Supplication and Response

A significant difference between the authors’ focus in Genesis and the authors of the Epic of Gilgamesh is that Genesis focuses on portraying a God capable of persuasion and accordance with his creations, while Gilgamesh exhibits a continuous theme of what results from disagreeing with the higher authorities.

Gilgamesh’s arrogance often leads him to actions against the will of the gods. After Gilgamesh kills the Bull of Heaven, the goddess Ishtar orders the death of Enkidu. Gilgamesh also spends a significant portion of time searching for eternal life, though “when the gods created man they allotted him death, but life they retained in their own keeping” (102). As a result, never does Gilgamesh find eternal life, though he is two-thirds god himself. Now, the gods of Gilgamesh’s world are not beyond supplication; Gilgamesh prays to Shamash for help before he overthrows Humbaba, and Shamash obliges “like the compassionate man” (72) by providing Gilgamesh with the great winds. However, beyond the exception of Shamash, the gods in the Epic of Gilgamesh are best personified by Ishtar, those that when displeased will follow their own agenda, regardless of human will.

On the other hand, the God of Genesis is best personified with the attribute of sympathy, and the ability to be persuaded and agree with humans. Now, God is not immediately portrayed as the most sympathetic of authorities. For example, he banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, and decides “‘I will wipe out the human race…for I regret that I have made them,’”(28) by means of a great flood. However, God soon afterwards begins to listen to the supplications of man. He agrees not to exterminate a city based on the persuasion and plea of Abraham, eventually agreeing “‘I will not destroy for the sake of ten’”(83), and even when God banishes Adam and Eve from Eden, does He consider to clothe them.