The Mythical Villains: Gilgamesh, Ravana and Oedipus

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The sphere of literature is enormous; it contains various themes raised by different authors. The works of literature are created by people in order to share their own experience, describe some events for the successive generations, and even to create beautiful myths which help the progeny to understand their history and origins.

Thus, the myth is one of the literary genre which helped ancient people to understand and explain the structure and natural phenomena of the world, environment, people and other creatures around, the origins of everything and the reasons why and how it happens. As every literary genre myth includes certain characters which are aimed to make the description of the heroic adventures more vivid.

So, every myth is the description of certain events in the life of the main character. Consequently, the protagonist must be opposed to an antagonist. The antagonist is a negative character who makes attempts to prevent the main character’s victory and success. Thereby, it is necessary to mention that every hero has an antihero who lacks the traditional heroic virtues.

The protagonist can be represented by a human being that possesses negative features opposed to the main character; a mysterious creature (dragon, Cyclopes, giant, monster, or some other figure) which is extremely strong and enormously big, usually such creatures tyrannize inhabitants of the neighboring villages or demand more victims.

The hero appears to be the only person who can defeat the monster or the villain that has become the threat for the whole kingdom. Moreover, the hero usually finds his significant other as the story progresses. But the reader can encounter another problem; the main character of the myth with all his actions throughout the story does not always resemble the description of the genuine hero.

In this case the reader is not likely to meet the real hero until the end of the story, because only after all the adventures and challenges the main character becomes a real hero. Thereby, it is necessary to discuss several myths in order to analyze the main characters and their antagonists.

Looking at villains throughout myth and legend gives us an interesting picture of the qualities that we try to guard against. Each character throughout myth and legend that is cast in the role of villain seems to have a set of characteristics that is common to all.

The first myth that should be analyzed is The Epic of Gilgamesh. It is a mixture of tragedy, morality and pure adventure. Through the action the reader is shown a truly human relation of mortality, the search for knowledge, and the escape from the general lot of man.

The gods cannot be tragic if they do not die. Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk in Mesopotamia. He is strong, wise, handsome and courageous as gods created him two-thirds god and one third-man. Thus, nobody could overcome him and he took all sons away of their fathers, he left no virgins or wives of nobles, he was no shepherd to his people.

At the beginning of his governing the kingdom Gilgamesh is represented a despot. But then a goddess created noble Enkidu, the one who might fight Gilgamesh and defeat him. Gilgamesh and Enkidu became companions, the greatest heroes to have left an allusion of themselves from the ancient sources of Babylon, perpetuated in this epic poem. “He [Enkidu] wrestles with Gilgamesh and they become fast friends” (Thury, 182).

The two heroes were overcoming all the obstacles on their way to the Cedar Forest, where they slew the monster Humbaba, after that they managed to defeat the Bull of Heaven. Gilgamesh wants to find out the secret of eternal life from one man, the only one known to have reached it.

Along the journey Gilgamesh encounters strange mysterious creatures who warn him of the unrealizability of his mission. He finally finds that man and gets the secret of the eternal life but looses it on the way home and returns empty-handed. Thus his research did not result in a successful way. He was afraid to die but his immortality was destroyed by a snake.

The theme of fear of death is one of the basic in this poem. The poem tells about a heroic violent struggle against death, a terrific failure and the final comprehension that the only immortality the hero may expect is the permanent name of his great achievements.

One more interesting theme that should be analyzed concerning The Epic of Gilgamesh is that the main character in the very beginning of his governing the kingdom does not seem to be positive at all. Gilgamesh is represented as a despot who has no opposition.

As the story progresses Gilgamesh becomes a positive hero; Enkidu is the only reason due to which the main character changes his features. Gilgamesh and Enkidu became devoted friends; Gilgamesh’s heart became better, his actions became positive. The qualities that Gilgamesh possesses and that we try to guard against are the tyrannical violence hidden under the beauty of the face and body. Diversity of these features terrifies because the bad things and people are believed to be obvious.

The next story that should be analyzed in order to disclose the qualities that we try to guard against is the Valmiki’s Ramayana. This piece of literature represents an ancient Indian epic poem about the adventures of the greatest warrior Rama. The story describes the life of Rama before the cruel decision of the second queen, his origin, his family, and the life in banishment.

The main character is Rama, the first and the bravest son of king Dasharatha and one of his wives Kousalya. Rama is forced to go to an exile, where he lives happily with his beautiful wife Sita and his younger brother Lakshman. The main character should have an opposition represented by an antagonist.

In the epic poem Ramayana the cruel king of Lanka, Ravana, is opposed to the great hero Rama. Ravana is described as a ten-headed ruler of Lanka, whose cruelty has no boundaries, his tyrannical methods of governing the kingdom make all his subjects suffer. The cruel king decides to abduct Rama’s wife Sita and make her marry him.

