Greek, Roman and other early prose, poetry and theatre seems to have their umbilical cord attached to the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is from these works that later classics and modern thinking and writing of the west seem to be influenced. Scholars agree on the deep influence the epic has had on Homer's Illiad and Odessey, written in the 8th century BC. From then on the epic seems to have irrevocably entered western consciousness, deeply influencing western literature and art forever.
The book of genesis in the old testament mentions the great deluge and so does the Epic of Gilgamesh. Both accounts attribute the phenomena to the handiwork of God. The deep affection and friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, men of equal strength and vigor stands way back in time, yet the theme gets repeated in several stories, like Achilles and Petrocolus in the Illiad. Gilgamesh is torn apart by immense grief over the loss of his friend, leading to the realization that life is limited and each one of us is in fact racing towards his or her demise. The fear of imminent death grips Gilgamesh and he sets out seeking answers to the “meaning of life” and how to achieve “everlasting life.” These ideas seem to repeat themselves in belief systems, religious literature and stories across centuries.
The epic alludes to creating human beings from clay and dust, a concept which resonates in the Greek and Roman beliefs and echoes in all Abrahamic religious writings. More fundamentally the Epic of Gilgamesh projects civilization and nature in opposition to each other. To be in harmony with nature is preferred, but it gets disturbed as the world progresses. The savage nature of man is portrayed by the character of Enkidu, a theory later propounded and attributed to the philosopher Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century. Enkidu is enticed by a prostitute and after long sexual encounters she ‘civilizes’ him. Later Enkidu and Gilgamesh become inseparable friends and they decide to take on the establishment, namely Humbaba, a kind of penultimate level in the universal hierarchy.
Ishtar, the goddess of Uruk, proposes marriage to Gilgamesh who flatly refuses, citing her promiscuous past and the pathetic plight of all her previous lovers. She threatens the supreme god, that if he does not approve and ensure this matrimony she would scream so loud as to awaken the dead. Stories of the living dead and zombies can be traced to many regions and continents over centuries. Most importantly it is a woman who shows Enkidu the way, guiding him from a naïve and simplistic existence to a more evolved and meaningful life. The female form is portrayed both as a source of sensual pleasures and a fountain of knowledge. In his search for “everlasting life” Gilgamesh is guided by the goddess Ishtar who advises him to look at the more positive side of life: savor human relationships, especially with family, and take pleasure in enjoying a healthy existence. At the end of the epic Gilgamesh seems to have completed a cycle, yet in metaphorical terms finds himself just where he started. The ‘Carpe diem” theme finally dawns on Gilgamesh, a concept immortalized much later by the roman poet Horace shortly before the birth of Christ. He concludes that one must make the best of life whilst one is alive. The philosopher Voltaire too reaches a similar conclusion in “Candide” via an equally compelling plot and series of interesting incidents. Belief systems, Greek and Roman classics and present day writers in their own ways have extolled the virtues of this kind of a life philosophy. Eckhart Tolle lucidly elucidates this approach in his best-selling seminal work “The Power of Now.”
It is interesting to note that writers turned portions of the epic into their own property, and rightly so, as there is absolutely no way they could have directly accessed and copied the contents of this epic, yet over centuries it managed to permeate civilizations in the far corners of the globe. There is no living sect or believers who consider the text of this epic as holy or divinely ordained. There is no claim giving the acts and omissions of the key characters of the epic any divine sanction. Storylines, plots, concepts, ideas and thinking are non-linear and zigzag their way across time and geographical boundaries. As civilizations reach their zenith, belief systems and philosophies emerge, only to fade away in the mist of time. The plots and storylines which hold them together continue the metamorphoses while retaining their original ethos. They remain inextricably interwoven with human nature which defies time and remains unchanged. The epic continues to shine as a master source of knowledge across time and space for all to access and write their own stories.
