The Immortals

Although the gaps and missing words were extremely frustrating to read around, I enjoyed going on adventures with Gilgamesh. Some tablets were easier to understand than others, but I appreciated the brief translations provided every few lines. Gilgamesh failed to meet my criteria for what makes a good leader. Prior to Enkidu’s arrival, he treated the people of Uruk poorly. One of the most important qualities in a leader is the ability to bring people together, but that’s pretty hard when they…

of immortality and the soul, and whether or not the soul will survive death. Socrates provides four arguments in which he aims to prove that the soul is in fact immortal. One of his arguments that I will discuss is known as the “Argument from Opposites,” which I will prove does not fully succeed in establishing that the soul is immortal. The basis of the “Argument from Opposites” arises from the…

Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges was removed from the origin of The Bhagavad-Gita by thousands of years and miles, yet his works bear remarkable similarities to The Gita’s teachings. Specifically, Borges’ short stories, “The Immortal” and “The Library of Babel,” reflect and parallel the teachings of the sacred Hindu text, The Bhagavad-Gita, namely, its assertion that desire creates suffering and inhibits the pursuit of knowledge, and its perspective that divinity and spirituality can be found…

Gilgamesh knew Enkidu’s name would live on forever, that wasn’t enough for Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh now was afraid of death. His fear led him to seek out Utnapishtim, the survivor of the great flood, in order to learn how Gilgamesh himself could become immortal so he would not have to face death like his friend did. However, in order to get to Untapishtim, Gilgamesh must take on a journey no mortal has ever…

Piecing Together a Fragmented Understanding of Henrietta Lacks In the foreword to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot discusses her efforts and struggles in attempting to capture and to present clearly the story and narrative of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot acknowledges in the Prologue that there is “no way of knowing exactly how many of Henrietta’s cells are alive today” (Skloot, 2). All of the numbers are estimates, guesses, or attempts, and the idea that there is no way of…

always know what the end for a mortal is. But this epic tries to demonstrate how death affects everyone and brings about an understanding of reality and life, whether they are the ones whose death approaches, one who greatly fears death, or who are immortal and have no fear of death. I believe that this epic is trying to explain that mortality is about…

I will be addressing Diotima’s speech on the nature and rites of Love. Diotima finds that “mortal nature seeks so far as possible to live forever and be immortal”. The rites of Love have the ability to connect mortal and immortality, fulfilling our ultimate goal. “One goes always upwards for the sake of this Beauty, starting out from beautiful things and using them like rising stairs: from one body to two and from two to all beautiful bodies, then from beautiful bodies to beautiful customs, and…

At this point Gilgamesh recognizes and sinks in the idea that one day he will die, however he wants to avoid that and become immortal just like all the other gods that watch over him and the city of Uruk, Gilgamesh’s people. The death of Enkidu was no peaceful death at all. As stated on page 153 in the text, “O Enkidu, what is this sleep that has seized you, that has darkened your…

“Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation! ”(2.3.242-244), this statement by Cassio conveys that his reputation is an embodiment of his character and how he identifies himself. Hence, without it, he is truly lost as a person and does not know what is to become of him. The line “I have lost the immortal…

In Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man” he argues against generational political obligations by claiming that people alive today should not be bound by the political decisions made by their ancestors. For Paine tradition and heredity are not important. He argued that the dead had no power over the living, and that if the living believed that traditions of the past no longer worked for them they have every right to alter what their ancestors had created in order to better accommodate the circumstances…