Darmok

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest pieces of writing which was discovered by people, so far. It was written in around 1000B.C.E in the Near East region in ancient Mesopotamia. Similarly, Genesis is one of the best books known worldwide which was written in around 400 B.C.E. In addition, it came from the region of Mesopotamia.

The Epic of Gilgamesh presents the polytheistic world where gods and goddesses play a big role. Even if they hold great power and are able to influence people’s actions, sometimes they are weak and imperfect. Also, mortal people and immortal gods have many things in common. They both experience positive and negative feelings such as love, happiness, and anger. For example, when Gilgamesh refuses to marry goodness Ishtar “in a fury she went up to the heavens, going to Anu, her father, and crying, going to Antum, her mother, and weeping” (A 77). Correspondingly, Genesis also describes the world where God plays a big role. However, he is the only monotheistic God and other gods don’t exist. In addition, he is the God who holds all the power; thus, everything depends on his will. For example, he says “Let there be light. And there was light” (A 29). Moreover, he doesn’t have many things in common with mortal people whom he created.

Both readings mention the flood; however, the reason of it is different. In the Epic of Gilgamesh people multiply very fast and earth become too noisy. Gods can’t stand that situation and send flood to destroy human beings. Gods choose a mortal human being, Utnapishtim, to create a ship and collect the pairs of all animals existing in the world. He says “I had all my kith and kin go up into the boat, all the beasts, and animals of the field” (A 92).  In addition, gods let him to protect his family and craftsmen “and the craftsmen I had go up” who have a great amount of knowledge which can be reused later on (A 92). On the other hand, Genesis talks about flood from different perspective. It is a punishment for people who want to be equal to God. “And the Lord saw that the evil of the human creature was great on the earth and that every scheme of his heart’s devising was only perpetually evil. And Lord regretted having made the human on earth” (A 34). As a result, he lets Noah to build an arc and collect the pairs of all animals existing in the world. God says to Noah “and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and the wives of your sons, with you. And from all that lives, from all flesh, two of each thing you shall bring to the ark to keep alive with you, male and female they shall be” (A 34).  Also, Noah family is one who survives and populates the earth.

             The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis have many things in common. Both of them were written in antique period and are very well known. The Epic of Gilgamesh was evolved over the course of many centuries and it is about three thousand years old. Similarly, Genesis was written before the birth of Jesus Christ and it’s about two thousand and four hundred years old.
            A flood is the unifying similarity that both share; however, the reasons are different. In the Epic of Gilgamesh gods get angry at the human kind because they produce enormous amount of noise. Thus, gods send flood to destroy people. However, they let the mortal Utnapishtim to create an ark and save his family and animals. Utnapishtim says “I had all my kith and kin go up into the boat, all the beasts, and animals of the field” (A 92). In addition, he takes craftsman to save the existence of knowledge for next generations. In Genesis, God sends flood because people want to be equal to him. He decides to destroy them and says “the end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with outrage by them…I am now about to destroy them” (A 6). However, he lets Noah to construct an ark for saving his family and animals to populate the earth after the flood.
            The Epic of Gilgamesh describes polytheistic world; whereas, in Genesis, only one God is presented. Gods in the Epic of Gilgamesh are immortal and they have many things in common with mortal human beings, for example, characters and behaviors. They have similar emotion, such as, happiness, sadness, anger and sexual desire. Some of them also have the urge to make relationship with human being as goddess Ishtar “Come along, Gilgamesh, be you my husband” (A 75). In Genesis, the immortal God doesn’t have anything in common with people. In addition, he holds absolute power and he wants to regulate everything according to his rule. For instance, he says, “For in seven days’ time I will make it rain on the earth forty days and forty nights and I will wipe out from the face of earth and all existing things that I have made” (A 35).

