Compare and Contrast Gilgamesh and Siddhartha

Critical Analysis Paper

I. The Individual Journey and Its Social Meaning

During our time in life many of us have to take different journeys to see and

understand how life is on the outside world. Some can be tough or easy and also be sad

or happy. As in the stories of The Epic of Gilgamesh translated by N.K.Sandars and

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, both of the main characters goes on a journey.

Gilgamesh and Siddhartha share the same journey as they try to understand themselves

and find the meaning of life.

In the beginning, Siddhartha does not understand the meaning of life because he

has never experienced anything outside of his city. Siddhartha does not understand all

expression of life and therefore cannot experience Nirvana. So his spiritual voice sends

him on a journey to find and experience life. Through his journey he finds that there is no

such thing as time, "Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence".

Without his journey to understanding life he would have never found this wisdom and with

knowing and understanding that time is pointless, he would have never found Nirvana.

With that said, people from his culture must know without understanding life or

experiencing anything outside their own city they will not be able to find what they're

looking for or trying to accomplish what they're needing in life.

Gilgamesh is the same compared to Siddhartha because he also hasn't

experienced anything outside of his town Uruk. After the death of his best friend Enkidu

he realizes that he is not immortal and will die one day. Gilgamesh is scared because he

realize that one day he will die so he sets out on his journey to find immortality. After

meeting his father, Gilgamesh realizes that becoming immortal is impossible, so

Gilgamesh acknowledges that one day he will die because he is only human. With this

knowledge he goes back to Uruk and strives to be a good king for the rest of his life.

Siddhartha learns that only through life experiences can the spiritual self be understood

and Gilgamesh learns that even though one day everything will die, you have to do what

you can at the present time. Also, with learning the meaning of life, Gilgamesh's people

of his culture will know all living things will die at some point and so just live your life to the

fullest.

II. Further Insight Into the Culture

As we look further into Siddhartha, Siddhartha and the people of his city believes in

reincarnation and ahimsa. Siddhartha also believed that it is in every person to achieve the goal

of enlightenment by following these four noble truths. 1) They believe that all life contains

suffering 2) Suffering is caused by desire 3) One can escape suffering by eliminating desire and

lastly 4) The Eightfold Path is the way. Siddhartha believed in every person. Siddhartha also

said that "no deity is required to achieve this". As well as he did not believe in a god.

On the other hand, the people of Gilgamesh believed in gods and thought people could

obtain mortality. For example, Gilgamesh has extraordinary amount of power and people

describes his fist as iron. Also, he is described as "two-thirds god and one third man.".

Gilgamesh thought he could obtain mortality but was inevitable. Another example is his best

friend Enkidu. Gods created Enkidu to be as strong as Gilgamesh so that he can follow

Gilgamesh throughout his journey and give him knowledge.

Siddhartha and Gilgamesh had two different belief in their culture. One believe in gods

and the other did not believe in gods. One wanted to obtain mortality and other wanted

enlightenment from all living things in the world. Siddhartha achieved his goal of enlightenment

and tells his people that they can achieve this goal by following the noble truth. Although,

Gilgamesh could not achieve mortality but Gilgamesh achieved his peoples gratitude of being the

greatest king of time. He lets his people know that he will take care of them and his city and to

protect them by building walls around his kingdom to keep terrorist out of his kingdom.

III. Myth and Religion

Myth are