Theme Of Death In Gilgamesh Literature

The human experience is something that everyone goes through during their life. Some of the elements that make up the human experience are love, death, birth, friendship, sex, work, war, fate, and destiny. The element that every human will face at one point in their life is death. Death is an inevitable factor in someone’s life that they cannot avoid. Different cultures and religions view death differently and everyone’s stance on death varies. Death can be seen as horrific and sad but death can also be seen as relief or the next stage in life. Although there are different views on death, certain literary works discuss or display death in way that can be discussed and analyzed to better understand the meaning of the human experience concerning

Shahrazad tells him different tales for 1,001 nights and each story is different from the next. However, some of these tales display the value of death in the culture at the time. During this time, Islam is the religion reflected in the tales so references to one god are numerous and praying multiple times a day is a practice displayed by the characters of the tales. Particularly, the tale of Sinbad the Sailor shows death in a different way than The Epic of Gilgamesh. In the tale of Sinbad the Sailor, Sinbad tells his new friend, Sinbad the Porter, of his seven voyages all over the world. During his adventures, Sinbad the Sailor encounters near death several times over and over again until his voyages stop. However, the near death encounters do not stop him from continuing on his adventures. This may classify Sinbad the Sailor as crazy because someone in their right mind would not put themselves in danger again and again for fear of death. However, Sinbad does not let the fear of death stop him from making his epic voyages. Before going on his adventures, Sinbad is motivated by what his father told him about what Solomon, the son of David, said: “Solomon is reported to have said: ‘Three things are better than three other things. The day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth, a live dog is better than a dead lion and the grave is better than poverty’” (Tales from 1,001 Nights 317). This shows that Sinbad views death as a part of life. Sinbad lives like tomorrow might be his last and he accepts that his death is inevitable. Later in the retelling of his voyages, Sinbad tells of his immense and horrific sufferings. On numerous occasions Sinbad is on the near brink of death and even wishes it would happen to him so his suffering would end: “I longed for death, but,