Literature Class of 2014
Fyffe Senior bloggers worked on Battle of the Royal Epics
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Gilgamesh
In the epic Gilgamesh, Enkido serves as a foil to Gilgamesh on their journey to the cedar forest and throughout their battle with Humbaba. Gilgamesh, who is two-thirds god and one-third human, is civilized and courageous; whereas, Enkido, a natural man, is 100% human and innocent of the ways of civilized society. Also Gilgamesh is immensely selfish and wants to fight Humbaba just so he can obtain immortality. Enkido, who was raised in the woods and is pure-hearted, is scared and knows they should not fight Humbaba. In the cedar forest the night before fighting Humbaba, Gilgamesh went right to sleep and had vivid dreams about defeating Humbaba, but for poor Enkido, he could not rest because he was scared and in pain. For these reasons and several more, Enkido serves as a foil to Gilgamesh because he helps to define him by means of contrast in the epic Gilgamesh.
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I couldnt have said it better myself Kendra. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are complete opposites, and they offset each other throughout the whole story. At the begginning of the story, Gilgamesh was willing to fight Humbaba, and Enkidu was scared to death of him. As Gilgamesh starts to enter the forest, he starts getting scared and wants Enkidu to lead the way, and fight
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