Epic of Gilgamesh

The epic of Gilgamesh can be grouped by using Cambell’s monmyth. It can broken-down into three stages, departure, trials and victories, and return. When you look at the story of Gilgamesh all of the events fit into the theory of monmyth.

The first stage that Cambell talks about is departure. This stage contains five elements: Call to Adventure, The refusal of the call, supernatural aid and in the belly of the whale. The refusal of the call, which doesn’t come from Gilgamesh but from Enkidu instead, happens when Gilgamesh wants to destroy Humbaba to make himself a hero. This stage is also marked by help from a supernatural Aid. Gilgamesh is helped by Shamash to defeat Humbaba (Thury 147). Next comes the other part of this stage is when Gilgamesh crosses the gate to Humbaba’s forest. He him self marks this crossing as the beginning of his death. Next comes the element of in the belly of whale, this takes place after Gilgamesh and Enkidu enter in to the forest and are completely overwhelmed by its grandness. This leads the trials and victories stage.

The second stage of the story is the part of trials and victories. This stage has six elements, the road of trials, the meeting with the goddess, women as the temptress, atonement with the father, apotheosis, and the ultimate boon (Thury pg 137). The first trial that Gilgamesh comes to is the atonement with his father. He however does not know it is his father but he still represent a father figure. Next in this story comes Ishtar. She represents two elements in this story. She is a goddess and the temptress. With this stage it leads to either the start of a new story and the end of first.

The final stage which Cambell refers to as the return has six elements. The six elements are, refusal of the return, the magic flight, rescue from without, crossing the return threshold, master of two worlds and freedom to live. Gilgamesh continues on his journey which has a road of trials in finding immortality and then returns to Uruk the same way he came.

The epic of Gilgamesh may not have every element from every stage of Campbell’s view of monmyth, but it is still a good way to look at this story. It is a way to separate the story and analyze it.

Monomyth

Criticisms
I think that the problem with this is that his theory is too generic. You can read any story and try to fit into this mold. Every story has these elements, a hero, a problem and a villain. You can read any story manipulate any story to fit in to this mold that Campbell has set up.

Praise
I do how ever think that by having a set mold to go by makes it easier for some one to analyze a story. They will know what to look for and how to interpret it in the world of myth.

The Birth of Finn

It was asked to analyse the story "The Birth of Finn" through the eyes of Joseph Cambel in hopes to understand the deaper thoughts in a myth more deeply.First if we look at "The Birth of Finn" along side the stages that Joseph proposes they appear to follow quite regularly as he proposed. First he talk of the retreat from the world, this is most noticable in the escape of Finn as a young child to live in the base of a Oak tree. Second of course are the trials, he fight three sons and there even stronger mother (this in another thought may be viewed as the strengh of either women of mothers) where he is able to defend the Kings Dun and win the right to his daughters hand in marriage. This the leads to final trail of taking claim for his deed and claiming the hand that is his, this final trial can be seen as the journey home to the kingdom form which he was born. Finally rather than accept the hand he offers the men imprisoned there lives if the swear to him with the lives, and then leaves to fight greater battles with his sworn soldiers throughout the world.Joseph Cambel also speaks about how each of Us the readers are the heroe in the story, this I find to be quite true. How often would someone put themselves into the place of a worn out and beaten down character. We as a specieces have a drive to be the best out of survival, it serves us well (withstanding some poor desicions that are made recently in time). It is this instinct and drive that pushes us to, create, expand and retell these myths of great heroes over and over for centuries.

Do you think about myth as the way we were or the way we are?

When I first look at myths I would group them all together and say that was the way we were. Every thing that is in a myth took place a long time ago and so nothing of it could be relevant today. This is what I tend to see if you would look at some of these stories as just face value. But then I think if all of these stories are not relevant to us then why do we continue to read and retell them. The stories contain values that even people today want to have. I think people look at these stories and want to strive to have some of the values that the myths embody. This is why I would look at myths rather as the way we are.

Definition of Myth

"A myth, in its simplest definition, is a story with a meaning attached to it other than it seems to have at first; and the fact that it has such a meaning is generally marked by some of its circumstances being extraordinary, or, in the common use of the word, unnatural."This definition was made by John Ruskin, in 1869, in The Queen of the Air.
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