Dec 2’2015
English 2800- Final paper
Epic of Gilgamesh and Enkidu with Achilles and Patroclus, Beowulf and Hrothgar.
In comparison, many scholars see similarity especially characters, marital settings as well as wanderings throughout the mythological worlds and to semi-divine mortals. The events in the character’s life do indeed cover a broad range of heroic epic encounters; however if it’s the character and psychological or emotional development of Gilgamesh that can lend light most on ancient heroic perspectives of death and mortality, especially when compared with Achilles. The hero Gilgamesh has existed throughout several phases of Mesopotamian civilization, although he generally has many of the same attributes. The earliest Gilgamesh stories seem to come from Sumerian texts, probably the most well-known and influential poems available.
In this epic, where the several episodes are linked together, provides a picture of a heroic king who undergoes development and comes to some sort of understanding of the world where he lives. Here in the Babylonian version of the hero Gilgamesh to whom the character of Achilles may best be compared. In comparing the characters, in the epic of Gilgamesh and Achilles, Gilgamesh changes and his nature is affected by the presence and loss of his comrade Enkidu, Enkidu’s nature is static. The nature of Achilles follows a similar pattern based around the presence and loss of his comrade Patroclus.
Achilles and Gilgamesh have some very basic similarities of their positions in life. Each is the son of a goddess and a mortal man, a king who happens to be far away from the action in the epic. Gilgamesh is described as two thirds God and one third human, which marks him out as a special kind of character who exists in relationship with both the divine world and the mortal world.
Achilles as the son of the Thetis has a special relationship which allows him to communicate with the Gods. Both characters are headstrong warriors; the epics do relate their preeminence in battle. Neither man is concerned with family life nor with romantic relationships with women, such things have no place in the epic hero’s life. The major relationships in each hero’s lives are with their mothers. It is from these relationships they gain the most wisdom and development
The characters Enkidu, Patroclus and Hrothgar are outwardly similar, static sidemen although they perish in different ways it is primarily their deaths that mold the lasting character and fame of their leader. Enkidu does develop more than the others and this may mean that he is a more complex character, or it may mean that the background and character of Patroclus and Hrothgar were simply well known and the necessity to explicitly develop him in the Iliad which is in extent did not exist. What we know about Enkidu is more satisfying. Enkidu was created by Gods as a revel to Gilgamesh and therefore younger. Gilgamesh was terrifying his subjects and the storm of his heart. So Uruk may be rested “Enkidu lives in the wild, uncivilized and runs with the beasts. On the other hand Patroclus comes to Phthia with his father Menoetius after accidentally killing a friend in a game of dice in order to find refuge and escape persecution. Both characters in their early life were violent, although they are not necessarily at fault for that violence, but it will shape their lives. They are also in a sense uncivilized, Enkidu literally and Patroclus because he has killed another human being for no reason and then fled that particular civilization’s jurisdiction to escape the consequences of his action. Both characters are also lower in rank than their leaders, who are both kings and semi-divine.
Heroes become responsible for the death of their comrade. Gilgamesh does not think or reflect about mortality until the death of Enkidu, where Achilles realized that glory can be taken away, depriving the dead for immortality. After the death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh was so desperate not to gain him in death as he knew he want be able to achieve heroic deeds.
These heroes provide examples for humans to deal with their own mortality and death of their comrades. Even they begin with next-figure at the end they were more human which helps readers to relocate to their own pain and experiences.
