Essay on the Gilgamesh

I will write about Gilgamesh, an epic character of the ancient history of Mesopotamia. The character belongs to a famous tale entitle as “Epic of Gilgamesh”. In the story, the pivot point of the story was based on the life story of a man “Gilgamesh”. Through the whole story, he was struggling with his concepts of mortality and refuses to believe that there will be an end of his life. ultimately, Gilgamesh gains wisdom and eventually reached to discover immorality and painful end of his journey and his goal remained unattainable. In his youth, Gilgamesh was a ruler and inhabitants of the city of Uruk were used to praise him. He lived as invincible life; he met another man with powers “Enkidu”.

Together Gilgamesh and Enkidu had long adventures and achieved many feats. Some deep philosophical questions are always addressed by many people that Gilgamesh deserve immortality and he was very immortal towards girls of his state. In a long journey, he enslaved as a person and even he was begging for forgiveness, Gilgamesh killed him because Enkidu encouraged him to do so. God found the incident and killed Enkidu in punishment of his action (Tigay, 2002).

Upon his death, Gilgamesh found that he will reach the same end one day and it was terrifying to know the end of life. his close friend died and turned to clay in his hands. Finding death in front of his eyes forced him to think about himself and the end of his life.  the fact was very depressing and fearful, and he started finding some life survival reasons.

After the incident, Gilgamesh becomes more concerning about his action and mortality because his friend Enkidu was having the same strength when he was killed. Gilgamesh resolves to conquer death. From the very first, Gilgamesh was determined to live a long life and forever, therefore, he started searching a mortal named Utnapishtim who was already granted by eternal life (Tigay, 2002).

 the journey of Gilgamesh was very interesting for me as he was motivated and overcome many obstacles. The strength of his confidence is an example for me, and I wonder how long he had gone. He finally reached his goal and found Utnapishtim. How brave he was as he has undergone through life threatening ways and walked all the way to reach Utnapishtim and finally reached his destination.

After getting him, Gilgamesh explained all and his desire to become immortal of death. On reply, Utnapishtim challenged him to not sleep for six days and seven nights. Even he was determined to complete the challenge but still, he was unable to stay awake. During this, he felt death is reaching towards him. He discovered that living happily is better instead of feeling the fear of death. The most famous dialogues of Gilgamesh here are about death as “nobody sees the face of Death. Nobody hears the voice of Death” (“The Epic” 108) (Tigay, 2002).

These lines show that death cannot be explained but it strikes hard and kill at any moment. There are no clues of death and it can happen anytime in life. the only alternative is to speculate yourself to know how this mysterious moment comes and operates. Gilgamesh found how hourglass of life constantly being depleted and leaves him feeling mournful and empty.

 Regarding Gilgamesh, some argue that he already achieved immortality, but I feel, even he is dead physically now, but his journey and stories are living around us through the written words. He gained everlasting time to live and his try to escape death eventually ended with a meaningful end.   

Reference of  the Gilgamesh

Tigay, J. H., 2002. The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic. In: s.l.:Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, p. 384.