The Epic of Gilgamesh

Comparing Between Epic of the Gilgamesh and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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Introduction

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a poem about ancient Mesopotamia and is among the earliest epic literary works to be known in the world. The Epic of Gilgamesh is recorded in Akkadian language with its most complete version today being preserved on 12 tablets made from clay. Notably, it originates from the series of the Sumerian poems and legends tracing back to the late 2nd millennium and early 3rd millennium. The Epic of Gilgamesh follows the life of Gigalmesh, a mythical king and hero from Uruk and his friend Enkidu, who is half human and half wild. The two friends set of for dangerous adventures and quests together and after the death of his friends, Gilgamesh starts searching for the secret to being immortal. Notably, the poem has a story that is similar to the Noah’s flood story from the Bible. On the other hand, the movie Star Wars: the Force Awakens is an American epic film released in 2015 and is the first of the sequel trilogy including Skywalker saga and Return of the Jedi (Eberl & Decker, 2016). A new threat faces the galaxy and Finn who is a former stormtrooper and Rey, a desert scavenger are forced to team up with Chewbacca ns Han solo as they hope to restore peace. After 30 years, Rey comes across a BB-8 that bears important information about the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker. Rey and Finn are caught in between a battle between the resistance and the First Order. This essay is a comparison of ancient and modern heroes as presented in the movie Star Wars: the Force Awakens and The Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian poem.

What is Being Sought and Why?

Both heroes in the movie as well as the book seek to achieve different things. While the main hero in the book, Gilgamesh is seeking for eternal life, Rey, is seeking to find her own purpose and path. For a long time Rey has only known to be a scavenger and is always on the move as if running away from something. However, this soon changes after she comes into contact with the lightsaber that belonged to Master Luke Skywalker. She never believed in the Jedi story and although she had thought about how Luke disappeared she only thought it to be a myth and nothing more. After Rey teams up with Finn to help the droid locate its master, she attracted by the sound of a girl who is crying and upon touching Luke’s lightsaber, she has a vision. He sees quick flashes of old Jedi voices like Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Rey seeks to find out the truth about herself and her roots. In her vision, she sees Cloud city’s hallway, Luke Skywalker and R2-D2. Furthermore, in the vision, Kylo Ren is surrounded with many bodies and he is thrusting his saber into the chest of a figure that is mysterious. Further, Rey encounters a vision of herself and how she was abandoned as a child in Jakku before encountering Ren pursuing her in a rather snowy forest.

Gilgamesh on the other hand is looking for the secret to mortality. This is after Gilgamesh set out on journey to destroy Humbaba in the deep heart of Cedar Forest. Humbaba was a half demon and half ogre making it a beast like demon. Before it dies, the beats curses Gilgamesh. The two also manage to slay the “Bull of Heaven” that has been sent after them after Gilgamesh rejects goddess Ishtar sexual advances. The people from the City of Uruk celebrate Enkidu’s victory for successfully killing the bull of heaven and Humbaba. However, Enkidu has a dream that the gods wants to punish Gilgamesh for killing the two beats. Shamash points out that if Enkidu is to die, Gilgamesh will be reduced to a shadow of his former self. The curse takes a toll and by the day Enkidu becomes more ill and he dies. Gilgamesh becomes devastated by this friend’s death and he tries to offer the gods gifts to allow him to walk beside his friend in the Underworld. He is filled with a lot of sorrow and grief and only leaves his the corpse after six days when maggots began falling from Enkidus body. After Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh only has one purpose, he is determined to avoid the curse and suffering the same fate as his friend. He sets out on a journey to locate Utanupishtim and his wife, who were they only two humans that were granted eternal life after surviving the great flood. The ageless couple resides in a beautiful country called Dilmun that is in another world. Gilgamesh travels to the Far East as he searches for them crossing oceans’ great rivers and mountains as he slays monstrous bears, lions, among other beasts (Hall, 2019). Unfortunately, upon finally meeting Utnapishtim, he given two opportunities at getting eternal life, but he fails in both attempts.

