The Epic and The Odyssey

While there may be no significant connection to The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey, by Homer, the first thing that came to my mind while reading tablet X was how similar Gilgamesh’s trek to find Utnapishtim was like Odysseus’s journey to go back home in that both had to go through a series of events to reach their destination, or in this case find Utnapishtim.

In tablet X, Gilgamesh comes across his first “task,” which is trying to get Siduri to tell him how to reach Utnapishtim. After she sees that she cannot sway Gilgamesh from trying to achieve immortality, Siduri gives in and gives Gilgamesh directions to the house of Urshanabi, Utnapishtim’s boatman. When he gets near where the Urnu-snakes and Stone Things live, he attacks them with his axe and dagger. He then introduces himself to Urshanabi and finds out that it was the snakes and Stone Things that allowed for protection of the boat. In order to cross the seas safely, Gilgamesh’s next task was to go back into the forest and cut poles. However, since Gilgamesh is so strong, he ended up breaking all of the poles and instead used his animal skin as a sail.