In both Gilgamesh and Odysseus, the heroes go off and accomplish various great things while they deal with deities and mortal beings. In these amazing epic poems, the various characters are faced with unbelievable challenges throughout their lives. Odysseus is presented as a mortal human who even rejects the offer to become immortal. The same is witnessed in Gilgamesh where he is presented as semi-mortal, representing part of god and human and finally leading him to question his fate. This is evident in the quote, “two-thirds of him is a god, and one-third is human” ( Mitchell, 2004).The main characters in both poems, the hero must get into a risky quest and adventure to reach their objectives. In Gilgamesh, the main character is forced to confront and kill Humbaba who is a demon-ogre in the Cedar Forest. Gilgamesh is put in a hard situation, but he must accomplish the dangerous task to achieve his goal.
Similarly, Odysseus gets in the land o Cyclopes where he is trapped in a cave. While in the cave, Odysseus must come up with a plan to help him escape with his men. Here, the main characters in both epic poems are faced with a difficult situation and where they must get into risky action to achieve their goal. Gilgamesh went to kill the guardian to build his reputation, which was his goal. Similarly, Odysseus comes with a plan to blind the beast so that he and his men can escape.
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Throughout the journey of adventure, the main characters in both epic poems had someone accompanying them. Gilgamesh as the main character is accompanied by Enkidu, a person who was more of a beast than a man. Enkidu was created by Aruru who was the goddess of creation. Gilgamesh sends a prostitute to spend time with Enkidu, but they fail to become friends, a situation leads to a fight and makes Gilgamesh change for good. Similarly, Odysseus is accompanied by his shipmates who become his friends as he embarks on is a journey of adventure. Odysseus walks with these men in every place he goes and even saves them from the beast when he got into a cave. Both Odysseus and Gilgamesh insulted the god and had to face certain consequences as a result of it. For example, Gilgamesh uses his strength and fights Humbaba to show his power and Odysseus uses his wit to move out of the confrontation with the Cyclopes.
The two epic poems also possess certain differences especially in the character traits and the nature of the obstacles they face. Despite both epic poems possessing great importance to the realities, Gilgamesh experience a negative impact on his reality compared to Odysseus. Another difference is evident in the personal attributes of the characters. For example, Odysseus uses his wit to get out of the confrontation with the Cyclopes. Odysseus uses his wit where he decides to get the cyclones drunk before makes a cruel trick on him. This is contrary to Gilgamesh uses his strength to fight Humbaba. The story also shows that Gilgamesh can act rough on his people, but when he loves someone as he did to Enkidu, he is always ready to go out and bring them back. Gilgamesh finally realizes and gets convinced that immortality is only preserved for the gods ( Lloyd-Jones , 1997). With low mortality, he must die and thus the need to live with pride. Odysseus, on the other hand, has an intent of restoring order by returning home and live the best of his moral life, he accepts his fate and eventually the death.
References
Mitchell, S. (2004). Gilgamesh: a new English version . Simon and Schuster.
Lloyd-Jones, H. (1997). Homer: The Odyssey translated by Robert Fagles. SPECTATOR-LONDON-WEEKLY- , 278 , 37-37.