Trials involved in the quest

In their quest to find what they are seeking, both heroes in the movie and the poem encounter challenging trails. When Gilgamesh starts seeking for the secret to eternal life, he is forced to travel long distances as he locates the only couple that has ever been given eternal life (George, 2018). As he travels east, he has to fight beasts including oceans, rivers, and mountains in his bid to locate Utnapishtim and his wife. Utnapishtim challenges him to stay way awake for seven nights and six days but Gilgamesh is already asleep before Utnapishtim finishes speaking. In the second challenge, Gilgamesh is supposed to pick a plant found at the bottom of the ocean set to make him young once more but it is stolen by a serpent as soon as he places it on the shore of the lake as he bathes. Additionally, in his journey, Gilgamesh arrives at Mount Mashu, twin peaks located at the end of earth who gate are guided by two scorpion beings. He has to convince them that his divine and desperate in order for them to allow him to cross. He manages to do so and he travels through the dark tunnels for twelve where the sun travels through the night. In Star Wars, Rey finds herself caught in the middle of the battle between the resistance and the first order. As soon as they discover that Rey has seen the map that shows where Luke is located, they capture her . At this point Ren is determined to do whatever to takes to retrieve the map. She wakes up chained to an interrogation chair and following a conversation with Ren, he finally removes the mask revealing his real identity. Ren uses his power to read her mind revealing the lonely life she had at Jakku and how she dreams of an island far away. Another trail that faces Rey is the hardship life she lived as a scavenger where she had to search for ship scraps in exchange for food. She is also constantly on the run, and is being hunted by the troops of the First order because she is aiding the droid in its escape.

How the Trials Contribute to the Hero’s Maturation

The obstacles that Rey and Gilgamesh go through were meant to prepare them what was to come. As a scavenger, Rey was used the life of hardship and she had to fight her way through everything. She was used to defending herself and struggling to get scraps to sell so that she can get food. This made her a strong individual capable of surviving in the harshest environments. Upon her capture, she used the skills she had gained over the time to try and escape. She also had a background in flying the spaceships, skills which came in handy as she defended the droid from the troops sent by the first order. She is stronger than she thinks and eventually she used the strength for Luke’s light saber to free herself from the room where she has been confined. Han Solo, Finn and Chewbacca spot Rey climbing a wall on the base and they rush off to meet with her. She is thrilled that her friends came back to rescue her. Additionally, Gilgamesh also goes through tough trails which only serve to prepare him for his journey as she searches for the secret to eternal life. Gilgamesh is keen to avoid the fate that his friend Enkidu suffers. He had an ego and he had no regard for women and never respected marriages and leads to a fight between Gilgamesh and Enkidu. After the fight with his friend, Gilgamesh begins to learn the virtues of courage, humility, nobility, and mercy. These experiences shape his life and they prepare his for hard tasks that lie ahead of him. In his journey, he travels long distances, crossing mountains, oceans and slaying beasts and lions to get the Underworld where Utnapishtim and his wife reside.

Rewards for Completing the Quests

After successfully completing his quest Gilgamesh is rewarded in that he finally manages to locate the couple who are the only people who had managed to acquire eternal life. However, the catch is that Gilagmesh is unable to complete the challenges that are given to him by Utnapishtim and as a result he ends up not getting eternal life. Gilgamesh gets to learn about how Utanipishtim and his wife survived the floods which destroyed the entire world and everything in it. Eventually, Gilgamesh dies and his passing is mourned by the people of Uruk. In Star Wars, Rey is rewarded in the end whereby she discovers that she is stronger than she thinks. She gathers the courage to confront Kylo Ren, who is one of the leader of the first order in a snowy forest. Initially, Rey fights unsuccessfully and she is desperately running from Ren. She closes her eyes and mediates and then attacks Ren with power and vigor before gaining the upper hand before cutting him across his face and on the arm. After defeating him, she sets out to the rocky island to look for Luke Skywalker where she hands him his light saber.

Differences in the Quests for Modern and Ancient Heroes.

Some of the differences that can be noted in the cases of the heroes in their quests have to do with the fact that one of the heroes had a successful ending while the other one did not. In StarWars, Rey emerged successful in the end; she overcame her fears and found her purpose. She strived as much as possible to help the droid and to defeat the First Order which had already began controlling the world. In the end, she located Luke and gave him back his light saber. Gilgamesh on the other hand ended up not attaining his goal of securing eternal life. He failed in the two attempts he has at securing gaining eternal life. He ended up returning to his home, in the city of Uruk where he died.

Conclusion

The Movie Starwars: the Force Awakens and The Epic of Gilgamesh both follow the story of heroes in their quests. Rey sought to find her true purpose as all her life she has lived as a scavenger and she was always on the run from something. Gilagmesh on the other hand, was hero who spends most of his time on dangerous adventures with his best friend Enkidu. Both heroes went through tough trials in preparation for what was to come in the future. Rey was caught up in the battle between the First Order and the Revolution. Gilgamesh was seeking the secret of eternal life and had to travel dangerous grounds crossing seas, mountains and slaying betas to get to the Underground world where Utanipishtim and his wife lived after surviving floods that swept all living things in the face of the earth.

References

Eberl, J., & Decker, K. (2016). Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Philosophy Now, 115, 48-50.

George, A. (2018). The epic of Gilgamesh (pp. 7-16). ARC, Amsterdam University Press.

Hall, A. E. (2019). Identification and parasocial relationships with characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(1), 88.