Gender Roles In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

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This semester we studied the ancient people and what it meant for them to be a woman and what it meant to be a man. We studied five perspectives this semester: 1. the earliest people believed that female was their creator 2. The story of Gilgamesh being the alienated man and his expression on not taking part in procreation 3. How northern myths focused on female to male 4. How the early Greek established male dominance in Homer 5. How later Greeks disregarded gender roles in Sophocles. All five views demonstrated the ancient people what they believed it meant to be a woman and a man.

First, the Earliest People believed that the female reproduction on her own therefore that she was central existence. For example, they had symbols …show more content…
To begin with, he is a male who is on the search for the power of procreation, a power possessed by the female solely. For example, he starts off his journey after the death of his best friend Enkidu, who inspires him to search for male’s purpose in procreation: “For Enkidu; I loved him dearly, together we endured all kinds of hardships; on his account I have come, for the common lot of man has taken him.” To illustrate this point, he does not want to accept that death comes to all men. Next, Gilgamesh wants to speak to the only hope that men could play a part in procreation, Utnapishtim: “Oh, father Utnapishtim, you have entered the assembly of the gods, I wish to question you concerning the living and the dead.” In contrast to this point, he is told by Utnapishtim that there is no hope for man and that woman solely possesses the power of giving birth: “It is only the nymph of the dragonfly who sheds her larva and sees the sun in his glory.” Finally, he is tested by Utnapishtim by giving him a flower which represents man having children but later a serpent snatches that power away from him: “It (serpent) rose out of the water and snatched it away, and immediately it sloughed its skin and returned to the well.” Therefore, Gilgamesh accepts that he was the alienated male and accepting that women carry the power of …show more content…
For example, the playwright Sophocles in his entitled “Antigone” presents a woman who disregards gender roles believing that she is no longer secondary to man: “What I can’t stand is passively submitting to my own brother’s body being unburied.” Lastly, the critic shows that Haemon believes what makes up a person is the content of the character: “I am subservient to what I think is right.” Therefore, Sophocles does not emphasize neither dominance of a male nor female, only what is important of the character’s
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