I enjoyed reading the epic of gilgamesh. I thought the text would be too dense or cryptic and kind of expected it to be a chore. Thankfully reading through the text was a breeze.
There is a bias which can go something like entertainment from past can be outdated and boring. While it might be truish in most cases, in the case of gilgamesh it is anything but. Surprisingly, the narrative structure of gilgamesh flows like a big budget Hollywood blockbuster - hero introduction, sidekick introduction, battle between hero and sidekick, hero and sidekick becoming friends, go on adventures one by one, kill demons and bulls, death of a friend, fall of hero and comeback. But I think gilgamesh does something with its ending that I think no big hollywood movie would ever do(You might even say it "subverts" the typical superhero movie endings involving a big CGI carnage) - The hero not achieving his goal and instead getting a lecture on why his goal was stupid from the start.
My favorite section of the book does not involve any of the adventure or fights. It is the charming section where Gilgamesh roasts the goddess Ishtar in so many creative ways that her choice to take revenge seems understandable(lol).
Another theme that I was constantly aware throughout the book is the constant anxiety around death and its many forms. Gilgamesh is the strongest and bravest among all and everybody acknowledges the same but there are many instances Gilgamesh gets seized by death anxiety and does not know how to process. For example - On the way to kill Humbaba, Gilgamesh gets different types of dreams and it is clear that they are nightmares but Gilgamesh instead accepts the favorable interpretation of the dream that Enkidu gives. This raises question about whether if enkidu is only giving a favorable interpretation to soothe gilgamesh or do they not see that as a bad sign? This theme of death is made explicit at the end of the book with immortality and the great flood etc.
This book is a great start to the western canon and onwards to Egyptian book of the dead.
You're right that the Gilgamesh epic is a pretty easy read, if one can tolerate the lacunae and the repetitious language. And the emphasis in most of the story on combat does make the comparison to a Hollywood blockbuster apt. The plot seems almost simpleminded at times, with Gilgamesh experiencing the inevitably death as a novel existential crisis, a realization he comes to mainly due to the special resemblance between himself and Enkidu.
I also found the roasting of Ishtar amusing, especially the calling her a "half-door that blocks no wind or draft."
I actually didn't think of Gilgamesh's dreams as arising from anxiety, or Enkidu's interpretations as being an attempt to console him. I compared this incident, and the other times when a character has a dream that another character interprets, to the biblical story of Joseph, where it's clear that Joseph just is an astute interpreter of dreams. But your characterization is interesting and has something to recommend it. I didn't get into it above, but there are those who think Gilgamesh and Enkidu have some sort of homoerotic relationship, due in part to the prophecy of Gilgamesh's mother that he will love Enkidu "like a wife." Thank you for sharing your thoughts of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
>I actually didn't think of Gilgamesh's dreams as arising from anxiety, or Enkidu's interpretations as being an attempt to console him.
Here, I was referring to a specific form of anxiety which is death anxiety or a form of existential dread. Most times an individual does not feel that what they have is death anxiety. It manifests in weird ways. I would recommend some of the books of Irvin Yalom. You can start with Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy.
I'll look into those books; thank you very much. Gilgamesh doesn't vocalize his awareness of the inevitability of death until a while after the fight with Humbaba, but I assume the king of Uruk isn't stupid, so at least subconsciously he was probably capable of experiencing anxiety about death.
I enjoyed reading the epic of gilgamesh. I thought the text would be too dense or cryptic and kind of expected it to be a chore. Thankfully reading through the text was a breeze.
There is a bias which can go something like entertainment from past can be outdated and boring. While it might be truish in most cases, in the case of gilgamesh it is anything but. Surprisingly, the narrative structure of gilgamesh flows like a big budget Hollywood blockbuster - hero introduction, sidekick introduction, battle between hero and sidekick, hero and sidekick becoming friends, go on adventures one by one, kill demons and bulls, death of a friend, fall of hero and comeback. But I think gilgamesh does something with its ending that I think no big hollywood movie would ever do(You might even say it "subverts" the typical superhero movie endings involving a big CGI carnage) - The hero not achieving his goal and instead getting a lecture on why his goal was stupid from the start.
My favorite section of the book does not involve any of the adventure or fights. It is the charming section where Gilgamesh roasts the goddess Ishtar in so many creative ways that her choice to take revenge seems understandable(lol).
Another theme that I was constantly aware throughout the book is the constant anxiety around death and its many forms. Gilgamesh is the strongest and bravest among all and everybody acknowledges the same but there are many instances Gilgamesh gets seized by death anxiety and does not know how to process. For example - On the way to kill Humbaba, Gilgamesh gets different types of dreams and it is clear that they are nightmares but Gilgamesh instead accepts the favorable interpretation of the dream that Enkidu gives. This raises question about whether if enkidu is only giving a favorable interpretation to soothe gilgamesh or do they not see that as a bad sign? This theme of death is made explicit at the end of the book with immortality and the great flood etc.
This book is a great start to the western canon and onwards to Egyptian book of the dead.
You're right that the Gilgamesh epic is a pretty easy read, if one can tolerate the lacunae and the repetitious language. And the emphasis in most of the story on combat does make the comparison to a Hollywood blockbuster apt. The plot seems almost simpleminded at times, with Gilgamesh experiencing the inevitably death as a novel existential crisis, a realization he comes to mainly due to the special resemblance between himself and Enkidu.
I also found the roasting of Ishtar amusing, especially the calling her a "half-door that blocks no wind or draft."
I actually didn't think of Gilgamesh's dreams as arising from anxiety, or Enkidu's interpretations as being an attempt to console him. I compared this incident, and the other times when a character has a dream that another character interprets, to the biblical story of Joseph, where it's clear that Joseph just is an astute interpreter of dreams. But your characterization is interesting and has something to recommend it. I didn't get into it above, but there are those who think Gilgamesh and Enkidu have some sort of homoerotic relationship, due in part to the prophecy of Gilgamesh's mother that he will love Enkidu "like a wife." Thank you for sharing your thoughts of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
>I actually didn't think of Gilgamesh's dreams as arising from anxiety, or Enkidu's interpretations as being an attempt to console him.
Here, I was referring to a specific form of anxiety which is death anxiety or a form of existential dread. Most times an individual does not feel that what they have is death anxiety. It manifests in weird ways. I would recommend some of the books of Irvin Yalom. You can start with Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy.
I'll look into those books; thank you very much. Gilgamesh doesn't vocalize his awareness of the inevitability of death until a while after the fight with Humbaba, but I assume the king of Uruk isn't stupid, so at least subconsciously he was probably capable of experiencing anxiety about death.