Analytical Essay: The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh, is a tale about Gilgamesh a king of the city of Uruk. He is a king that works his people to death. He kills young men at will and uses women for pleasure. The people of Uruk cry out for help. The goddess Anu hears them and makes a twin for Gilgamesh, someone who can stand up to him but instead they become friends.

Gilgamesh proposes a great adventure; this requires cutting down a great cedar forest to build a great monument to the gods. To do this they have to kill the guardian of the Cedar Forest which is the great demon called Humbaba the Terrible. Enkidu, put it off because it was such a undertaking but in the end Gilagmesh and Enkidu kill the terrible demon.

The goddess of love and beauty offers to become Gilgamesh’s wife but he scorns her. The goddess Ishtar, ask her father the god of the sky’s Anu, to send down the bull of heaven to punish him. The bull comes down from the sky. Gilgamesh and Enkidu, work together to wrestle the bull and kill it. The gods meet in a council and agree that one of them should be punished

for killing the bull of heaven. In the meeting they decide that Enkidu is going to die. Enkidu become ill and dies slowly but when he finally die’s Gilgamesh is heartbroken.
Gilgamesh is still very upset about Enkidu death. He also can’t stop thinking about his death he comes to realize that he will come to the same fate as his friend. Gilgamesh wants to attempt to find the secret of immortality so he searches for the Utnapishtim who is the only mortal that the gods granted eternal life to. He hopes that Utnapishtim can tell him how to avoid death. Gilgamesh starts his journey to find Utnapishtim, first it takes him to the twin peaked mountains called Mashu. Gilgamesh has to get passed the mountains, because Utnapishtim lives beyond them. The two scorpion’s monsters guard the entrance, and they refuse to let Gilgamesh pass through. Gilgamesh tries to plead with them and they back down.
After Gilgamesh travels through the passage, he arrives at a beautiful garden by the sea. This is where he meets Siduri, Gilgamesh tells her about his quest and she warns him that he should be happy with the world, seeking immortally is pointless. She can’t get him to change his mind, so she points him in the right direction. She leads him to Urshanabi, the ferryman. He takes Gilgamesh on a boat across the sea of death to get to Utnapishtim. When Gilgamesh come face to face with Utnapishtim, he hopes that Utnapishtim can tell him how he escaped death and how to do the same. Utnapishtim tells him the story of the flood. He was once a king of a beautiful city on the banks of Euphrates. The gods meet in a secret council, the god of the earth Enlil ordered a flood to destroy humankind. Ea, the cleverest of the gods swore to secrecy, but he betrayed Enlil’s plans to Utnapishtim. He warned Utnapishtim of the plan and told him to build a huge boat. Utanpishtim had to lie to the people saying that Enlil hates him and he would have to leave the city, so everyone helped him build the boat. Utnapishtim but his family members on, animals, and the craftsmen of the city on the boat. In no time it rained so much that even the gods had to climb very high to escape from the water. Ishtar cried as she saw her children dying. The rain eventually slowed down. After sending out many birds, the raven finally found land. He released all the animals, then he got out with a sacrifice in mind. The gods were happy with his sacrifices, the goddess Ishtar came down, she would never forgive Enlil for being the one to cause the flood. When Enlil appears who is furious that some of the humans are still alive. Ea speaks up and said he didn’t like his plan, if he wanted to punish someone he should have made the punishment fit the crime. Enlil blessed Utnapishtim and his wife by making them no longer human.
Utnapishtim tried to make a point by telling his story, that he did something great to become immortal.

Gilgamesh still begs, so Utnapishtim gives him a chance. Utnapishtim gives him a test to stay awake for a whole week. Gilgamesh tries but fails. Utnapishtim’s wife ask Utnapishtim to give Gilgamesh mercy and tell him where the plan is. So Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh about the plant that will make him young again. The plant is in the bottom of the ocean surrounding the shore. Gilgamesh finds the plant and plans to share it with his elders to make sure it truly works before he tries it himself. On the way back, one night a snake steals the flower and sheds his skin and the snake becomes young again. Gilgamesh returns to Uruk empty handed and accepts that he is not going to live forever. He learns that the city he rejected, is a beautiful great achievement, and humankind will leave on forever, he will never be

forgotten.
In my opinion, this story was very interesting because the story can relate to many real life situations. Gilgamesh focus on death, it shows that we all have to live with the fact that we have to die someday. Gilgamesh is fighting so hard to be immortal and traveling the world, where he leaves his city of Uruk, that he rejected and despise. He doesn’t realize what he left behind, his city that’s an amazing achievement, where people will never forget him. In life sometimes people are to stuck on one thing, such as working to hard, or trying so hard to be someone extraordinary. They don’t realize what they left behind is already a great achievement, such as family and friends, the people that will remember you forever when your gone. When Gilgamesh stops chasing immortality he realizes that he should be happy with what he does have. It crazy how much a person can change after they realize what their chasing is pointless.