The Epic of Gilgamesh--A Haphazard Review

To deal with my Bibliothetic panic of a week ago, I got serious. I suppose Serious should be underlined and capitalized, but why do that when you can emphasize it with a completely extraneous sentence instead? So, to be properly serious, I wrote a booklist that is 8 pages long and could probably provide a trio of frenetic readers in solitary confinement enough material to keep them busy for the rest of their lives. But hey, why do things by halves?

Now, I wrote a list, this, for me, counts as organized. I really don’t care what order the abundance comes at me. So, I started roughly 3600 years ago with “The Epic of Gilgamesh.”

Gilgamesh is not for kids. Neither is this slightly academic meandering for that matter.

Gilgamesh is an epic about the Chaldean King Arthur. He is a giant of a man—strong, powerful, ruler of the world, a tormenter of young men, the man who has the right to sleep with young brides before their consummation with their husbands, and a tyrant who the entire realm wishes dead. So, the people pray for deliverance….and the gods send them…another version of Gilgamsh, named Enkido. Now, Enkido, is a complete savage, and runs with the antelope like Mowgli. He needs to be tamed, so Gilgamesh sends a temple prostitute to seduce him, and bring him to humanity by granting him the gift and enlightenment of sex. Voila, it works, Enkido becomes a real man, comes to the city, and becomes the true friend of Gilgamesh. The true grow in heroics, strength, honor, they even act like human beings to their subjects. Together they go on fantastic adventures, slay great, slavering beasties, and rule the world. But then, Enkido dies, and Gilgamesh departs on days of fasting, wandering, and mourning before he goes to the gods and demands to be told how to defeat death. They tell him, no one gets immortality—unless you are extra special, like the man that through chicanery survived the Great Deluge. Then, they send him on an impossible quest, which he almost succeeds in, before he fails, and realizes, that, no matter what, no matter how strong, all men, even he, will die, and one should just accept their fate.

This is, obviously, the short version of the Cliff Notes version, but a couple of things stood out to me in this poem. First, sex is a major part of this story. Sex is the means by which Enkido is brought to manhood, civilization, and enlightenment. The author of the forward made a great to-do about how this shows how the Chaldean’s properly understood sex as opposed to those Prudish Christians who don’t understand its powers of freedom and maturity. That, is a whole different conversation which I will enthusiastically start later, but, I do have to wonder, if sex is what makes us civilized and most fully human, does that leave virgins as half a person until consummation? I am also slightly worried by the fact that sex in the Epic has absolutely nothing to do with romance: artistry, craftsmanship, pleasure, spiritual enlightenment, and alienation are all important elements, but the woman you sleep with is a tool—one you can curse to the worst hell and bless with many lovers in the same breath.

Another thing that stood out is the elusiveness of eternity. And, I think as Christians I might take this for granted. For better or for worse, I will live for eternity. To the Chaldean, everyone is going to die, and be dust. The only exceptions are the gods. They live forever. There is no heave, and no hell, only nothingness, and deity. Nihilism is the state religion—no wonder you eat, sleep with anyone and anything you wish, and try to die in such a way that people will remember you.

The last thing that stood out was the cruelty of the gods. God destroyed the earth with a great flood, and it is hard to know why He allowed this to happen, but he did if for a pre-established purpose. The Epic also has a great flood, but in its version, 5 gods collude to cause the flood, but two recant as soon as they see the devastation, and wish they had never allowed it. The others say, essentially, “well, mankind wasn’t that valuable anyway, it all comes to dust in the end, so who cares?” They then reward the “Noah” figure with godhood, and what he is being rewarded for remains slightly obscure.

The story has a lot to offer. It does stray from the simple “me hero, me right” formula of your average hero tale. It grapples with the meaning of life, the hope of immortality, the love of friends, the importance of sex, and the value of true courage. However, in the end, it still remains a stunning example of just how glad I should be that I am a Christian.