Enkidu's Death In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

Death Is Near No one handles the death of someone they know lightly, especially if they are close friends or relatives. In the epic poem “The Epic Of Gilgamesh”, Gilgamesh deals with losing his new best friend Enkidu, due to illness. Enkidu helped to humble Gilgamesh and reminded him what it meant to be human since Gilgamesh was two-thirds god and one-third man. Gilgamesh didn’t believe in death and often joked about it when Enkidu brought it up. When Enkidu passed away, Gilgamesh didn’t know what to do and began to act insane. He decided to seek everlasting life in the grief of his forever-lost friend. To achieve immortality, Gilgamesh went into the wilderness seeking out Utnapshtim, a mortal who survived a flood and was gifted with everlasting life. To find Utnapshtim, Gilgamesh needed to travel deep into the mountains and venture to places no mortal has ever gone before. He has high …show more content…
On his journey back, they stop to camp and Gilgamesh finds pool of pure water. As he is refreshing himself, a serpent picks up the fragrance of the plant. The serpent steals the plant and sheds its skin as it takes off. Gilgamesh breaks down into tears and weeps, “This journey has gone for nothing”(113). Gilgamesh now knows that he will never be young again and he is devastated. They continue the journey until they arrive in Uurk and Gilgamesh shows Urshanabi around the city. Gilgamesh is considered a different kind of hero in this poem. It’s not what he has done but what he has learned from things he has experienced. Gilgamesh’s story is about accepting the fact that everyone will have to face death in his or her lives. Throughout the poem he begins to mature and understand who he is and his abilities. The moral of the story is that one learns from the death of someone they know, it teaches them to appreciate themselves and others