Myth of Gilgamesh Analysis

Liliana Magdaleno Ken Hiltner, Miss Russ English 122 LE October 27, 2011 Word Count: ~1450 Hero or Villain? In all epics, we read about the endeavors of heroes who have to conquer an evil entity in order to ensure the peace of their constituencies. They exhibit great virtues such as courage, pride, intelligence, wit, patriotism, and love for the people of their land, among other things.Those are typically the qualities that come to mind when we think of a hero; however, when we think of the evil force that compliments the hero, we think of someone/something that causes harm onto the land, and thus brings fear to everyone when the name of that entity is spoken. In the case of The Myth of Gilgamesh, the distinction of hero or villain is distorted. There is significant evidence that suggests that not only is Gilgamesh a villain, but also he is an environmental hazard. In the Myth of Gilgamesh, we are introduced to the so-called â€Å"hero† and leader behind the great walled city of Uruk.Gilgamesh â€Å"had seen everything†¦had journeyed to the edge of the world†¦had carved his trials on stone tablets†¦restored the holy Eanna Temple and the massive wall of Uruk†¦Gilgamesh suffered all and accomplished all. † (2-3) This introduction leads us to believe that Gilgamesh does possess some of the qualities that would make him be considered a hero; his soldiers refer to him as â€Å"the fortress† and â€Å"protector of the people, raging flood that destroys all defenses. † (3) It is rather instinctual for the reader to feel an admiration towards the character. However, one must not be so quick to judge.Words are just words, but actions are far louder. What is true of the statements that are said by his soldiers is that Gilgamesh destroys all defenses, in the ecocritical perspective; he destroys the defenses of the Cedar Forest. As the story unfolds, we begin to see Gilgamesh more as a villain than a hero. For example, Gilgam esh â€Å"does whatever he wants, takes the son from his father and crushes him, takes the girl from her mother and uses her, the warrior’s daughter, the young man’s bride, he uses her, no one dares to oppose him. † (4) Gilgamesh abuses his role of the hero/ruler of Uruk so that he can rape women and command his soldiers.He is inconsiderate of the feelings of others and only does as he pleases without thinking of the well being of his people. Gilgamesh feels like he is above men, king of kings. The people of his land don’t respect him, they fear him; thus the people of Uruk beg the gods to bring a force strong enough to calm Gilgamesh. That is when we are introduced to Enkidu, Gilgamesh’s double. Enkidu is the exact opposite of Gilgamesh, he is what epitomizes the desired ideal of a hero: he protects the animals from poachers, protects women from the lust of Gilgamesh, and is sensible. He is strong, witty, and has a love of nature.Enkidu is everyth ing the people of Uruk wished Gilgamesh to be. If Enkidu is the person that suits the role of the hero, it is fair to say that Gilgamesh is not a hero at all. Gilgamesh is ambitious, and wants to be forever known by the people of his land. Thus, he wants to preserve the great walled city of Uruk and make it a relic for the great empire ruled by the greatest the Fertile Crescent had ever seen. This need for an unnecessary relic that will require heavy resource consumption (in this case lumber) is an anachronism for a similar phenomenon that occurs within industrialized countries, affluenza.Affluenza is the suggestion that material possessions will bring joy to the individual. This is detrimental to the environment because it causes resource overuse and is very unsustainable. The latter part of the myth begins to show environmental degradation due to Gilgamesh’s greed. The Cedar Forest is the unknown and savage realm beyond the walled city of Uruk that is protected by an evil f orce named Humbaba. From an ecocritical perspective, the wilderness beyond Uruk is just nature or the environment.It is human anthropocentricism that makes it hard to realize that the wilderness is not something to fear just because we don’t have complete control over it. Man above nature is the cause of the Cedar Forest’s demise. Our villain-disguised hero needs to venture into the wilderness in order to face himself with his enemy Humbaba; it is during this section of the myth that another character flaw is revealed: Gilgamesh is a coward