Gilgamesh: Sumerian Discovery

After his grief Gilgamesh begins his journey to immortality. After seeing Enkidu deteriorate until the point where insects were destroying his body he becomes fearful of death. [And weeping saying: “Enkidu has died. Must I die too? Must Gilgamesh be like that?”] Pg. 48 He decides to go on a dangerous journey to become immortal. He passes twelve Leagues* It seems that in each league he begins to lose attributes for survival and it gets worse and worse. He first loses sight due to the darkness, then it begins to get hard to breath. It is interesting how the monsters (mountains) say it is only for the sun to pass, no mortal has made it through. They are using a lot of personification as the mountains talk and the sun “passes through”. [“No mortal has ever journeyed through the mountain. This is the path of the sun’s journey by night.] Pg. 50 This is said by the mountain. At the end of the leagues Gilgamesh sees the sea and a garden. This is sort of a new image in the context of the story. It refreshes from the image of a kindom, fights, violence, and dark forests. It is a relief from the darkness of the rest of the epic. In tablet 10 there is a lot of repetition. Gilgamesh repeats the same story, the same exact words in the epic, to the tavern keeper, Urshanabi, and Utnapishtim. This is very interesting. This must do with when they would tell the story orally night by night and have to recap information. Gilgamesh destroys the stones and talismans, and according to Urshanabi he made his journey harder. Because of this Gilgamesh must go and cut “Sixty poles, and sixty more”. [Cut sixty poles and then cut sixty more, each pole of sixty cubits; fit them with rings…] Pg. 60 This brought me back to Mr. Hickeys eight grade social studies class. I remember learning about the Sumerian civilization. The Sumerians invented a system based on the number sixty. I remembered this since it seemed interesting that they said “sixty and sixty more” instead of 120. The Sumerian number system is also where we get our sixty seconds minute and our sixty minutes hour. As I read through my old social studies notes I am beginning to see the relation of this epic to the Sumerian civilization. Gilgamesh is the first work of literature written in Sumerian Cunei Form (quoted from my notes). This to me is fascinating to be able to relate the epic to a previous class. “It centers on the hero Gilgamesh and his struggle for immortality”, this I have just read out of my note book. The irony is that these to tablets are the perfect ones to represent his quest for immortality.