Gilgamesh/presentation

Last week in class we talked about the story of Gilgamesh and talked about whether he was a superhero. I think that most of the class concluded that he was not a superhero because of the way he treated the people of Uruk and how he would sleep with the brides before the husband slept with them. In the beginning of the epic, Gilgamesh didn't protect his people like he was supposed to. Gilgamesh was tamed by Enkidu, who was created to tame Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and Enkidu fought until they became close friends. It is weird how one second both men are fighting and the next they are best friends and they even kiss. In class we discussed how some readers interpret Enkidu's and Gilgamesh's relationship as homosexual because they kissed after they fought. The story doesn't say where they kissed, but even so some readers interpret it as homoerotic, but as our instructor stated, homoerotic contact doesn't mean that the persons are homosexual it just means that there was contact between two people of the same sex. In class Mr. Bahlmann talked about how back in the day some people considered batman and robin to be homosexual and lovers because they were always together and because of robins inappropriate outfit that led to conclude some people that they were lovers. I think that Gilgamesh isn't a superhero because he would rape women, and superheroes should never do that. Although I don't consider Gilgamesh as a superhero, I would like to point out that he does have a few superhero characteristics like super strength and he goes on a heroic quest that changes who he is and becomes a better king to the people of Uruk. I also wanted to point out that even though Gilgamesh and Enkidu set out on a quest because of the god Shamash, the sun god, their trip was not all good in the sense that they killed Humbaba, the monster of the forest, even though Humbaba was the servant of Elil, the god of Earth and a superior god than Shamash. Humababa warned the men that if they killed him that they would bring a curse upon themselves. Both men didn't care at the moment and hurried up to kill Humababa before Enlil found out and set out to stop them. Because of that action both men are not considered as superheroes because they killed a "monster" on their quest to becomes better men. On wednesday there was also a presentation on Gilgamesh and I think that most of the class enjoyed the presentation and remember it well because of the song that the group put together that summarized the entire story of Gilgamesh and was entertaining. 

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