Gilgamesh and the Inevitable

A detailed Summary of Gilgamesh and the Inevitable

Gilgamesh and the Inevitable

Time has been very kind to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Four thousand years after its inscription upon clay tablets, the story still has the power to move us, to help us contemplate what it means to be human. Its perspective of death is both humbling and powerful. For death is without an era. It is without a period. It is without a kingdom. It is without time. All that are given life must inevitably die. And yet it is the very fact that we are mortal, that our time is limited that makes our lives meaningful.

(A1) The Epic of Gilgamesh teaches us that man is defined by his mortality. It teaches us that without death, life is meaningless. Only when man faces death and accepts the reality that he will ultimately die, can he find humility and gain an understanding of what it means to be human.

(A2) What it means to be human cannot be described with the conventions of language; it is too infinite in scope and too complex to be understood by the human mind. Lao-tzu stated that " the five colors will blind a mind's sight". Alan Watts explained that Lao-tzu's intention was to demonstrate that " the eye's sensitivity to color is impaired by the fixed idea that there are just five true color

Enkidu is forever tainted after he sleeps with the harlot because he becomes aware of the emotions of humanity. When Enkidu: "ate grass in the hills with the gazelle and lurked with wild beasts at the water holes" (62), he was oblivious to what it means to be mortal. The trapper describes him as: "an immortal from heaven" (63). This emphasizes that he was immortal in the sense that he was unaware that he would pass away. At the time of his death he realizes this concept and curses the harlot, the trapper, and the gods. He then admits that it was his decision shows his guilt " it was I who cut down the cedar, I who leveled the forest, I who slew Humbaba" (91). The emotions of anger and guilt are only able to emerge when Enkidu embraces the wisdom of civilized man in his recognition of his own mortality.

Oppenheim, A. Leo. Ancient Mesopotamia:Portrait of a Dead Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964

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To me, Gilgamesh is truly a hero. Besides being the first known of human hero, I think he heroic because he doesn't achieve the status of a god. It gives him humility which we all feel when he gaze upon the world. I find it ironic that although Gilgamesh doesn't attain everlasting life in the epic, he is immortalized in the telling of the story. Here we are some four thousand centuries later and we know of Gilgamesh. He is a man who has taught us much about life and death.

(A4) I feel that death describes us as humans, without it we would not perceive life with emotions. Without the possibility of loss we would not mourn, which is the ultimate sign of love. How could I possibly love someone if I knew they were going to be there forever? I am such a procrastinator that I wouldn't even pay attention to them. I would shrug and say, " I'll pay attention to her next century".

Urshanabi's story of the flood shows that the gods are unable to love. They slaughter mankind because they are too noisy. Maybe we can sympathize with this though; it's excruciating enough to miss a single night of sleep let alone miss every night from here to eternity

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Approximate Word count = 1454
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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