The Epic of Gilgamesh - Assignment Example

? Epic of Gilgamesh: Why Enkidu Fears Death Table of Contents Why Enkidu Fears Death 3 Works Cited 7 Why Enkidu Fears Death In tablet seven we get tounderstand that the price that Enkidu and Gilgamesh had to pay for the slaughter of Humbaba first and of the Bull of Heaven second one of them had to perish, and it was decided by Enlil, in conference with Shamash who vehemently and emotionally made protestations about the whole notion of someone dying. Enlil was the prosecutor in this case, and was equally emotional about the need for Enkidu’s death (“The Epic of Gilgamesh”; Brown; SparkNotes; Annenberg Foundation; Hooker): “Bur the Sun God of Heaven replied to valiant Enlil: 'Was it not at my command that they killed the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba! Should now innocent Enkidu die!' Then Enlil became angry at Shamash, saying: 'it is you who are responsible because you traveled daily with them as their friend!"' (“The Epic of Gilgamesh” Tablet 7 Lines 9-15). First there is really no arguments that needed to be heard with regard to how the gods decided that someone should perish for the deaths that Gilgamesh instigated on the course of his adventures. The decree of the Gods sometimes did not spring from any rational consideration or from any sane notion of right and wrong, but that being partly human themselves, prone to being swayed by such baser emotions as anger and the desire for revenge, the gods ruled on things with a touch of whimsy, and a lot of subjectivity. They decreed like humans did when their more passionate natures ruled over rationality and a keen sense of justice. We are made to understand from the epic that it was to this group of gods, a committee meeting with their own subjective agendas, that Enkidu and Gilgamesh must ultimately place their lives There is always a kind of terror from being at the mercy of the whims of a person who may not always act rationally or for the best interests of those whose lives they have control over. Certainly in the case of Gilgamesh too the very notion of the existence of Enkidu was premised on Gilgamesh the flawed human and part god acted in ways that made his subjects suffer. It is in this kind of backdrop that the fears of Enkidu relating to death is founded. The gods have decreed that he must die, and there is no arguing with the gods once they have decided that he must die. This notwithstanding the fact that it was Gilgamesh after all who did the killings, and it was Enkidu who did warn Gilgamesh against going through with killing Humbaba. No, all these mitigating circumstances did not matter. What mattered to the gods was that someone should die, and that in this case they chose Enkidu to pay for the lives of the Bull of Heaven and of Humbaba (“The Epic of Gilgamesh”; Brown; SparkNotes; Annenberg Foundation; Hooker). This whimsical nature of the ways of the gods and of the way they arrived at Enkidu’s death sentence however is not the primary reason why Enkidu feared death. Sure he was bitter to the point of even regretting having crossed paths with the people who ultimately led him to his encounter and friendship with Gilgamesh, but this bitterness is something that is separate from what made him fearful about death. He was fearful of passing away primarily because of the visions that he had of death, grim and full of dark foreboding, and the opposite of the happiest days that he had known on earth. He feared death first and foremost because it was the end of all that he had lived for, and the beginning of what could be described as an eternal harrowing experience in a world that is bleak and devoid of sunshine, dark, a world of dust, as he described in the vision that he shared of life after death. The vision of death and what it was like came to him in a dream, that he shared to his friend Gilgamesh. Where it filled him with fear, it filled Gilgamesh too with a sense of dread and a sense of resignation with regard to the fate that awaited not just Enkidu but Gilgamesh too and all men (“The Epic of Gilgamesh”; Brown; Hooker): Seizing me, he led me down to the House of Darkness, the dwelling of Irkalla, to the house where those who enter do not come out, along the road of no return (“The Epic of Gilgamesh” Tablet 7 Lines 155-158). One can surmise reading between the texts that death was so fearful to Enkidu, so used to being powerful and being in control, because there is this sense that it comes from nowhere to seize control of oneself and render oneself helpless and powerless, the antithesis of what he had been in life. Death comes like a powerful man in the image of Anzu, to take control of a person like a powerful bird swooping down on a prey and taking that prey to an eternally dark place. It is this initial sense of helplessness, and of being thrust into a harrowing and dreadful reality, that is at the heart of the fear of Enkidu with regard to death. One is not in control in death, contrary to one’s being in control in life to the extent that one can rely on one’s power. The forces of death are far from benevolent too, judging from the dark vision of Enkidu of what awaited him and all men in death (“The Epic of Gilgamesh”; Brown; Hooker): to the house where those who dwell, do without light, where dirt is their drink, their food is of clay, where, like a bird, they wear garments of feathers, and light cannot be seen, they dwell in the dark, and upon the door and bolt, there lies dust. (“The Epic of Gilgamesh” Tablet 7 Lines 159-163). From the above we see that for a man like Enkidu, so used to playing the part of the vanquishing hero, friend to a king, and powerful beyond the measure of most men, the idea of going down in death and being totally at the mercy of forces that are dark and overpowering must be dreadful and fearful indeed. Entering the psyche of such a person as Enkidu, and having this view of life as being an arena for adventures where a person enjoys full independence and control over his fate, death comes as something that is contrary to all that. Indeed, death in this vision is something totally humiliating, and further separates the gods, who are immortal and are independent and strong forever, and mere mortals like Enkidu, and even Gilgamesh, even though he is also partly a god. By dying Enkidu surrenders everything that he held dear in life, and dwells in a place that is not to his liking. It is a grim reality that awaits Enkidu in death, and so as a mortal man subject to the vicissitudes of his body of course he is afraid. His flesh recoils at the thought of all that suffering (“The Epic of Gilgamesh”; Brown; Hooker). There is this sense too in the vision of Enkidu regarding death that death when it comes will also mean all that he held dear either slipping from his grip or abandoning him. In this greatest of all terrors he stood alone, and he could not even find solace or comfort in the emotional support that can be had from the company of a friend. Even Gilgamesh, his dearest friend and for whom he risked his own life in the adventures that they had, he saw as abandoning him to face his terrors alone in that vision that he had of death. This terror is on a psychological level, the sense that a trusted companion has turned against him in death, there to face the house of dust alone and to eat and partake of the grim fare there for all eternity. It is this sense of abandonment that further compounds the misery and the terror that Enkidu felt. Enkidu feared death finally because of this cascade of horror, unrelieved misery and hardship, and the sense of psychological and emotional abandonment that he felt as all of his freedom, power and pleasures were on the verge of being taken away. That he was to be lucid and conscious through all eternity in this hell must have been too much for him to bear, and his terror at death was profound and unrelenting in the end (“The Epic of Gilgamesh”; Brown; Hooker). Works Cited Annenberg Foundation. “The Epic of Gilgamesh”. Annenberg Learner. 2013. Web. 12 October 2013. Brown, Arthur. “Storytelling, the Meaning of Life, and The Epic of Gilgamesh”. Exploring Ancient World Cultures. 1996. Web. 12 October 2013. Hooker, Richard. “General Information on the Sumarian Epic Gilgamesh (ca 2000 BCE)”. Arkansas State University. 2013. Web. 12 October 2013. SparkNotes. “The Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet VII”. SparkNotes. 2013. Web. 12 October 2013. < http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gilgamesh/section6.rhtml> “The Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet 7”. Ancient Texts. 2001. Web.12 October 2013. Read More