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The Moral Virtue In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

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Throughout history, human values have long existed and evolved with the emergence of several civilizations. Human values are desirable moral standards manifested in people to guide and motivate behaviors in interacting with others. Several historic narrations and writings were brought up by introducing concepts on the ability of human nature to overcome obstacles through the achievement of high moral virtue. One of the earliest written scriptures to discuss the reality of human nature was a famous mythological story in Mesopotamia known as The Epic of Gilgamesh. The epic discussed the shift from following one’s desires to gaining wisdom and thriving to serve the entire community. Multiple ancient philosophers have invested significant thought …show more content…

The protagonist’s core values altered exponentially from arrogance to despair to realism. These three phases played an essential role in reaching the virtues of wisdom and ultimate happiness. Gilgamesh was a tyrant ruler who primarily sought his desires. However, the gods led him towards Enkidu, where the notion of friendship and the power of companionship exhibited a significant development to influence his course of action in the epic. After Enkidu dreamed about the underworld underlining the weakness of man in front of destiny and his eventual death, Gilgamesh went through a phase of despair and contemplation over death. On the quest to find immortality, he encountered Siduri, who endowed him with pieces of wisdom to appreciate the majesty of his city and to go back to create a new world for himself and serve its people. However, his persistence in finding the truth failed and led him to reach an impasse of either going back to his egoistic self or returning to the city and exhibiting altruism towards his subjects. Gilgamesh’s pursuit to conquer death steered him into becoming a philosophical hero where one’s true purpose of happiness is guided towards accepting life’s destiny and becoming a human-being fueled with the virtue of wisdom and the service of

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