UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
AY: 2015-2016
DUMAUAL, JEANNE PAULINE J.
4EM
OCT. 20, 2015
I.

INTRODUCTION
This paper aims to assess The Epic of Gilgamesh with the use of the mythological
archetypal approach. The mythological approach emphasizes the recurrent
universal patterns underlying most literary works. It is composed of a
combination of sagacity from psychology, history, and comparative religion,
mythological criticism. A key concept in mythological criticism is the archetype,
a symbol, character, situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response,
which entered literary criticism from Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. According to
Jung, all individuals share a collective unconscious, a set of primal memories
common to the human race, existing below each persons conscious mind, often
deriving from primordial phenomena such as the sun, moon, fire, night, and
blood, archetypes according to Jung trigger the collective unconscious. (Wijaya,
2013) The Epic of Gilgamesh, a masterpiece of world literature, is considered to
be one of the oldest epics in the world. It is called an epic, but it is really a myth.
(123HelpMe.com, 2015) The archetypes present in the epic reflect the impressive
construction of this timeless literary piece. With Gilgamesh as the hero, Enkidu as
somehow reflected as the scapegoat for change, there are various elements to

see in the story which are symbols that men can relate to. These symbols provide
a familiar element in the story which readers can relate to with other literary
works.
II.

ANALYSIS
The epic starts with praise on Gilgamesh, the ruler of Mesopotamia, part god and
part human. The origin of Gilgamesh himself can be comparable to Hercules, a
demigod, son of Zeus. Both of them have incredible strength and capability.
Although both of them possess inhuman capabilities and charisma, they both
possess weakness and a certain hamartia. Gilgamesh is the hero that is clearly a
warrior. The story proceeds with Gilgamesh being punished by the god Anu
because of his seemingly oppressive rule as king. This event can be described as a
supernatural intervention for the trigger of the events in the epic. The god decides
to create Enkidu a wild man, and he travelled to Uruk where Gilgamesh awaits.
Enkidu spreads mayhem by eating the livestock of Gilgameshs people; he was
neutralized by the palace harlot and was brought to Gilgamesh. The story dictates
that Gilgamesh is oppressive and can be sometimes arrogant; Enkidu witnesses
this as Gilgamesh forces himself on a newlywed couple and dictates that he
should have the wife first before the husband, for he is the ruler of the land.
Enkidu is enraged by this and challenges Gilgamesh to a contest of strength,
which Gilgamesh wins in the end. After their clash of strength, Gilgamesh finds
respect in Enkidu and they become friends. Enkidu can be described as the
threshold guardian of the story because he was able to test the hero, Gilgameshs
strength and accompanies him in a long journey as narrated in the next part of the

epic. The two characters then set out on a journey to haunt Humbaba, a divinely
appointed guardian of a remote cedar forest. The main reason for the journey
according to some texts is the boredom of both Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Enkidu
finds out about the Humbaba rampaging and terrorizing certain territories, which
drives him to tell Gilgamesh to go with him on a journey to slay the monster.
Another reason is that they will surely become immortal in their own right of
victory. The journey can be classified as the journey for either ridding of the
danger that is caused by the monster or even a quest for identity or selfknowledge because of the various dreams Gilgamesh had during the travel time to
the forests. The dreams can be considered as predictors of the storys fate. They
enable a foreshadowing of the events to happen especially the fate of Enkidu. The
first stage of departure commences as Gilgamesh feels reluctance in accepting the
journey to the Humbaba. The characteristic of being nave and inexperienced
were exemplified by Gilgamesh as he didnt make his own decision to avoid
going further to the forest despite the warning his dreams gave him. As they
defeated the Humbaba, a glorious victory was done. Gilgamesh was then given a
proposal by Ishtar, the goddess of love. Ishtar is the kind of archetype that is the
temptress or the femme fatale because of her role in the death of Enkidu when she
finds out that Gilgamesh refuses to be married with her. The goddess punishes
Enkidu for killing Humbaba and takes his life in exchange for the animal. The
second stage of a heros journey or the initiation of the story is depicted as
Gilgamesh contemplates about the immortality of humans and how fragile one
can be. He promises to find immortality through talking to the man who obtained

it, Utnapishtim. This journey of Gilgamesh can be correlated to the journey to

find the Holy Grail which can grant eternal youth. In his quest for immortality, he
encounters monsters like stone men. This can be described as the 3 rd stage of the
heros journey which is labelled as the road of trials. He encounters scorpions, the
gods of men, stone men and the river which melts anything it touches. When he
finally encounters Utnapishtim, he fails the trial given to him- not to sleep for
seven (7) days. After realizing his failure he begs Utnapishtim for another chance
to achieve immortality. Utnapishtim tells him about a plant in the depths of the
ocean that can grant him immortality if eaten. The 4th stage of the journey
proceeds, the innermost cave. He finds the plant but is exhausted in surfacing
back to shore. While he sleeps, a snake eats the plant and greets the eyes of
Gilgamesh with it shedding its skin to a new. Gilgamesh realizes that immortality
is not for him and he finds reformation, emotionally and psychologically. The last
stage of the journey is entered as he goes back to the great walls of Uruk, his
greatest creation. He contemplates that immortality is not for him and accepts his
faith as a mortal. The situational archetype for the whole epic can be classified as
The Quest or the Journey. All the situations presented in the story held some kind
of symbol. For example the symbol of sex as something used by the harlot to
enslave Enkidu for conservative people like the Mesopotamians is something
which depicts that the femme fatale archetype holds an influence on the flow of
the story. With every archetypal symbol encountered, the readers can relate and
encompass other literatures with The Epic of Gilgamesh.

SOURCES:
http://krishnamurti.abundanthope.org/index_htm_files/The-Epic-of-Gilgames.pdf
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides6/Gilgamesh.html
http://www.britannica.com/topic/Gilgamesh
http://awinlanguage.blogspot.com/2012/11/poetry-analysis-content-elements.html
http://awinlanguage.blogspot.com/2012/03/mythological-and-archetypal-approach-to.html
http://awinlanguage.blogspot.com/2012/03/mythological-and-archetypal-approach-to.html