Sunday, September 2, 2012

Epic of Gilgamesh reading blog entries

Personal Experience I-III: At the end of tablet III Gilgamesh and Enkidu are setting off for the Cedar Forest to kill Huwawa , the demon hateful to the sun god.  They were leaving Uruk as the brave heroes that dared to fight Hurawa, because everyone was blessing and warning them as they left the city.  I've personally lived a similar scenario when my cousin was chosen to serve in the Colombian military.  The soldiers in the military resemble Gilgamesh and Enkidu, because the soldiers are the national heroes that fight against the bad in the country (the bad criminals in the country resemble Hawawa the demon).  When my cousin was leaving the city, all of his friends and family blessed him infinitely and warned him about some things to watch out for.  When Gilgamesh's mother blessed and wished luck to both of them, I remembered what it felt like to say goodbye and not be sure if you'll see that person again.  Its the feeling of partial loss yet hope that everything wil be ok that I felt when my cousin left as well as Gilgamesh's mother when setting her son off to the Cedar Forest.

Connection to another story IV-V: I can relate what happens on this tablet to a movie named Operation Valkyrie.  When Gilgamesh and Enkidu are planning on how they will get to Huwawa and kill him, I realized that this event is very similar to the plot of Operation Valkyrie.  In this movie, a group of soldiers decide to work on killing a common enemy, Hitler.  They plan this very intricately with TEAMWORK.  Each of the soldiers helped greatly in their part to make this plan. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, in these tablets, TEAMWORK is very highlighted when they both say the phrase: "Two people, companions , they can prevail together against the terror." Throughout the journey they both help each other like teammates in order to achieve the death of Huwawa.  

Questions Tablet VI-VII:  Why didn't the Gods make Gilgamesh sick too? Why only Enkidu? Is the death of Enkidu in some way going to be a punishment for Gilgamesh? Is the dream a sign of what might happen to Enkidu? Does Enkidu die with hate towards Gilgamesh, because in the end he says, Gilgamesh is afraid and does not help me.  Could Gilgamesh have done something to help Enkidu? If I were the author, I would give a very brief explanation of why those were the last words of Enkidu and if he meant it literally.  I would do this, because as a reader it is difficult to understand if Enkidu is literally telling Gilgamesh that he's not helping him or if Enkidu had another dream/vision where Gilgamesh didn't help him.  

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