Gilgamesh

In The Epic , Gilgamesh is “two-thirds god and one-third human.” Therefore he has strength and power above the people of Uruk. Enkidu is created and taken to meet Gilgamesh, so that there will be someone who can stand up to his powers and greatness. However, when Gilgamesh meets Enkidu and becomes friends with him he decides to go out on a quest to kill Humbaba with Enkidu, because he knows that with their strengths combinded they will be able to defeat him and create a name for themselves. After this is done they go on to kill the Bull of Heaven which is sent on them by Princess Ishtar. These acts of killing anger the God’s who decide to have their revenge against Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

“In my dream Anu, Enlil, and Shamash held a council, and Anu spoke to Enlil: ‘Because they killed the Bull of Heaven and have also slain Humbaba, the one of them who pulled up the Cedar of the Mountain must die!’ Enlil said: ‘Let Enkidu die, but Gilgamesh must not die!'” (Gilgamesh, 79)

Therefore even though it was Gilgamesh’s idea to go out on the quest to kill Humbaba and he was the one who brought the Bull of Heaven onto them, it was Enkidu who was going to be killed for it. This is similar to a big topic in the news today. Many United States citizens are holding a grudge against Muslims because of the attack on the World Trade Center. People are threatening to burn books pertaining to the religion as well as protest the building of an Islamic religious center near the 9/11 memorial. This is unfair because the terroist group who preformed the attack on the United States is a very small fraction of people who study that religion. The United States is a diverse country with a wide variety of religions and to categorize the Muslim community here because of that small group is unfair. The Muslim citizens in the United States are as innocent as every other citizen and to hold them and their religion responsible is completely unethical.

“We’ve got millions of Muslim Americans, our fellow citizens, in this country,” Mr. Obama said. “They’re going to school with our kids. They’re our neighbors. They’re our friends. They’re our co-workers. And when we start acting as if their religion is somehow offensive, what are we saying to them?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/us/politics/11obama.html?ref=us

(Obama Tries to Calm Religious Tensions”

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2 Responses to Gilgamesh

  1. EAllen says:

    Both Enkidu and those who subscribe to the Muslim faith are scapegoated. Enkidu must bear the punishment for actions incited by Gilgamesh, and there is a tendency among certain people to want to punish all Muslims for the actions of a tiny group. What are the differences between the two situations?

  2. I would say the differences are that Enkidu made a decision to go along with Gilgamesh where as the Muslims didn’t have control over all of the people of that religion. Enkidu was punished for something he did take part in, not all the Muslims wanted to take part in September eleventh. Although Enkidu did not come up with the idea to kill, he was as much involved in the attacks as Gilgamesh was I suppose.

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