Gilgamesh

The Role of Dreams in The Epic of Gilgamesh

According to Sigmund Freud, a famous psychiatrist and the father of psychoanalysis, dreams provide a psychic safety value that discharges otherwise unacceptable feelings under two contents, the manifest and the latent. (Myers, 98) The two contents reflect people’s inner thoughts and feelings, which have various meanings to every individual. (Myers, 98) In The Epic of Gilgamesh, based on a historical figure, the hero Gilgamesh lives in a mythological land of gods and monsters, where dreams are a recurring motif that guide Gilgamesh on his quest. The significance of dreams of the epic lend insight into its symbolism and allegorical power, along with understandings of the divine, since these dreams are omens conveying information about what will come. The epic hero, Gilgamesh, dreams these portents in order to allow communication between the gods and the foreshadowing of later events, which will then allow a deeper understanding of the epic’s events.

In a Mesopotamian society, it is believed that dreams in mythological texts are shaped by literary, cultural and historical sources. (Mark) Dreams in ancient Mesopotamian times contain common elements that serve as a conduit of communication between the king and the gods, which is the case of the epic hero in The Epic of Gilgamesh. For instance, in Tablet II, Gilgamesh prays to the sun-god, Shamash, for dreams about the guard of the Cedar Forest, Humbaba.

He took in his hand his silver scepter and he said to glorious Shamash, ‘I am going to that country, O Shamash, I am going; my hands supplicate, so let it be well with my soul and bring me back to the quay of Uruk. Grant, I beseech, your protection, and let the omen be good.’(72)

Gilgamesh dreams numerous dreams throughout the poetic epic, for which he must seek interpretation. The omen asked by Gilgamesh to Shamash allows the foretelling of the future through symbolism. For this reason, his asking the...