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Similarities Between Genesis And The Epic Of Gilgamesh

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Ancient Cultural Texts: Plagiarism or Coincidence? Throughout history, there has been numerous historical texts that has been developed within distinct cultures and religions. The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest texts ever discovered, which tells of the tale of the hero-king, Gilgamesh, on his journey to becoming immortal, where he learns valuable lessons along the way. Another book developed much later, was the Book of Genesis, a sacred text in both Jewish and Christian religions, describes the creation of humanity, and the Lord’s connection with his creations. Both pieces of literature share several similarities between each other but are also different between each other as well. Both texts include a cataclysmic flood event that has wiped out most of humanity, except for certain people chosen by a divine being. In the Book of Genesis, when God would …show more content…

Throughout the Book of Genesis, God makes several connections between his creations, such as with Noah. As mentioned before, the Lord spoke to Noah in a vision, and said to Noah, “...The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth... (Gen. 6.13).” In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the main character, Gilgamesh prays for the protection by the Sun God, Shamash, to kill Humbaba, which states “Here I present myself, Shamash, to lift up my hands in entreaty That my life may be spared; bring me again to the ramparts of Uruk: Give me your protection. I will give you homage.” And Shamash made answer, speaking through his oracle... (The Epic of Gilgamesh 355) ...” This quotation from the text shows the connection between the divine forces and humanity because Gilgamesh prays to his Gods for protection and to return victorious from his battle with Humbaba. The divine-humanity relationship is an important aspect of both literary

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Between “The Babylonian Creation Epic” and “Theogony” there are many similarities and differences that can be found. One similarity between these two is the idea of two beings, Tiamat and Apsu (fresh and salt water) and Gaia and Ouranos (earth and sky) who couple together and give birth to the first gods. In Gaia and Ouranos’s case, these ‘gods’ are called Titans. In the Babylonian story Marduk, a son of the gods, kills Tiamat and creates humankind from the blood of one of the gods who stood on her side. Whereas in “Theogony” Ouranos is hated by all of his children and ends up castrated by his son Kronos.

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In The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Book of Genesis, there are a couple of similarities that they both have in common. For example, they both discussed the story about the God(s) sending the flood to the city in order to destroy the whole civilization, while leaving some of righteous humans alive: Uta-napishti from The Epic of Gilgamesh and Noah from The Book of Genesis. Despite the difference in their backstory, these two characters are both given the same role as the one who tries to recreate their own society with animals and resources that they brought with on the Ark. Another similarity is that they both send out ravens outside of the Ark to make sure the water is subsided and the land is dried after the flood.

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For “Noah and the Flood” they had a very similar plot. The lord saw how mankind was evil, and “how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time”(60). Which occurred in Mesopotamia in the distant past. Same as utnapishtim, Noah was warned by the lord, and was told specific instruction to build an ark to survive the flood. While the Epic of Gilgamesh, and Noah and the flood contain many similarities, they also contain many differences As the two separate characters from each story was minding their business they soon get a message sent from the gods about the flood.

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The position of humans in relation to the gods in The Epic of Gilgamesh is a direct reflection of Mesopotamian society’s view in which humans are subservient to the gods’ will. To be more specific, humans are expected to be obedient to the god’s will in their actions and are punished for disobeying. In this manner, even Gilgamesh who is 2/3’s divine, is still subjected to the other positions of humans yet, his defiant nature shows the emotions of the gods when people are disobedient. One of the most relevant scenes that shows human’s positions is when Gilgamesh denies Ishtar’s sexual advances.

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In comparison, it’s always observed on how different scholars find the similarity of especially marital settings, characters, and as well as the wanderings of the mythological world. Different events within the life of these characters cover broadly a huge range of epic encounters that are heroic. The character, emotional and psychological development of Gilgamesh can be borrowed especially from the ancient heroic perspectives of mortality and death while comparing with Achilles. Mesopotamian civilization has had several phases in which hero Gilgamesh has been in existence, however having similar attributes. One of the earliest stories of Gilgamesh is developed from Sumerian texts, one of the most influential and well-known poems (Michelakis & Pantelis 2007).

