Epic of Gilgamesh †Brandon Barros Essay

The Epic of Gilgamesh is considered one of our first recorded literary pieces and I think it has determine and influenced our present mean solar day lives in many ways. One thing that re wholey caught my attention about this piece is the description of the main character, Gilgamesh. Very similar to movies and stories today, Gilgamesh, is described as a beautiful man.They mentioned him having the perfect body, indue with beauty, courage. and his beauty beingness perfect compared to others. He is described as being soulfulness e very(prenominal)man wants to be, someone you can only dream of, they take it a step further and say he is two-thirds graven image and one-third man. He is the ultimate movie star.I think this began defining beauty and the type of person we would expect to see in stories, plays & movies. Gilgamesh is a manly man who is not perfect, he is relatable but he is also something you could never be. It leaves you wanting to be like someone you never could.How mi ght our stories and movies be distinct if we didnt set this standard of beauty with our first piece of written literature?The story and postulate is timeless and we see the same framework used today in many movies, novelsetc. The origination of friendships, enemies becoming friends, death, questioning life, all are common in books and movies today. Gilgameshs questions about life and transaction with death reminded me of books like, Tuesdays with Morrie, or the movie My Girl.Both of these movies deal with the lost of a friend and take you done a dark period of grief and reflection. Last year I watched a movie called Percy capital of Mississippi & the Olympians The lighting thief. I couldnt help but notice a very similar judgment a boy is part god and part man, defying the Gods, but also seeks the Gods for wisdom and later becomes a hero. Throughout the story he is questioning the problems in his own life, but at the end he realizes decisions were made in his best interest. It s eems that this type of literature has heavily influenced the Greeks as well.Another influence that is mentioned when tidy sum talk about the Epic of Gilgamesh is the similarities between characters in the story and characters in a modern day Bible. Utnapishtim seems very similar to Noah, he tells a story of the human society being beyond redemption and beingpunished by a great flood.Utnapishtim is instructed to build a boat, bring on all creatures and becomes a hero after the great flood. If this story has influenced the modern day account book, then its influence on modern times is priceless. The story of Noah is one of the most popular bible stories ever and is still being reinterpreted today. Within the next 24 months there is a big budget movie called Noah starring Russell exuberate and Anthony Hopkins coming out. Over time, I think we will continue to recreate these stories and see them retold from different perspectives.Something that I find particularly interesting is how popular this story has become with Ancient Alien Theorists. The History bridle-path show, Ancient Aliens, goes into great detail about the Epic of Gilgamesh. They believe that what we consider as old myths and stories were in one case considered stories about our actual past.Is it a coincidence that the book of Genesis in the Bible has a very similar flood story?A great flood, a man who is not perfect presumption the order to collect animals, abandon riches, the flood seems to punish mans sin. There is an obvious relationship, is it possible that the Hebrew bible borrowed from this mythological story? Years ago in Iraq they found what many people believe could be King Gilgameshs tomb. If he really existed, is there any truth to the story? Is it simply a myth? Brandon Barros