In conclusion, Batman and Gilgamesh have a great deal in common inasmuch as they are both heroic types - but they differ most significantly in their success. Both fail to achieve true conquest over death, but whereas Gilgamesh is able to compromise and at least achieve a true life which leaves monuments to eternity behind him, Bruce Wayne is not even able to achieve a balance between crime and peace, and is in the end trapped behind his own mask and forced to fight ever-escalating waves of violence. Perhaps, one thinks, he should have sought out a few Buddhists masters while in Tibet, and sought the path of meditation.

Though in modern times we see such arrogance and mercilessness as dark, it is debatable whether the ancient world had the same perception. Gilgamesh's activities may have seemed not only heroic but justifiable in his own time; one might argue that a hero is partly defined as living at the farthest edge of what society finds morally necessary for the survival of the people. In Gilgamesh's time, that may have meant the destruction of certain natural wonders (like the forest) or the overthrow of matriarchal religion (the goddess) in favor of civilized, patriarchal social controls. Likewise, pride may have been a necessary evil to uphold the sovereignty of the nation

Bruce Wayne's morality is even more questionable. He is a vigilante who breaks the laws of his city in order to protect people in it. At one point very early in the film, he goes through and kills or maims dozens of his close friends and even his own mentor (albeit in combat) rather than kill a single condemned prisoner who is unarmed. Latter he shows a similar disdain for the life of law enforcement officials whose cars he causes to wreck in eye-popping fashions. It seems no one is killed, but they very easily could have been. Yet Batman sees both these episodes as necessary to his own moral code. Bruce Wayne saves the city from destruction, of course, but the weapon about to be used to destroy it was one that his own company had built to be used in warfare on other cities. His own pride is apparently as great as Gilgamesh's - he is not a hero because he wants to minimize the over-all damage to humankind. He is a hero because he wants to be personally responsible for saving individuals. In effect, he is trying to replay the death of his parents: the victims of crime he saves play the roles of his parents who he couldn't save, while the criminals play the role of their murderer, and anyone who tries to stop him is just collateral. In short - Batman too is trying to overcome his fear of death, specifically of his parent's death.

Heroes are not only larger than life, in many ways they are larger than traditional morality as well. Hercules, whose cultic worship across the ancient world really shows him to be one of the greatest classical heroes, was also know for brutally murdering his first wife and children in a mad fit. The great Jason betrays Medea and hides behind her skirts when he convinces her to kill her own child brother and later his own king. The biblical hero David not only slays giants, but also commits heinous murders and adulterous affairs so bad that God himself has to intervene.

However, to some degree there is a more profound issue at stake here. Gilgamesh, who was just fighting his personal mortality, is able to come to peace with the world and live a productive life as he is able to accept his fate. Every

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2322
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)