The Concept of Death in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Essay Example

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a deeply existential work, to the extent that it investigates universal themes of human existence, which transcend particular historical and social contexts. At the very center of the work is a meditation on the meaning of life and why death exists in human life. What the Epic of Gilgamesh appears to state on the issue of death is that, although it is a primordial fear of the human being, it is at the same time the very part of our life that makes us most human. It is in this traumatic relationship to death, which in a sense is our traumatic relationship to that which makes us human, a traumatic relationship, in other words, towards our own humanity, which defines the narrative’s account of the human being.

After the death of his close friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh, distraught from the loss of his comrade, goes on a journey to discover the possibility of eternal life. The answer he receives places the possibility of eternal life outside of the human being’s grasp: “Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to? You will never find that life for which you are looking. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping.” Death, in other words, is what makes the human being human: to transcend death would be the same as no longer being human. Accordingly, Gilgamesh learns the lesion that what is human is that which is most destructive and harmful and negative to the human. This is the paradox of human existence at the center of this narrative, a paradox which is not to be resolved, but rather accepted, so as to be a human being.