Sita resists Ravana’s attempts and refuses to marry him. Finally, Ravana is defeated and killed by Rama. Ravana is believed to be very brainy; his wisdom is one of his beautiful talents, as well as his weakness for women. Nevertheless, his wisdom did not make him a wise governor and did not help him to defeat Rama; either it did not make Sita marry him.

Ravana is not deprived of positive human features, but he uses the good features, his intelligence and wisdom with cruel and tyrannical intentions. People within his kingdom suffered from his cruelty. Thus, the features that are likely to be possessed by the protagonist are the features given to the negative figure.

Thereby, as the king Ravana can be opposed to the father of Rama Dasharatha who is believed to be the best king of all times. Dasharatha was loved by all his subjects because he made his kingdom happy and prosperous. But Ravana was considered to be an evil monster possessing ten heads, each head made him wiser.

In this case Ravana is an antagonist who is the opposition of the great hero Rama. Ravana is also believed to be weak for women, whereas “Rama could be vanquished not by battle but by abduction of his lovely wife” (Thury, 196). Here appears a similarity of the main character and his antagonist. The epic poem Ramayana represents not only the great adventures of the prince Rama, but also opposes the image of the main character to the image of the ten-headed monster who abducts Rama’s wife.

Thus, Ravana is cast in the role of villain; he seems to have a set of characteristics that is common to all. He is wise and he is weak for women. Even Rama, the main hero, is weak for his wife and experiences the adventures in order to rescue her from the cruel tyrant.

Another poem worse mentioning is the masterpiece written by Sophocles Oedipus the King. Sophocles’ Oedipus is a hero, victimized by his father because of a warning of oracle before his birth. He is rescued by a shepherd and raised by other parents.

By means of his valor, he gets back his kingdom, and gets a beautiful wife in acknowledgement of his brave deeds. But then he figures out that he killed his true father and got married to his true mother. Jocasta, his mother and wife, commits suicide after becoming aware of the fact that she is a wife to her own son.

The king makes his sons leave their home with the traditional remark that men can better take care of themselves. After that Oedipus concentrates all his affection, grief and sadness on his daughters Antigone and Ismene. This is a behavioral model but not an impulsive response.

The king always insisted on his daughters sitting beside him during a meal, and eating from all dishes that he was eating from, while his sons, apparently, were sitting at a certain distance and were disregarded. This long-term favor of the king for his daughters is a common fact.

In the scene, narrated by the Second Messenger, the king frightened by the truth and upset by his disclosure that Jocasta has committed suicide, initially gets his Jocasta to the ground and then puts out his eyes with the help of pins. Then, he blinds himself. He feels guilty and oppressed.

The scientists of the twentieth century momentarily re-valuate the interrelations between destiny and freewill, temper and action in the Sophocles’ epic. Oedipus may be considered guilty of his father’s murder and of incest with his mother, though he is not. It is not easy to believe that a great king, a just governor might act as a brutal murderer.

Oedipus acted without being aware of his true background, without knowing who his true parents are. Because of his ignorance of his genuine origin Oedipus has committed a great number of crimes. He is the main character of the epic poem; consequently, he contains features of the protagonist and the antagonist. People have been always afraid of the unknown, so have the king Oedipus.

Thus, Oedipus is one more character who possesses features of both positive image and the negative one. But the reader can judge upon the crimes of the hero only because the story of his origin is narrated in the very beginning of the epic poem.

Thereby, the king did not know about his genuine origin and the oracle’s prophecy. He can be considered neither positive nor negative character of the Sophocles’ epic poem. The main hero must be discussed as the one being ignorant of the world’s unfairness and of the truth parentage.

As suggested by the authors of the book Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths the myth has a number of different versions. According to the information represented in this book the myth can be subdivided into categories taking into consideration the theme (creation, destruction), the main character (hero, trickster), the sphere of consideration (rituals, dreams, folktales), the piece of literature (poetry, narrative); the modern American myths are considered separately.
Thus, the mythology examines myths not only from the point of view of their contents, but also involves analyses including the theme, the main character, and the sphere. Some myths describe a hero and an antagonist, a certain villain who is opposed to the positive features of the main character. This particular essay considers the theme of villains in the myths of different authors which belong to different periods of history and different cultures.
The villains possess qualities that we try to guard against. Each antagonist throughout myth and legend seems to have a set of characteristics that is common to all. The discussed myths develop the theme of dual nature of the characters. Moreover, the features possessed by the positive characters are the integral part of the negative ones.

Works Cited

Thury, Eva M., and Margaret Klopfle Devinney. Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

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The Mythical Villains: Gilgamesh, Ravana and Oedipus

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