The Hero: The Epic Of Gilgamesh

For all of time there have been heroes and villains; it is said that the first written story of a hero was the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Epic of Gilgamesh first started to be recorded in the 21st century B.C. and was originally written in cuneiform. As time went on people began to record the story in several different languages including Akkadian. Also, as it was translated into different languages the story began to slowly become altered and slightly changed. Authors continued to develop and transform the epic until the second century B.C. It is a theory that Gilgamesh was based on real person, Uruk, who was a king of Mesopotamia and named after the major city Uruk. Gilgamesh was believed to have built or reconstructed the walls around the city

In the first form of the epic, Gilgamesh was just portrayed as a great King that had done many good deeds, this form of the story provided the reader with a much less vivid picture of the character of Gilgamesh. Even in this early form Gilagemesh was a hero for the Mesopotamians. In the eighteenth century a new form of the epic had risen, in this form Gilgamesh was known as for "surpassing all other kings" (Marc Van De Mieroop). In this form the great adventures of Gilgamesh began to appear. The one he was most famous for in this version was his journey into the mountains where he cut down trees and killed the monster, Huwawa, the guardian of the Forrest. In this version it is also presented that he was accompanied by Enkidu a good friend of Gilgamesh. As the epic continues on it seems that Enkidu dies but the reason is unknown. Scholars believe the death of Emkidu seemed to deeply affect Gilgamesh and possibly made him rethink some of his decisions. Finally, in the article The Changing Image of Gilgamesh, the author explains the most popular version of the epic. This adaptation was written in the seventeenth century. As stated in the article, "He is still a great adventurer but his true greatness lies elsewhere" (Marc Van De Mieroop). Gilgamesh has found

In the very first version he was shown as a great King that had done many positive things for the people and to them he was their hero. In the second edition of the epic, Gilgamesh was considered the best King the people of Mesopotamia had ever had and so he again acted as their hero. In the third and most popular adaptation it showed how he was a hero the most because it showed the challenging quests he had to take and the battles he had to face such as death of a friend and failure but in the end he succeeded in his goal of finding immorality and still was a hero for the citizens of