Epic of Gilgamesh

DESCRIPTION____A conversation which explores central themes of the Epic of Gilgamesh and why the text remains relevant today.

Q

Why do you value a 4000-year old poem which was pieced together from Mesopotamian tablet fragments?

A

That’s a more general question which is; why should you value old stuff in general? The answer is that this old stuff is, in a way, always new. They can provide answers to questions which everyone has. And the benefit of it being old is that:

1. its quality has been tested by time, and
2. everyone knows about it and can talk about it, as opposed to the latest stuff, which you might spend a lot of time learning about and then in 10 years time, will be forgotten.

But in 10 years’ time, people will still be talking about the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The first point about classics being tested by time is a point made by many people, most recently Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book Antifragile.

Q

What does Nassim Nicholas Taleb talk about in Antifragile?

A

Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s point in Antifragile is that for non-tangible things in life (e.g. ideas), you often don't know how long they will last for. To find out the answer to this, he brings into play something which he calls the Lindy effect The Lindy effect proposes that for (certain) non-perishable things, future life expectancy is proportional to current age. - for an intangible thing, the longer it has lasted in the past, the longer it will last in the future. So for example, people have been talking about the Bible for at least 2000 years. So it's highly likely that given the Bible's influence, we'll be talking about it for another 2000 years more.

The Epic of Gilgamesh isn't quite like that as it was lost for a very long time, but when it was discovered, people did study it intently both on the academic side and on the non-academic side. So in a way, the Epic of Gilgamesh has been tested by time. It was important to people in the past, when it was rediscovered it was important to people then and I think it can still be something important to us now.

Q

From my reading, The Epic of Gilgamesh seems to be focusing about the impermanence of things; that impermanence is a limitation on all human endeavours. Would you say that its focus on impermanence has made it lasting?

A

Well, in a way, yes. Although impermanence is kind of a funny word, because when you talk about impermanence, those are terms which occur most naturally within a Japanese and Buddhist context. I prefer to use the words which come closest to it. Obviously we don't know ancient Sumerian (which the book was written in), but I'd say that the theme is more about mortality and how things will pass away. In specific it's talking about a particular kind of impermanence; namely the impermanence of human life (i.e. mortality and human effort) rather than the impermanence of things in general.

Q

What do you draw from the slaying of Humbaba? The motivation behind that quest was essentially fame and recognition - there was no good reason to kill Humbaba. Gilgamesh and Enkidu went out of their way, to do that of their own accord.

A

Yes. There definitely seems to be a link between Humbaba's slaughter and Enkidu's subsequent death.

So going back to the question, how do you read the killing of Humbaba? You can read it from a bunch of ways.

You can read The Epic of Gilgamesh from an anthropological lens. For example, the encounter between Enkidu and Gilgamesh is symbolic of the encounter between pastoralists and nomadic wild people of the fields. And the conflict between Enkidu, Gilgamesh and Humbaba is symbolic of the conflict between humans and nature - humans and trying to exploit certain resources. So that's one way you can look at the Epic of Gilgamesh, reading into it human-nature and human-human interaction in this particular time period.

Another way in which you can think of the Epic of Gilgamesh is, as you say, you can read human motivations into each of the characters and see how these motivations unfold over the course of the story. So at that point you're talking about, the main motivation for killing Humbaba seems to be fame for both Enkidu and Gilgamesh, so that their name will live on and achieve a sort of immortality. The irony is that immediately after that, Enkidu seems to be punished for that, by death. And this starts the next phase of the story, which is Gilgamesh seeking eternal life.

Q

Yes, thereafter Gilgamesh seeks eternal life by going to Utnapishtim. Before that, he encounters Siduri the tavern keeper. Siduri essentially tells Gilgamesh that he should not seek eternal life. Instead be content with your everyday experience.

What do you make of that passage?

A

I think that this goes to the central themes of Gilgamesh - the limitations of human nature.

So, essentially, you can see the Gilgamesh story in three different phases. In the first phase of the story up to the killing of Humbaba, Gilgamesh thinks that there are no limits to human nature. Essentially he can do what he wants, he can kill him Humbaba as he wants, and he has no thought for his own limits. And then with Enkidu's death, there is discovery that there are limits to human nature - mortality, and he attempts to go past these limits.

