My Opinions on Certain Quotes from Gilgamesh

Quote #1: "And so the harlot, Shamhat, showed him her breasts, showed him her body. The hairy bodied man came over to her, and lay down on her, and then she showed him things a woman knows how to do... and then at last went to seek out the company of the creatures...But seeing him, they fled. (p. 8).

I found this quote somewhat humorous. Enkidu had never been with a woman, and she had been with several human men. Although, he had never known her before, he immediately consummated with her. (I believe that a lot of people do this.) To her, it was simply like an everyday task. What I found rather sad, was the fact that he must have found the incident rather fascinating because he rushed off to share his experience with the other animals, and rather than share in his joy, they fled from his company. I would imagine, by the image portrayed in my head, that he felt hurt and abandoned, and possibly confused as to why they would just leave him for what he had done. He had betrayed his kind, and his only companion was now the prostitute that he slept with. How can the reader not feel somewhat bad for Enkidu?

Quote#2: "The Goddess Ishar saw him and fell in love with the beauty of Gilgamesh..."Be my lover, be my husband", she spoke and said, ..."plant your seed in the body of Ishtar"...Gilgamesh answered ad said... "I have nothing to give to her who lacks nothing at all. You are the door through which the cold gets in...You are the house that falls down...the ill-made wall that buckles when time has gone by." (p. 29-30).

Personally, this quote made me laugh because Gilgamesh was awfully harsh by insulting Ishtar. Or was he? I do believe that she deserved it. She was probably accustomed to always having her way and enslaving men to do as she pleased. Well then, here comes King Gilgamesh, who is also used to always having his way, and he bluntly tells her that he doesn't want anything to do with her, knowing her foul and promiscuous past. I bet it was like a slap in the face to have someone offend her in such a way, although, it was the truth. I think that the author is simply expressing the all too familiar phrase stating that sometimes it hurts to hear the truth.

Quote #3: Gilgamesh wandered in the wilderness grieving over the death of Enkidu and weeping saying: "Enkidu has died. Must I die too? Must Gilgamesh be like that?" Gilgamesh felt the fear of it in his belly. He said to himself that he would seek the son of Ubartutu, Utnapistam, he, the only one of men by means of when he might find out how death could be avoided. (p. 48).

This part of the book was very interesting to me, because it was an example of how even the most vain and strongest person must experience the pain of losing someone. Gilgamesh' character changed dramatically after the death of his best friend, his brother. Before this incident, Gilgamesh would have probably laughed at even the slightest idea of him caring about the death of another living creature. He would probably have had the same response towards the thought of fearing his own death. He was then determined to face several difficult tasks in order to find the gift of immortality. Who would have thought that such a cold-hearted individual could grieve over another's lack of continued existence and even put his life at stake in order to save his own life? The author created a clever twist in creating this part of the plot.

Works Cited

Perry, David. Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse. Farrar, Straus and Giroux .(1993).