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The Mesopotamian deities in The Epic of Gilgamesh expect humans to respect their authority, offer sacrifices, and seek their favor through prayers and rituals. They play a crucial role in shaping the outcomes of events and influencing the lives of mortals.

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3w ago
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13y ago

The gods and goddesses in the Epic of Gilgamesh appear to require silence from humans as the noise of mankind led to the flood that Utnapishtim was able to escape from by building an ark. Some of the gods undoubtably require sacrifices from humans. One goddess wants physical love from Gilgamesh and when he spurns her she is very angry. The interesting thing here is that the gods and goddesses don't really play a big role in the epic. They seem more peripheral to the main themes which are the friendship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the taming of Enkidu after making love to the sacred harlot but this leads to his loss of vitality and ultimately his decline, Gilgamesh's grief at Enkidu's death, and Gilgamesh grappling with the fears of his own mortality leading him to seek for Utnapishtim and the secret of immortality. The deities serve to advance the plot and are part of the overall religious context of the epic but the main themes are profoundly human themes, deeply religious questions in much the same way that the Buddha's question about suffering are deeply religious but neither actually need gods and goddesses, rather the human drama is enough and religion is not really about gods but is actually a core dimension of our humanity. That is what makes the epic of Gilgamesh so great.

The gods and goddesses require respect from the people. Enkidu insulted a goddess and was killed. Gilgamesh was very sad because he knew he was going to die too because only the human part of Enkidu allowed him to die.

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Q: What do the Mesopotamian deities require of the people in The Epic of Gilgamesh?
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