Gilgamesh

The Character that I chose out of the Epic of Gilgamesh was in fact Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh was born two-thirds divine and one-third human, so he was more than human. He was also the King of Uruk in about 2700 B.C.E.; which most people thought that he was a bad king because he worried about himself more than his people. His selfishness was. So bad that he had to sleep with the brides to be of Uruk. Because of his selfishness, the gods wanted to punish Gilgamesh and make him learn a lesson. The lesson he learned was that to appreciate life. I do in fact identify with some of the lessons and characteristics that Gilgamesh represents. To this day, this epic still has valid lessons that we as people use and know everyday.

The significance of Gilgamesh was that he was a self-center king who wanted nothing to do with the welfare of his people. He slept with brides to be an all of the bride's mates, just because he was king and he made it a law. He was not interested in important issues in Uruk that needed to be addressed. When he met Enkidu, who was supposed to kill Gilgamesh; they befriended. Later, Ishtar the goddess of war and love, asked Gilgamesh to marry her. Gilgamesh refused her proposal based on the fact that she slept around with animals, then threw them away like rag dolls. Upon refusal of the proposal, Ishtar wanted to get revenge on Gilgamesh and the best way to do that was to send a bull down to kill him. Gilgamesh and Enkidu cut off the "thigh" of the bull and threw it into Ishtar's face. Since Ishtar is part deity, Gilgamesh insulted a god. Then the gods come down and kill Enkidu, and then Gilgamesh decided to go on a spiritual journey to find immortality. He is given two tests by Utnaptism to obtain a immortal life. Gilgamesh fails both tests horribly and learns to appreciate life and to live life like it was his last day.

I identify with the lessons that Gilgamesh represents, that he learned how to live life day by day and to appreciate life itself. He also learned how to become an unselfish king. He started to care about the underlying issues of the city of Uruk. People of Uruk noticed a change in their king and they liked what they were seeing. I can identify with these lessons by the means of learning from one's past to improve one's future.

People today still hold these lessons learned from the epic of Gilgamesh. By the means of learning from the past mistakes, by living

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