Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Different religions have very opposing views on how a god relates to a human. In Christianity, of course, God is all powerful, but the religion such as in The Epic of Gilgamesh is quite different. Not only are there more than one god, but each of the gods play separate roles to humans.

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the king is described at the beginning as having king-like features. "To Gilgamesh's beauty, Ishtar lifted her eyes. 'Come, Gilgamesh, be my lover!' "(column 1). Ishtar is a goddess but looks upon Gilgamesh as someone beautiful enough to sleep with her. When he refuses, she goes to the heavens and complains to her father that Gilgamesh has wronged her. This shows that the gods are not above all. Ishtar shows a temper and wants revenge on Gilgamesh, but she doesn't have the power to do that.

Each god has a different role to the society of humans. They all have specific things that they can control and they cannot step into the ruling of another god's area. Gilgamesh seems to have the idea that the gods are all-powerful, but he is wrong. Ishtar must get permission from her father to take her revenge. She must ask for him to make her the Bull of Heaven to send down and kill Gilgamesh. She acts like a child that is throwing a temper tantrum. She threatens to "...smash in the gates of the netherworld; set up the [ruler] of the great below, make the dead rise and they will devour the living"(column 3). When Anu gives Ishtar the Bull of Heaven, she is disappointed when Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the bull. The gods converse and although Shamash tries to fight for their lives, he gets overruled, showing once again that the gods are not all powerful.

One of the things that Gilgamesh realizes once Enkidu dies is that the gods have something that he doesn't: immortality. This is what separates the divine from humans. Humans eventually die while the gods will live on forever. He states "I am going to die! - am I not like Enkidu?!" (column 9). This is why Gilgamesh worships Shamash who is his own protector. "After they had killed the Bull they tore out his heart. They set it before Shamash. They withdrew and worshipped Shamash" (column 5).