The Role of Women in Great Epic Works: “The Odyssey” and “Gilgamesh” Essay

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In the vast majority of the cases, women were not central characters who could significantly affect the epics’ outcome. Moreover, they were usually demonstrated as unsecured and unwise compared to strong and sharp males –— the main heroes of any ancient work. On the contrary, Odyssey, and Gilgamesh, the two unprecedented epics of ancient history, demonstrated to their readers how female representatives might take serious decisions and follow their own life paths. In this essay, the women will be presented from different perspectives. Moreover, the God women would be compared with common or mortal females, which will give the possibility to genuinely determine whether there is a God-person or Woman-woman subject line.

First and foremost, it is critical, to begin with Gilgamesh since he is a relatively common character in terms of his life story. More specifically, two women selected for the analysis are Siduri and Ninsun. This is due to the fact that Siduri is a common female representative, but she was a mentally strong person who could manipulate people so that they achieve the needed results. Her positive influence had a significant effect even on the main hero when she advised Gilgamesh to live the best possible life: now and today. On the other hand, a more conservative but with the same amount of social influence, Ninsun, Gilgamesh’s mother, contributed to his two-thirds of a God. To summarize the influence of both women on Gilgamesh, it is possible to cite Kelley (2014) to describe Gilgamesh’s advice to him during one of the toughest period of the epic:

When the gods created man, they allotted his death, but life they retained in their own keeping. As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is a lot of men (25). Throughout the whole essay, Ninsun was trying to rescue her son from difficult life situations so that she demonstrates her whole dedication to her mortal son by scarifying her own happiness.

Secondly, during his numerous voyages in the labyrinth of the home-leading pathway, Odyssey met two females who determined his continued involvement in the wanderings: Nausicaa and Athena. Similar to Gilgamesh’s epic heroes, they have significantly influenced Odyssey and his return process home. For instance, Nausicaa, who was a beautiful young Phaiakian princess, fell in strong love with Odyssey so that he was rescued from death at the appropriate time when he was supposed to have a maritime squad and equipment. From the other perspective, Athena is a full God by her origin, so she has a serious power as a personality, and one of these personality facets is the infinite willingness to help Odyssey in his voyage, which demonstrates her upper status over the common people. In addition, Athena does not have any fears while helping Odyssey, while Nausicaa experienced significant discomfort in speaking with Odyssey, which underlines the notion that only Gods, and especially women Gods, might feel complete freedom during their stay on the Earth.

Finally, even though Gilgamesh and Odyssey were written in different manners and for different purposes, the women’s question is resolved effectively in both situations. In some cases, the women had typical female behavior, especially when giving life advice to the main heroes. Moreover, they had some flaws throughout the epic, but the main idea of their empowerment as women is that they were described realistically as men, with all of their benefits and drawbacks. Consequently, this aspect allowed some people to provide a fair comparison between God and mortal women.

Work Cited

Kelley, R. L., and N. K. Sandars. The epic of gilgamesh. Assyrian International News Agency, 2014.

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IvyPanda. 2022. "The Role of Women in Great Epic Works: “The Odyssey” and “Gilgamesh”." November 18, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-women-in-great-epic-works-odyssey-and-gilgamesh/.

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