The epic of Giglamesh and the Book of Job are classified as epic poems. These are ancient poems that tell of a hero and the challenges the hero faces towards making him a better character. These narrative poems were written in the ancient times. The epic of Giglamesh is a story from Mesopotamia. It tells the story of a powerful and dictatorial sumeric king and his quest for eternal life. The setting of the story is in a country known as Uruk characterised by forests and mountains.
The story is written on twelve tablets by Giglamesh himself. The book was written in the second and third millennium BC. The epic of Giglamesh is in two parts. One part narrates the heroic conquests of the Sumerian kings while the second part is narrates his struggle with the issues of death and mortality. The book of Job is a poetic book with its origin in the bible. Several writers have written the story, analysing it and contributing ideas on the story.
It is partly prose and partly poetry. In the prose Job is a persevering man but in the prose he comes out as defiant (Mitchell, 2010) It is not known who wrote the poem. In the bible it is also referred to as a book of wisdom in the same category as the book of proverbs. This is the story of a blameless man who lost everything he had yet he had done nothing wrong. It is a story discussing issues of justice and suffering.
Comparative Review The two stories show certain characteristics of the people that lived at that time. In both stories the people believed in the supernatural beings and were religious. When Giglamesh faces a monster he approaches his mother to pray to the god Shumash that
he may have victory in his battle. Job is a religious man who also devotes himself to his God. Giglamesh himself is described as one part human and three parts god. The story of Giglamesh is like a fantastical story with monsters, ogres and many gods. In the story of Job there are scenes of God and Satan discussing the life of Job.
The Book of Job shows the existence of God and the evil Satan. This is a common belief in most religions that speak of the fight between good and evil. Enkidu is also told by the gods that he will die. These are stories emphasizing communication between the spirit worlds and man. The questions in the book of Job tend to be rhetoric though.
The answers to Job’s questions are never answered directly by God. The answers God chooses to give which are in the question form tend to show God’s might and the limitation of man. Enkidu is made from clay and water showing that man is indeed common and not supernatural.
It makes one who is not keen on spiritual matters to pause and wonder on the happenings of his life. Are the happenings in his life as a result of a decision taken by the gods? As humans we want to be in control of our environment and what happens in our lives.
The stories show that the gods decide what happens in a man’s life. The human beings are not given a chance to contribute to conversations that concern their lives. The stories may create a state of helplessness in an individual. It is a harsh reminder that we are not in control.
The picture of a great puppeteer pulling strings to control man may emerge in our minds. The two stories tell of men that are completely different. Giglamesh is a warrior and an aggressive fighter. Job is a wealthy man and an elder that is respected at the city gates. He is a family man with great friends. Job is a religious man while Giglamesh is a cruel king. Giglamesh demands to be the first man to sleep with every girl. The story shows the extent of his abuse of power.
He also exhausts the young men’s strength by engaging them in battles and test games. The story shows how the abuse of power by any king or ruler weighs heavily on the citizens. The people cry out to their gods for help. The stories show the suffering endured by these two main characters. The suffering of Job is intense though and cannot be in any way compared to the suffering of Giglamesh. Job loses everything in his life.
He loses his children, wealth, societal respect and good health. It is easier to be empathetic with Job’s suffering and harder to consider Giglamesh suffering. Giglamesh is just a man who loses a great friend.
Giglamesh still retains the respect of his people, his kingship and wealth. He chooses to leave his possessions for a while to go the wild when he is in deep mental anguish. Job had no choice on the matter. He woke up one day to hear his servants coming back to the house to narrate how natural calamities destroyed everything he had. One moment Job is the richest man on earth and the next moment he is a poor man with painful sores all over his body such that he is constantly scratching himself. One tends to love Job and hate Giglamesh at the beginning of their stories. This is especially in the introduction of the texts where the cruel acts of Giglamesh are described and the people cry out to their gods for help. In the times of Giglamesh it is shown that women were not highly regarded. Men used women for their own selfish desires. The stories tend to attempt to answer the questions that people are always asking.
