The Role Of Enkidu's Journey In 'Epic Of Gilgamesh'

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The first journey that Gilgamesh took in order for him to be a better king, was the journey of friendship. The reason why this journey is so important to the development of Gilgamesh being a better king, was the fact that the people ask the Gods to bring in a person as equal to Gilgamesh. “…let her create the equal of Gilgamesh…” (Gilgamesh 4) The journey that those took with each other was able to shape Gilgamesh into a good king. Having Enkidu around Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh was able to see how bad of a king he really was. This can be seen in tablet II lines P234 to Y17. This journey did not just affect Gilgamesh but it also affected Enkidu, also. Enkidu was a man of nature, but ever since he was created he became less like his “original” self and more like any other guy in Uruk.…show more content…
The reader could start to see this in Enkidu when him and Gilgamesh went to the Cedar Forest to slay Humbaba. At first Enkidu did not want to go and slay Humbaba, because he knew it would be dangerous. Then, everything is changed when Gilgamesh gets all scared and cowardly, instead of being thankful that Gilgamesh no longer wants to kill Humbaba, he flips the script by saying to Gilgamesh that he is a weakling and that he already started this job so they need to finish it before the Gods finds out about what They have done. This can be seen in tablet V lines V98 to V107. The reader was able to see how this journey with Gilgamesh and to the Cedar Forest changed him and in a way tainted him for the worse. This is best seen when Enkidu sees in a dream that he will die because of him and Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of Heaven and
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