He's the Goddamn Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh leaves the cave to kill things. He loses a friend, learns about himself, and kicks some bad guy ass. Considering that the story was first recorded more than 3000 years ago and is the oldest known literary work, that gives Gilgamesh a pretty good shot at being the first superhero. After all, all you need is a tragic past and a desire for revenge to make a good superhero. You don't need magical mutant powers or even awesome weaponry.

Gilgamesh proves that in his fight with Humbaba. Of course, he does get a god to help him strike the monster down, but that hardly counts. Everyone in the first thousand years of literature had a god as their sidekick, so that wasn't even a big deal. Gilgamesh has a whole host of buddies, though he does not seem nearly as lucky as our dear friend Mwindo (who is a subject for another time, when I'm running on a bit more sleep).

The homoerotic subtext that exists between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is reminiscent of Batman and Robin. Or Holmes and Watson. Also, I'll talk about Br'er Rabbit at a later time, but I thought I'd spew out some random thoughts about Gilgamesh for a little bit before I headed off to sleep for the first time in god knows how long.

Posted in response to the Week Three prompts