Achilles Iliad Arjuna Bhagavad Gita Gilgamesh Comparison

The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Iliad, and the Bhagavad Gita are three of the most enduring ancient texts in the canon of global literature. All are heroic tales focusing on a strong male warrior protagonist, who endures a series of tests in order to achieve their goals and retain their status as leaders of their community. However, unlike Achilles, the hero of Homer’s Iliad, or Arjuna, hero of the Bhagavad Gita, Gilgamesh was an actual historical figure, evidence by the archaeological record as well as literary correspondences (Hansman). The historicity of its hero is not necessarily the reason to favor one of these epics over the other, but The Epic of Gilgamesh has the edge over its epic counterparts in other ways. For example, Gilgamesh’s character undergoes deep and meaningful transformations in ways that neither Achilles nor Arjuna experience. Both Achilles and Arjuna are thinly drawn, when compared with Gilgamesh. Interestingly, though, Gilgamesh predates both Homer’s Iliad and the Bhagavad Gita. Dating to the third millennium BCE, The Epic of Gilgamesh is also the oldest of these three texts and may in fact have influenced the evolution of subsequent literature far more so than either the Iliad or the Bhagavad Gita. Although a direct influence is not provable definitively, Beye notes that “influence and continuity is likely,” (ix). Because Homer had portrayed Odysseus in ways that “curiously parallel bits of the Gilgamesh story,” it is certainly likely that The Epic of Gilgamesh had traveled long and wide, the progenitor of ancient narratives on multiple continents.
Arjuna, Achilles, and Gilgamesh have completely different goals. For Achilles, his goal is to prevail in battle, and he does. For Arjuna, his goals are to attain enlightenment by following the teachings given to him by Lord Krishna. The Bhagavad Gita is largely an instructional text detailing the importance of following the path of dharma yoga. Unlike Homer’s Iliad or The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bhagavad Gita has assumed the role of scripture, serving as a sacred text in Hindu culture. The hero of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna, is a prince who bemoans the brutality of war. Arjuna also does not want to fight initially because he would be fighting members of his own extended family, his own kin. However, Arjuna belongs to the warrior-prince caste, and it is his destiny to fight for honor and duty. Arjuna comes to terms with his dharma, his duty and place in the world, through his conversations with Lord Krishna. Krishna teaches Arjuna about the importance of dharma, and through his lessons, Arjuna also develops strength of character that transforms him into a classic hero. Arjuna’s primary lesson as a hero is related to fulfilling his duty as a warrior-prince. Like Achilles, Arjuna does eventually fulfill his goals through the lessons learned on but mostly off the battlefield.
Gilgamesh’s goals are far more complex than those of Arjuna or Achilles. At first, the King of Ur seeks to prove himself against this mysterious creature Enkidu, who he comes to respect deeply as an equal, a partner, and a male companion. Together, Enkidu and Gilgamesh keep the people safe from external threats, symbolized by Humbaba. After Enkidu dies, though, Gilgamesh’s goals switch completely to his desire for immortality, whether as a means to gain power over life itself or as a means to reunite with Enkidu is left up to the reader’s own subjective impressions (Tigay). Because Gilgamesh’s goals radically change as his character develops, his is a much more complex and enduring heroic journey than either that of Achilles or Arjuna.
Moreover, Gilgamesh’s character changes dramatically from when audiences meet him in the first tablet, when he is a rather tyrannical and misogynistic monarch, to the end of the tale, when he has experienced sorrow, loss, and grief that have transformed his soul. At first Gilgamesh merely sought to gain and maintain power, but by the end of his story, he seeks genuinely to become a better leader and a good king. Achilles does soften during his dialogue with Priam, but his character might not have appreciably changed; Homer does not allow audiences to know what happens following Hector’s burial.
Homer’s Iliad is similar to the Bhagavad Gita in that it focuses exclusively on war and the hero’s role in it. Like Arjuna, Achilles also expresses some initial reluctance to fight, but for different reasons. Achilles is not inherently opposed to war itself, like Arjuna. On the contrary, Achilles is one of the greatest warriors of his time and he fulfills his duty willingly. Yet when readers first meet Achilles, he is engaged in a sort of power struggle with the political leader for whom he fights: Agamemnon. As a political maneuver, Agamemnon has taken Achilles’s concubine Briseis captive. Achilles is less concerned about Briseis than he is about his own injured pride, evidence in the way he prays not for Briseis’s safety or wellbeing but for his restoration to power and glory. Essentially, Achilles was upset because Agamemnon made a decision without consulting him. Achilles is also indifferent to Briseis once she is returned to him later in the text. Eventually Achilles returns to the front lines, his entire identity being consumed by a passion for fighting and proving his prowess through battle. The Trojan War wages on, and often Homer places Achilles back stage, as if to show that human heroes like him play a relatively minor role in the outcomes of worldly affairs.
