Carpe Diem

As I was reading the book, The Epic of Gilgamesh, the most important topic that remained in my mind was a death. I focused on every behavior that Gilgamesh did and related it to his close friend, Enkidu’s death. Why did Gilgamesh decide to seek for immortality? What does the ancient Babylonian wants to share about by telling us the story of Gilgamesh seeking for eternal life? I will discussion about the attitude that ancient Babylonian wanted to share with us. In my discussion, there are two important points where mortality changes Gilgamesh. The first one is when he saw Enkidu’s death and the second one is when he realizes that achieving immortality is impossible. With these two points, I look for reasons why ancient Babylonian made Enkidu and Gilgamesh face mortality. Perhaps it is because they wanted to say that pursuing immortality is meaningless and what meaningful is to cherish the present. I will discuss about how Enkidu’s mortality inspired Gilgamesh and how he accepts his own mortality.

As you can notice in the story, there is a big turning point where Gilgamesh changes. When Enkidu dies, he feels a deep sorrow. He got frightened when he saw Enkidu’s death because he also thought that he might die someday just like Enkidu. Here is a quote that well represents his feeling; ‘Six days I wept for him and seven nights. I did not surrender his body for burial, until a maggot dropped from his nostril. Then I was afraid that I too would die. I grew fearful death, and so wander the wild’ (78). Not only does he not accept his friend’s death but, also he starts to wonder about eternal. Since the beginning part of the book, he has never done such a wandering. Everything he did was to prove how mighty he is or to show off how strong he is by defeating Humbaba and The Bull of Heaven. This is a big change that makes him starts his journey seeking for immortality.

Clearly, Gilgamesh is described as one third of human. He might be the greatest king in Uruk and he is so strong that none of the monsters could defeat him. However, as a human, he also needs to accept mortality when the time comes just like any other human does. Gilgamesh, who is afraid of death, opposes to this destiny and challenges to gain immortality which is an ability that is only allowed to gods. With this part of the book, we can assume that the ancient Babylonians took death as more meaningful matter in their lives and thought there is a magical thing that could make human immortal. Considering nowadays people has more of scientific knowledge and has more developed technology, people do not easily believe that there is a magical material that could make them avoid mortality. However, ancient Babylonian, lacked those knowledge and it lead them to thinking about overcoming mortality. With this mind in ancient Babylonian head, we can assume that they made Gilgamesh seek for a way to achieve immortality because they believed mortality could be overcomed