Epic of Gilgamesh Essay

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Gilgamesh's Immortality Quest Humans naturally fear the unknown. Not-knowing automatically triggers the fear held deep inside people's subconscious. One of the biggest enigmas society struggles with in present times would be the post-mortem mystery, something that had puzzled the human mind since the beginning of times. Being one-third human as he is, Gilgamesh fears death naturally, and because he does, his instinct forces him to find a way to deceive this inevitability. He then initiates his immortality quest; quest he doesn't realize contradicts logic and wastes his time. Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk, was a godly creation that reigned over his kingdom with oppression and cruelty. He was unstoppable. Everything we wanted, he acquired it. This made Gilgamesh feel in total control at all times and this was too the start of his deceive. By now, he believed there was no boundary to him nor his desires, and death was far from being a concern. With this greatness flooding his head, the gods decided to try and bring him down from his cloud by creating Enkidu, a creature equal in magnificence. The two individuals, ironically, end up being great friends and fighting by each other's side. Gilgamesh, by now, feels even more in power as he is accompanied by what is supposed to be the greatest thing after him, and also his greatest threat. The two allies kept on angering the gods by creating pandemonium wherever they visited. They continued to kill and slaughter, but the turning point was when Gilgamesh - pressured by Enkidu - killed Humbaba, the god of earth, wind and air that guarded a cedar forest prohibited to mortals. The gods, infuriated, decided it was time for one of the two creatures to depart his life, and the unlucky chosen one was Enkidu. Struck by a god-infused illness, Enkidu suffered and, after long agony, breath his last breath. This destroyed Gilgamesh emotionally, making him realize it was that easy and unpredictable to cease to exist. This reality was also Gilgamesh's biggest fear, this was his nightmare. With this realization, the demigod focused on reaching the answer to eternal life, which led him to Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim was granted eternal life after he, guided by the goddess of wisdom Ea, helped prevent a terrible mistake the gods almost made, which was destroying mankind. He was the one who built the arc and survived the flood the gods used to strike
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