The Role Of A True Legacy In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The Building of a True Legacy

In the poem, Epic of Gilgamesh the arrogant abusive king, Gilgamesh embarks upon a journey in which he realizes what it means to hold a true legacy of being human through mythical battles, witnessing death over life, and the failure of his ultimate quest for immortality. Due to Gilgamesh’s feeling of fulfillment and connection in his brotherhood with Enkidu and Enkidu’s fate, ultimately forced Gilgamesh to evolve and slowly change his view of mortality as a person over the course of this epic.

Gilgamesh’s close relationship with Enkidu proved his mortality as he experienced human emotions which made him more understanding and relatable to that of a “regular person”. In the beginning of the story, Gilgamesh,

15) This changes the entire course of the story up until now as Gilgamesh never had another human being match his strength. Gilgamesh, like other humans, gained a friend and through his love for Enkidu he connects on a deeper level with his human interests. If you look at it, Enkidu was a human connected with nature, born with animals and the most down to earth person. (EG p. 6) Instead of forcing Gilgamesh to become a better person, he influenced him and transformed him into the perfect leader of the city. As Enkidu and Gilgamesh embarked on a journey to the Cedar forest in order to defeat the monster Humbaba, we see a change in attitude Gilgamesh has towards living creatures. Before his friendship with Enkidu, Gilgamesh would often hurt and and rape young virgins without considering their humanity, but as he takes a sword to Humbaba, a monster, he shows compassion, almost sparing his life. (EG p. 45) It is mentioned in the story that if Enkidu didn’t encourage Gilgamesh to end Humbaba’s life quickly, he might’ve spared him due to his new appreciation of being alive. He watches Humbaba try to negotiate and struggle for his last breath at his own mercy. Because of his growing relationship with Enkidu, Gilgamesh finds value in the living and takes time to realize

When Enkidu and Gilgamesh defeated the Bull of Heaven together, furthering their deep friendship and brotherhood, the gods sentenced Enkidu to death. (EG p. 54.) This was a pivotal part in the story as Gilgamesh realized Enkidu’s fate could have been his due to how he views his relationship with Enkidu. Gilgamesh saw Enkidu as a true equal to him so if the gods can so easily send Enkidu to death, if they wanted to, what would stop them from doing the same to him? Through the mourning of Enkidu, whose passing has brought home to Gilgamesh his own mortality as a human, his mindset changed from that of an abusive overbearing king that was able to do as he pleased with no consequences to that of a frightened normal human being at the palms of death. Humans are all equal when it comes to facing death and this began the journey of his search to become immortal. Gilgamesh embarks upon a journey in which he hopes to discover how to become immortal due to his fear of his eventual