I never knew that there was another flood than the one in genesis. It is so impressive how the two stories are identical. For example, in both stories something angers the gods in Gilgamesh and God in Genesis. In Gilgamesh the gods decide to destroy mankind because they are making noise, which I don’t understand because being gods they should have the power to intercept noise. In genesis, God decides to destroy mankind because he sees “that the evil of the human creature was great on the earth and that every scheme of his heart’s devising was only perpetually evil.” (A, 34) 

Another similarity between the two histories is the amount of people God and the gods decide to save. In both accounts, one good man Utanapishtim from Gilgamesh and Noah from Genesis are selected and ordered to build a boat or an ark. In Genesis God decides to save Noah because he “found favor in the eyes of the LORD.” (A, 34) So Noah is the only person elected by God to create the future of humankind. In Gilgamesh, Ea informs Utanapishtim in a dream that he will be the one to help civilization to survive. However, there is a small difference between the two histories. For example, in Genesis Noah decides to take his family members and no other human beings, but in Gilgamesh Utanapishtim takes his family and the craftsman. 

            Also in both accounts when the boat or the ark comes to a stop after the flood, Noah and Utanapishtim send out birds to find out if it is safe to come out from the boat or ark. Utanapishtim  sends out three different birds, the first was a dove but it returned, then he sends a swallow and the bird also returns, finally he sends out a raven and the bird finds land and never returns. In Genesis, Noah sends out a raven but the bird didn’t find land and returns to him, then he send a dove the first time the bird didn’t find land and returns to the ark, the second time the dove didn’t return.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the story of Utanapishtim is similar to Noah from the Holy Bible’s first book, Genesis, in a few ways. Both Noah and Utanapishtim face the same problem, the flood that wipes out humanity. Utanapishtim is given a blueprint from the gods of an arc he must build. God also tells Noah how he must build his arc, even though his is much bigger than Utanapishtim’s.

Noah is also instructed by God to bring “… his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives…” and every animal, each with a mate.  (pg. 35) Utanapishtim brings similar people and animals, but with a twist. The Epic states,

“I had all my kith and kin go up into the boat,

All the beasts and animals of the field and the craftsmen I had go up.” (pg. 92, lines 80-81)

Utanapishtim brings along the craftsmen so, when the flood is over, they can rebuild cities. Noah is not interested in bringing craftsmen. He only wants to follow what God orders.

God believes humankind is evil and regrets creating them, so he must cleanse the Earth with a flood. Genesis states, “And the LORD saw that the evil of the human creature was great on the earth… And the LORD said, ‘I will wipe out the human race I created from the face of the earth… for I regret that I have made them.’” (pg. 34) This was not the case with the gods from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Utanapishtim says, “

“The hearts of the Great Gods moved them to inflict the Flood.”

The gods did not create the flood because humans were evil. They did it because they wanted to and they thought it was the right thing to do.

Even though the gods and God created the flood for different reasons, Utanapishtim and Noah went about saving themselves in similar ways.

Gilgamesh and Genesis

Though created approximately 650 years apart, The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis actually have some similarities and differences. The Old Babylon Epic of Gilgamesh was written around 1200 B.C.E where Genesis was written in 950 B.C.E. These two particular stories are vital to literature and I am glad we compared them.

The first difference between the two stories is that Gilgamesh builds the country of Uruk himself, where in Genesis Adam and Eve’s surroundings in the very beginning are already provided. Gilgamesh’s gods granted him the knowledge to do this. “He carved on a stone stela all of his toils, and built the wall of Uruk-Haven, the wall of the sacred Eanna Temple, the holy sanctuary.” (A91)  In Genesis, God creates life for Adam and Eve. This difference also leads to the amount of knowledge the deities in each story allow. In Genesis, God puts a limit on how much knowledge the people can have. God tells Noah he can only bring his family to join the Ark so that God can provide. In Gilgamesh, Utanapishtim brings his family, but also the craftsmen to create a new foundation. Also, Genesis says, “And the Lord said, As one people with one language for all, if this is what they have begun to do, nothing they plot will elude them.” (A60) This shows that God wanted to remind the people that He is Creator and He has the power.  

Although having different meanings, in each flood story a plant portrays a small, but important part. “Urshanabi, this plant is a plant against decay by which a man can attain his survival.” (A129) In Genesis, “And the dove came back to him at eventide and, look, a plucked olive leaf was in his bill, and Noah knew that the waters had abated from the earth.” (A58)

 Another similarity is that both gods’ were angry with their people and created floods that wiped out the world besides the particular people chosen to survive. Genesis says, “And God saw the earth, and look, it was corrupt, for all flesh has corrupted its ways on the earth. And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with outrage by them, and I am now about to destroy them, with the earth.” (A56) Both Noah and his family and Utanapishtim and his family, were left with a new world to create and start all over.

