Essay Sample on Identity Pursuit in the Gilgamesh Mythological Story

Introduction

An intrinsic and ensuring affection to a fellow individual is a nice thing. A friendship founded on true love ought to be the aim of every individual. Gilgamesh is an epic that shows much about the persistent tussle about love, morality, humility, arrogance, the meaning of life and death. The various messages presented in this epic are significant today as they were for the intended audience. A human personality comes into completeness through a gradual process of changes both consciously and unconsciously.

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In most cases, these changes occur at hectic periods of a person's life for example during adolescent or the youth stage. Moreover, the changes can also take place through interpersonal relationships causing anxiety or intent satisfaction. The epic of Gilgamesh can be viewed as an illustration of a manner that personal interactions can lead to a more content association with self.

In the epic, Gilgamesh the Uruk King and Enkidu a wild man living in plains have been joined together by true love. The strength of their bond was destined to change each one's lives. Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relation is a demonstration of male dominance over women through similar-sex love (Abusch 618). Men discard women relations and choose to have the company of their fellow men. Sumerian society seems to have been patrilineal, however, women played significant roles in the religious domain, and they were celebrated more often. For instance, Ishtar's temple and her close connection with the goddess is mention before all males in the epic. The refusal of women by Gilgamesh and Enkidu depicts men's opposition of the female powers and an endeavor to overcome the inferiority feelings caused by female powers.

Gilgamesh demonstrates superiority battles between men and women long before he meets Enkidu. Although Gilgamesh is Uruk's ruler, he is ruled by Ishtar who is the most important deity and the goddess of fertility. In opposition to her power and sexuality, Gilgamesh turns to dominate mortal women by holding as his sexual slaves. He literary have sex with women irrespective of their marital status. The people of the city are unhappy for Gilgamesh acts; thus they invite the gods to mend the condition since he has abandoned the expected kingship styles:

"Is this the shepherd or Uruk's flocks, our strength, our light, our reason, who hoards the girls of other men for his purpose"(Jackson 3)."

In reply, the gods call Aruru the goddess of formation to make another man Enkidu

"In the image of Gilgamesh as quick in heart and as strong in the arm so that these counterforces might first engage, then disengage and finally let Uruk's children live in peace"(Jackson 4)."

Enkidu has an animal nature that is opposite to that of Gilgamesh. Animals accept him as one of their herds. However, he demonstrates human intelligence by the calculated destruction of the hunter's traps. Some hunters perceive him as a civilized being and propose that he should not be living with the animals. As such, he is brought to live with a temple prostitute whose mission is to teach him civilization and bring him closer to human beings. Enkidu's sexual encounter ushers him into the paternal civilized world, and this marks his turning point (George 41). Enkidu's life with the temple harlot helps him to understand the feminine qualities he possesses. The woman becomes Enkidu's mediator between his feminine qualities and masculine features helping him to balance the two.

The balance between Enkidu's feminine and masculine qualities depicts a likelihood of a homosexual relationship between him and Gilgamesh. In Gilgamesh fist two reams Enkidu is described as a woman. In the first dream, Gilgamesh hugs him in a manner a man would cuddle woman he loves best. In the second dream, Enkidu is described to bend towards the ax depicting various interest. Enkidu is described as being young, wholesome, and ready as a woman (George 67). When Enkidu hears that Gilgamesh is ready to have sex with another man's bride, he is annoyed as a jealous lover. Enkidu invites Gilgamesh for a wrestling challenge which ends in a draw, and each one respects the other's ability.

"Then Enkidu and Gilgamesh joined in sacred friendship and sealed their solemn bond with a noble kiss"(Jackson 20).

A feeling of destiny is an essential part of self- individualism process. The temple harlot had instilled a sense of future in Enkidu by telling him that Gilgamesh had dreamt about him before his coming. Enkidu's faith in his friendship with the whore urged him to continue his journey to Uruk. The whole had accorded him the motivation to raise his self-esteem necessary for self-discovery and which consequently helped Gilgamesh in the self-realization process.

Gilgamesh is an autocratic ruler, and his subjects are obliged to call for help from the gods. Being a conqueror his mystical advance is imperfect and has to look for the remaining factors. He gets himself into much trouble because he has a part of spirituality. His birth allows him to inherit dual worlds, but he is unable to fit in any. Since he is below a god in ranking, he is unable to form a relationship with humans. He seems like an outcast in his city due to his inability to stabilize his responsibilities both as an authoritative being and a society member. The coming of Enkidu who was thought to be Gilgamesh's equivalent opened a new way for the king's life.

Gilgamesh is a perfect warrior and hero because of his ability and skill in war and instruments of war. He can overcome any enemy both by intimidation and force. Gilgamesh gets inspiration from the friendship he develops with Enkidu. Since he must struggle to overcome the female superiority in the city, he draws motivation from the friendship he develops with Enkidu. Gilgamesh does not turn to sexual harassment and rape to express his rejection of all female powers in town. Instead, he turns to his daring explorations with his freshly revealed self.

