In the “ Epic of Gilgamesh,” it talked about how Gilgamesh came into the world of man and how he went about on his epic quest to find immortality and defy death. Rumors said that Gilgamesh’s being was 1/3 human and 2/3 divine. How can a person be 1/3 of anything is beyond my understanding. In the olden times, people believed in myths, legends, and there were gods and spiritual beings among us.
They believed that Gilgamesh was created by the gods Shamash (sun god whom endowed Gilgamesh with beauty) and Adad (storm god whom endowed Gilgamesh with courage) and was brought into the world of man by Ninsun (Gilgamesh’s human mother), hence being 2/3 divine and 1/3 human. As I read the “ Epic of Gilgamesh,” I have notice that there is more than one villain in the story. One of Gilgamesh’s downfalls was when he tried to attain immortality by killing a divine beast. The one who persuaded him to continue to travel within the cedar forest and blessed him was none than other than Shamash.
Gilgamesh journeyed deep within the forest, found a divine beast, Humbaba, killed him, and presented its head to the gods, but in return, the gods were enraged. I believed the villain in the “ Epic of Gilgamesh” is Shamash for this very reason. If Shamash knew that if a mortal killed something divine and that would disrupt the balance between man and god and would anger the gods, why would Shamash gave permission and his blessings to Gilgamesh to continue his adventure. The other villain I believe to be is Ishtar.
Ishtar is a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. She had taken a liking into Gilgamesh, but he rejected her because he knew of her past love affairs. Ishtar became angry and unleashed a divine bull to destroy mankind on earth. Again, Gilgamesh killed the divine bull and angered the gods. I think the characteristics of the villains in the story are to make Gilgamesh do something to anger the gods and being punished for it. Shamash granted him to kill Humbaba and Ishtar forced him to kill the divine bull to save mankind.
