Unavoidable Death

When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh realizes his own mortality, and therefore fears his own death. This prompts his journey to find Uta-napishti and learn how he achieved his immortality. The journey is difficult and long, but with his superhuman abilities Gilgamesh has no issue racing the sun through a path under the mountains, chopping down enough trees to fashion 300 punting poles, and traveling a boat journey of a month and a half in three days.

Sleep is used as a metaphor for death at the conclusion of The Epic of Gilgamesh when Gilgamesh is challenged by Uta-napishti to sleep for six days and seven nights in return for immortality. However Gilgamesh immediately falls asleep for the entirety of the challenge. Upon waking Gilgamesh realizes that if he cannot beat sleep there is no hope of conquering death. Still Gilgamesh is granted a second chance to combat mortality. Uta-napishti tells Gilgamesh of a plant that can make him feel as he did in his youth. Excitedly Gilgamesh recovers the plant, but he loses the plant when a snake steals the plant from him.

Two separate chances were presented to Gilgamesh to escape or forestall death. Yet Gilgamesh could not capitalize on either of these opportunities. These instances show that death is unavoidable, especially if such a strong and powerful character can overcome such demanding challenges and then ultimately fail. Gilgamesh finds comfort in the fact that he will be remembered for Uruk’s wall, which he is proud of. Even if he himself cannot live forever, the physical structure he helped create will last for generations. After an entire epic, he realizes that his fate is tied with that of Uruk’s on one of the last lines of the final tablet.