This is what the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu represents.
Thus, during the friendship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the two engage in numerous adventures, often dangerous in nature. For example, Enkidu assists Gilgamesh in his fight against Humbaba, the guardian monster of the Cedar Forest. Even though Enkidu does not agree with the actions, he nonetheless cooperates with Gilgamesh in successfully defeating and killing Humbaba. He later assists Gilgamesh with slaying the Bull of Heaven.
In the end, these actions anger the gods and the goddess Ishtar demands that both Gilgamesh and Enkidu should pay with their lives. However the god Shamash argues with the other gods that both should be spared. As an act of compromise, the gods agree to save only Gilgamesh and thus issue a judgment on Enkidu that holds he had no justification for fighting the Bull of Heaven. As a result, Enkidu is overcome with a severe illness and, before dying, curses the supposedly civilized life.
This portion of the men's friendship is symbolic of the inspiration that youth plays in an adult's life and the dominance of the adult life as to the adventurous life. Thus, Gilgamesh is portrayed as using Enkidu in the pursuit of senseless adventures as Enkidu's sense of adventure inspires Gilgamesh. However, Gilgamesh's acts of adventure are actually immature. Yet, being the youth, Enkidu subdues himself to Gilgamesh's...
In the end, however, Enkidu's abandonment of his principles, or the principles of being young and independent, leads to his death. His death in fact is symbolic of the fact that eventually everyone has to succumb to the reality of responsibility and growing up.
Following Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh is shown as morning Enkidu's body for several desperate days. In fact, Gilgamesh does not allow Enkidu's body to be buried until after a maggot falls out of the corpse of Enkidu's nose. It is Gilgamesh's personal observation of the rigor mortis and lengthy decomposition of Enkidu's body that inspires Gilgamesh to launch his quest for eternal life.
Clearly, Gilgamesh's mourning is symbolic of the depression that all human's go through when they first come to the understanding that life is not infinite and thus age, and the loss of youth, is inevitable. With this realization, as seen by Gilgamesh's quest for eternal life, comes the life long pursuit of avoiding death and instead preserving youth.
In conclusion, the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu should be read as a symbolic representation of the strange friendship that every individual has between their past and their present. In other words, the story of the friendship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu is the story of the relationship between youth and the unavoidable reality of death.