Achilles’s character transformation is notable, but relatively minor when compared to that of Gilgaemsh. Both Achilles and Gilgamesh must contend with higher justice, and overcome their obsession with taking revenge. Both lose a companion close to them. Achilles loses Patroclus and Gilgamesh loses Enkidu. Their grief takes a similar toll on the heroes, but far more so on Gilgamesh, who becomes determined not just to kill the Humbaba but to seek the secret plant of immorality so that no other human being shall suffer the same fate. For Achilles, the reaction to Patroclus’s death is more reflexive. He simply wants to kill Hector and is inflamed with rage. Achilles transforms his anger into success in battle, just as Gilgamesh does. Yet Achilles settles for a superficial victory in killing Hector swiftly and then defiling the corpse as the ultimate sign of dishonor and disrespect. With the gods’ help and intervention, Achilles learns that his unjust behavior towards Hector’s body is not befitting of a true hero. It takes an earnest plea from Priam to move Achilles, to make him human once again and able to release his now unnecessary rage; butchering Hector’s body is not going to bring back Patroclus any more than Gilgamesh can bring back Enkidu with the flower of immorality.
Male companionship is a major theme of all three of these epics, in many ways their driving force. Krishna is guru, teacher, and god to Arjuna, making their relationship qualitatively different from the relationship between Enkidu and Gilgamesh or between Patroclus and Achilles. Female companionship and relationships with women play a secondary role for all three heroes, who seem ambivalent about their sexualities. Arjuna practically avoids discussions of sexuality. Achilles only tacitly refers to his relationship with Briseis, and Gilgamesh spurns the advances of Ishtar.
Dialogue with other men is what prompts personality transformation for Gilgamesh, Achilles, and Arjuna. Arjuna’s dialogue with Krishna is the foundation of the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita is in fact built around this dialogue to show how Arjuna internalizes the lessons of dharma yoga to fulfill his destiny as a warrior-prince. Through the dialogue with Krishna, Arjuna cultivates self-realization. Achilles has a transformational dialogue with Priam, the father of Hector. Priam begs Achilles to offer Hector a proper burial, appealing to his humanity. The dialogue does inspire Achilles to take action, but Homer offers no indication that his actual personality has changed. Unlike Arjuna, Achilles’s outlook on life likely remains the same. Gilgamesh’s dialogue with Utmapishtim is by far the most momentous of all three of these transformational conversations. As Tigay points out, meeting Utmapishtim was “the ultimate goal of Gilgamesh’s journey,” (99). Similar to Krishna, Utmapishtim possesses god-like intelligence that the hero needs. Gilgamesh first approaches Utmapishtim with the desire for immortality, but because Gilgamesh loses the sacred plant, he fails in his impossible quest. The interaction between Gilgamesh and Utmapishtim affects the hero by inculcating a sense of tremendous humility, though, just as Achilles experienced as a result of his interaction with Priam. Gilgamesh, Achilles, and to a lesser degree Arjuna, all present hubris as their primary weakness. Arjuna’s only real demonstration of pride is in the first Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, when he believes himself to be above the call of duty. Achilles has a sense of self-righteousness that propels him in battle but which also causes him to act in cruel ways, just as Gilgamesh does. However, the audience is “not quite sure if Hektor is a villan or a hero. The reader knows that Gilgamesh is the good guy,” (Stobaugh xi).
One of the common threads running through The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, and the Bhagavad Gita is the theme of death and mortality. Krishna teaches Arjuna that the soul (Atman) can unite with the oversoul (Brahman) and thereby allow the individual to escape the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Chapter 8 especially addresses the way death can become a passageway to enlightenment and transcendence. Like Gilgamesh, Arjuna strives for a type of immortality, although they conceive of life, death, and the afterlife in culturally constrained ways. Similarly, Achilles approaches death in a Greek context, viewing death more as Gilgamesh does, as finality. Unlike Gilgamesh, Achilles does not seek immortality and does not necessarily struggle with his own mortality.
All three of these classic epic tales retain their literary and historic value, but The Epic of Gilgamesh triumphs over Homer’s Iliad and the Hindu epic the Bhagavad Gita. The latter is an instructional scripture, its hero a one-dimensional character that helps audiences learn about dharma and karma yoga. Homer’s Iliad is an androcentric war story, whose hero quickly learns the value of compassion late in the story. Only Gilgamesh goes through a truly tumultuous hero’s journey.




Works Cited

Beye, Charles Rowan. Ancient Epic Poetry. Wauconda: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2006.
The Bhagavad Gita. UK: Penguin, 2014.
Hansman, J. “Gilgamesh, Humbaba and the Land of the Erin-Trees.” Iraq. Vol. 38, Issue 1, Spring 1976, pp. 23-35.
Stobaugh, James P. World Literature. Green Forest: Master, 2012.
Tigay, Jeffrey H. The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic. Bolchazy-Carducci, 1982.