It could have been poisonous, but Gilgamesh only cared about his eternal youth. He could test it himself because it was never known if the plant worked. This statement shows Gilgamesh’s fear of death as well as his true personality in having an old man test it. After finding the plant, Gilgamesh decides to “have an old man eat the plant to test it”. But there is a plant that restores youth. After a harsh journey, Gilgamesh finally finds Utnapishtim who tells him that no human can be immortal. Utnapishtim had been granted immortality by the gods but Gilgamesh will have to go through several obstacles to reach him. He meets Siduri – a tavern keeper – who sends him to find Utnapishtim. But the bigger question is: Does he even deserve immortality after raping young women whenever he pleased and treating his people as he did? This question might have been what led him to search for eternal youth.Īs Gilgamesh realizes that he could die, he decided to conquer immortality. This is shown by Gilgamesh stating, “Am I not like him? Will I lie down, never to get up again?” As Enkidu dies, he states that his “afterlife will be a place of sorrow.” This conveys that Enkidu was not proud of the way he led his life and that might have been what prompted Gilgamesh to think of the fact that he was mortal. The loss of his closest friend made Gilgamesh realize that he was just like Enkidu and would die a similar, meaningless death. As Enkidu and Gilgamesh go through adventures of fighting different battles, the gods decide that Enkidu must die. They become the best of friends after a battle between them called by the people of Uruk as they wanted to be defended from Enkidu. The goddess Arura creates Enkidu – “panther of wilderness”– to balance out the power of Gilgamesh. This led to the inhabitants of Uruk asking the gods to intervene. He would draft the sons of the community for his army and exploit young women.
The beginning of the poem portrays Gilgamesh as a ruler who abuses his power. The poem conveys the life story of Gilgamesh who was part divine and part human king of Uruk as he struggled to accept the concept of immortality. The poem has no known author, but it is possible that it was conveyed through storytelling as a means of entertainment, and a way to teach important cultural values and history through Gilgamesh’s quest for eternality.
Storytelling was used by Sumerians in the early times to orally convey historical stories. after years of being conveyed through storytelling by the Sumerian people. It was written as a poem on 12 tablets in the Akkadian language in 2750 B.C.E. One of the earliest pieces of literature which has lived on into the modern era is the Epic of Gilgamesh from ancient Mesopotamia.
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