Adventure In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

A hero is a figure in a literature who goes beyond the human’s limitation. Among countless heroic literature that are published, The Epic of Gilgamesh is the first Western Literature that portrays an epic hero. Since the epic is written between 2150 and 1400 BCE, Gilgamesh is the Western Literature’s first known hero. Each hero has different situations and personalities, which leads to different heroic archetypes. Depending on each situation and journey, the hero has different roles in literature such as either an epic hero or a tragic hero. Even though epic hero and tragic hero are both heroes, they have distinct characteristics. An epic hero exceeds commoners’ talents. According to fvlweb.fvlhs.org, epic heroes have “bravery, knowledge or

The call to adventure is an event that draws the hero into the adventure. Campbell defines the call to adventure as “…an atmosphere of irresistible fascination about the figure that appears suddenly as a guide, making a new period, a new stage, in the biography” (Campbell 46). A situation simply pulls the hero into an irresistible inquiry, which causes the hero to begin his adventure. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh faces his call to adventure when he has a dream about Enkidu. One night, he has a dream about the star falling from the sky and an ax. Both the star and the ax symbolize the presence of Enkidu. With his dream, Gilgamesh figures that at some point, he would encounter a man name Enkidu. He also learns his predicted failure. Gilgamesh is an epic hero because of his circumstances as a two-third god and one-third human and his journey included gods and goddesses match with the characteristics of the epic hero. The journey of an epic hero generally includes gods and goddess because most epic hero is blessed by them. Gilgamesh’s journey is also a “grail quest: the quest for human perfection” (Hillsborough Community College). His first journey is to kill Humbaba with Enkidu because he aspires to prove his strength to so that he can gain admiration among his people. His second journey is a quest to acquire immorality so that he can bring Enkdiu back to life and he will also live an

He is called into his adventure when someone speaks to Oedipus that he is not he real son of Polybus. One man that Oedipus has met at a feast prompts him into an adventure for truth. Oedipus is a notable tragic hero. Tragic hero comes from a noble family, very limited in thinking that leads the hero to mistake, and the fate is determined and chosen by the gods because tragic hero is an individual who could endure the misfortunes in his or her fate. Oedipus also did not choose his fate, but he managed to accept his fate. In The Identity of Oedipus the King, Alister Cameron proved Oedipus as a tragic hero. Cameron analyzes, “[f]or whatever his faults, Oedipus is noble. And after all, the acts he performs he is condemned to perform in ignorance. Therefore, whenever he acts, necessarily he acts blindly. Blindness is given him in his situation” (Cameron 140). Oedipus is a victim of his fate, and he does not act anything to make his life worse; every act he did in life was not done on purpose. Beowulf’s call to adventure in Beowulf is when he is informed about the Grendel’s attack of the Heorot. He is willing to travel to the land of the Danes to liberate the Danes from the malice of Grendel. Beowulf is an epic hero who is a warrior. He engages into battles against enemies to protect others, and he is also presented as a godlike figure. “Throughout the epic narrative, the emphasis is placed on the