The Importance Of Friendship In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The Fertile Crescent, the area spanning from the iran-iraq border Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and turkey (McKay, p.16) and was believed to be the home of some of the earliest civilizations in known history (McKay, p.34).Out of these civilizations, the city of Uruk is considered one of the most important civilizations in Mesopotamia at the time (Mark, Definition). Believed to have been founded by the king Enmerkar sometime around 4500 BCE (Mark, Definition), this great city was a pioneer for many things including; writing, irrigation, building of the ziggurat and the development of the cylinder seal (Mark, Definition). During the Uruk Period, between 4100 and 2900 BCE, several villages started to grow and become much larger and complex with Uruk
After some time, Enkidu confronts Gilgamesh at the night when he is about to “visit” a bride before her wedding and after a wrestling match and Gilgamesh admits that Enkidu is his equal, they immediately become inseparable friends (The Epic of Gilgamesh, p.9). They become so close friends that even Gilgameshes mother accepts Enkidu as his son and trust him to protect him on their journey to the forest to slay Humbaba and collect the cedar trees form his forest (The Epic of Gilgamesh, p.10, 15). Even when the people tell them of the horrible creature that is Humbaba, Gilgamesh is confident in his friend to protect him throughout the adventure. Gilgamesh even plans all this out on what seems to be a whim when Enkidu becomes bored of everyday life in Uruk although Gilgamesh was planning on doing something to Immortalize his name, Enkidu’s want for excitement was the catalyst for the adventure (The Epic of Gilgamesh, p.10). A final example of the importance of their friendship would be in the death of Enkidu beginning on page 25 of the epic. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh falls into deep depression (and even rage in the beginning on pg.35) puling his hair out and throwing of his noble clothing like it
As shown with the lineage for kings with Gilgamesh, their culture does show a hierarchy instead of a theocracy or oligarchy like other similar civilizations, also, it is obvious that the ancient culture had polytheistic views of the world as they are constantly sacrificing and communing with multiple gods all throughout the epic compared to today’s rather semi religious and monotheistic views. Ancient Mesopotamia does also indicate a patriarchy however, it does not seem uncommon that woman can hold a high socials class as with the example of Ninsun, Gilgamesh’s mother. Some insight can also be gained on the resources that were desired. During the death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh command smiths of every field to create a marvelous statue made with resources like lapis lazuli and gold and some hard wood (The Epic of Gilgamesh, p.36). Cedar wood was also so valuable that Gilgamesh and Enkidu would go out and risk their lives for it! Unfortunately, not much can be inferred on gender roles except that society was most likely a patriarchy. Things like food, technology, and architecture cannot be accurately depicted from what was provided in the epic as