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How Do Dreams Play In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

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The Epic of Gilgamesh is about a two thirds mortal and one third immortal King named Gilgamesh. Throughout this story, Gilgamesh has multiple dreams from good to bad. Dreams play a big role in The Epic of Gilgamesh because it’s how the gods and mortals communicate with things that may happen in the future. The first interaction with a dream is when an axe was displayed, and it made Gilgamesh upset. Gilgamesh also saw a man in this dream which he loved like a woman then, considered him as his brother. (Tablet I). This dream is showing that Enkidu will come and become Gilgamesh’s brother. After, Gilgamesh encounters this dream he goes to his mother Ninsun and she helps help to understand it. The goddess that responds to this dream is Aruru and …show more content…

Enkidu’s dream shows him that he must die since he helped kill the guardian of the Cedar Forest, Humbaba. (Tablet VII). This dream showed that all the gods Anu, Enlil, Ea, and Shamash had a meeting because Gilgamesh and Enkidu couldn’t get away with killing the bull and Humbaba. Due to the brothers killing the bull and Humbaba, one of them must pay for this. Shamash is the one god that tries to defend Enkidu from his future death. Shamash didn’t think it was right for him to die because it was demanded that the brothers killed Humbaba and the bull. Enkidu begs Shamash for his life, but he can’t stop it because Enlil has demanded that Enkidu must …show more content…

This theme is shown when Gilgamesh kept having nightmare and starting think that he might be killed by Humbaba. Gilgamesh knows that the Gods, are the only ones who don’t die, so he fears his own death. Enkidu and Gilgamesh come to term with the fear of death because fame is the only thing besides Gods, that survive. After, Enkidu is cursed with a painful death he then knows that he time is up and it’s nothing he can do to stop it. Gilgamesh mourned the death of his friend and then starts his new journey to Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim is a god who grants eternal life, so Gilgamesh wants to pay him a visit, so he can grant it to him. Utnapishtim test Gilgamesh by telling him to stay up for a week and don’t go to sleep, which Gilgamesh didn’t achieve. (Tablet XI). This test was to see if Gilgamesh is honorable of being an eternal God. After, Gilgamesh realizes that he can’t have eternal live he returns home and accepts that death is inevitable. (Tablet

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