Gilgamesh And Odysseus And What Makes Them Epic Hero's

Gilgamesh And Odysseus And What Makes Them Epic Hero's

Gilgamesh & Odysseus and What Makes Them Epic Hero’s

One archetype in literature is the epic hero. Two such heroes are Gilgamesh and Odysseus. Both were truly in epic their nature and both achieved the ultimate epic goal of becoming a better man. Although there are several characteristics of an epic hero,   the five that are the most prevalent are the quest, adversity, how they embody their culture,   super human or larger than life aspects and of course they always have some sort of flaw.
Gilgamesh’s quest is his search for everlasting life. It consumes him so completely at time that this can also be considered one of his flaws. He has many adversaries throughout his quest including Enkidu, Humbaba, most of the Gods and the bull of heaven. However, after a vicious fight Enkidu and Gilgamesh become friends and together they defeat Humbaba. Enkidu is then killed by the bull of heaven. This makes Gilgamesh’s pursuit of everlasting life that much closer to home for him.
Gilgamesh in many ways embodies the Sumerian culture of the time. The story was first found written on tablets which showed how Sumerian’s were passing on their stories from one generation to the next.   Another thing that is grasped from the story is the architecture. Gilgamesh has the walls in Uruk built. “In Uruk he built walls...The outer wall where the cornice runs...the inner wall has no equal” (13). From this statement and others in the book one can only imagine the glory Gilgamesh received for the building of these walls. This book also makes is apparent that in the time the book was written there was a belief of many God’s.
The superhuman aspect of Gilgamesh is not hard to figure out considering he is two thirds God. He was obviously vastly superior to other men and can find not worthy match in love or war. However, his flaw is that he is one third human. This poses to Gilgamesh his biggest struggle which is his want for everlasting life. Throughout the story...