Monday, October 5, 2009

Gilgamesh Chap. 1

In chap. 1 they introduce the characters, Gilgamesh is king of Uruk. Gilgamesh is a mean king. He has the right to sleep with any bridesmaid before they are married and before their husband can. He pushes people way to hard and makes them rebuild walls and then he lets them fall over with no explanation. People longed for change and were tired of his old ways. Gilgamesh was 2/3 God and 1/3 man.
Enkidu grew up with the animals, he was part animal. He drank and ate like animals. He let the animals go that were held in traps. One day a hunter's son saw Enkidu opening a trap. The hunter's son told his father. They requested that Gilgamesh send a prostitute to Enkidu and then the animals would be ashamed of him. Gilgamesh agreed to send a prostitute but didn't do anything more about this wild man. The hunter left the prostitute by the river. Enkidu came and saw this creature he had never seen before. She had hair only on her head and between her legs. The prostitute slept with Enkidu and all the animals ran away.
That night Gilgamesh dreams that a star fell from the sky and when he tries to pick it up he fails. His mother Ninsun tells him that a man will come and Gilgamesh will never want to leave him.
The next night he dreams that he can not lift an ax. Ninsun tells him that the ax is the man. An equal to Gilgamesh.
The prostitute sleeps with Enkidu until he doesn't want to be an animal anymore. She tells him that he is a man now and they will go see Gilgamesh in Uruk. She tells him that he will see himself in Gilgamesh. The prostitute takes him and cloths him. She cuts the hair off his body and he becomes a man. People said that he looked like Gilgamesh. They say he is equal to their king.
When they meet for the first time they fight and the people scream. But when all was still and they looked at each other they saw that they were very similar. People laughed and rejoiced.

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