Essay On The Gilgamesh’s Search For Eternal Life

Gilgamesh’s Search of Eternal Life Gilgamesh the king of Uruk is a one-third man and two third gods, and this makes him extremely powerful. In the early days of his kingship, Gilgamesh was a cruel leader performing acts such as raping any woman who came his way irrespective of her age and marital status. In addition to raping women anyhow, he was known for loading over everybody at the kingdom and this led to many people detesting his rule (Hagger, 56). To help keep the powerful king in check, the gods decided to create a man called Enkidu, who would be as wild as Gilgamesh whom later became his best friend. To make Gilgamesh realize that his life was not eternal, the gods inflict a certain disease to Enkidu who dies after succumbing to the illness.

The story speaks deeply of the journey Gilgamesh took in trying to understand the issue of eternal life. The story brings out very clearly the theme of friendship and loves something, which transforms the people of Uruk. Gilgamesh rules the kingdom in a dictatorial manner, and this has made him become a public enemy. Through Uruk, the king easily identified himself with his subjects in the process understanding them better. It is amazing how the love of oneself can make a person become considerate to others. After the death of his close friend, Gilgamesh saw that he did not have eternal life and that he too would at some point die like his friend (Hagger, 59). The journey, which he undertook of trying to know more about eternal life, made him realize how angry gods were at him and the power they possessed that could end his life. his leadership style was one of the reasons, people, detested his leadership style, which he sought to change after learning that his life was not eternal.

It is a real revelation to many individuals on reading that a person needs not to care about what he or she does not have, but become satisfied with whatever God has given them. In his quest of trying to find out facts about eternal life, Gilgamesh comes across a garden keeper called Siduri who advised him not to waste his energy trying to seek things that are futile such as immortality. The Gardner advised him to concentrate on using and enjoying the earth’s pleasures that he had been blessed with (Hagger, 66). The king had everything a person could dream of but after the death of his close friend, immortality became the thing he wished for the most. Siduri reminded him that he was the person who was blessed the most in the kingdom and thus should shun away the efforts of trying to become immortal.

The various tests the king underwent in search of eternal life meant that he was willing and ready to do anything that could make him get eternal life. It is after failing all the set tests that he becomes resided to not getting immortality and thus returns to the kingdom to be of service to his people (Hagger, 70). The king so much yearned for the immortal life, and this may because he wanted to go back and continue with his suppression method of ruling without the fear of dying as his friend. I am, however, impressed with the love he had for his dear friend Enkidu.

Work Cited
Hagger, Nicholas. A New Philosophy of Literature: The Fundamental Theme and Unity of World Literature: the Vision of the Infinite and the Universalist Literary Tradition. Winchester, UK: O-Books, 2012. Print.