Ciera Dowling English 202 October 5,2012

THe Balance anD TransFormanon in GiLGamesH

In life everyone has to undergo a transformation, whether it's physical or mental. Even in books or movies the main character goes through a transformation that can be seen to the audience. Take the 'TSpic of Gilgamesh , translated by Stephen Mitchell, as an example. The main character, Gilgamesh, only just starts to transform when he meets his double, Enkidu. Enkidu is made to be the double, aria or mirror, of Gilgamesh. The fact that they are mirrored of each other is what helps Gilgamesh to transform. Enkidu being made meant that Gilgamesh was no longer the most superio^ofjfene world, he has someone who can match his strength and mental skills. Before Enkidu was maderGilgamesh was a terrible king, always did whatever he wanted because no one could stand up to him. But Enkidu showed him that everything Gilgamesh could do, he could do, so it was balanced. When Gilgamesh has his meeting with Enkidu and such he suddenly stops being so destructive and controlling towards the people of Uruk. He starts to be like Enkidu and see his wrongs. He stops stealing the newlyweds and claiming every woman to be his, but instead \ /^ 0 ignores them and focuses on other things, like Humbaba the guard of the cedar forest. J . When Gilgamesh wanted to go kill the great Humbaba Enkidu was skeptical and would rather x y stay in Uruk, but the closer it got to the day for them to leave Enkidu decided he would go to Y ></\J help Gilgamesh. On their journey to the cedar forest at night when they went to sleep Gilgamesh (^ would have terrible nightmares about him and Enkidu being killed by Humbaba or a wild bull.

Ciera Dowling Friday, October 5, 2012 10:37:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Each time he had a dream like this and explained it to Enkidu Enkidu would explain what it meant. He would tell him it wasn't bad, but rather a good sign of victory. All in all Gilgamesh . ^ having these dreams mirrored Enkidu's skepticalness about the trip in the first place. (0 ^ * /yt^ \J( Finally when Enkidu dies, because him and Gilgamesh are so alike he realizes his own I immortality. He realizes hinrand Enkidu were a mirrored person, they were the same in every way. And because they were the same that meant Gilgamesh could die at some point to. Before he meet Enkidu he wasn't worried about it because he had so much control and was so destructive it didn't need to cross his mind that he was mortal. But now that he has meet his double he now realizes it. Which sets him off on a journey to nd immortality. So basically in this book the transformation was caused by the balance/mirrored image of two people. The transformation caused the main character to realize he was no better than anyone else. Yes, he was very powerful, but he had the same ending as everyone else, no matter how much he did, good or bad.

Ciera Dowling Friday, October 5, 2012 10:37:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time