Compare and contrast Gilgamesh, Joseph, and Oedipus and what makes them a hero.
According to the Oxford dictionary a hero is various described as ‘a person noted or admired for courage, outstanding achievements, nobility etc’ and as ‘a man of super-human qualities favored by the gods.
According to the list of Sumerian kings Gilgamesh was king of Uruk in about 2560 B.C.E. He is described as the son of Ninsun, a goddess. He features in Sumarian mythology as a superhero who built a great wall around the city in order to defend his people. In 2003 a German archeological expedition said that they had discovered the tomb of Gilgamesh where the River Euphrates had flowed in earlier times. This fits in with a legend that the people diverted the river in order to bury him in its bed. He is depicted as having had superhuman strength. He oppresses his people who then appeal to the gods. The result is the creation of a foil in Enkidu, a forest creature who also had superhuman strength. Enkidu has sex with a harlot and this takes away his strength, but it is replaced with great wisdom and knowledge.
He defies Gilgamesh and as a result the two become great friends. They set off on adventures together which result in them angering the gods. The gods decide that Enkidu should be punished for both their sins and he is angry at this unfairness. After the death of his friend Gilgamesh is full of remorse. He goes off to seek eternal life but is unable to meet the requirements. His story ends with him back at Uruk looking at the walls of the great city. In many Sumarian texts Gilgamesh’s name is written as if he were a god, but this deification seems to have come much later than his life time. His story is recorded in texts from 1900 B.C.E. although it probably existed earlier. Like Joseph he was a man of dreams, but in his case it was his mother who gave the interpretation.
Joseph is one of the main figures in the book of Genesis, his story occupying the majority of chapters 37 to 50. He appears in the most part as an ordinary mortal, except that he seemed to have the gift of interpreting dreams, but there are parallels with Gilgamesh in that he saved his people – in his case it was by foreseeing a famine and making preparations beforehand so that there would be enough food. His story too was almost certainly written down after his death. According to the Thompsom Chain Bible it was in about 1700 B.C.E. that Joseph became prime minister in Egypt. Like Gilgamesh his story was undoubtedly written down long after his death, but would have circulated orally in the intervening years. He was so hated by his brothers that they planned to kill him, but instead sold him into slavery, from which he rose to become a great man in Egypt. He came from ordinary stock rather than royalty like Gilgamesh and Oedipus. Like Oedipus his actions later lead to problems in that his family descendants eventually become the slaves of the Egyptians until their rescue by another hero – Moses.
Oedipus was son of king Laius of Thebes in Greece and his wife Jocasta and is the subject of a play by Sopocles, first performed in the 5th century B.C.E. An oracle had prophesied that Laius would be killed by his own son and so when the child was born the king directed that he be exposed on the hillside, but he was rescued and was bought up as his own son by the king of Corinth. Eventually he both killed his father and slept with his mother as had been predicted. He too saved a people, in his case it was the people of Thebes. He did so by answering the riddle of the Sphinx. He was in return offered the now-vacant throne of his real father and his mother, the widowed Jocasta as his wife. Following this the city was hit by plague. Oedipus promises to seek out and punish those who had caused this. The blind seer Tiresias told him that he was the cause, but he did not believe this at first. When he finally discovers the truth of both his patricide and his incest Jocasta hangs herself and Oedipus condemns himself to a live of perpetual wandering having first blinded himself.
There are parallels in the stories in that in each case a people are saved form destruction, though in the case of Oedipus and Gilgamesh we have two very damaged people with sad ends, because of their own sins, though in the case of Oedipus he did not realise at the time what he was doing. If he was a historical figure we have no evidence for this apart from the reference in the play to the great plague which beset the city. However this does not necessarily mean that he didn’t exist, merely that we don’t have the proof.
All three could be defined as heroes according to the first definition in the dictionary. According to the second definition Gilgamesh is the only one fits the description of a man of superhuman qualities, but it seemed that the gods didn’t exactly smile on him. So as to whether or not they are heroes depends upon your definition of that word. Each of their stories originated so long ago that it is almost impossible for us to verify them as factual. Gilgamesh’s story in particular is full of obviously fantastic elements, and these are present to a lesser extent in the story of Oedipus. All three stories include a belief in God or gods and in all three cases there are dreams or prophecies that are interpreted. Only in Joseph’s case is he the interpreter. All three stories are concerned with journeys, in two cases because of guilt. In two of them the hero is taken without his consent to a far place, and in all three there are themes of rejection for various reasons. Were they really heros? Yes, according to the dictionaries. Did they really exist? Probably. Did they do all the things that are attributed to them? That it seems is much less likely, especially in the case of the two kings. Egyptian records do not record Joseph by that name, though there is evidence of someone who rose to great heights in similar way.
Bibliography
Lawall, Susan et al, ‘The Norton Anthology of World Literature’, Volume A,‘Beginnings to A.D. 100’, University of Massachusetts, 2003
Thompson Chain Bible, Eyre and Spottiswood, London 1964.
Electronic Sources
http://www.crock11.freeserve.co.uk/gilgamesh.htm retrieved 26th March 2007
