The epic poem of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey has many forms of many conflicts, internal and external conflicts. The Odyssey is a novel by Homer while the Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Mesopotamia believed to be the oldest written story on earth with anonymous authors.
In the Odyssey by Homer, there are many different types of conflicts. But the one that sticks out and the most exciting conflict is that between Telemachus and the suitors. Telemachus dominates in the first books of the Odyssey by defending his mother against the suitors. Telemachus had to do everything to protect his mother from the suitors on behalf of Odysseus his father. He was advised by Athena to call together all the suitors and tell them to vacate from his father’s estate. This can be seen in the passage “Shameless,” he cried, “and insolent suitors, let us feast at our pleasure now, and let there be no brawling but in the morning meet me in full assembly that I may give you formal notice to depart, and feast at one another's houses” ( Homer, 56). He then embarked to a journey in search for his father which was driven by the fact that he needed to be there to protect his mother from the many suitors who were bothering her back in Ithaca in his absence. He had fought with the suitors enough and he needed his fathers support. The problem with the suitors created a conflict between Telemachus and his mother over the suitors’ presence in the house and who is in charge of the house and therefore, he had to keep the suitors away from their home.
Another conflict in the Odyssey is that between Poseidon (God of the sea, earthquakes and of horses) and Odysseus which is man vs. god. This was an external conflict whereby Poseidon was angry at Odysseus for failing to give a sacrifice of thanks to him after the victory at Troy. In addition, Poseidon was angry at Odysseus for blinding his son the Kyklops Polyphemos and he was to trouble him on his way back home to Ithaca. In book 1 of the Odyssey, Odysseus went to war against the Trojans and won and never gave thanks to the Great god Poseidon who favored him and his men into winning the Trojan War. This is where his conflict with Poseidon started. Poseidon was very angry with Odysseus for not thanking him until he caused him a lot of troubles and his men at the sea. He got off track got lost at the sea on his way back home. Moreover, Poseidon caused him to be stranded on Calypso Island and as if that was not enough, Poseidon tortured him a lot on his way back home making his journey longer. Poseidon wanted Odysseus to learn a lesson that human beings are nothing without the gods and he helped them win the Trojan War and he was supposed to offer him a sacrifice of thanks. The gods pushed him back because his pride made him think that he can do without the gods and so they made everything difficult for him in his journey back home as he was the last person from the Trojan War to come back home. Odysseus conflict with Poseidon (God of the sea, earthquakes and of horses) causes his return to Ithaca to be delayed.
The Gilgamesh poem has many conflicts starting with the protagonist who was a conflict of his own (Mitchell 67). The town’s people never liked him and his leadership because of his acts of womanization and mistreating the people. He was a very selfish person, half man- half god and wanted to remain youthful after the death of Enkidu. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh experiences both internal and external conflicts. The internal conflict in this epic is when Gilgamesh has difficulties coping with the loss of Enkidu. Enkidu died and after his death, the gods warned Gilgamesh that he was next and this made him fear death. He never accepted that he was going to die just like his companion Enkidu and he could not cope with his friend’s death. Moreover internal conflict is also depicted when Gilgamesh has the difficulty of overcoming the fear of death. Gilgamesh struggled to avoid death. This can be seen in the first part of the poem where he bonds with Enkidu and sets out to make a name for himself, in doing so; he incurs a wrath with the gods. After Enkidu died, Gilgamesh feared to die and that is why he was fighting for eternal life despite the fact that the gods had told him that he was not going to have it.
The protagonist Gilgamesh was two thirds-god and one third man and therefore he could overpower any mortal and rule the land (Mitchell, 102). No earthly challenge could overpower him since he was like a demigod and he was to seek more power from the gods to strengthen his power and in the process, he confronted the supernatural gods and their interests on three occurrences. He could not accept the fact that he was half man and god and that he could not live forever so he decided to find eternal life despite what the gods told him. The dominant conflict in the Epic of Gilgamesh is the fear of death which is an internal conflict. Gilgamesh feared death and that is why he embarked on a journey of fighting the supernatural in order to have eternal life which he could not have since he was half man and half god.
The Odyssey and the Epic of Gilgamesh have both internal and external conflicts which involves the main characters in the poems. They both had to fight against the conflicts in order to have a normal life and what they wished for in their lives.
Works Cited
Mitchell, Stephen. Gilgamesh: a New English Version. New York: Free Press, 2004. Print.
Homer. The Odyssey. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003. Print.