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Comparison Between Gilgamesh and Genesis There are many similarities between the epic Gilgamesh and the biblical story of Genesis. Some similarities between the two stories are the creation of man, the similarity between the relationships of Enkidu and Shamhat and Adam and Eve, and the story of the great flood. These similarities are so important because to shows that these two stories could actually be one in the same. Since Gilgamesh is the older of the two stories, Genesis could possibly be a re-visioning of the epic Gilgamesh to help Christians become a more predominant group. One of the similarities to support this is the two stories is the creation of man.

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Silvy Elsa Mathew Hum 120 3/1/18 Paper 1 - The Epic of Gilgamesh and Homer’s Iliad The two main oldest epic tales in the world, ‘Epic of the Gilgamesh’ and Homer’s ‘Iliad’ deals with many significant issues that pose a meaning in the life of an individual and communities. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written 1500 years before Homer wrote the Iliad.

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In the flood stories of Noah and of Gilgamesh there are many similarities in the story, but also many differences that make them stand apart. One of the most prominent similarities and differences in the two stories is about the boat that the two of them had to build. The first similarity is the way the two were told to build the boat, Noah was told by God to build it and Utnapishtim was told by Ea. Another similarity between them is reason for the flood, in both stories the gods were mad because they thought that the humans were being too loud and they got too wicked and needed them to be gone.

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The Creation Story…of Genesis from Gilgamesh Discovered in the nineteenth century, The Epic of Gilgamesh is claimed to be one of the world’s oldest surviving pieces of literature. It details the life of a historical figure, Gilgamesh, the king who reigned over the Sumerian city-state of Uruk around 2700 B.C.E. (Britannica). He exemplifies the hardships of a supremely strong man that must accept his mortality while still trying to find meaning in his life. In contrast, the first five books of the Bible that were written before Christ (B.C.), the Pentateuch, recount the prophecies of the Son of God to come – fully divine and fully man. The first five books of the Old Testament were “written by Moses during the forty years that the children

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One of the main similarities between these two stories is the fact that there are god(s) involved in the creation of life on earth. Even though Genesis says that there is one god and Popol Vuh says there are many, both stories are about the trial and error the gods face while trying to create humanity. The god in Genesis makes the mistake of letting Adam and Eve roam free in the Garden of Eden assuming they will not eat from the tree of knowledge. Of course, they eat from the tree, with encouragement from a serpent, and were banned from the garden. Later on in the story, “God saw the wickedness of man”(Genesis 70), and so there could be a fresh start, God decided to kill all humans, besides Noah and his ark, with a flood.

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“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception (Carl Sargon)”. According to The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis, unprecedented floods occurred in both stories. The exception fell on the kind men, Utnapishtim and Noah: they survived the powerful event of destruction. However, in the same theme of the stories, there are sources of similarity and differences.

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And in The Iroquois Creation Story it states “ Among the ancients there were two worlds in existence. The Lower world was in great darkness;- the possession of the great monster; but the upper world was inhabited by mankind”(David Cusick). Now these two sections of writing are abundantly similar. Especially when the bible states that God created the Heavens and the Earth, The Iroquois Creation

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Literature, art, and music have always found ways to transcend the physical barriers and borders humans put up. They influence cultures other than the ones of their origins. Similarities between religions, mythologies, and folk stories have been noted often throughout time by academics and historians. The holy texts of some major religions like The Old Testament and the Quran share many overlapping literary themes and events with older religions and folk tales, like the ancient Sumerian poem; “The Epic of Gilgamesh”. Many examples of overlapping themes is the presence and references to great floods, supernatural influences, otherworldly gardens, and battles between good and evil.

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The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible have a few similar events and historians think that they may refer to the same event. The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible share a similar event, the flood, and a similar character, the serpent. Though there are still several distinctions between the two stories. The Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh both contain a serpent as one of the less significant characters.

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In the Epic of Gilgamesh interrelationships between the humans and gods are not what we are used to in most modern monotheistic societies. Perhaps the greatest difference between the power of humans and gods is when Gilgamesh is referred to as “Two-thirds of him was divine, one-third of him was human!” (39) as this reveals Gilgamesh to be the son of Lugalbanda the former king and the goddess Ninsun. This would indicate that the line between human and god is an extremely thin one and thus gods cannot and are not that vastly different from their human counterparts. Indeed, throughout the journey of Gilgamesh we are confronted by gods and goddesses who are similar to humans in their desires and means of achieving them.

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