Imagine grasping eternal life in your hands just to watch it disappear before your eyes. Or imagine that the hardest journey of your life is finally over and you have failed to obtain the very thing you wanted most. Our story begins in a land known as Mesopotamia about four thousand years ago. There one of the earliest cities in history existed, called Uruk, which lies on the Euphrates river near the Persian Gulf. This city became famous for being the site of one of the earliest piece of literature ever created, The Epic of Gilgamesh. Although in this story Gilgamesh, the hero, is the king of Uruk, he is also partly a god. He is one part mortal and two parts divine, and as such, he was a being full of beauty and courage, but also as terrifying as a wild bull.1 The Epic of Gilgamesh is an adventure story with many exciting parts. However, one of the central themes of the epic revolves around Gilgamesh’s search for immortality.2
Gilgamesh’s quest for everlasting life begins when his friend Enkidu unexpectedly dies. The trauma from losing his dear friend scares Gilgamesh. Enkidu isn’t just a dear friend to Gilgamesh, Enkidu is like a brother to him. The gods had originally created Enkidu to help stop Gilgamesh from stirring up trouble, but after they met, they got along so well that they became brothers and went on countless journeys together. With Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh is so terrified by the idea of death that he goes on a long journey to beat the inevitable. On this journey he meets several people who tell him that his journey is pointless and that he won’t find what he is searching for. But Gilgamesh doesn’t listen, and pushes forward regardless of what people say. He is so determined to find Utnapishtim, the only human who had been made immortal, but doing so he ignores what his body really desires, sleep. He completely exhausted himself to the point where he was near dying.
After a long and dangerous journey, Gilgamesh finally meets Utnapishtim, who tells Gilgamesh, “There is no permanence. Do we build a house to stand forever, do we seal a contract to hold for all time?…. 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.”3 Even with the wise information that Utnapishtim tells him, Gilgamesh is still in pursuit of immortality, so Utnapishtim decides to put him up to a test. The test requires him to stay awake for six days and seven nights, but Gilgamesh ultimately fails the test. Utnapishtim had a kind heart and told him that, instead of obtaining immortality, he might obtain youthfulness. There was a plant in the sea that can restore one’s youth. So of course Gilgamesh doesn’t hesitate in jumping in to find this plant. He finally gets the key to youthfulness, and decides to rest and relax, because he believes his troubles are over. With his guard down, a snake snatches the plant away from him and the plant is gone forever.
Gilgamesh finally accepts this fate, and goes back to the land of Uruk. Although he never got immortality, he did get what he needed. Throughout the story the same line recurs about what is he suppose to do after Enkidu’s death, which is just to live his normal, mortal life.4 Once he returns, he writes on a wall the story of his long journey for immortality. The world may never know if there was a real living, breathing ruler named Gilgamesh, but at least for now we have a legendary one that will last forever.
- Jerry Bentley, Herbert Ziegler, and Heather Streets Salter, Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History Volume 1. 4th edition (New York: McGraw Hill, 2015), 5. ↵
- Tzvi Abusch, “The Development and Meaning of the Epic of Gilgamesh: An Interpretive Essay,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 121, no. 4 (2001): 614. ↵
- Nancy K. Sanders, The epic of Gilgamesh (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1964), 23. ↵
- Nicola Vulpe, “Irony and the Unity of the Gilgamesh Epic,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 53, no. 4 (1994): 280. ↵
Tags from the story
Epic of Gilgamesh
Recent Comments
Jocelyn Moreno
This article was very well written! I feel as that Gilgamesh was being a good friend but he needed to learn when to let go and move on. I personally feel as if this story was only told to teach people that you must move on and grow from pain. It is inevitable and this article was great!
08/11/2018
12:01 pm
Belene Cuellar
I can understand why he went through so much trouble to reach this unrealistic goal. Death is a very scary thing, but it’s only scary because nobody knows what happens after we die. He went through a whole journey and put his own health on the line only to be disappointed. No human being is supposed to be immortal because the only reason our lives have any meaning is because we have limited time.
