Importance Of Creation Myths In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

Throughout our lives we are taught different stories that can affect us dramatically, either in a positive way or negative way. During our childhood we read the Tortoise and the Hare, which is a story that taught us the moral, “slow and steady wins the race”. We also read things such as: The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which taught us essentially not to lie, because if you lie enough, you won’t be believed when you tell the truth. These stories taught us valuable lessons growing up, but not only do these children books teach us lessons. As we get older we start reading things known as creation myths in our classes. These creation myths basically tell us a story of the creation of mankind. While one might think these are suppose to be taken literally …show more content…
they can also play a key part in teaching the reader lessons to live by. Creation myths are essentially symbolic narratives of the beginning of man. Throughout our societies and other countries, we all have our own sets of beliefs, which serve as our “creation story”. Most people in the United States I’d say believe that God created the heavens and the earth, and it all started with the creation of Adam and then Eve. Other religions have specific creation stories to, that their followers believe and live by. The creation myth of the Epic of Gilgamesh starts out with the introduction of the character Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is the powerful king of Uruk and two-thirds god, and one-third man who is seen as one of the greatest things in Uruk. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a creation myth because Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that the gods are going to flood the earth and wipe out mankind as punishment , and he is told to build a massive boat for his family and “take aboard the boat a seed of every living creature” (143). Similarly, just as it states in our bible, Noah is told to build an Arc for the flood and bring two of every animal …show more content…
There are many different creation myths that not only explain the beginning of these particular cultures, but also serve as morals for man and woman to live by. These stories give people reason for their existence and a clear understanding of where they came from. Morals learned throughout these stories such as: don 't disobey God in the book of Genesis, and also the Epic of Gilgamesh when Enkidu is killed because Gilgamesh rejects one of the god’s love, love is powerful also in Gilgamesh with the story of Enkidu and the Harlot where the Harlot changes Enkidu into a better man, , the influence women have on man demonstrated in “From Works and Days”, etc. All these creation myths I believe serve as a basis of morals that people should live by and that 's why we are taught these and study these throughout our lives and in school. I think these stories are also supposed to entertain the reader. All these stories have different plots and stories that sometimes result in the same thing. One of the major themes or lessons to be learned from these stories is to fear your gods, and that the gods are the most powerful. Every particular religion or culture has their god or gods, if monotheist or polytheist that help them and explain their existence in the