for being afraid of the force that is Humbaba (nature manifested as the Cedar Forest). He convinces his double, Enkidu, to embark on the same journey and help him defeat the deity.Gilgamesh is quick to talk about how he wants to be remembered for his glory and ensure that every inhabitant of Uruk will remember the great ruler he was. Yet, he is such a coward that he cannot do this alone. He has nightmares about entering the forest a re a psychological indication that he is not as mighty as he thinks he is. These nightmares are also critical of the environment, Humbaba is portrayed as a ruthless monster that will â€Å"tear [Gilgamesh] from limb to limb,† and â€Å"crush [him]† leave him â€Å"bloody and mangled on the ground. (29) This perspective of the environment as ruthless and relentless is the driving force for Gilgamesh to want to destroy it, to rid himself of the fears of what nature bestows. Nature is not a scary nor evil as this classic literature suggests, in modern contemporary times and even in the pastoral times, nature is giving and beautiful, once the value of the environment is known, it becomes less frightening. Gilgamesh had a fear for the unknown and a thirst for power; in essence, destroying nature would be the only way to realize how important nature truly is.After the fall of Humbaba, Gilgamesh stripped the forest of its tall and luscious trees. Not only did Gilgamesh rape the women of his soldiers, but he raped the forest as well. This was the ultimate goal of our villain’s quest: Gilgamesh gained full access to the Cedar Forest in order to create the relic that he so desired. Gilgamesh needs to feel that he is in control of everything, including nature. On the night of the attack, the weapons Gilgamesh used to combat Humbaba were axes, instead of swords or other conventional weapons. This story is a great metaphor for deforestation.Gilgamesh is the modern day logger in thirsty for virgin lands to satiate his thirst for common pool resources. At the moment, Giligamesh only cares about the reputation and glory, not about how much damage he is causing to the land. This damage turned out to be one of the greatest environmental mishaps of all time. The Myth of Gilgamesh took place in ancient Mesopotomia. This area was previously referred as the Fertile Crescent. After this large-scale deforestation, there wasn’t really anything fertile abou t it. In A Forest Journey by John Perlin, we learn about the technologies created within the era of Gilgamesh.It is evident that as human ingenuity kept rising, environmental degradation followed. The people of the Third Dynasty at Ur, 2100 B. C. harnessed the power of lumber to create â€Å"axes, hammers, hoes, and sickles [to] facilitate work. † (37) Tragedy of the Commons, another anachronism, surfaced as the people of the land began the exploitation of the common pool resource of the Euphrates poplar. With the rising demand of wood, policy and trade became instituted and modern day problems such as selling resources at low prices, not including the environmental impact, in addition to transporting these resources long distances.The physical environment also changed with excessive silt and high salinity. Silt was a huge problem because the â€Å"Euphrates, Tirgis, and Karun rivers became full of silt and salt† (38); water levels declined which made it difficult for irrigation and transportation by ship. High salinity also damaged the agriculture industry as high amounts of salty minerals inhibited successful crop yields. Throughout history we have read about marvelous civilizations with great empires and feats, majestic lands with beautiful relics to preserve their culture forever. Learning about their rise is as amazing as learning about their fall.In the case of Mesopotamia, greedy leaders such as Gilgamesh who wish to preserve his era by means of environmental degradation not only make him an incompetent leader by virtue of not being humble and lack of desired qualities, but also one of the key reasons that this great civilization became a barren land. Works Cited Mitchell, Stephen. â€Å"Book One to Book 5. † Gilgamesh: a new English version. New York: Free Press, 2004. 1-32. Print. Perlin, John. A forest journey: the role of wood in the development of civilization. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989. Print.

How significant was James Simpsons role in solving the problem of surgery during the 19th century?

