Comparing The Hero's Journey And The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh shows and describe the journey of a successful hero. Throughout his quest, Gilgamesh goes through a departure, initiation, and a return stage. When Gilgamesh and Enkidu sets out to go on the heroic journey to defeat Humbaba he experiences the first departure stage. The initiation stage occurred when Enkidu died and Gilgamesh started the second heroic journey searching for immortality. Gilgamesh search for immortality was beyond the initiation stage he searched for it through every quest and journey he encountered. In the second initiation stage, Gilgamesh went through a significant amount of problems and hardships. The return stage occurred when Gilgamesh leaves his fantasy world and return to people back home with new knowledge and teachings. Utanapishtim's tale in (Tablet 11) of the great flood

Written by Sumerians on clay tablets thousands of years ago, The Epic of Gilgamesh has been a window for the modern world to see the thoughts and beliefs of these ancient people. The epic’s main characters include Gilgamesh, the arrogant, half-man, half-god king of Uruk, and Enkidu, a wild beast of a man created by the gods to be Gilgamesh’s opposite and eventual friend. Because the gods control all of the things that happen to humans in the epic, they often revere the gods out of fear alone. However, Enkidu displays several acts of disobedience and trickery toward the gods, which mark him as the least religious character. Through these acts of rebellion toward the gods, tricking of the gods, and the throwing of the Bull of Heaven’s leg at

Gilgamesh is an epic hero in the story Gilgamesh: A New English Version because he endured a long journey. A common trait that all epic heroes share is their long journey that they must travel in search of triumph, treasure etc. Some evidence for this is "At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, at a thousand miles they pitched their camp. They had traveled for just three days and nights, a six weeks’ journey for ordinary men." Ordinary people could never have traveled this length hence why they're epic.

Most of the time, the introduction of an epic has described how the hero is interpreted, commonly near perfection also a beholder of supernatural powers. The biggest aspect how the supernatural is vital in the Epic hero trope is based on creations of god, preferably a demigod. In Gilgamesh, the main protagonist is two thirds of him is a god while only one third is human, because he is descended from Ninsun, “goddess in the shape of a wild cow.” As a result with Gilgamesh being a demigod, cause a great deal towards his perfection. Unlike Gilgamesh, Achilles introduction was scattered yet has

Gilgamesh and Odysseus are great warriors from different time periods who both in search of the meaning of life. They are both featured in great epics; the Epic of Gilgamesh which was developed in early Mesopotamia and the Odyssey of Odysseus developed at the beginning of Greece. Both the Epic of Gilgamesh as well as the Odyssey of Odysseus became very popular and valuable to historians in how they addressed religion, such as their attitudes towards gods, definitions of heroes as well as their views on death and

How can one decide what classifies a hero’s journey? Is it one specific detail or multiple details that compile into one common thing? The answer to this is simple, because it could be both. There are multiple things that make a  hero’s journey which every movie, book, TV show, or life may present; however, all of the aspects of the hero’s journey are because of one common thought found across all cultures and time periods, this is also known as a monomyth. In the Epic of Gilgamesh and The Matrix aspect of this monomyth are present in both pretty much to the tee. Each story also has designed characters conquering this journey, in order to show the readers the disadvantages to the constant need for power within society, not only in today’s, but also ancient times.

The hero's journey is identical for all heroes traveling the path of becoming a true hero. In order for a hero to complete the cycle of the hero's journey, the hero must follow Joseph Campbell's crucial stages of the ordinary world all the way to the return with elixir. Both George Lucas and Herman Hesse stories contrast greatly, but they create the ideal hero in their stories, due to their tremendous work on following the hero's journey for their main protagonist, Siddhartha and Luke Skywalker. Even though Siddhartha and Luke Skywalker differ in many physical and mental aspects they are both similar, due to their call to adventure, their helpers, and their resurrection.

