Hokey Pokey Anonymous: how Gilgamesh turned himself around
Spencer Wood
When we discussed Gilgamesh in class, I was pretty upset at first because we kept relating Gilgamesh to a hero, and I could only see him as a villain. Looking at his actions, I'm not wrong. Gilgamesh is an awful human being; he steals, kills, destroys, has no respect for others, and only cares for himself.
Until Enkidu.
Because of the pain that Enkidu felt when he was cast out of the wild, he was given empathy. Now, Gil does not know empathy because he has never been hurt. Until Enkidu. This was not an immediate revelation, Enkidu had to die for gil to understand. And just in case you missed it, Gil fell into great despair when his friend died. It is this despair that brought the revelation to Gil.
I believe that it is not everlasting youth that Gil wants to bring to the people, but empathy is the elixir. I think that Gil wanted so badly for this feeling to impact his people that he was willing to live eternally with the pain of loss just so he could share the knowledge that he gained from his friend.
P.S. I commented on AnnaKate and Zelda
When we discussed Gilgamesh in class, I was pretty upset at first because we kept relating Gilgamesh to a hero, and I could only see him as a villain. Looking at his actions, I'm not wrong. Gilgamesh is an awful human being; he steals, kills, destroys, has no respect for others, and only cares for himself.
Until Enkidu.
Because of the pain that Enkidu felt when he was cast out of the wild, he was given empathy. Now, Gil does not know empathy because he has never been hurt. Until Enkidu. This was not an immediate revelation, Enkidu had to die for gil to understand. And just in case you missed it, Gil fell into great despair when his friend died. It is this despair that brought the revelation to Gil.
I believe that it is not everlasting youth that Gil wants to bring to the people, but empathy is the elixir. I think that Gil wanted so badly for this feeling to impact his people that he was willing to live eternally with the pain of loss just so he could share the knowledge that he gained from his friend.
P.S. I commented on AnnaKate and Zelda
I like your thought process. Empathy could absolutely be the elixir! Empathy is what he gained from his journey. It was his true prize. Gilgamesh discovered empathy, but he discovered it a bit too late. And now we'll never know if he would've changed how he ruled his land, because the snake ate his magic plant.
ReplyDeleteEmpathy is one of if not the most interesting of human emotions. It is complicated and probably the most human emotion of them all. In the animal kingdom in general, if a fish gets eaten by another bigger fish, that bigger fish doesn't really care. We as humans seem to care a lot more about each other's well being than other creatures. I think that is why Gilgamesh struggles with empathy because he is two-thirds god and isn't fully human. It is only after he realizes his inevitable death and accepts his own humanity that he becomes empathetic.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very interesting thought, and I don't disagree in any way. I didn't think about whether he was doing it for the people or just for himself. You made him even kinder than I assumed him to be.
ReplyDeletealternate title- Uruk: Becoming Human
ReplyDelete