epic of gilgamesh essays

epic of gilgamesh essays In the Epic of Gilgamesh the main character is king Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is a half man and half god but is still mortal like all other men. Gilgamesh goes through many different transformations in his life as he interacts with different men and gods. The changes that Gilgamesh goes through affect his whole kingdom. Early on, he was a terrible king to his people stealing every brides virginity and as the epic progresses he learns more about life and learns to treat his people with respect so he will be remembered as a good king. Early on when Gilgamesh was king, he was terrible to his people. He stole bridess virginity on their wedding night. He did not respect his people in the slightest and did not care what they thought of him as king because we felt he was such a great warrior that he did not need to be a good king. After a while of Gilgamesh being a terrible king the gods created Enkidu. Enkidu was an equal to Gilgamesh in terms of strength and fighting and it was the first time that Gilgamesh met his equal. This gave Gilgamesh a lot of respect for Enkidu and he became a very close friend. Enkidu was not at all civilized and when he was offered a woman to sleep with him, he declined. Gilgamesh learned a lot from Enkidu and started to care about others for the first time in his life. Gilgamesh soon gave up the practice of sleeping with every bride and started to care more about his people. This was a great change from before when Gilgamesh was a terrible leader for his people. Gilgamesh later goes on a quest for eternal life similar to that of the gods. In searching for the eternal life, he goes on many quests to find the one mortal that was granted eternal life for his faith. After Gilgamesh meets with the person he finds out, he has to find this plant at the bottom of the see that will give him eternal life. He goes and finds this plant but upon obtaining, this plant Gilgamesh does not eat it hi...