Gilgamesh Ventures

Epic of Gilgamesh In the epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh ventures upon a quest seeking immortality as a result to peace and significance in life. In means of this journey, Gilgamesh undergoes a combination of grand adventure, of mortality and also of tragedy. He tries to reach immortality in unusual ways, each as unsuccessful as its predecessor. Gilgamesh suffers conflict due to being two-part god and one part man, in a preliterate time, when gods were seemingly to be replaced by mortals on the throne of the city-states. Gilgamesh tries first through his actions, but then undergoes a transformation which leads him to next attempt physical immortality. Through events of this process, Gilgamesh encounters whom is to be his counterpoint, his equal. Gilgamesh then learns, on his journey to immortality, the truth of a man who endures the wrath of a god, in which he has displeased, causing a stage of extermination of mankind. Gilgamesh gains mature knowledge among his quest. Uruk, his city, is his legacy and the key to his quest.
The legends of the pursuit for immortality assembled in the Epic of Gilgamesh portray the conflict felt around Sumerian times. As urbanization swept Mesopotamia, the ethnic condition pivoted from an unsettled hunting society to that of a rural gathering society. Man found his relationship with the divine indefinite and insecure. From the gods, Gilgamesh possessed a perfect body, perfect beauty, restlessness and courage. From his father, Gilgamesh possessed mortality. This results in Gilgamesh having to face the ultimate conflict; conflict of the desires of the god and destiny of the man. Even the king, to whom all things were known, would have to confront commands of tragedy.

Superior to all mortal, Gilgamesh finds no desirable match in love or in war. Intending to provide a companion, the gods create from Clay, Enkidu. “Enkidu, the ‘natural man’ reared with wild animals, and as swift as the gazelle” (Gilgamesh, 22). Gilgamesh and Enkidu