The Epic of Gilgamesh Pride

Gilgamesh and Enkidu sure seem to think the same way. The only problem is their shared interests—extreme pride and love of power—set them on a course to do battle with each other before they can become friends. Does this mean that Enkidu must swallow his pride after Gilgamesh beats him? Or is knowing that Gilgamesh is extremely powerful (as Enkidu shows he does, in these lines) just the thing that lets Enkidu make friends?

Here, the narrator transitions from fawning over Gilgamesh's great strength and handsomeness and accomplishment to telling the citizens to ask the god Anu to save them from Gilgamesh's horrible behavior. Is this a coincidence? Not likely. What could be more typical of an immature ruler like Gilgamesh than letting your gifts and possessions go to your head, resulting in prideful, arrogant behavior? Thus, these lines set the stage for one of the major issues in the story: how Gilgamesh learns that he is basically the same as other humans, for all that 2/3 divine parentage business.

Here, we see how important pride is to Gilgamesh at the beginning of the story. First of all, it looks like pride is the whole reason why he wants to go to the Cedar Forest to fight Humbaba. Knowing that humans can't live forever, Gilgamesh is determined to do great deeds that will live on in people's memory after he is dead. But what good is that to him, if he won't be around to appreciate it?

Here, Enkidu tries to convince Gilgamesh to kill Humbaba by saying that the deed will make him really, really famous. Hm, it sounds like Enkidu knows the way to Gilgamesh's heart. Or something.

It looks like even fierce monsters have feelings of pride. At least, that's one interpretation of this trash-talk Humbaba dishes out to Gilgamesh and Enkidu before doing battle with them in the Cedar Forest. But isn't it much more likely that insulting these two warriors' pride will make them all the more spoiling for a fight?

Basically, Ishtar's dad here is saying that she deserves the insults she got—but Ishtar's pride can't take it. Wounded pride: it's not just for humans.

In the patriarchal society of The Epic of Gilgamesh, do you think that "brothers" would normally take kindly to being described as "sisters"? And, given the pride people in the poem take in their appearance, do you think the lamentation priests would really like their "hair to be shorn off"? And yet, Gilgamesh thinks people should undergo these humiliating procedures "on … behalf" of Enkidu. What is the point of these blows to one's pride? Could it be designed to show solidarity with the dead, who have suffered the ultimate blow to their pride, the destruction of their bodies?

Here, we can see how, even after all his travels and sufferings, Gilgamesh still clings to his pride as a doer of great deeds. But there's a difference. Gilgamesh originally claimed to want to do those deeds so that his fame would live on after his death. But now that doesn't seem good enough for him; now, death seems all too real. How does Gilgamesh's sense of pride change as he comes to accept death in the closing books of the epic?

4x4 drive, voice-activated GPS, full leather interior … oh, wait, sorry: we thought Utanapishtim was bragging about his sweet new ride. But really, isn't this detailed description of the specs of his boat pretty much the same deal? What's the point of all this boasting?

The end. These are the last lines of the entire epic, when Gilgamesh welcomes Urshanabi, the ferryman of the underworld, to Uruk. Clearly, Gilgamesh takes a lot of pride in his city. But is it the same sort of pride he felt at the beginning of the epic? Notice how Gilgamesh points out that the "Seven Sages themselves" laid out the plan of the city. In other words, Gilgamesh isn't taking credit for all the good stuff in Uruk—he is giving credit where credit is due. How might this change in focus be connected to the main arc of Gilgamesh's character over the course of the epic?