User blog comment:MilenHD/Gilgamesh vs Odysseus/@comment-422690-20151206194711/@comment-422690-20151206234904

The first passage you quote is from before meeting Enkidu. It's established in the Epic that before meeting Enkidu, Gil was a tyrant; as such, this is hardly indicative of his personality as it appears very, very early in the Epic. The second passage you quoted is also lacking context - he sees Enkidu, his best friend (or lover, if you interpret it that way) die, and one could justifiably call it his fault, as it was due to the rage of the goddess Ishtar after Gil turned down her marriage proposal. Hardly comparable to Odysseus seeing the ghost of his mother under non-stressful circumstances and being immediately distracted by Tireseus.

A better show of his cunning and wisdom is his actions during his rule with Enkidu and during the quest for immortality. Ignoring the explicit statements that he was wise, one good showing of this is when he turned down Ishtar's marriage proposal. Where as most mortals would leap at the chance to wed a goddess, he realizes that all her previous marriages ended poorly for her mortal husbands and refuses. Further, several of the trials on his quest of immortality are tests of his intelligence and cunning. It's been a year and I'm tired right now, so I won't list them. Finally, there's the conclusion of the immortality quest - where the snake steals his youth potion and quaffs it. Instead of getting enraged and chasing the snake or going back to get more, he simply lets it go, wisely realizing that it's probably not worth it.

Finally, you're cherry-picking quite a bit with Odysseus, as he shows several moments of emotional and rash behavior as well. The most prominent of these is his taunting of Polyphemus after escaping his island; said act was unnecessary and only served to satisfy his ego. Another example that comes to mind is his beating of Theristes for disagreeing with Agamemnon. It's been even longer since I've last read the Illiad and the Odyssey - and again, I'm tired - so no more examples for now.