Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
Love As a Motivating
Force
Love, both erotic and platonic, motivates change in Gilgamesh. Enkidu
changes from a wild man into a noble one because of Gilgamesh, and
their friendship changes Gilgamesh from a bully and a tyrant into
an exemplary king and hero. Because they are evenly matched, Enkidu
puts a check on Gilgamesh’s restless, powerful energies, and Gilgamesh
pulls Enkidu out of his self-centeredness. Gilgamesh’s connection
to Enkidu makes it possible for Gilgamesh to identify with his people’s
interests. The love the friends have for each other makes Gilgamesh
a better man in the first half of the epic, and when Enkidu dies,
Gilgamesh’s grief and terror impel him onto a futile quest for immortality.
The epic may lack a female love interest, but erotic love
still plays an important role. Enkidu’s education as a man begins
with his sexual initiation by the temple harlot, and the two heroes’
troubles begin with their repudiation of Ishtar, the goddess of
love. Humanity renews itself through the female life force, which
includes sex, fertility, domesticity, and nurturance, not through
an arbitrary gift of the gods. When Gilgamesh finally sees that
his place is here on Earth and returns to Uruk to resume his kingship,
Ishtar returns to her place of honor.
The Inevitability
of Death
Death is an inevitable and inescapable fact of human life,
which is the greatest lesson Gilgamesh learns. Gilgamesh is bitter
that only the gods can live forever and says as much when Enkidu
warns him away from their fight with Humbaba. Life is short, the
two warriors tell each other on their way to the deadly confrontation
in the Cedar Forest, and the only thing that lasts is fame. But
when Enkidu is cursed with an inglorious, painful death, their bravado
rings hollow. Shamash, the sun god, consoles Enkidu by reminding
him how rich his life has been, but though Enkidu finally resigns
himself to his fate, Gilgamesh is terrified by the thought of his
own. Mesopotamian theology offers a vision of an afterlife, but
it gives scant comfort—the dead spend their time being dead. If
Gilgamesh’s quest to the Cedar Forest was in spite of death, his
second quest, to Utnapishtim, is for a way to escape it. Utnapishtim’s
account of the flood reveals how ludicrous such a goal is, since
death is inextricably woven into the fabric of creation. But life
is woven in as well, and even though humans die, humanity continues
to live. The lesson that Gilgamesh brings back from his quest isn’t
ultimately about death—it’s about life.
The Gods Are Dangerous
Gilgamesh and Enkidu learn all too well that the gods
are dangerous for mortals. Gods live by their own laws and frequently
behave as emotionally and irrationally as children. Piety is important
to the gods, and they expect obedience and flattery whenever possible. They
can often be helpful, but angering them is sheer madness—and a character’s
reverence for the gods is no guarantee of safety. Thus, the world
of The Epic of Gilgamesh differs markedly from
that of the Judeo-Christian tradition, in which God is both a partner
in a covenant and a stern but loving parent to his people. The covenant promises
that people will receive an earthly or heavenly inheritance if they
behave well. The Judeo-Christian God represents not just what is
most powerful but what is morally best—humans should aspire to imitate
him. These differences are noteworthy because Gilgamesh also
shares certain common elements with the Judeo-Christian Bible. Both Gilgamesh and
parts of the Bible are written in similar languages: Hebrew is related
to Akkadian, the Babylonian language that the author used in composing
the late versions of Gilgamesh. The Bible comes
from the same region as Gilgamesh and shares some
of its motifs and stories, such as the serpent as the enemy who
deprives humans of eternal life and, most important, the flood.
In both the Bible and Gilgamesh, disobedience to
a god or gods brings dire consequences.
Although we never learn exactly why the gods unleashed
the great flood in Gilgamesh, we know why Ea rescues
Utnapishtim and through him all the creatures and people of the
world. As the god of wisdom and crafts, Ea is responsible for human
attributes including cleverness, inventiveness, and creativity,
which enable people to survive independently. Ishtar, too, while
a fickle friend, presides over sexual desire, fertility, nurturance,
agriculture, and domesticity, which ensure humankind’s future. For
the Mesopotamians, piety and respect for the gods are not true moral
obligations. Rather, piety and respect suggest a practical acknowledgment
of nature’s power and serve to remind humans of their place in the
larger scheme of things.