The story of the Flood is one of the most intense scenes in both “Genesis” and the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, which proves an obvious connection between the two works.

In Genesis, the monotheistic God decides to destroy humankind due to the people’s wickedness: “every scheme of his heart’s devising [is] only perpetually evil” (p.34). On the other hand, the polytheistic Gods of the Shuruppak, without any particular reason other than the excessive human noisiness, have their hearts “moved … to inflict the flood” (p. 91), so there will be “no man … to survive the annihilation” (p. 94). By pure luck, Utanapishtim is chosen by the God Ea to survive the flood. However, the God in Genesis purposely cautions Noah as he is the only righteous and blameless man on the Earth. The two survivors are given directions and measurements on how to built the ark, they are also advised what kind of species to bring with them. Both Noah and Utanapishtim take on the boat their wives and children, as well as two of each animal. Unlike Noah, Utanapishtim also takes with him the craftsmen that will preserve the knowledge of the human civilization and will help to rebuild it. After “six days and seven nights” (p. 93) in the Epic and “hundred and fifty days” (p.35) in Genesis all human beings are “wiped out from the earth” (Damrosch, p. 35) and “turned to clay” (Damrosch, p. 93) (the material that both Enkidu and Adam are made of).

However, feeling guilty for diminishing the people, the Gods of Shuruppak reward Utanapishtim and his wife with immortality and make them like Gods. Similarly, as the Lord in Genesis smells the odor of the sacrifices, He also thinks that He “will not again strike down all livings”. The Lord blesses Noah and his family and tells them to be fruitful and multiply. So, it is obvious that the story of the Flood in both works represents a symbol of the endless powers of Gods and the weakness of humankind.

The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis hold many parallels. The premise of these stories are the God’s punishments when humans need to be disciplined. The epic featured Gilgamesh, who oppressed his people. The Gods sent Enkidu as their way to straighten out Gilgamesh. In Genesis, the book illustrates the Gods punishments for humans inappropriate actions.

In both stories, the people share the same consequence, a flood. In Gilgamesh, Utanapishtim is ordered by the Gods to save himself and other living beings. “Make all living being go up into the boat.” (A, 91)” The same order was given to Noah in Genesis. Noah brought his family, and two of each animal, so the animals would be able to recreate. Once significant difference between the extra travlers on the ship was that Utanapishtim also brought a craftsmen. The craftsmen is a symbol of knowledge. Noah neglected to bring a craftsmen. Therefore, Noah was unable to preserve knowledge. Also, the flood in Genesis was far more severe. “For in seven days’ time I will make it rain on the earth forty days and forty nights and I will wipe out from the face of the earth all existing things that I have made.” (A, 35). 

The main similarity in themes is the Gods superioriority over humanity. However, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, there were many Gods who were all powerful. In Genesis, it was monotheistic book, meaning only one God is all powerful.

                    While reading The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Book of Genesis, readers are introduced to the powers of a deity. Both writings expound on the theme of a “higher” power and their significance to humanity. Both books share the idea that a god created the world, but the Epic, unlike Genesis, introduces readers to the practice of polytheism. The Epic talks of an array of gods, the sky god, Anu, the god of war, Nintura, and the sun god, Shamash. In contrast, the Book of Genesis builds upon the concept of monotheism; the belief in one god . Another similarity of both writings is the illustration of how man was created. On page 61 of the Epic we are told that “Aruru washed her hands, pinched off some clay and threw it into the wilderness. In the wilderness she created valiant Enkidu”. On page 30 of Genesis we learn that God created man from soil.

              A second theme we extract from both stories is the idea of punishment. When mankind acts in defiance of the gods they are punished. We see this when Enkidu is sentenced to death for killing the bull of heaven and disrespecting the goddess Ishtar. In Genesis we observe God’s punitive nature as a result of Adam’s and Eve’s tasting of the forbidden fruit. God banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, punishes Eve with harsh labor and delivery during child birth, and imposes a life of manual labor for Adam. Despite the similarities in the two books, readers are entertained by the sheer differences between them.