometown, he arrives dressed as a beggar and the men who took advantage of his family and home create a contest to see who will win over Odysseus’s wife and marry her. Odysseus also engages in the competition and wins by throwing an arrow through twelve axes. The men in Odysseus’s home reflect the Greek culture through conflict and competing against others, because they wanted to outshine the other competitors and feel better about themselves (19). For this reason, Odysseus kills all the men who disrespected him and his home and rules Ithaca