What Matters in the Epic of Gilgamesh

One of the most important things that the authors of The Epic of Gilgamesh cared about was pleasing the Gods. They were obviously frightened by beliefs of what the Gods could do if they became angered. In order to do this they described the great powers of the Gods in the story. First they show the powers of creation that the Gods hold by creating Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Then they show how the Gods act when they feel wrathful when Enkidu dies a slow and inglorious death after they kill the Bull of Heaven. By showing these two opposites, life and death, the authors give the readers perspective as the range of the Gods’ powers spans from life to death and everything in between. The authors told the readers that they needed to make the Gods happy because if they did then things would go well and their problems would work themselves out. It also acted warned anybody seeking to displease the Gods by threats of an inglorious death. Another concept that the authors cared about was the future. By making Gilgamesh be such a horrible person by having him deflower the women in his kingdom and by tyrannizing his people, the authors warned about the repercussions that might happen. First Gilgamesh is given a rival in hopes that it will show him how bad he is and then after that doesn’t work, he is driven into a deep depression when Enkidu dies and he begins to fear for his own life. The authors tried to get people to realize that they need to respect other people and work to make everyone’s lives better in hopes that the future would be better. The authors probably lived in a time of war and misfortune and hoped for a better future.

(posted for Josh Henry by Kelly Sorensen)