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Jill Seymour HST 197 Dr . Smith September 18, 2012 Text Analysis with the Epic of Gilgamesh Problem I thought regarding while reading this article text was what the part is for girls, and how their very own actions and descriptions disclose Mesopotamian attitudes concerning gender. The female sexuality was not very looked upon of these times.

The only time the thing is a well known female physique is when the mother of the son has been talked about. Some other time females are being talked about, they may be portrayed with vulgar features and seen as simply staying there to serve the man.

I will go through both ways the women will be being described, and relate them back in how they disclose Mesopotamian tradition. The main woman character in this story is usually Ishtar. Ishtar is the empress of love, fertility, and war, the California king of Paradise. Normally as you think of the phrase goddess, a majestic and noble type of being comes to mind. Ishtar is usually portrayed since the complete opposite in The Impressive of Gilgamesh. The first time the lady comes into play your woman uses the characteristics of a prostitute to attract in the guy that your woman wants, which at the time can be Enkidu. Ishtar is informed “make your breasts bare, have no pity.

Let him see you naked, let him possess your body (Sandars, 3). After that it goes on to declare “she had not been ashamed to take him, she made himself naked and welcomed his eagerness (Sandars, 4). Just before she is told to place with Enkidu, the story explains that this is not the first man she has performed this to. Ishtar has been used for this, because the girl with known to include her way with the men and they how to start how to tell her no due to her natural beauty. The way Ishtar is seen pertains back to Mesopotamian culture in showing that ladies were not extremely important in society.

They were primarily there to serve the man and to replicate. They were looked at in 2 different ways, the child of her father, or perhaps the wife of her hubby. At an early age girls were conditioned to do the roles of a good wife and mother. It absolutely was not frowned on in their tradition for women to become at the mercy of the boys. Women could actually own house and have careers outside of your home, but that decreased once more specific social classes arose inside the second millennium. “Husbands obtained authority inside the household and benefited from the marriage and divorce laws (Bulliet, 18).

Even the legislation was against women and helped out the men gender in almost every situation. The very next time she comes into play, we are viewing similar attributes of her trying to attract in the person she wishes when the girl with trying to get Gilgamesh to get married to her. “Come to me Gilgamesh,  she says, “make myself your lick, grant me personally seed of your body (Sandars, 25). The girl tells him she will give him anything they can possibly envision if he’d only get married to her. The moment Gilgamesh neglects the offer we see a different sort of side of Ishtar.

Your woman starts becoming portrayed while evil and self-centered. Ishtar goes to her father in tears saying to kill Gilgamesh for declining her proposal or she is going to let every one of hell escape, literally. Possibly marriage in the Mesopotamian tradition benefitted the person more than the female. “A guy normally took just one partner, but this individual could obtain a second if the first gave him no children (Bulliet, 18). The lady was to be considered a servant, of sorts, for the husband, and was expected to give him children. Later they will became ways to keep wealth in the relatives by arranged marriages. Kings and abundant men had several girlfriends or wives. Marriage forces arranged among families built women instruments for preserving and boosting family wealth (Bulliet, 18). Even in this article they are termed as “instruments, but not given the respect of your human being. In the event the woman failed to bare children, she was easily replaceable. If the girl came from a wealthy family, or her family wished to become wealthy, they would organise a marriage on her behalf to gain or perhaps keep prosperity in the friends and family. On the other hand, females weren’t constantly looked at in this way.

Gilgamesh highly regarded his mother very much therefore , and would venture to her pertaining to advice. His mother, Ninsun, is said to be a small goddess, but she is mentioned in a couple different spots for her intelligence. “Now Gilgamesh got approximately tell his dream to his mother, Ninsun, one of the smart gods (Sandars, 5). In Mesopotamian lifestyle, even the ladies gods were respected by the people. That they thought them all to be wise and will seek their guidance in certain circumstances. Their faith based beliefs brought this admiration, and in a lot of ways dread, to honor the gods so they might be gracious in return. Faith based beliefs instilled fear of the gods, whom could alter the landscape, and desire to conciliate them (Belliet, 19). The Mesopotamians thought that the gods were human being like in type, but that if we were holding to be miserable by anything the people would, they can alter anything at all in their lives, and in some cases possibly kill these people. Overall, females were not looked over then the same ways they may be looked at today. The ethnical norm for ladies was to provide the men with their bodies and in their actions. If they were doing not supply the man the youngsters he needed, she could possibly be replaced.

From a young age they were staying trained to have skills of the good partner and mom. It was certainly not frowned upon to get a man to have more than one partner. This did not happen often until throughout the second mullinium, but was quite oftenly noticed with the nobleman and abundant men. The another way the ladies were used in this society was going to keep or perhaps gain wealth for her family members. The families would organise the marriages for her child, and she would have to make sure you keep her husband completely happy so your woman was not changed. The gods and goddesses were terrifying and respected alternatively.

They were able to manipulate what would happen in the people’s lives, so they will made sure to keep them cheerful, even the girls were held happy from this sense. Mesopotamian culture wasn’t too far removed from how some points are looked at in today’s world, but girls were not very important in their contemporary society. They were just there pertaining to few factors, and if that they didn’t meet up with those anticipations they were replaceable. Today we would say that is definitely unjust and against each of our rights, but that is a privilege we now have inside our country that those women were not able to obtain. Aren’t we all glad to reside today’s world where men and women have equal rights?