The Loss Of Life In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

When one breaks a bone, they momentarily think that all hope is lost of recovering, but in reality, when bones break, they regrow stronger than they were before. Like bones, people are the same; All throughout history, people have failed and recovered, or in some cases not recovered. If they do recover though, they become stronger than they were beforehand. In the Ancient times, if someone fails, they generally learn either to live life with mortal bounds, that actions can have consequences to loved ones, or how overconfidence never helps out.
In much of ancient literature, the main character tries to live the fullest life by becoming more than human, but as they go through the book, they learn to live life with mortal bounds. This concept

This element occurs in many books, including the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the beginning of this book, Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk, but he is not a very good king; he is very competitive with the citizens, and very immature for a king. A wild man arrives in Uruk and changes Gilgamesh forever. When the wild man dies, Gilgamesh leaves on a journey to find immortality. In the end, he fails, and changes: “He went a long journey, was weary, worn out with labour, and returning engraved on a stone the whole story” (“Epic of Gilgamesh”, 117). This explains to the reader that after the journey, Gilgamesh had changed for the better; this is implied by him being able to tell the entire story, instead of part of it. It also suggests that Gilgamesh is wiser. His change was likely to be the after effect of him learning. As Utnapishtim focused so heavily on recommending Gilgamesh to live life with mortal bounds, it can be concluded that the lesson he learnt was to live life with mortal bounds. Even in slightly newer works, like Beowulf, the theme reigns supreme. At the end of the book, Beowulf falls victim to the dragon, but Wiglaf helps him slay the dragon before he dies; In Beowulf’s last words, he tells Wiglaf this: “‘You are the last of

In Oedipus, he learns this lesson and feels awful for not understanding it prior. Oedipus has brought the prophet Teiresias to his throne room to explain who had killed the last king. Oedipus gets angry with him and Teiresias responds rashly with the truth, but Oedipus does not believe it: “Teiresias: You yourself are the pollution of this country. Oedipus: You dare say that! Can you possibly think you have some way of going free, after such insolence” (Sophocles, 19). In this quote from the play, Oedipus has no idea that he could be at fault. He believed that he must be correct, as he could not recall killing the king. At the end of the book, when he realized that Teiresias was right all along, he blinded himself as a punishment for not believing Teiresias and then outcast himself to save the people from the plague. In this way, he learnt that he had been overconfident and it stopped him from seeing all of the possibilities.. Other examples of this lesson take place in Protagoras, the title character and Socrates debate back and forth constantly. In the process of failing in their arguments, they learn new ideas. Protagoras has a point and believes that it is right. But Socrates forces him to think otherwise and this is his response: “‘You don’t let up do you, Socrates? You seem dead set on making me answer all the questions! Well, all right, I’ll say it, if it makes you happy: No In