The Epic of Gilgamesh Through a Comparative Perspective
I have chosen Gilgamesh as my Eastern Hero as it fascinates me in the way it is the oldest epic of humanity, allowing me to have a glance of the culture and thought of people who lived thousands of years ago. We have the story thanks to the surviving tablets of the text in fragments;however, we unfortunately have some missing fragments of the story. According to the story, the glorious Gilgamesh is the king of a walled city called Uruk. He is a godlike figure and a glorious, handsome, wise warrior.
Though his glory, Gilgamesh treats his citizens extremely badly, like a dictator. He rapes every girl he likes regardless of their origins or nobilities. Because of this dictatorship, gods decide to punish him by sending Enkidu, a half-man, half-beast creature, as magnificent as Gilgamesh, who will keep him at bay. At first, Enkidu lives among the animals as he is one of them a hunter sees him and uses the prostitute Shamhat to tame him by seducing. They have sexual intercourse for 7 days straight, after which Enkidu is taken to Uruk to challenge Gilgamesh. They fight for a while but Enkidu is overthrown by Gilgamesh and they become best friends. These two powerful beings go on an adventure to a cedarn forest, forbidden to mortals and guarded by a terrorizing creature called Humbaba, to steal some trees from there. They kill Humbaba and steal the cedar trees, bringing them back to Uruk as gates.
Then, the goddess Ishtar falls in love with Gilgamesh but upon his rejection, Anu sends the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh. Together with Enkidu, they kill the creature. After that, the gods make a decision about killing one of the two and Enkidu is chosen. After his death, Gilgamesh is completely sad and grieving. In the meantime, he also contemplates about his own death that will come one day. He decides to find Utnapishtim, the only man who survived the flood and was granted eternal life by the gods. He stumbles upon mountain and various challenges before arriving to a place which is guarded by scorpion monsters. Gilgamesh persuades them to let him and his journey continues through a dark tunnel under the mountains. There he arrives a village before he goes to the eternal life.
When he finally meets with Utnapishtim, he is told about the stories of the flood but he is also rejected to be given the formula of the eternal life. While Gilgamesh was preparing to sail back to Uruk empty handed, the wife of Utnapishtim persuades him to give Gilgamesh a plant of eternal youth. On his way back to Uruk, however, a snake steals the plant and gains the eternal youth. Gilgamesh wanted to share it his elders in Uruk so he did not consume it immediately, which lead him lose it. Then, he understood that the city he created will preserve his name, which is the closest a human being can reach to eternal youth.
As is known, a Western Hero Archetype defines a hero who is self-sufficient, standalone and fights with the unlawful by himself with courage, utilizing his surroundings and various tools with ease. In other words, the western hero is a Jack of all trades.
My hero, namely Gilgamesh, is different from Western hero archetype because in West, a hero is generally a standalone figure who above all else, desire power. In that perspective, Gilgamesh is different because he does not consume the plant of eternal youth immediately as he wants to share it with the elders of his city Uruk. Also, unlike the Western hero archetype, Gilgamesh does not fight alone and he has a fellow traveler named Enkidu.
I do relate my hero because of my cultural origins as in my culture, sharing is everything. I also prioritize friendship and fellowship more than anything else. Additionally, my hero loves to go beyond his borders to discover more and challenges himself with his fellow when they go to the cedar tree. I relate this adventurous nature of my hero, which I think is caused by my origins.
This story of Gilgamesh teaches us to be happy with what we have instead of going beyond of what we have, which is a futile labor. If we can gain newer perspectives to see what we have, we can be fulfilled with what we have and carpe diem.
References
George, Andrew. “The Epic of Gilgamesh. A New Translation.” (1999).
Tigay, Jeffrey H. The evolution of the Gilgamesh epic. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2002.
Kramer, Samuel Noah. “The death of Gilgamesh.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 94.1 (1944): 2-12.