Gilgamesh as an Epic Hero – Enkidu as the Epic-Hero Foundation and Inspiration

Preamble

The topic of the discussion that follows is, ostensibly, the epic-heroic nature of Gilgamesh.
Two questions immediately come to the fore: why just ‘ostensibly’? And, besides, what is it for a character (or person, for that matter) to be, not just a hero, but an epic hero?

An intellectually honest assessment of the latter, one would think, has to conclude that a brief discussion—such as the present one—isn’t conducive to an exhaustive examination;
however, I think, productive, albeit concise, elucidation is possible. So, why ‘epic’?

What distinguishes the epic hero from the not-so-qualified ‘generic’? I would hazard a guess in terms of story.
The sweep of Gilgamesh’s story—in terms of plot lines, characters, mythology, themes, origin and denouement, and ambition—is perhaps definitional (if not out-rightly tautological) of its epic nature.

But, I think it is possible to go further. I’d like to suggest that a story that is epic is so greatly due to the balance and completeness of its structure, rather than just the content of the tale it tells.
My suggestion—and the main idea of this paper—is that the central structure of the story is the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

The story-structure of the relationship—its balance and completeness—is what generates and emanates the balance and completeness of the story as a whole.
And in that the balanced, complete structure of the story’s sweep is what makes the story epic, my suggestion is that it is the balanced, complete nature of Gilgamesh’s relationship with Enkidu that makes Gilgamesh an epic hero.

It is, thus, that we come back to why the epic-heroic nature of Gilgamesh is perhaps just ostensibly the topic of this discussion; it is the nature of Enkidu and his

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