The Epic Of Gilgamesh

1. The transformation of Gilgamesh throughout the reading really surprised me from both the story perspective and the textual side. The Epic of Gilgamesh started by describing him as an evil figure in the first tablet: “Neither the father’s son nor the wife of the noble; neither the mother’s daughter nor the warrior’s bide was safe” (Ferry, 4). Not only that, the text later told us that the city of Uruk was chaotic, thus, the people asked the maker of Gilgamesh, Aruru, to create someone equal to him so that “peace may come to Uruk once again” (Ferry, 5). Eventually, Enkidu was created by Aruru as an equal to Gilgamesh. After they wrestled each other, they became each other’s companion and fought many battles together. One of the battles resulted in the slain of Huwawa, a disastrous monster whose “mouth is fire; his roar the floodwater; his breath is death” (Ferry, 16). Despite the frightening description, Gilgamesh and Enkidu prepared themselves to fight against Huwawa. The reaction from the city to the “evil” Gilgamesh was rather positive, because he is simply trying to eliminate something that threatened his people. Here, we saw a transformation within the story of Gilgamesh from being the “evil” ruler to a hero who brought peace to his people, with the help of Enkidu. Meanwhile, from a textual perspective, it is incredible how an ancient text could describe a protagonist’s change of character with the help of story and words.
2. I found interesting that The Epic of Gilgamesh defined the relationship between death and fear so clearly. The text demonstrated that people feared death naturally no matter who they were. For example, when the hunter first saw Enkidu, he “stood expressionless, astonished; then with his silent dogs he went home to his father’s house, fear in belly” (Ferry, 6). This quote demonstrated the fear of ordinary people due to the possible harm they could bring to them. Meanwhile, during Enkidu and Gilgamesh’s journey to slay Huwawa, Gilgamesh would always dream about him being too miniscule in the world and get “crushed” by the monster, causing him to fear. This showed that he feared being erased. Then, before getting killed by Gilgamesh, Huwawa begged him to spare his death and promised Gilgamesh he would “cute down the trees for him and make him Gilgamesh’s servant” (Ferry, 27). The fact that even a monster would beg for mercy just so they stay alive told us enough about the connections the text made between fear and death. Lastly, after Enkidu passed away, Gilgamesh started to fear that the same fate would come to him sooner or later. He started to fear his death and thus began his quest to find eternal youth. The texts always defined fear and death together--- if there was death, there was fear.

1. I am confused about the relationship between the gods and the world. Gilgamesh was created by Aruru, but Gilgamesh himself is “two- thirds a god, one- third a man, the king” (Ferry, 4). Despite being created by a goddess, Gilgamesh still had parents; this caused the relationship between Aruru and Gilgamesh unclear. At the same time, Aruru created Enkidu who was as “powerful as Ninurta the god of war, the hair of his head like the grain fields of the goddess, naked as Sumuqan the god of cattle” (Ferry, 5). The intention of a goddess who created godlike man became unclear- why would a goddess break the hierarchy and gave birth to a godlike man? In the end, Ishtar, a goddess, fell in love with Gilgamesh because of his bravery and power. This further complicated the relationship between Gods and people in my opinion. I personally believe that the intention is to inform others that Gods have the ultimate power the control the world, and if anyone was trying to become a God, it will be extremely difficult and you might be punished by the Gods; this serves as a message to people that they should not seek super powers.
2. The idea that people should pray to Gods and ask for their blessings were used throughout the text. They were also mentioned heavily when Gilgamesh and Enkidu were trying to slay Huwawa, by “dig a well and offer to the God” (Ferry, 23) and “made his offering of flour” (Ferry, 23). At the end, after Gilgamesh and Enkidu embarrassed Ishtar and killed the Holy Bull- after it opened the city and killed people, the Gods were upset and decided to kill Enkidu. The offerings to the Gods proved useless then in terms of their decision making and who they chose to kill. For example, when the Holy Bull opened a hole in the world and killed people, it never mentioned if those men were the ones who never made offerings. The point of offerings and praying to the Gods became confusing in its purpose. I think the idea was that God would listen to you and answer to those offerings, so make them as much as possible. But in the end, the text failed to prove that offerings could make a life changing decision, even though the idea was heaily emphasized.

1. Does the text promote a servile attitude and tell people to obey the hierarchy or does it ask people to follow what they think is right and that Gods will help them?
2. Does the text promote democracy due to the fact that the Gods would have a meeting when making a decision or does it promote a monarchy where Gilgamesh was the king?