So, stage one - no limits, stage two - discovery of limits and attempts to surpass them. And finally in the third stage beginning with that particular quotation from Siduri, Gilgamesh begins to realise that there may be limits to human nature, and this is the start of his acceptance. I don't think Gilgamesh accepts his limits fully at this point.

Q

After this point, Gilgamesh ignores that advice and still seeks immortality with Utnapishtim.

And when I was looking at Utnapishtim's recounting of how he and his wife gained immortality, I noticed clear parallels to the Genesis flood story. And there seem to be other parallels to the Old Testament. For example parallels to the Garden of Eden, where Enkidu can be compared with Adam and Shamhat to Eve. Where the woman temps the man, the man covers their nakedness, they start wearing clothes, and then they leave that domain to exist in a different sphere of life. Why is there so much similarity between the Bible and The Epic of Gilgamesh?

A

Yes, the Epic of Gilgamesh predates the Bible and the two texts come from the same regions, so the most likely answer is that the authors who created a Bible drew on these particular cultural resources in crafting the Bible.

Q

Do you read Gilgamesh as being homosexual?

A

Honestly, I've never thought of that. That's an interesting question. The only explicit reference to sex, is Enkidu sleeping with Shamhat. So that makes Enkidu at least heterosexual, possibly bisexual. Is Gilgamesh homosexual? I can see why people would read him in that way. Because obviously, he goes with Enkidu on this road trip to kill Humbaba and its Enkidu's death which causes huge paroxysms of grief for Gilgamesh, which kicks off the second phase of the plot.

Q

I think it's also the idea that Enkidu is a physical match to Gilgamesh, in terms of masculinity. And when Gilgamesh sees this, he is attracted to Enkidu.

A

Yeah, I can understand that. But the question is of the nature of attraction. I don't know and I've never really thought about it, but I can see why people could plausibly and justifiably, make that interpretation.

Q

Why is the Epic of Gilgamesh still relevant to you today?

A

I see the Gilgamesh story as a good story, because it's about something which everyone has to experience eventually - the limits of what they can do. And I don't mean something as dramatic as death. I mean simple things like people wishing to go to sleep early, but instead they stay up late on Facebook, or they wish that they could focus more on their work but instead they find themselves distracted.

The ending of the Epic of Gilgamesh is about Gilgamesh recognising his limits; and how does he recognise his limits?
Well, he does so by confirming his weaknesses, and what are his weaknesses? Well his weaknesses turned out to be entirely human weaknesses. At the start of the story, it’s his pride. I don't want to say hubris, because that's too Greek, but it's a source of pride in his ability.

In the middle of the story, it's kind of a pigheadedness and stubbornness, but at the end of the story, Utnapishtim says: you get eternal life if you can stay awake for a particular period of time. And he can't do that - he falls asleep. And so Gilgamesh’s flaw is that he needs to go to sleep. And obviously, this is not something which we normally consider a flaw. This is just part of human nature. Being biological creatures, we all need to sleep sometime.

And finally, Gilgamesh does obtain a small plant which can give him youth. But not having ingested it, he goes for a drink of water. A serpent steals the plant, eats it and becomes young again. There Gilgamesh has failed, but again, what is his failure? Well, his failure is; he needed to take a drink and was momentarily distracted.

And so the story of The Epic of Gilgamesh has two big themes.

One is that: it's human nature to attempt to go beyond human nature, to strive for fame and great achievements. But it is also human nature to be limited by human nature. And not just big things like mortality, which he eventually discovers, but also the small things like needing to sleep and eat and being distracted.

And so I find the story of Gilgamesh extremely comforting, because in the end what it points out is that if you find yourself limited by human nature - you find yourself staying up late or doing particular things which you really wish you weren't doing, that's not something you should beat yourself up about. That's just something which is inherent to all biological creatures in this world.

Gilgamesh is a very humanist story. It's about human strivings and human limitations. I think everyone will face an existential predicament at some point in their life, even in a mild form, where at some point they realise human limitations. And reading and understanding the Epic of Gilgamesh is a key to being able to go through life dealing with these limitations. It's not a unique way, there are many ways you can do it, but it's a way which I found helpful.