What is the story of gilgamesh ultimately about

Essay 1

Sample Essay Professor Arevalo ENGL 2310 10 October 2011

Rites of Passage on the Journey to Humanity

The Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh recounts the age-old journey of achieving an understanding of what it is to be human. Through the epic, the journeys of the two main characters, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, are marked by a series of physical changes in the form of washing, purifying, and/or changes of clothes. Though, on the surface, these transitions seem like nothing more than superficial actions, they represent much more than that. Each instance actually plays an important role in rites of passage on the overall journey to achieving an understanding of what it is to be human. There are a total of five transitions that are introduced by some sort of washing, purification, or change of clothes. By examining these transitions and how they represent the journey to humanity, one will see that they are absolutely pivotal and necessary to the action and purpose of the story – becoming human.

The story opens with a base description of the two main characters, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, introducing them as “a god and man” and “an animal and man” respectively (15). The series of purifications they undergo work in conjunction in the journey of “their becoming human together” (15). The first to undergo a change is Enkidu, the animal-man. One day, while living among the animals he calls brothers, he is visited by a “creature unlike any he had seen before” (18). It is the prostitute, Shamhat, come to tame him. She ultimately succeeds in doing so when she, “Shaved the long hair off his body; She washed him with perfumes and oils, And he became a man” (21). Though at first this washing may seem to be merely hygienic and aesthetic on the surface, it actually serves a ritualistic purpose in commemorating a rite of passage from the mental understanding of an animal to the mental capacity of a man. Though this is the first and only purification episode Enkidu undergoes, it successfully transitions him to the point necessary for the rest of the action of the story. He has left behind the life of an animal to go forth living as a man. And it is as a man that Enkidu affects the god-man Gilgamesh.

The second episode is found much later in the story and is centered on Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk. However, since there is much action that happens between these points it is necessary to recount it in brief in order to achieve an appreciation of Gilgamesh’s first transitory rite of passage. Following Enkidu’s entrance into the world of man, he meets Gilgamesh. After a rather tumultuous encounter, the two men develop a budding and unwavering friendship that is put to the test when Gilgamesh decides that he and Enkidu should set out to vanquish the evil Humbaba. After defeating Humbaba and a second beast, the Bull of Heaven, Enkidu ultimately perishes. It is at this point that Gilgamesh must undergo his first transition, in the form of a change of clothes, in order to achieve a self-realization of his own humanity. Though this is only the second change mentioned in the epic, it is unique from the others. This change is effectively opposite from the other transitions in that it reflects a sense of stagnation as opposed to growth. Here Gilgamesh removes his kingly clothing only to replace them with “the skins of animals” and goes so far as to throw “himself in the dust” in lamentation over his friend’s death (55). Though this instance may appear to be somewhat reversed from the other changes, it still reflects a rite of passage. It is through Enkidu’s death that Gilgamesh approaches the understanding of his own humanity. The king’s actions of changing his clothes and throwing himself in the dust represent his recognition of the base existence that humans live – forever in the shadow of death. This is a purely human concept that Gilgamesh would not have been able to understand had he continued in his god-man mentality without Enkidu’s influence.

Gilgamesh’s journey after Enkidu’s death is marked by three more rites of passage. The third transition comes in the form of washing and a change of clothes initiated by an additional character – the barmaid Siduri whom Gilgamesh meets on his journey to revive Enkidu. Upon meeting Gilgamesh, Siduri invites him in to rest and renew himself. She then goes so far as to washing and dressing him herself in the hopes that not only will he abandon his journey but that he will also begin a life with her. These actions on the part of Siduri represent an attempt to initiate a rite of passage into a new, unpretentious life with her. Gilgamesh, however, refuses to take this path and ultimately redresses himself in his pelts symbolizing that he must go on in his journey and is not willing to take that particular new path. The text states that Gilgamesh wishes to go so far as “to bathe away her memory” (65). This episode goes to show that Gilgamesh has not entirely accepted what it is to be human and must therefore undergo additional changes in reaching that realization.

The fourth transition comes after Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim – the man granted eternal life by the gods. Though Gilgamesh sought out Utnapishtim in the hope of learning the secret of immortality, Utnapishtim at first proves to be mute on the subject. The only comfort he offers is in the form of ordering the distraught king to bathe and “burn these pelts he wears which can only remind him of his friend” so that he may “be fresh and young again” (83). Gilgamesh is forced to grudgingly obey thereby not entirely accepting the new role this rite of passage offers: a willingness to let go of the past and move into the future. Though he is forced to come to terms with the fact that the role of man is to die, he still cannot entirely accept it. Therefore he must undergo one final transition so that he can reach a full understanding of his own humanity.

The last rite of passage represents Gilgamesh’s acceptance of his new life without Enkidu and ultimately marks his final steps into becoming human. Utnapishtim proves to have more information than he is willing to offer and at the coaxing of his wife, he finally agrees to offer this knowledge to Gilgamesh. He tells the king of a plant that can “give new life” and how to obtain it (84). After hearing this, Gilgamesh proceeds to seek out the plant and succeeds in procuring it. In sheer elation at his accomplishment, Gilgamesh sets aside his newfound treasure so that he may “drink and rest beside a pool” and bathe himself (86). At this point, Gilgamesh is finally willing to let go of the past and move on into a future unadulterated by that past. However, life proves cruel yet again to the happy king. While refreshing himself in the pool, the precious plant is stolen from him. It is here when the king takes his final steps into becoming a man. At first, Gilgamesh mourns this recent loss but then, “In time he recognized this loss as the end of his journey and returned to Uruk” (91). This action, precipitated by the final purification, symbolizes the king’s acceptance of his fate as a human and ultimately what it means to live such an existence. Thereby, as a direct result of his time with Enkidu, Gilgamesh, the main character, the man hindered so by his god-like mentality finally reaches the point of becoming a true human with the knowledge that he too will one day die.

Every man must make the journey of realizing what it is to be human; every man must realize that death is an inescapable part of living the human life. The Epic of Gilgamesh attests to this universal truth by contrasting the two mentalities of animal and god in the forms of Enkidu and Gilgamesh. By uniting them through transitory rites of passage disguised as purifications and changes of clothes, the two men together achieve the elusive understanding of what it means to be human.

Works Cited

Mason, Herbert. Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative. Herbert Mason 1970.