18/11/2018
12:01 pm
Antonio Coffee
I think that it doesn’t matter too much if the story of Gilgamesh was based off a real ruler or if it was entirely made up. The story seems intended to show a lesson about life rather than to recount what happened in the past. The idea, to me, that the story is trying to convey is that we should not fear death but rather make the best with the time given to us. It is a lesson that humanity has struggled with throughout time and, in all likely hood, one we will continue to struggle with.
10/01/2019
12:01 pm
Diego Terrazas
It is rather dark and saddening to think we all have to go one day, but death is imminent and we must accept that as a part of the cycle of life. Instead of searching for something that did not exist, he should have been living his one and only life. It was a good idea to write his story down so that he is remembered, after all, it is said you are only truly dead when you are forgotten.
27/01/2019
12:01 pm
Matthew Swaykus
I enjoy the epic of Gilgamesh because it may very well the first piece of literature ever created. This epic poem helped shaped the art of storytelling and brought about some of the most frequent themes in the all of human literature; accepting what must be. Gilgamesh desires eternal life, but after struggling and finally failing to do so he accepts his fate and makes the best of his situation. As humans, we must accept that some things are not within our grasp and often feel relief upon the discovery what you truly need has been with you all this time.
17/02/2019
12:01 pm
Tala Owens
Death is something that is feared because we don’t know much about it. We don’t know what happens after you die and the unknown is something to be scared of. The fact that Gilgamesh thought the same and went to look for immortality just to realize there’s no such thing and that he truly can not avoid death. Though the ending seems bittersweet and like he was able to accept this the story still feels like there’s a dark theme at work.
24/02/2019
12:01 pm
Priscilla Reyes
The article of Gilgamesh reminded me of the Alchemist, a novel about a personal journey. I believe the article does a good job at explaining the gods perspective to obtaining immortality but like other Greek tales I believe the unexpected always happens and he is left without his youth giving flower. I was interested in knowing more about what a normal life consisted for the god and what he would’ve done if he would have lived forever.
25/02/2019
12:01 pm
Uzziyah Cohen
The story of Gilgamesh was both entertaining and thought evoking. It leaves the reader to ponder life and our reason for living. My Gilgamesh, many of us, hope for some form of immortality, either through works that we leave behind impacts that we leave on society or even an offspring. In the article, the author mentions the death of in Enkidu, the friend of Gilgamesh, and how his death had the most significant impact on Gilgamesh and his quest for immortality. As the author points out, the story of Gilgamesh may not be true, and such a king may never have existed, however, the lesson that we can obtain from the story is that we all must grapple with the meaning of life and except that immortality is an impossibility.
06/03/2019
12:01 pm
Christopher Metta Bexar
I agree with a lot of this. It was an interesting story . And sometimes even the most important tales are not documented well enough to verify or to place in history ( think of some of the events in The Bible). But Gilgamesh makes us think about what immortality really is? is it living forever now, or being remembered forever like Abraham will be by the Jewish people? This article should provide someone with the desire to read more about Gilgamesh.
07/03/2019
12:01 pm
Octaviano Huron
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a perfect example of how people perceive death and mortality. Every person will meet his or her demise, but how we choose to live with our time is up to us. Gilgamesh himself, an almost-perfect demigod, was afraid of death, but ultimately chose to accept his mortality. Not only did he accept his fate, but he embraced it and wrote his story. Very interesting article to read.
13/03/2019
12:01 pm
Roman Olivera
I think we have all wondered how it would be to live forever. This man took it to the extreme and really believe he could be immortalized. I guess we are discussing him right now so in some senses he has been in historical literature. This search for immortality was not uncommon in history with leaders, emperors, kings, pharaohs and what ever else the powerful leaders have called themselves. The search for everlasting life will probably be a this thing that people will always search for.
14/10/2018
12:01 pm