Gilgamesh, who is two-thirds God, and one-third human was a creature of extraordinary strength, courage and beauty. All throughout the poem, he desires to be immortal like the Gods.
Gilgamesh is a character who is not looked upon too favorably by his people. He does numerous things to displease his people. For instance, he sleeps with the virgin brides before the groom on their wedding night. In my opinion the only reason why he gets away with a lot of the things that he does is not because of his kingship, but because of his enormous amount of courage and strength given to him. No one will stand up to him.
There are many examples throughout the story that demonstrates Gilgamesh's quest for immortality. One of the main reasons why Gilgamesh strives for immortality is because of Enkidu's death. He notices how Enkidu's pain and suffering causes Enkidu to feel shame as he gradually dies, and he doesn't want it to happen to hi
The last test that Gilgamesh is given to gain the rights to immortality was given by to him by Utnapishtim. He tells Gilgamesh to stay awake for six days and seven nights. Within the first day Gilgamesh was asleep. This is something that he could not avoid because it is a human need. To prove his point, he tells his wife to bake a loaf of bread for everyday that he sleeps. After Gilgamesh woke, Utnapishtim told him that he had to leave and go back to Uruk.
Even though Gilgamesh was one of the most powerful men on earth. He felt that he possessed qualities of the Gods and could measure up to the Gods. He was first blessed with beauty. Which is one of the attributes of most Gods. He was strong. The story mentions that he carried weaponry that weighed 30 score pounds which is approximately 600lbs. He also fights and beats Humbaba who was a giant of the forest even though everyone thought that he was going to loose.
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