Gilgamesh paper

David P. Dixon

Humanities CRN 15246

Gilgamesh

01/11/14

Gilgamesh

       The story of Gilgamesh hints that man it self needed to find ways to explain things in the universe that they could not otherwise explain. The way Mesopotamians explained what they could not was by using gods. They thought gods most of cause everything good or bad for example floods and love. Mesopotamians prayed to gods to help them in their life. They seem to use gods to produce hope. If something bad happening or like Gilgamesh who took, what he wanted and no one could stop him. They prayed to the gods for help. They cling to gods for hope and by using gods for hope Mesopotamians were controlled by their hope which the hope was base on gods. In the story of Gilgamesh, you can see this come to light. People prayed that he would change, and they tell the story about how Gilgamesh got help from the gods

The gods answered their prays on Gilgamesh by seeding a friend to him. Then that friend dies and Gilgamesh had to face his mortality. Then he went on ajourney forever-lasting life, and then found out he could not reach everlasting life he has to face his mortality. When he faced his mortality, he changed his life. He became a good leader. I equate this to the story we all live. When we are young, we fight and search out power and sex, but as we get older, and we face mortality, we change. When we face mortality, we start looking at our life and what we have done. Then we start changing into manhood, instead of staying as a child. This story could be all about boyhood for all of us and how we grow into manhood.

      The story is familiar in many ways. You have this story in the Bible in the stories of Moses and Noah and so on, that you can compare this writing to and movies like Hercules. However, where it is most familiar to me is not the stories I have read, but the life I have lived. When I was boy like most boys, we thought were ten foot tall and bulletproof boys thought we are gods. We lack the idea of death. Therefore, we act as if we will live forever. In addition, as teenage boys, we tried to be the leader of the pack and we used bad ways and good ways to be the top dog. In addition, we tried to use sex as power like dogs do to one another and if we find someone trying to be top dog we try to shoot them down anyway we can good or bad. Then as we get older, and face death. Then we start search for more meaning of life. We search we have to fight battles inside our self like the Bull in Gilgamesh. These battles help us grow. I would say the story is more like a coming of age in life and realizing what matters. It about how we all change as we grow. I think Gilgamesh was child and this is his story on grow in to manhood.