During the 19th century, there were many attempts to perform surgery without there being any risk towards the patient. This usually meant that the surgeons had to overcome problems of pain, infection and blood loss which were the three main ways in which patients died during surgery. Many individuals discovered methods to make surgery safer. One of these men was a Scottish doctor, by the name of James Simpson, who discovered the anesthetic properties of chloroform and successfully introduced it for general medical use. Of course, there were other individuals who had used different varieties of anaesthetics before James Simpson. In 1799 Sir Humphrey Davy discovered laughing gas which reduced pain felt by patients. It was mostly used by dentists during teeth extractions, which caused excruciating pain. In 1846, J. R Lister used ‘ether' as an anaesthetic so the patient would be unconscious during operation. However this was soon dismissed as it irritated the lungs and caused the patient to cough during the operation as well as the fact that ether is highly flammable. The fact that others had already tried to come up with suitable anaesthetics that could be used in surgery shows that James Simpson's discovery had been built up with knowledge of previous attempts. It also proves that he wasn't solely responsible for discovering ‘anaesthetics'. James Simpson was appointed the Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh University due to his interest in obstetrics. In 1847, Simpson discovered the properties of chloroform during an experiment with friends in which he learnt that it could be used to put one to sleep. It was very much up to chance that Simpson survived the chloroform dosage he administered to himself. If he had inhaled too much, subsequently passing away from an overdose, chloroform would have been seen as a dangerous substance. However, if Simpson had inhaled slightly less it would not have put him to sleep. It was his willingness to explore the possibilities of the substance that established his career as a pioneer in the field of medicine. He began to use chloroform as an efficient and effective anaesthetic used to relieve labour pains during childbirth. This theory of relieving patients from pain spread across to many other surgeons who began using this method of anaesthesia. James Simpson was able to find an actual anaesthetic that was suitable in surgery, and he took the risk of trying the chloroform himself proving that he was dedicated to improving and solving the problems of surgery. Yet, there was a lot of opposition to chloroform due to it being a new and untested gas. Surgeons did not know how much dosage to give their patients or whether there would be long-term side effects. There was also the fact that the use of chloroform caused an increase in deaths, since the patients were given a bigger dosage of chloroform that was necessary. This scared the many surgeons into not using it. There were also other who opposed chloroform because they believed that easing the pain of childbirth, it would make it unnatural and was an act against God. In addition to this, whilst the patient is unconscious surgeons became more confident and attempt more complex operations allowing infections deeper into the body and causing more blood loss. This also contributed to the rise in number of deaths since the introduction of chloroform. Yet, James Simpson soon got many people to realise that his theory was accurate and it was soon accepted. When Queen Victoria used chloroform when delivering her eighth child in 1857, the public along with many other surgeons began using it as an anaesthetic and this soon became a part of surgical practise. However although James Simpson had already tried the anaesthetic on himself, it almost immediately became clear that there were very serious side effects associated with its use and it was known to cause death in a number of instances. From 1864, numerous studies were conducted in an attempt to determine whether chloroform affected the respiratory system or the circulatory system. The major health effects of chloroform surround acute inhalation which leads to depression which is why it was used for a long time as an anaesthetic. Chronic exposure to chloroform was associated with affects on the liver, kidney, and central nervous system. The evidence that chloroform was dangerous and fatal in numerous ways added to the opposition and causes us to believe whether James Simpson really was responsible for an important breakthrough in surgery. In addition to this there were many other breakthroughs by many other people who would be considered to be more important since their discoveries caused essential progress in solving the problems of surgery. Louis Pasteur was extremely vital as he was responsible for the development of the Germ theory, along with Robert Koch. The French scientist was also accountable for the many vaccines such as Chicken cholera, Rabies and Anthrax. Of course, this was accentuated by the rivalry between Pasteur and Koch since, they were both ambitious and nationalistic and France had lost a bitter war to Germany in 1870-71. Joseph Lister was then able to use the germ theory to uncover another significant discovery: antiseptics. This included sterilisation of all equipment, including doctor's hands, throughout the surgery. His reasoning behind this was to reduce the number of patients dying from infection passed on from bacteria on clothing and apparatus. This was vital because many people were dying from infection at the time and there were no advances to decrease the numbers until Lister's antiseptics. Another individual who was able to put the germ theory to good use was John Snow, who was responsible for discovering the cause of cholera, a big killer during the 1800s. He discovered that cholera was spread by drinking water that contained bacteria. Snow was one of the first physicians to study and calculate dosages for the use of ether and chloroform as surgical anaesthetics, allowing patients to undergo surgical and other procedures without the distress and pain they would otherwise experience. He personally administered chloroform to Queen Victoria when she gave birth to the last two of her nine children, leading to wider public acceptance of obstetric anaesthesia. The fact that there were many other individuals who were able to discover other vital things prevents James Simpson from solely being responsible for solving the problems of surgery. John Snow also proves that James Simpson was not the first to come up with the idea of ‘anaesthetics', and therefore cannot really be responsible for the discovery although he played a major role in coming across chloroform. In conclusion, I believe that James Simpson's role was not very significant in the attempts to solve the problems of surgery. This is because he was able to use other people's ideas, such as John Snow, to actually discover the anaesthetic. In addition to this, there were many other individuals and factors such as War and Technology that would have impacted surgery on a bigger scale than that of James Simpson's discovery of chloroform as an anaesthetic. Although we can see his dedication in proving that chloroform was a suitable anaesthetic we can also see that there was a lot of scope for other individuals to find an anaesthetic that may have proved to be less fatal.

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