The Inevitability Of Death In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The ancient Mesopotamians had an interesting relationship with death in that they accepted the inevitability of death, and it showed in their mythology. The Mesopotamian view of death is illustrated especially well in The Epic of Gilgamesh, however strange or different it may be from typical mythos. It’s immediately established that Gilgamesh isn’t fully human, rather the offspring of a union between a mortal king, and a goddess. As expected of a demigod (a human who is partially a god) he is much stronger, smarter, and more handsome than the typical human, however he is not immortal. His own mortality and fleeting existence is only made clear to him when his closest companion Enkidu dies at the hands of the gods whom they scorned. Upon his existential epiphany of his own mortality, instead of accepting his death, he takes it

Eventually after a long journey he finds that the only humans who were ever granted immortality had their humanity fully taken from them in order for them to become immortal. In the end the only way to become immortal is to become a god, however since Gilgamesh is only two thirds a god, he is doomed to share the fate of humanity.

Utnapishtim and his wife were granted immortality by the god Enlil after they built a massive cube ship to serve as an ark when Enlil decided to destroy humanity with a flood. The only reason Utnapishtim thought to build an ark was because Ea, the trickster god, caught wind of Enlil’s plans and “just happened” to tell them to a wall made of vines that Utnapishtim was “coincidentally” on the other side of. Utnapishtim immediately hired every skilled craftsman and laborer he could to begin construction of the massive cube ship. Utnapishtim was generous to the people working under him and treated them to extravagant feasts every night after they were done working for the day. Eventually the titanic ship was created, and Utnapishtim decided to take a