Gilgamesh and Enkidu - Essay Example

Gilgamesh and Enkidu Of the two main characters in the ancient epic Gilgamesh it is clear that Gilgamesh is the stronger and more important, whileEnkidu has a lower status. We can deduce this not only from the way that the work is named after Gilgamesh, but by the fact that he is a King, and because he defeats Enkidu in a trial of strength. It is stated that Gilgamesh is partly divine, or to be exact “Two thirds of him is god, one-third of him his human” (Tablet 1) although this is hard to explain exactly because the definition of divinity is quite complicated in the story. This paper will first, examine the creation, development and changes of the two main characters in the epic, and then discuss the role played by the gods in all of this. Finally a conclusion will be drawn regarding the importance of Enkidu’s death in the epic and the way it changes the relationship between Gilgamesh and the gods so that he learns to accept his place in the world and become a better ruler. Gilgamesh, ruler of Uruk, is depicted at the start of the story as a strong and proud man, arrogant and selfish, and not behaving in a respectful way towards the gods, towards women, or towards the people he will one day have to rule. Various wronged parties, including the relatives of women he has treated badly, bring their complaints to the gods and it is because of Gilgamesh’s proud, arrogant and predatory nature that the gods decide to take action. They show displeasure at the constant complaints they are receiving on account of Gilgamesh, and seek to remove this disturbance both to the people of Uruk and to themselves. It may be also that the gods have a need to show the world that they are in control, and also find a way to get through to Gilgamesh and show him the error of his ways. One could say that Gilgamesh brought this upon himself and so in this sense he is a tragic hero, suffering the consequences of his own actions. Gilgamesh’s mother is a minor goddess, but there are plenty of other gods in the story who are much more powerful than she is. The gods are worried by this and one goddess Aruru creates Enkidu specifically to challenge Gilgamesh and convince him to behave better. She takes some clay and throws it into the wilderness, creating Enkidu in a miraculous way. The clay shows, however, that he is made of earthly stuff, and is a clue to his essentially mortal nature, as one who must eventually die. Enkidu is in some ways the exact opposite of Gilgamesh, because he is kind to animals and not tempted by the riches of the city including food and clothes and beautiful women. He has a true and natural strength, which comes from his physical being, unlike Gilgamesh, who relies on his high social position and wealth to gain the respect of others. Enkidu is also hairy, and uncultivated, happier out in the wilderness with beasts than in the company of other human beings. This twinning of characters is also seen in the Bible where the brothers Esau and Jacob are given this same difference, one being smooth and the other being hairy, and this may well be an ancient theme of hunter-gatherer rivalry with more settled agriculture based societies. When the two strong heroic men first meet, they fight, mainly because Gilgamesh cannot bear to see another man having as much strength and popularity as himself, but over time their friendship grows and they become more and more alike. This may be a way of showing that Gilgamesh without Enkidu is too proud and god-like, while Enkidu without Gilgamesh is too free and beastlike, and that in order for them to discover what it is to be truly human they have to learn from each other, and become more like each other. Gilgamesh’s mother approves of the influence Enkidu is having on Gilgamesh, and adopts him as her own son, which means that the two become brothers officially. Enkidu, on the other hand, loses his wild ways and learns to live in a more civilized way which is suitable for towns and cities. Opposites attract, it seems, and where there was initially a sort of brotherly rivalry for supremacy, there emerges a deep bond. During all the trials and adventures of the story, the two brothers help each other to survive hardships and complete heroic challenges. Enkidu takes on the role of protector of Gilgamesh, and when Gilgamesh has nightmares which make him afraid, Enkidu reassures him. Gilgamesh is scared of the way that Humbaba’s face keeps changing, and Enkidu rebukes him saying “Why, my friend are you whining so pitiably, hiding behind your whimpering” (Tablet 5) This shows that underneath his brash exterior, Gilgamesh is actually quite fearful. His great fear is death, and only with Enkidu’s support can he bear to face up to this fear. In the battle with Humbaba it is the combination of skills that both men have which finally combines to give them victory. There is an interesting twist, however, when Humbaba asks Enkidu to step in and persuade Gilgamesh to be merciful and spare his life. Enkidu’s refusal to do this means that Humbaba curses Enkidu, leaving all the fame and glory for the killing to Gilgamesh, and all the blame and curses to Enkidu. In this we see a religious motif, in which one brother is sacrificed for the good of the other. Gilgamesh learns to love his brother, and this changes him and makes him more human and less arrogant. Enkidu falls sick, however. This is the big lesson that until now Gilgamesh had been unable to see: that human beings depend on each other and suffer pain and loss when they truly learn to