WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The Myth of the Birth of the Hero: A psychological interpretation of mythology cover

The Myth of the Birth of the Hero: A psychological interpretation of mythology

Chapter 12: Gilgamos
By Otto Rank
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

Mythology, Legends & FolklorePsychiatry/Psychology

About This Book

The work surveys recurrent birth-and-origin motifs in hero legends from diverse cultures and subjects them to a psychoanalytic reading. It interprets patterns such as endangered infancy, concealment or exile, miraculous survival, and later triumph as symbolic expressions of familial tensions, birth-related anxieties, and ambivalent parent-child dynamics. Through comparative analysis and close readings of many traditional accounts, the author argues that these shared story-structures stem from universal psychic processes rather than solely from historical transmission. The study pairs theoretical discussion with illustrative case studies to support its psychological explanation.

Gilgamos

Aelian, who lived about 200 A.D, relates in his “Animal Stories” the history of a boy who was saved by an eagle. [42]

“Animals have a characteristic fondness for man. An eagle is known to have nourished a child. I shall tell the entire story, in proof of my assertion. When Senechoros reigned over the Babylonians, the Chaldean fortune-tellers foretold that the son of the king’s daughter would take the kingdom from his grandfather; this verdict was a prophecy of the Chaldeans. The king was afraid of this prophecy, and humorously speaking, he became a second Akrisius for his daughter, over whom he watched with the greatest severity. But his daughter, fate being wiser than the Babylonian, conceived secretly from an inconspicuous man. For fear of the king, the guardians threw the child down from the Akropolis, where the royal daughter was imprisoned. The eagle, with his keen eyes, saw the boy’s fall, and before the child struck the earth, he caught it on his back, bore it into a garden, and set it down with great care. When the overseer of the place saw the beautiful boy he was pleased with him and raised him. The boy received the name Gilgamos, and became the king of Babylonia. If anyone regards this as a fable, I have nothing to say, although I have investigated the matter to the best of my ability. Also from Achaemenes, the Persian, from whom the nobility of the Persians is derived, I learn that he was the pupil of an eagle.” [43]