Comparing Gilgamesh And The Descent Of Inanna

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Charles de Montesquieu contradicts the human tendency to be apprehensive towards death in one statement: "We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death." The struggle to accept this revelation is demonstrated in the Babylonian epic poem known as, The Epic of Gilgamesh, through an extraordinary man's journey to achieve immortality, and his eventual acceptance of death's inevitability. The guarantee of death's arrival is further explored in Descent of Inanna, an epic in which Inanna abandons her post as the holy priestess of heaven to explore and later test the absoluteness of death. Death and its relationship to human nature is explored in both the texts, The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Descent of Inanna, by emphasizing its totality …show more content…

It states, "My lady abandoned heaven and earth to descend to the underworld. Inanna abandoned heaven and earth to descend to the underworld. She abandoned her office of holy priestess to descend to the underworld" (Descent of Inanna, 52). Immediately, the gravity of Inanna's influence is established by emphasizing her absence which consequently reiterates the consideration that took place when deciding to abandon her office as holy priestess of heaven. Additionally, she is seen to be opening her ear to the great below (Descent of Inanna, 52). Here it is evident that Inanna is seeking to fulfill a certain kind of wisdom that heaven, or in other words, life, is not granting …show more content…

Once her sister learns of her arrival she instructs, "As she enters, remove her royal garments. Let the holy priestess of heaven enter bowed low" (Descent of Inanna, 57). She is then stripped of all of the royal garments she was previously wearing, causing her to be naked. This nakedness, and the removal of her royal garments is symbolic of the vulnerability of death. Despite her royal stature, Inanna is stripped of such royalty to demonstrate that death does not play favorites. Furthermore, sharing blood with the queen of the Underworld does not spare her of the phenomenon of death. Ultimately, Inanna quickly learns that death does not stop to consider who a person is or what they have accomplished, instead it waits for each person with the same permanence and inevitability just the

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