After a while, Gilgamesh develops the desire to overcome Humbaba, the cedar forest protector. There is no explicit reason why Gilgamesh feels to overcome Humbaba. It is just a heroic urge that drives him to that act. In some books, Humbaba is depicted as being offensive to Shamash, the Gilgamesh patron god. Therefore, Gilgamesh is trying to fight for his father. The sun god leads and helps the king in his entire exploration. The episode illustrates the city dwellers' urge to overpower nature and to instill conformity to civilization values (Abusch 617). Enkidu is the guide as he is more acquainted with nature compared to Gilgamesh. Enkidu's feminine qualities are suppressed since survival in nature requires violence. The conflicts between nature and culture are visible when Gilgamesh thinks that his act of defeating the monster will earn him status in society.

Gilgamesh is more used to city life. During the journey, he begins to have disturbing dreams that question the mission of their destination. Previously, Enkidu imagined that they would die in the course of fighting the monster. However, Gilgamesh had encouraged him citing that mortals are designed to die, but the deeds of brave men remain forever. In the course of the journey Gilgamesh starts to lose hope and Enkidu encourages him saying:

"Brother your song is a fine omen, this dream will make you well, brother that vision you saw is rich, for on that mountain top we can capture Humbaba and hurl his earthly form from towering cliffs through the sky to earth"(Jackson 29).

Gilgamesh feels deep love for his newly found identity and forms a basis for changing his way of life.

Both Enkidu and Gilgamesh exhibit striking differences in their personalities. Gilgamesh has not yet known how to integrate those characteristics that give Enkidu spiritual completeness in his character. On his journey, Enkidu revived the formal animalistic tendencies that enabled him to traverse the adventure with ease. When the dual protagonists make Humbaba kneel in defeat, he pleads for his life promising his lumber and servitude for exchange. Enkidu compels Gilgamesh to kill Humbaba by saying "Kill the beast now, Gilgamesh shows no weak mercy towards so sly the foe." Gilgamesh civilization values make him believe that decreasing the mammoth to helplessness is enough evidence of his preeminence.

On the other hand, Enkidu has some traces of animalism. He wants Humbaba to be killed. Enkidu seems to forget that during their first fight he was at such a situation and if Gilgamesh handled him ruthlessly he would not have survived.

Enkidu and Gilgamesh return to Urku bearing their cedar wood trophy. It is known that Gilgamesh is the one who killed Humbaba. Upon hearing this, goddess Ishtar becomes infatuated and approached him for a marriage proposal. Ishtar presents herself in a godlike status to please Gilgamesh who has a desire for such females.

"Come to my home most sweetly scented of all places, where holy faces wash your feet with tears as do the priests and priestesses of gods like Anu. All almighty hands of kings and queens will open doors for you" (Jackson 33).

At this point, Gilgamesh considers females as immaterial in a warrior's life. As such he rejects Ishtar's proposal in an appropriate manner. Moreover, he goes forward to remember her undesirable features:

"Ishtar's the hearth gone cold, a broken door without the gold, tar that can't be washed away, a god's sandal filled with piss"(Jackson 34).

He proceeded to remind her of her former lover's miseries.Ishtar is angered by Gilgamesh's comments, and she organizes for the bull of heaven to cause trouble on Gilgamesh's kingdom. Gilgamesh's marriage rejection is admissible because in such a relationship it is the woman who will be the lead. Gilgamesh as the male would be obliged to rest at home having no powers. His male mentality cannot allow him to be dominated by a female (Beckman 902). At this point, female goddesses willing to be responsible wives have been created. Gilgamesh masculine personality has not been connected with the feminine nature; thus he is afraid of everything that Ishtar has to offer. If Gilgamesh accepts Ishtar's proposal, then he would be acting to fulling his selfish and lustful desires. As such, the king to reject the passion within himself and deny the wild desires pushing him to do so.

The bull of heaven is released to the people of Uruk. As their king, Gilgamesh must protect them. Moreover, if all the people perish, he would have nobody to rule. Both the king and Enkidu understand the prospective dangers posed by the bull. As such, they agree to work in harmony to remove the impending danger that may be caused by the bull of heaven. Enkidu is worried at first as to how they would destroy a power from the goddess. However, he gathers courage and defeats the bull. The masculine personality of the two heroes' works together to gain the victory (Kluger 42). Gilgamesh understands himself more from this encounter. He got a sense of self-importance and saw himself as a conqueror of nature and monsters. Truly he has proved his physical powers, but he has failed terribly to show himself as a conscious person towards others. His bravery is carnal and needs to be spiritualized for his life to make sense.

The two beings emphasize the significant of physical heroism. Gilgamesh takes the bull's horns and makes them into ritual vessels to be used by a male deity. At the same time, Enkidu unleashes strong words to the female goddess Ishtar. Enkidu throws the bull's thigh at the place where Ishtar stands and tells her that he would tie her with the bull's innards and similarly terminate her. Pawns attempt to disobey the determination of the gods and force the gods to terminate one of the heroes. Having attained a point of self-realization, Enkidu dreams being in a council of goddesses an...