Epic Themes In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

In fact, nearly every culture where religion has been hailed as a way of life, sacrifice is present. Some examples of well known religions with sacrificial ways are Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism. The nuances that each religion implemented in their specific rituals may vary, but the initial concept stands that religion and sacrifice are closely related. One of the earliest examples of sacrifice, or libation as it is termed by the ancient Greeks, can be found in the story of Cain and Abel, in which Abel, the shepherd, offered to God the finest of his firstborn sheep. Cain, the worker of the land, brought to God some of his harvest.

This is compared to the second pillar of Enuma Elish where it states, “He created the evil wind, and the tempest, and the hurricane…He sent forth the winds which he had created.” He was looking over His creation, not just earth but all of the foundation of the universe. Now in Enuma Elish Marduk the Babylonian god is said to have created the earth as a purpose to serve the gods, which he did with Ea, his father who helped him create humans. Even though both stories do end up with the creation of earth the way they got there is a bit different. In Genesis it is stated that only one God created all of life but in Enuma Elish it was said that there were multiple gods whom have worked with individual jobs. In the Cosmogony, the first part of Enuma Elish that described the creation of the universe, Apsu and Tiamat were the only two gods who existed in the beginning of the story but were only set of water.

Anthropological Argument (Acts 17:28-29) All human beings are children of God in the creation sense. Intelligence, conscience, belief, moral nature. We all have many things in common, we all sin, have fear. This points to a common originator. There is a twisted reflection of God because of the fall, but still we reflect God.

The epic begins with a detailed description of the unique creation of Gilgamesh and his internal and external attributes. According to the author, “When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body. Shamash the glorious sun endowed him with beauty, Adad the god of the storm endowed him with courage, the great gods made his beauty perfect, surpassing all others, terrifying like a great wild bull. Two thirds they made him god and one third man”. This comprehensive description of the unnatural nature of Gilgamesh introduces him as the hero in the epic.

In the bible it states that they split things up from good to bad, light, dark. God said “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear” So God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas. For Greek creation it doesn’t really state the way they split things up but it does say that “Then out of the void appeared Erebus, the unknowable place where death dwells, and Night. All else was empty, silent, endless, darkness. Then somehow Love was born bringing a start of order.” so the Gods that created the Earth in Greek Mythology kind of just made the rules on their own.

Heidel belittles resemblance within the stories though with the claim, “Add to this the doctrine that man was created in the image of a holy and righteous God, to be the lord of the earth, the air, and the sea, and …that make all similarities shrink into utter insignificance” (Heidel 140). In the biblical account, mankind is made from dust by God

The story of Morte D’Arthur and the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail Share a similar idea but tell a slightly different story. The characters may be similar, but were each trying to complete a different task at the time. The Stories each have different levels of seriousness and determination. Each of the stories do contain some similarities like how even though it is not mentioned in the short story of Morte D’Arthur the holy grail is still a relevant part of the entire story. Both of the stories are unique and tell a story in King Arthurs life in a very different way that makes each of them unique.

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).

In the beginning of The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh’s brief lineage is explained: “[s]on of Lugalbanda, Gilgamesh, perfect in strength, Son of the lofty cow, the wild cow Ninsun.” The author goes on to state that “Belet-ili designed the shape of his body.” Gilgamesh is said to be hand-crafted by the gods and is two-thirds divine. This is often his excuse to act as if he were three-thirds divine. In his killing of Humbaba and dogged pursuit of immortality, Gilgamesh is committing sacrilegious acts, even though he is said to be closely related to the gods themselves. In Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Jake is often seen as the hero and sometimes even the office clown. This causes the captain quite a bit of grief.

Archetypes have persisted in literary works through the sands of time and continue to be used to this day. Throughout traditional and modern literature, the formulaic structure of myths and the use of archetypes has been utilized in a consistent manner. Although many would argue that the universal use of archetypes has been erratic and intermittent through time, the use of the major hero and mentor archetypes within the tale of King Arthur and The Odyssey, and the refined usage of archetypes in modern literature, exhibit the universality of archetypes in different cultures and time periods. The hero archetype in both the tale of King Arthur and The Odyssey exemplify its universal use in British and Greek culture respectively. Although each