The human desire to escape death and achieve immortality is one of the oldest wishes of all peoples. The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh is the earliest recorded treatment of this topic. The oldest elements of the epic go back at least to the third millennium B. C.E. According to tradition, Gilgamesh was a king of Uruk whom the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians considered a hero-king and a god. In the story Gil-gamesh and his friend Enkidu set out to attain immortality and join the ranks of the gods. They attempt to do so by performing wondrous feats against fearsome agents of the gods, who are determined to thwart them.
During their quest Enkidu dies. Gilgamesh, more determined than ever to become immortal, begins seeking anyone who might tell him how to do so. His journey involves the effort not only to escape from death but also to reach an understanding of the meaning of life. Along the way he meets Siduri, the wise and good-natured goddess of wine, who gives him the following advice.
Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to? You will never find that life for which you are looking. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping. As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man.
Ignoring Siduri’s advice, Gilgamesh continues his journey, until he finds Utnapishtim [oot-nuh-PISH-tim], a mortal whom the gods so favored that they put him in an eternal paradise. Gilgamesh puts to Utnapishtim the question that is the reason for his quest.
Oh, father Utnapishtim, you who have entered the assembly of the gods, I wish to question you concerning the living and the dead, how shall I find the life for which I am searching?
Utnapishtim said, “There is no permanence. Do we build a house to stand forever, do we seal a contract to hold for all time? Do brothers divide an inheritance to keep forever, does the flood-time of rivers endure? . . . What is there between the master and the servant when both have fulfilled their doom? When the Anunnaki [the gods of the underworld], the judges, come together, and Mammetun [the goddess of fate], the mother of destinies, come together they decree the fates of men. Life and death they allot but the day of death they do not disclose.
Utnapishtim then tells Gilgamesh of a time when gods decided to send a great flood to destroy the Sumerians, who had angered the great god Enlil.
Gilgamesh, from decorative panel of a lyre unearthed at Ur.
(The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, neg. T4-108)
The god Ea, however, intervened and commanded Utnapishtim to build a boat big enough to hold his family, various artisans, and all animals in order to survive the flood that was to come. Enlil was infuriated by the Sumerians’ survival, and Ea rebuked him. Then Enlil relented and blessed Utnapishtim with eternal paradise. After telling the story, Utnapishtim foretells Gilgamesh’s fate.
O Gilgamesh, this was the meaning of your dream [of immortality]. You were given the kingship, such was your destiny, everlasting life was not your destiny. Because of this do not be sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed; he [Enlil] has given you power to bind and to loose, to be the darkness and the light of mankind. He has given you unexampled supremacy over the people, victory in battle from which no fugitive returns, in forays and assaults from which there is no going back. But do not abuse this power, deal justly with your servants in the palace, deal justly before the face of the Sun.”
Questions for Analysis
1. What does the Epic of Gilgamesh reveal about Sumerian attitudes toward the gods and human beings?
2. At the end of his quest, did Gilgamesh achieve immortality? If so, what was the nature of that immortality?
3. What does the epic tell us about Sumerian views of the nature of human life? Where do human beings fit into the cosmic world?
Source: From The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated and with an introduction by N. K. Sanders (Penguin Classics, 1960; Third Edition, 1972). Copyright © N. K. Sanders, 1960, 1964, 1972. Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.
World History