One of the questions examined is why do good people suffer? The book of Job answers the question that the reason why people suffer is not because they have sinned. There are other reasons why people suffer. The book of Giglamesh shows that at times people die for performing good deeds. The two warriors, Giglamesh and Enkidu killed monsters that were terrorizing the people. Instead of the gods congratulating them and even blessing them they decided that Enkidu has to die.The stories show us the peak of the men’s lives.
The people prayed to the gods who sent a young man called Enkidu to help neutralize Giglamesh’s cruel tendencies. Enkidu and Giglamesh became best friends who conquered monsters together. Job on other hand was a blameless man who obeyed God. He had several sons and daughters. His wealth in cattle was enormous.
He was the richest man on the earth at his time. He was a successful man. Examining the two men’s definition of success one identifies more with Job. At this time most people are working towards achieving what Job had, a family, great wealth and a great career.
In the times of Giglamesh war was important. The young men spent most of their time in war fighting other countries for new territories. The books also explore the quality of friendships. Friendship is important to all of us. We have had friends who have been good and others who have hurt us terribly. As Job starts suffering his three friends come to visit him. When Enkidu dies the extent to which Giglamesh had treasured that friendship is shown. These are stories on male bonding.
The story of Job tends to caution one not to think too highly of friends. You may think that you have great friends who will support you at all times then you are greatly disappointed. Giglamesh’s story though tends to show the great side of friendship. The power of friendship causes Giglamesh to change behaviour from a proud, cruel king to a better person.
Without Enkidu Giglamesh would not have sought for wisdom. He would have continued living life recklessly and selfishly being cruel to people. The book of Job is a narrative poem expressed or written as dialogues. Each speaker speaks while the others are listening. The book has a lot of sarcasm that is revealed as Job speaks to his friends and even as God answers Job’s questions. The tone in the book is highly sarcastic and even judgemental.
The epic of Giglamesh has several similar themes with the book of Job. The book of Job in the Bible is not the only one that has been compared to the epic of Giglamesh. The epic has been compared to several stories in the bible. Enkidu’s innocence is also compared to the story of Adam and Eve in the book of the bible. Once Enkidu sleeps with the harlot he loses his innocence (Brown, 1996) The serpent that steals Giglamesh’s plant of the secret of life has also been compared to the serpent in the garden of Eden that shows Adam and Eve the tree of life and death. The serpent causes Adam and Eve to be chased away since they now know good and evil. There is a flood in the epic story where many people die that is compared to the story of Noah and the great flood.
A man and the wife carry seeds in their boat the way Noah carried pairs of animals in the ark. The epic also has a similarity to the book of Daniel where Nebcadnezer leaves his royal palace and wealth to be in the wild, eating grass as punishment by God for being proud. Giglamesh goes to stay in the wild after his friend dies. The texts also attempt to deal with the issues of Justice. Job’s struggle with the justice of God resonates with most human beings on the common question: why do bad things happen to good people?
Should one judge another person as evil simply because bad things are happening to him. The text also brings out the fact that God is in control of all things that happen on the earth, whether it is bad things or good things. Job agrees he came to the earth with nothing. He shall also leave with nothing. This is something that a person may struggle to understand or accept. Does God really allow bad things to happen?
The stories show men struggling with the purpose of life and how life is supposed to work. For Job and his friends suffering only comes to evil people as punishment. For Giglamesh when Enkidu dies he realizes the fragility of man. Men have the fear of death and this has been there forever. This story reminds us of that fact. Man is not a god and therefore he will not live forever. Giglamesh does not want the same limitation on his life.
The fact that Enkidu tells Giglamesh that souls after death go to an unpleasant place contradicts other religion’s beliefs for example Christianity and Islam where after death one goes to a place of eternal happiness. This is if you lived a blameless life on earth. The death of Enkidu sets Giglamesh on a desperate journey to see the man Utnapishtim in order to know the secret of eternal life. The story reminds us that since time immemorial man has been seeking to live forever.
At the end of the story Giglamesh does not get eternal life but learns not to be preoccupied by the thought death. It is better he just lives and appreciates his life. The story shows us men may die but their actions and achievements lasts forever.
