Themes of the Gods’ Wrath in the Epic of Gilgamesh
Throughout the epic of Gilgamesh, the characters are always being acted upon or affected by outside forces. The gods, specifically Anu and Ishtar, are always somehow involved with Gilgamesh and Enkidu, whether it be a positive force or negative. Gilgamesh is an incredibly powerful character in the story, so we can assume that he was granted his superhuman power by the gods for doing good in their eyes, as was the usual thought in this era. Enkidu was created directly by the gods and civilized by Ishtar, the goddess of love and fertility that sent her disciple Shamhat to make love to Enkidu and turn him into a proper man. The first time we see the gods interfering with the humans is when Anu, the all-powerful 'father god' sends the Heavenly Bull to wreak havoc on Gilgamesh's city after he denies Ishtar.
The gods obviously live by their own set of laws and morals that are widely unknown to humans in this era, but one thing that humans know the gods require is piety. Through sacrifices and worship, humans are able to keep the gods happy and satisfied. This is directly opposite of modern Judeo-Christianity, in that our God is happy to receive praise and expects it, but it's more of a partnership between God and man rather than a one-sided tyrannical rule as in the case of Anu. Speaking on this, I think it's really interesting that a large portion of Gilgamesh is written in the same language-style that our Christian Bible is written.
After some more interference from the gods and Enkidu and Gilgamesh becoming friends, we learn that it was the gods that brought a massive flood to the earth in order to clear out all the sinful humans. Hm, that's interesting... A flood. Do all these cultural stories of a great flood solidify our belief as Christians that the flood actually happened? Anyways, by the end of the story, we have a pretty clear idea that people of this time were probably pretty scared to anger the gods because of all the ruthless mayhem they cause when they're not happy. Maybe this was a major point to the whole story.