Mercy In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

In Tablet V of the epic poem the Epic of Gilgamesh a fight occurs between the monster Humbaba and the heroes Gilgamesh and Enkidu, that subsides when Gilgamesh traps Humbaba and is about to kill him. However, Gilgamesh hesitates at Humbaba’s pleas for mercy, before ultimately deciding to kill him when prompted by Enkidu. This refusal of mercy is driven by different motivations that reveal significant traits of each character. Gilgamesh refuses mercy when reminded of his goal, revealing that he is stubborn as well as prideful. Contrastingly, Enkidu denies mercy because he fears it's consequences, revealing his logicality. To begin, when Enkidu reminds Gilgamesh of his purpose for setting out on this quest, he quickly makes his decision to kill Humbaba, revealing Gilgamesh’s stubbornness as well as pride. To begin, the fact that when Gilgamesh is reminded by Enkidu of his goal, to “establish [his] name”, he is awakened and decides to kill demonstrates that Gilgamesh’s goals are of great importance to him and that once he

The entire scene in which Gilgamesh and Enkidu refuse mercy to Humbaba is significant because it introduces character traits that are essential to defining the fates of the two men. Shortly after this scene, Gilgamesh ridicules the goddess Ishtar’s offer of marriage and as a consequence Enkidu will die. Enkidu, whose logicality may have saved Gilgamesh’s life will die because Gilgamesh is illogical and acts based on emotions with no regard for consequence. In essence, Enkidu’s logicality was developed in order for ironic use to further define Gilgamesh’s character as emotional. This emotionality is exhibited in Gilgamesh’s illogical stubbornness which will also continue to define his actions as the epic poem progresses, leading him on a futile quest to achieve immortality that will likely decide his fate as