Re: Josh Henry

I believe that Josh Henry’s view on what was important to the authors of The Epic of Gilgamesh misses the point. He mentions that the people feared the gods wrath, however if this were the case, would they have celebrated Gilgamesh in their folklore? Even though Gilgamesh is punished for directly insulting Ishtar with the loss of his best friend, I highly doubt a group of god fearing people would refer to Gilgamesh with such honor in fear of retribution. Gilgamesh also directly defies the gods by going on his quest for eternal life, even after Siduri warns him that when the gods created mankind they reserved eternal life for themselves. In fact aside from the creation and eventual destruction of Enkidu, the gods take the back seat to the mere mortals Enkidu and Gilgamesh. When Gilgamesh and Enkidu go on their quest to kill Humbaba, the forest guardian commissioned by Shamash, there are no direct repercussions for the duo. If the authors truly feared the Gods, one would think they would go into great depth describing their punishment. Josh also states Gilgamesh is a “horrible” person, when in fact there are references all through the book telling of his great accomplishments for his people. I firmly believe that if the authors of Gilgamesh truly feared the Gods, they would have given Gilgamesh a far worse demise than the honorable one he received.