Giglamesh achievements are etched on the walls of the country of Uruk. The book seems to shift our focus from concerning ourselves with death and to focus on what we are doing on the earth. Will we be remembered in the generations to come? What will be our achievements? The two stories tend to sound like a warning, a caution to man not to pursue things that are beyond him more importantly immortality. Death is inevitable. The stories serve to give wisdom and knowledge to men on the issues of death and justice. In the two stories, the idea of both characters being heroes is quite interesting. Job is a hero though he is not a warrior like Giglamesh. He is able to persevere and be strong during hard times. Giglamesh on the other hand is a hero for conquering the monsters and persevering even when his friend dies. However one may get disappointed with him.
It is ironic that such a great warrior who has killed two monsters would lose the plant of eternal life without a great fight. One would rather it had been some sort of fight with a monster so that one sees the fight in Giglamesh even more. In modern stories today the fights between the bad and good guy are always the climax.
This aspect of the story turns out to be such an anti-climax. There are different aspects of the book to note. The epic of Giglamesh has sexual themes as Enkidu is having sex with a harlot so that he is transitioned from an animal to a human being. The book of Job has no sexual narration. It is all about suffering, justice and understanding what is happening in Job’s life.
Conclusion
Whether the suffering is for wrong deeds done or the supernatural deities are having a duel the two characters go through a lot of transformation through their suffering. Suffering though painful has some benefits at the end of the day. One grows and learns a lot. Everything that happens serves to make the two characters stronger.
Job at the end of the day now understands that as a man he is limited. There is no purpose in questioning God at all. He also faces the realities that he is a mortal man who will die one day not carrying any wealth to the world beyond. Giglamesh after losing the plant resigns himself to the fact man is mortal and one day he will die. In the last chapter where he speaks to Enkidu he speaks of the afterlife with him and asks him many questions. The two people have taken a journey that has changed their lives.
They are not the only ones who learn this great lesson. Job’s friends and wife realize their mistake and stop accusing him. Job is restored to his former state where he has wealth, the respect of society and God gives him children. Enkidu does not come back to life but Giglamesh is able to speak with him about the underworld.
These two books have been used in history as sources of wisdom and knowledge. Men are somehow restrained from searching for immortality and seeking out the reasons why certain things happen.
The story of Giglamesh was written by Giglamesh himself on the twelve tablets of stone. No doubt what Giglamesh had learnt about the gods, justice, suffering and eternity had a profound influence on him and he wanted people even past his generation to learn from what he had experienced in his life. The story of Job also ends dramatically. God tells Job of the birds, wild animals and sea animals that he has created and controls from heaven. He knows all the details about them, how they find food and how they escape from their predators.
He also speaks of the aspects of earth such as the oceans, seas and mountains and the way he created them long ago even before Job was born. Job understands that a man is limited in power. After God questions Job for some time he is left in awe. He says that he had heard a lot about God but now he has truly seen what he is all about. He says he is sorry for questioning God.
He used to be respected at the elder’s gate. The princes used to keep quiet when he speaks. He realizes that his wisdom was actually foolishness and God is the wise one. He sees that the wealth God has given him was not a right hence the profound statement: Naked I was born, naked will I return to the grave. On the issues of Justice Job defends his righteousness to his friends showing God to be cruel and harming him without any reason. God is a hunter and he is the prey.
As the friends cling to the belief that God is just Job clings to the fact God is unfair. Job is surely being punished for being evil. The friends realize the safety in this explanation. They do not want to think of a God who is evil.
In the last part of the story God appears and questions Job on whether he can administer justice in the world at all seeing that as a man he is limited in terms of strength, wisdom, knowledge and mortality. Like the epic of Giglamesh when one reads the story of Job one is cautioned not to think evil of God and accept that indeed man is mortal.
Works Cited
Brown, A. “Storytelling, the meaning of life and the Epic of Giglamesh” Rev. of The Epic of Giglamesh by Nancy Sanders. 1996. Web.
Mitchell, S. “The Book of Job” Rev. of The Book of Job by Raymond Scheindlin. Web.