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Essay / A comparison between the archetypes of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of Genesis
Epic of Gilgamesh vs. The Hebrew Bible-GenesisThe Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible share a number of archetypes. These archetypes are found in many myths of most religions we hear about today. They have the same Noah type archetype, a disastrous event that wiped out the earth. You will find all these stories in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, the Greek myths. They are everywhere. This essay, however, aims to compare and contrast the Epic of Gilgamesh and the first chapter of Genesis from the Hebrew Bible. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayLet's take the example of the flood. In both tales there is the archetype of a character favored by one or more gods and warned of an event destined to wipe out humanity and give the earth a clean slate. In Gilgamesh, the character Utanapishtim is warned, on the sly, that Enlil is too annoyed by the noise of the humans he created and plans to exterminate them. Utanapishtim builds a boat and takes his family on board. They are on the boat for six days and six nights, then he sends several birds to search for dry land. Utanapishtim and his wife later become immortal. On the other hand, God directly told Noah to build a boat so that he could destroy the Nephilium that was ravaging the earth. He takes his immediate family and two of each animal on the boat. Forty days and forty nights later, he also sends several birds, one of which finally returns with an olive branch in its mouth. When they return to earth, God promises that he will never again flood the earth with a rainbow symbolizing this promise. Noah is not immortal, but he lives to be about 1000 years old. Looking at the Immortality Archetype, you may also notice similarities in which immortality is lost. Gilgamesh returns from Utanapishtim's house and stops by a lake. During the bath, a snake comes to eat the algae of immortality and Gilgamesh returns home empty-handed, but ready to start improving his city. But with Adam and Eve it is different. They already had immortality and were all cheerful and didn't care about being naked or exposing themselves to anything and everything. But when the serpent tempted Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, she succumbed to temptation and tasted the apple. She liked it so much that she gave it to Adam and he ate an apple. Then they realized they were naked and exposing themselves. So they covered themselves with grass, leaves and other green things. And when God said: “Where are you? and Adam and Eve hid from him, knowing that they would be in trouble if they ate the forbidden fruit. Eventually, they were found and punished. Eve had to endure the pain of childbirth and Adam had to work the cursed land. The snake did not go unpunished however, it was cursed to crawl on its belly. So the two immortalities were taken away by a serpent, which is a representation of evil. Now let's look at the similarities between the city of Uruk and the Tower of Babel. Now, I doubt that Uruk was built for the same reasons as Babel, but there is no doubt that Uruk was a beautiful and powerful fortress. Back then, the bigger the walls, the more powerful you were. The tale says that “seek the copper foundation box, release its bronze lock”. Today they weren't as rare as they are today, but copper and bronze still weren't cheap. The walls themselves were not made of precious metals, but of ".