In the End: Final Thoughts About the Epic of Gilgamesh

Foundation figure of King Ur-Namma from the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2112-2004 B.C.). Morgan Library and Museum, New York

Book Information

Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse (#ad)

David Ferry

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York

Copyright 1992

ISBN: 978-0-374-52383-1

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero matures. However, the ancient Sumerians’ definition of maturity is different than our own. Most interpretations of the story suggest that Gilgamesh grows as a human being. It is accepted that he becomes less selfish. For example, when he is gifted with a plant that promises to restore his youthful good-looks and vigor, rather than hogging it all for himself, as he would have done when he was younger, he promises to share it with Uruk’s elders:

“Urshànabi, this plant is a wonderful plant.

New life may be obtained by means of it.

I will carry the thorny plant back to my city.

I will give some of the plant to the elders there,

to share among them, telling them it is called

How-the-Old-Man-Once-Again-Becomes-a-Young-Man.

And I will take my share of the magic plant,

once more to become the one who is youngest and strongest.” (Ferry 80)

Another example of his maturation is that he begins to take his kingly duties more seriously. Utnapishtim, the immortal survivor of the Flood, castigates Gilgamesh for his dirty body and messy clothing. Kings are supposed to be clean and regally dressed:

“The boatman led the king to the washing place.

Gilgamesh washed his body, washing away

the filth that obscured his beauty; then Urshàbani

took the skin of a beast and threw it away.

Manifest was the beauty of Gilgamesh.

He bound up his shining hair with a new fillet;

he put on a festal robe, utterly spotless,

a royal garment appropriate to himself.” (Ferry 78-79)

Despite the accepted interpretation that Gilgamesh matures, I found his personal growth to be lacking. As a person influenced by modern psychological concepts, I wanted more ‘evidence’ that he had become self-actualized. While there are hints that he matures to this level, they are only fragments.

Ironically, fragments are all we have of the Gilgamesh story. We know, from fragments of clay tablets, that Gilgamesh was probably a real person. We know, from fragments, about the mythology that grew from the more mundane stories about his reign. And we know, from fragments, that when a real king died, he took his entire family and court to a watery grave. There is evidence tied to the legend of King Gilgamesh that he oversaw the building of his own tomb. He diverted the Euphrates and when he died, his family and court committed mass-suicide and were interred along with him. Then, the Euphrates was re-diverted and washed over his tomb to hide it forever.

This does not sound like the actions of a mature, self-actualized person to me. I wanted a hero who acknowledged the evil of his ways when he killed Huwawa and the Bull of Heaven. I wanted a hero who repented after treating the goddess Ishtar with contempt. I wanted a hero who showed his appreciation to those who gave him wise advice, especially the women like Ninsun, his mother, and Siduri, the tavern-keeper. Finally, I wanted a hero who grieved the death of his friend, not for his own sake, but for his friend’s sake.

Unfortunately, for me, what I wanted was a modern hero with a modern person’s eloquence and ability to analyze themselves. My expectations were unrealistic. Gilgamesh was not modern and discovering that I should not expect him to be, was the best part of reading about him. Rather than wish him to be a character that he could never be, I sought to learn more about how heroism and kingly duties were defined five thousand years ago in a land, climate, and culture different from my own. In the process of learning, I grew to love Gilgamesh. The fragmentary nature of the way we moderns ‘discover’ him made my journey even more exciting.

Reading canonical literature is supposed to feel this way – like a journey of discovery. Gilgamesh is the first piece of literature in the Western Canon. What I learned from reading it is that the journey is not external. It is not about literature per se. The journey is internal. You read great literature to discover things about yourself. I am grateful to Gilgamesh, a dingy and imperfect hero, for starting me on this journey.

Bibliography

Ferry, David. Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse. (#ad) New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992.