Gilgamesh: themes and significance in ancient literature

Morality in the Ancient Mesopotamian Saga of Gilgamesh as Translated by David Ferry)

"Who is the mortal that can live forever? The Life of man is short. Only the gods can live forever. Therefore put on new clothes, a clean robe and a cloak tied with a sash, and wash the filth of the Journey from your body. Eat and Drink your fill of the food and drink, men, eat and drink. Let there be pleasure and dancing."

Everyone dies. Everyone is mortal. These are not profound and new philosophical revelations. This truth about human understanding as well as human biology is evidenced by the existence of the above quotation from the ancient, heroic saga of "Gilgamesh." Life is short, thus enjoy the bodily pleasures, it suggests. Yet despite this fact regarding the transience of human existence, human beings must still face the world and deal with its finitude, emotionally and intellectually. The saga of "Gilgamesh," as seen in this above quotation, continually contrasts the mundane and the transcendent, to illustrate this fact. Continually, the hash or mundane reality of the world, and the eternal dream-like existence of the heavens are paired against one another.

Thus, even in the introduction to this poetic interpretation of the epic, as translated by the poet David Ferry, the "brick work" and "fortifications" of the mortal, military world are paired with the knowledge that there were "secret things" and a pacific beauty that existed before human time, before "the flood." (3) The central protagonist of the poem, the leader Gilgamesh begins his struggle as "the perfect" and "the terror" and "two thirds a god, one third a man," (4) but this characterization of Gilgamesh as "perfect," is somewhat ironic as soon the events of his life chastises him and brings him, both down to earth in terms of his own self-perceptions, and also up to the world of the divine as he seeks dreams to understand the fate he and his dearest friend have been dealt.

At the beginning of the epic, "there is no withstanding the power of the Wild Ox," who is both human and like a god. (5) At first, nothing seems greater than Gilgamesh. He thinks he fears nothing. "You know what danger is. Where is your courage? If I should fall, my fame will be secure." (17) He mythologizes himself in his own imagination and verbosity. "] It was Gilgamesh who fought against Huwawa!' It is Gilgamesh who will venture into the Forest and cut the Cedar down and win!" (17)

However, when his friend the wild man dies, Gilgamesh realizes that he cannot cheat or ignore death -- or argue with it. "Must I now go to sit among the dead, in the company of the dead without my brother?" importunes Enkidu. "Gilgamesh said: 'must I now sit outside the door of the house of the dead while Enkidu sits in the house of the dead?'"(38) When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh's originally powerful desires for victory, women, and the blood and heat of battle mean nothing, and gods are cruel and deaf to pleas for mercy, to spare Enkidu, these pleas are "futile. What Enlil has ordained cannot be changed. This is the truth told in the frightening dream. Gilgamesh the brother will pray to the gods, beseeching the high gods to spare the companion," but these prayers will be for naught (39)

Thus, the quote celebrating merriment at the heading of this paper, suggests a kind of Falstaffian response to the woes of the world -- that in the face of the world's blows to one's friends and the unavoidable shortness of human existence, people must eat and drink and make merry. Still, the central protagonist of the poem must go on a physical journey of suffering, to give resonance to this truth, that life is full of both joys and sorrow of the body and mind, of wine and food and death and sorrow at the death of one's companions.

After being confronted with death, Gilgamesh realizes the fragility of his own life and legacy, as well as human joy. Gilgamesh begins the tale unaware of mortality and suffering, except perhaps on an intellectual level. But then, "Gilgamesh wandered in the wilderness grieving over the death of Enkidu and weeping saying: "Enkidu has died. Must I die too?" (48) His friend's death 'brings home' the idea that death can cut close to him -- and for the first time, that even though he may be a better fighter than most men, this does not exempt him from mortality, at the end of time.

However, death does not sunder friendship. "The spirit of Enkidu, a puff of breath, came forth from the Nether World into the Zipper. Then Gilgamesh and Enkidu, companions, tried to embrace and kiss one another, companions." (90) But this is only after Gilgamesh has gone on a long journey of privation. He does not understand the nature of mortality until he experiences it closely. He has killed many men, but when a man whom he cares about dies, his companion Enkidu, he experiences death differently -- and success as well as failure, differently too. He understands, finally, that achievement in material and earthly terms does not bring understanding, but adventure in dreams and also in the world, does. He does not understand joy until he has experienced suffering and true fear in the context of companionship. "Then Gilgamesh was afraid, and Enkidu was afraid, and they entered into the Forest, afraid, the two of them together," and thus overcame fear. (26)

The bond the hero is able to establish with the wild man Enkidu thus helps teach him about the true nature of life. After Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh must temporarily leave human society, and take on the guise of a beast, lowering himself physically and socially to raise himself spiritually. When asked who he is, "who grieves?" Gilgamesh does not respond with his name. "Why do you wear the skin of a beast? Why is it that you roam the wilderness?' And Gilgamesh replied then to the boatman: 'I look like one who has undergone a journey,'" a journey, the reader understands if not the boatman, of spirituality as well as a physical journey. (59) After his friend died, "I lay in the dirt as if I were a beast," but Gilgamesh only becomes fully human after resorting to a beast-like state. (63)

Human beings are not immortal, even through the legacy of leadership and children -- much less military rule and death as Gilgamesh originally thought. Gilgamesh originally said: "I am the strongest. My fame will be secure to all my sons," (36) but only through companionship a kind of transient beauty can be created. From the question of man's mortality, it might be argued, the need for companionship arises -- only companionship teaches Gilgamesh about his own morality, and gives him the psychological resonance to live with the knowledge of death. True legacy is not achieved through the act of physical, sexual replication through children but looking into one's self. Only by this is one "granted admittance into the company of gods," through proper dreams of accessing the divine within, as well as outer actions. (75)