History
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient Mesopotamian poem, and is most notably one of the oldest known works of literature. The poem exists in its earliest form as several separate Sumerian legends dating around 2000 B.C.E, which were later combined into a great Akkadian epic inscribed on twelve tablets, thought to be dated around 1800-1700 B.C.E. The Epic of Gilgamesh was discovered in 1853 C.E., and is a widely celebrated work of literature today.
Summary
The epic begins with the narrator introducing us to the great king of the city of Uruk, Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is two-thirds god, and one-third man, and reigns his city with no regard for his people. The citizens of Uruk cry out to the gods, for this great king is obsessed with war and sending off their sons to die in battle. At home, the king takes great pleasure out of bedding the virgin brides before their husbands have had the chance to lay with them. He invokes his selfish whims on the people at every turn, and so they ask the gods to create a man equal to Gilgamesh, so that his pride will remain checked and balanced.
The gods hear the people of Uruk, and create Enkidu, a strong, beautiful, and courageous man worthy to be the equal- if not the rival- of the king. Enkidu lives among the beasts of the hills, in harmony with nature, and ignorant of the ways of civilized man. A local trapper is not pleased that Enkidu has taken up residence in the woods where he traps, because Enkidu has taken it upon himself to set free all the animals the trapper has caught. So the trapper connives to "awaken" the manly consciousness of Enkidu by asking a harlot to seduce him. The harlot agrees, bears her nakedness to Enkidu, and they make love for seven days, at the end of which, Enkidu's heart is now aware of the lust of a man for a woman. He is now self-aware.
The harlot then takes Enkidu away from the beasts of the field, and takes him to the city of Uruk to teach him the ways of civilization, to eat bread, and to drink wine. It is here that Enkidu meets Gilgamesh. They physically fight, struggling with each other, until finally they stop and embrace each other and begin a friendship that is the foundation of this great epic.
The two friends experience many adventures together, including killing Humbaba the keeper of the cedar forrest, and the Bull of Heaven which Ishtar the goddess of love released onto the earth while she was enraged by the rejection of her marriage proposal to Gilgamesh. Their friendship grows fonder with each of their journeys, until one day Enkidu has a dream foretelling of his own death. The gods have decided that since Enkidu and Gilgamesh killed Humbaba, one of them must die, and it must be Enkidu. Enkidu at first curses those who brought him to the city of Uruk- the trapper and the harlot. But then realizes how much he has learned and experienced, and how he gained his friendship with Gilgamesh, because of them. And so it is with great nobility that Enkidu blesses the trapper and harlot and accepts his fate to die.
Gilgamesh, however, does not accept his friend's death so easily. He is overcome with rage and sorrow, but most of all, with the realization of his own mortality. Now, he begins the greatest quest of them all- the quest to find immorality. He decides he must visit the only man who has ever eluded death, Utnapishtim, and question him about the mysteries of life and the secrets of the gods. After a long and arduous journey, Gilgamesh finds Utnapishtim relaxing in a garden. He is surprised that the old man is reclining, relaxing, as Gilgamesh expected to see a man suited in armor behaving as a hero, instead.
Utnapishtim and Gilgamesh converse about Gilgamesh's many adventures and achievements as king of Uruk, and then Utnapishtim recounts the story of the Great Flood and how the gods chose him for immortality. Since Gilgamesh wishes to also receive the gift of immortality from the gods, Utnapishtim first asks him to complete a test. Gilgamesh must remain awake for seven days, but since he is tired from his long journey, he quickly falls asleep and does not wake until the seventh day. Utnapishtim reveals that he has failed the test, for how can he be worthy of immortality when he cannot even stay awake for seven days? Utnapishtim does give Gilgamesh a gift of consolation: a plant that restores a man's youth, and the philosophical advice that life is short so you must eat, drink, and be merry. But on the journey home, the plant is stolen by a serpent, and Gilgamesh returns home to the city of Uruk with only his story of meeting the old man from the Great Flood.
The city of Uruk celebrates the return of their king, and lauds him for bringing back the lost information about the Great Flood and the immortal man Utnapishtim. Gilgamesh seems to quietly resign himself to his fate as being a great king and warrior, but to never be immortal. We do not know if Gilgamesh chose to live the remainder of his life according to the philosophy of Utnapishtim, or if he continued to search for ways to cheat death. But Gilgamesh returned to Uruk a changed man, no longer plaguing the people with the violence of his whims. Eventually, Gilgamesh the King of Uruk did succumb to his mortal fate. However, his legacy remains immortal to this day.
Observations
In reading the Epic of Gilgamesh, I was struck throughout the story by the unchanging, universal state of human nature. Elements of lust, male companionship/male-bonding, self-awareness/self-awakening, greed, love, and social class differences are sprinkled throughout the story, but the strongest theme by far is man's fear of death. Almost 5,000 years after this epic was written, we still struggle and triumph over the same issues, in the same ways.
Utnapishtim voices the moral of the epic, when Gilgamesh questions him in his search for immortality.
"Utnapishtim said, 'There is no permanence. Do we build a house to stand for ever, do we seal a contract to hold for all time? Do brothers divide an inheritance to keep for ever, does the flood-time of rivers endure? It is only the nymph of the dragon-fly who sheds her larva and sees the sun in his glory. From the days of old there is no permanence. The sleeping and the dead, how alike they are, they are like a painted death. What is there between the master and the servant when both have fulfilled their doom? When the Anunnaki, the judges, come together, and Mammetun the mother of destinies, together they decree the fates of men. Life and death they allot but the day of death they do not disclose." -THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH, English version by N. K. Sandars, Chapter 4 (pg 24)I interpret this passage to mean that even though there is no permanence- no immortality- in life, we still must live it. And to waste our years searching for something that cannot be achieved only cheapens the time that we do have to live our lives. After death, we are all the same, there is no difference between the rich man or the poor man, the master or the slave. It seems to follow then, that one must focus on enjoying the present life and not lament the death that is inevitable but has not yet come.
This is a fascinating moral for a story written so many years ago, since its enduring qualities should be apparent to any reader. The philosophy of, "Eat, drink, and be merry," is still widely practiced, and at times still debated, today. At the end of the story we must ask ourselves, what do we believe?
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Materials used for this study:
The Epic of Gilgamesh- Lecture
The Epic of Gilgamesh- Study Questions (answered)
The Epic of Gilgamesh- Text
The Epic of Gilgamesh- Study Guide
World Literature Survey Syllabus
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