Tablet IX-XI Response- Reverse Paralellism

While reading about the second leaving of Uruk, I was struck by the total role reversals of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. In the beginning, Enkidu emerges from his wild home and is civilized to the modern standards by bathing himself, anointing himself with oil, and clothing himself in clothes. Everyone then is amazed by his apparent resemblance to Gilgamesh. Now as Gilgamesh leaves the city in search of Utnapishtim, he dons skins of wild animals and grows his hair long and wild as Enkidu once was. Enkidu once was the essence of the natural world without any sense of cultivation or intelligence, and is then transformed into a being of great pride and strength and culture before he dies. Gilgamesh takes the opposite role in which he began hungry for glory and worldly pleasures, and becomes wild and desperate with grief after the death of his friend. The reverse progressions of the two friends reveal the extremes of both the wild, instinctive nature of mankind and the unethical epitome of civilization. Only after being cleansed and cleaned by Utnapishtim and donned with appropriate clothing which honor his earthly body –thereby finding the middle ground between the two extremes—is Gilgamesh truly able to find his humanity and begin to be a true king to his people.