He faces his own mortality, and it’s terrifying. He sees his friend die, and thinks if this heroic human being, the strongest of the strong, can die, that means I’m going to die too.
It’s then that Gilgamesh realises the truth of mortality. They kill all sorts of ogres and beasts, until the gods think this is getting a bit much and decide Gilgamesh’s friend has to die. They fight, realise neither can win, then become best friends and go off on all sorts of adventures. So the gods make a rival to him in strength, a wild man. He starts off as the king of a small kingdom, making a nuisance of himself – enforcing droit du seigneur, sleeping with women on their marriage night, pushing other men around, being a bit of an arse. He’s half-god, enormously strong, a bit randy, a bit dim, and he goes through adventures which embody the human experience writ large. “Gilgamesh is a hero in the ancient mould. Foreign Policy & International Relations.Alongside its themes of family, friendship and the duties of kings, the Epic of Gilgamesh is, above all, about mankind's eternal struggle with the fear of death. The story tells of Gilgamesh's adventures with the wild man Enkidu, and of his arduous journey to the ends of the earth in quest of the Babylonian Noah and the secret of immortality. Miraculously preserved on clay tablets dating back as much as four thousand years, the poem of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is the world's oldest epic, predating Homer by many centuries.
Alongside its themes of family, friendship and the duties of kings, the Epic of Gilgamesh is, above all, about ma.
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