What Interests Me the Most About Gilgamesh's Story

What Interests Me the Most About Gilgamesh's Story 

     As I was reading the preface (yes, I read the entire preface) I thought to myself, "How could so complex a story come out of civilizations so ancient?" I mean, think about it: This was three millennia ago. It is astonishing to see that this story even today is still relevant and interesting. This of course is not the only thing that sticks out to me about Gilgamesh, but it really impacts my mind to think about how an Epic such as this could be passed down through symbols written on tablets. It's as if God wanted us to hear this story. 

     Furthermore, I don't know if I'm the only person who reads this way, but I imagine the playing of the events in my head as I am reading, trying to picture it word by word (again, someone needs to make this a new movie). And the imagery of this epic is rather spectacular. I imagine being in a city surrounded by great walls, with large temples in the distance. A bustling city where culture thrives and while life might be unpredictable, it doesn't stop the people from enjoying it. Enter Gilgamesh. This is the guy that your girlfriend tells you not to worry about. Huge guy, unmatched in every way and completely superior over the normal people. I don't know about you all, but I would not want to mess with Gilgamesh. I would be concerned for my life if he would have come anywhere near me, because at first he was such a reckless ruler who could not have cared less about his people. I sympathize with the people when they cry out to the gods on account of Gilgamesh, and if I were living in that time and my entire life had been built around these gods being my only understanding for life, I would've been in that same boat. Enter Enkidu. I would literally be cheering for their friendship like Rick and Michonne in the Walking Dead. I ship it. 

It would be way too long of a blog if I continued, so I'll save all that jazz for later. 

     Lastly, if I were to learn something from this story, it would be the importance of companionship. Simply imagining the before and after effects of Enkidu entering Gilgamesh's life shows me that the right friends are there to make you a better person and help you realize who you are and who you need to be in the parts of life that you can do better in. Personally I've found that loneliness is the most difficult thing for someone to endure. Think about it this way: remember in Castaway where Tom Hanks created Wilson just to feel like he was less alone? (By the way I actually have a real-life Wilson, I'll bring it to class if you guys want to see him.) And while talking to Wilson in his cave, he developed the motivation to get out of the island, but most importantly Wilson kept him from really going crazy. In Gilgamesh, We see that Gilgamesh is so alone that he tries to use his power to find ways to fill his hole of loneliness. He sleeps with brides, and sacrifices children to give them to the gods, and does all of this stuff that basically endangers the people he is supposed to pour love into, serve and protect as a leader. He was clearly going crazy. Enter Enkidu, who finally talked some sense into our boy and calmed him down from all the crazy stuff he was doing. Not only did he do this for Gilgamesh, but he became someone to actually be there for him and fulfill this void that had never been filled in his life. 

Nevertheless, if this story doesn't show how important friendship is, I don't know what will. If you don't have friends, I want you guys to know that God has made an entire world of people, and that He is the ultimate best friend. So go and find an Enkidu to your Gilgamesh, or maybe even be an Enkidu to a Gilgamesh. And whatever you do, don't go crazy. 

I commented on Will and Zelda's post.