Achilles and Gilgamesh venture into epic journeys that change the trajectory of their lives. It is evident that Achilles’ and Gilgamesh’s journeys fit into Joseph Campbell’s stages of a hero’s journey. Through analyzing each of the stages that Achilles and Gilgamesh endure, both characters indeed grow as heroes. Nonetheless, the growth in Achilles’ and Gilgamesh’s characters are different due to their different journeys. Each of the stages in Achilles’ and Gilgamesh’s journeys are essential to their growth; however, the stages known as the road back and the return with the elixir reveal how they have ultimately grown.

In the myth of The Hero’s Journey, by author Christopher Voglers it demonstrates how heroes are called to the ordinary world to begin their journey.Heroes must be removed from their typical environment. These heroes have to face many difficult stages in which they imply their abilities and characteristics. Many heroes accept the quest and leave behind their families and friends. The heroes will then be inspired by a Mentor, in which the mentor can be a book, map or even an object. When the heroes are finally committed to the journey is when he they cross the Threshold. They must then confront an event to enter the Special World in which there is no turning back. Crossing the Threshold with guns blazing and whip cracking. In the upcoming

Cole and Ortega’s The Thinking Past is a book that covers the history of humans and civilization. Within the book the authors cover the transition of humans from a hunter-gatherer life into a more sedentary life: forming the civilizations we know today. This transition can be witnessed through the character of Enkidu’s in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Enkidu—a glorified forager—is forced into civilization, we watch him transform from a wild beast into a civilized person. As we follow Enkidu’s transformation, we see how he changes for the better, but he also loses certain capabilities. The transition was not smooth, it took time to fully adjust, and although there are many disadvantages of leaving the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, the benefits make it

The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible have a few similar events and historians think that they may refer to the same event. The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible share a similar event, the flood, and a similar character, the serpent. Though there are still several distinctions between the two stories.

In comparison, it’s always observed on how different scholars find the similarity of especially marital settings, characters, and as well as the wanderings of the mythological world. Different events within the life of these characters cover broadly a huge range of epic encounters that are heroic. The character, emotional and psychological development of Gilgamesh can be borrowed especially from the ancient heroic perspectives of mortality and death while comparing with Achilles. Mesopotamian civilization has had several phases in which hero Gilgamesh has been in existence, however having similar attributes. One of the earliest stories of Gilgamesh is developed from Sumerian texts, one of the most influential and well-known poems (Michelakis & Pantelis 2007).

“I shall die…Sorrow has entered my heart! I am afraid of death, so I wander the wild, to find Uta-napishti” (Tablet 9.3-5). In the poem, The Epic of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh, suffers the tragic loss of his dearest friend, Enkidu which results in Gilgamesh wandering the wild in search of the one who can teach him of the secrets to unlock immortality, Uta-napishti. Gilgamesh must travel an immense distance to reach Uta-napishti and sail across a vast ocean using punting poles. The demi-god escapes death and barely reaches Uta-napishti who informs him that he must complete several trials in order to have his wish of immortality granted. Gilgamesh fails to complete the tasks required of him by the immortal Uta-napishti but realizes

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the first epic poem to be written in ancient West Asia. It was written around the third millennium BCE in Mesopotamia by Sumerian people (Spodek, 127). The epic is based on actual an historical figure, a Sumerian king who reigned the city-state of Uruk around third millennium BCE. Ashurbanipal, the last Neo-Assyrian king who was literate, built a great library in his capital and preserved 20,000 tablets including the earliest complete version of The Epic of Gilgamesh (Spodek, 128). Sumerian attitudes towards gods, friendship, and the story of the great flood are revealed throughout the epic.

Literature, art, and music have always found ways to transcend the physical barriers and borders humans put up. They influence cultures other than the ones of their origins. Similarities between religions, mythologies, and folk stories have been noted often throughout time by academics and historians. The holy texts of some major religions like The Old Testament and the Quran share many overlapping literary themes and events with older religions and folk tales, like the ancient Sumerian poem; “The Epic of Gilgamesh”. Many examples of overlapping themes is the presence and references to great floods, supernatural influences, otherworldly gardens, and battles between good and evil. Not only do these shared themes point to an innate psychology present in all people in every culture, but perhaps even to a direct influence of “The Epic of Gilgamesh” on these holy texts.