Problem of Woman in Gilgamesh and Book of Genesis of the...

The Problem of Woman in Gilgamesh and Genesis The snake hands Eve the apple, and with a twinkle in her eye she bites into the apple, gaining the elusive knowledge the serpent has promised. With shame deep in her heart, Eve smiling offers the precious fruit to Adam, her mate. The prostitute lures Enkidu, protector of nature, into her arms with the fruits of her womanhood. She offers him sexual satisfaction. He like Adam is an innocent taken in by the wiles of a woman. Why do the women tempt the innocents? Are these conquests for victory over man, or is their temptation their way of making sure that they will not die alone? The Epic of Gilgamesh (pp. 15-16) and Genesis (Chapter 3) tell of the enlightenment and presents the†¦show more content†¦For seven days, he experiences sexual pleasure for the first time. Then upon his attempt to return to the beasts way of life, the animals rn from him, and shun him in his new discovery. When he triesto run after the gazelle, he feels his body was bound as though with a cord, his k nees gave way when he started to run, his swiftness was gone. Enkidu, like Adam, finds that there is the wisdom of the world within him, and the thoughts of man now claim his heart. The women of the two works offer the men the temptation of sex and a fruit. These two things are different, but they represent the same thing: knowledge. The fruit and sex are facts of nature that are appealing to the senses of the base creature, man. Wrapped in the package of desirability and offered by women, the supposedly subservient half of the human species, the man takes what is offered to him without thinking of the consequence. The tree of life represents the knowledge of good and evil. Before man eats of the tree, there is no knowledge of anything but what is occurring at that moment. Adam and Eve have no names; they are just man and woman living in a garden with nothing more than beauty and happiness to fill their lives. Eve determines the fate of females painful childbirth with her disobedience. The prostitute represents the ways of the world and she has no remorse. She gives herself to Enkidu with full knowledge that he would be foreverShow MoreRelatedGENESIS AND ANCIENT MYTHS OF THE NEAR EAST930 Words   |  4 PagesWhen one approaches the biblical text, it is important to explore the cultural context in which the text occurs. With regard to the Book of Genesis, it is important to examine the writing with other contemporary works of similar geography and topics. The people of ancient Mesopotamia, where the oldest civilizations originated, produced a number of stories of creation and natural occurrences. It is important to note that many of the stories of the Sumerians, Akkadians and Hebrews began as oral traditionsRead More Beowulf and Grettirs Saga Essay3715 Words   |  15 Pagesnoting the variation of the characters attitudes, from the older Beowulfs world of a pagan society working to integrate Christianity, to Grettirs Christian population, whose older heroic heathens are cast out. Dating oral works propose myriad problems, especially when considering these are older stories that, at a particular moment during their evolution, have been written down. There is historical evidence that the Anglo Saxon Beowulf was composed, or more exactly transcribed, 900 years earlier