To Live Forever

Tablets IX, X, and XI are about Gilgamesh’s reaction to the death of his friend Enkidu. At first he stays with his friend to mourn the loss but eventually gets disgusted by the rotting corpse. Seeing a “maggot [drop] from his nostril” is the image that haunts Gilgamesh the most. Deciding that he wants to become immortal, he embarks on a journey to find Uta-napishti, the sole surviving human of the flood that was granted immortality by the gods. He walks through a dark tunnel for 24 hours, fights stone monsters, and sales over the “waters of death” to reach Uta-napishti in his journey, yet at the end of the day has failed and returns to Uruk just as he was before.

The main theme in this section of the epic is the fear of death. Almost every human has personally experienced the fear of death whether it occurred as a young child or as an adult. Gilgamesh’s sudden fear and desire for immortality display something that every human wants: to live forever. All the experiences Gilgamesh encounters, from the scorpion guards, the dark tunnel, the dangerous waters, the magical plant that grants immortality, and the snake that steals the plant, symbolize the human desire to live forever. At this point in the story Gilgamesh has proven to do great things such as ruling a city, and defeating monsters created by gods. His failure to obtain the plant symbolizes that immortality is unachievable by any mortal. At one point Uta-napishti compares sleep to death. Gilgamesh tries to go without sleeping but eventually gives in and falls asleep. This example is important to the cycle of life. Just as an individual has to sleep for their life to continue, an individual eventually has to die in order for humanity to continue. For this reason humans cannot and will never be capable of immortality.