love someone else, as opposed to just using relationships to show off power, or for pure pleasure. Enkidu is sad and baffled by his condition, showing that both men in fact have to suffer the fates that the gods have meted out to them, without necessarily understanding what is going on. Gilgamesh is also aware that Enkidu is being punished for things that in fact Gilgamesh was responsible for: “O brother, dear brother, why are they absolving me instead of my brother” (tablet 5). When Enkidu eventually dies, after a lot of suffering, Gilgamesh laments this fact for a long time. He calls on all the beasts to bear witness to the passing of his brother, and this shows that he has learned to appreciate the natural world and all the beings in it. In fact Gilgamesh, the city king with his highly civilized upbringing is now depicted using the vocabulary and imagery of the natural world: “swooping down over him (=Enkidu) like an eagle, and like a lioness deprived of her cubs, he (=Gilgamesh) paces to and fro” (tablet 9). His sorrow changes him greatly, and he gains understanding about himself and his role in life as one of the mortal creatures who can only be remembered in the form of songs and statues, both of which he creates in honor of his dead brother. Where before he thought of himself all the time, now he cannot get the horrible images of Enkidu’s death out of his mind. His fear of death grows even stronger, because now he has first-hand experience of how it hurts both the person dying and those who loved that person. These are hard lessons for Gilgamesh, but still he chases after the immortality that the gods have, and will not accept the limitations of mortality. Throughout the poem Gilgamesh continues to challenge the authority of the gods, rejecting advances from Ishtar, the goddess of love, and deliberately antagonizing the god Enlil on behalf of the god Shamash. In this epic Gilgamesh meddles in the affairs of the gods, and in return the gods meddle in his life. The gods are not always good, but they are sometimes angry, resentful or deceitful, and they do not agree with each other all the time. The last two tests for Gilgamesh are the most valuable of all because they do not require feats of brutal killing or epic journey. They are more like symbolic messages. So, for example, the herb that is supposed to bring eternal life gets taken away by a snake, showing that immortality is not something that humans can ever be trusted with. The instruction to stay awake for seven days and seven nights sounds simple enough, but Gilgamesh is a human being with a physical body, and this makes him unable to complete the task. This is a man who will not listen to what the gods tell him. He must actually experience things with his whole body, and so these final trials prove to him what he should have realized all along: he is a man and must die when his time comes. He comes to realize that being jealous of the immortal gods is not very smart, and that he would be better off concentrating on being a good and just king as a mortal man. The depiction of the gods in the epic runs parallel to the story of Enkidu and Gilgamesh, albeit on another plane. At times it is not certain how exactly the gods communicate with the human characters, but certainly they use dreams and symbols a lot of the time. At the start of tablet 7, for example, there is a council of the gods who ague back and forth with each other over the fate of Enkidu, and it seems that Gilgamesh witnesses this in a dream. Gilgamesh realises that mortals are in fact at the mercy of the gods, and can be used as pawns in the games of the gods. Sometimes the gods can be tricked, as when Gilgamesh refuses to become Ishtar’s lover, but most of the time the gods get the better of the humans. It is only after going through the cycle of power, loss and sorrow, followed by restoration to his original position through the sacrifice of Enkidu that Gilgamesh fully appreciates what it is to be human. The petty squabbles of the gods have little meaning when all of them are immortal, and on the human plane, many people suffer relentlessly because of the unjust actions of those higher up than them in society. Gilgamesh has enough divinity in him to see both planes, and to learn how to use his divine wisdom and his mortal experiences to make what positive impact he can on the land he is given to rule. This is exactly how the story ends, with Gilgamesh appreciating the man-made beauty of his home city. The men who made this city labored to create a lasting foundation, and in this they find the only kind of immortality available to humans: they leave behind the work of their hands for future generations to enjoy. It seems to suggest that the gods did, after all, know what they were doing when they sent Enkidu to change Gilgamesh’s mind. The two heroes may have been opposites in character and strengths, but together they had no weakness; they became more complete, better men as a result. One will be ever remembered as the man who was created, lived and died for the sake of his brother, and the other will be remembered as the arrogant king who learned wisdom and humility through his brother’s noble sacrifice. Reference List. The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by Maureen Gallery Kovacs, 1998. Retrieved from: http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab1.htm Lawall, Sarah. The Norton Anthology of Western Literatue Vol A: Beginnings to AD 100. 2nd Edn. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001, pp. 10-42. Read More