The Epic of Gilgamesh

"The Epic of Gilgamesh" illustrates the transformative experience of human companionship with themes that remain as relevant in the modern day as they were in ancient Babylon. Gilgamesh, the protagonist, is a powerful king who has a transformative relationship with Enkidu, a man crafted by the gods to mirror Gilgamesh’s strength and to push back on his unfettered power. After a brief challenge for superiority, which Gilgamesh wins, the two become inseparable friends and are each influenced by the other: Enkidu changes from wild man to companion and Gilgamesh changes from a brutal and feared king to an equally loyal friend. Together, the two face fears together, resist temptations, battle the unknown, and triumph. At the same time, these celebrated victories are undercut by the inevitability of death, the crippling pain of mourning, and Gilgamesh’s struggle to find meaning in the face of his mortality. Gilgamesh’s story encompasses the spectrum of human experience and is largely shaped by the acquisition and loss of intimate friendship.

Enkidu is a symbol of the power of companionship. He first appears as a wild man in need of taming, but his ability to push back against a man as powerful as Gilgamesh allows them both to become better, more balanced men. As their friendship progresses, Enkidu takes on the role of the king’s conscience, warning Gilgamesh against folly but also acting as a voice of encouragement and solace. Furthermore, Gilgamesh initially civilizes Enkidu by sending the priestess Shamhat to seduce him. Sex transforms Enkidu’s mind, for after consummation, “he knew that his mind had somehow grown larger, he knew things now that an animal can’t know” (Line 79). Sexual intimacy with a woman opens him up to the intimacy he finds with Gilgamesh, driven by “a longing he had never known before, the longing for a true friend” (Line 80). That companionship allows both men to achieve more than they ever could have accomplished alone. Indeed, the power of two is underscored in their words of encouragement to one another: “Two intimate friends cannot be defeated” (Line 124).

It is worth noting that women appear in "Gilgamesh" as mothers, sexual companions, or dangerous temptresses, while the male friendship between Enkidu and Gilgamesh is elevated as ideal. Some critics have noted the homosexual undertones of the epic—not only in the pair’s intimate brotherhood, but also in the way Gilgamesh covers his partner’s face “like a bride’s” (Line 154). Despite the sexual nature of their relationship, the male partnership is privileged in the epic as apogee of human relationships and symbolizes Gilgamesh’s attainment of yet another valuable prize.

In "Gilgamesh", the pair accomplishes the unthinkable: from finding and defeating the terrifying monster Humbaba, to spurning a goddess’s revenge and killing the Bull of Heaven. Early in the poem, Gilgamesh is noted as being two-thirds divine; it is as though his partnership with Enkidu brings out the best of those superhuman strengths. Perhaps because of the confidence given by the partnership, Gilgamesh continues to indulge in his pride, always pushing for more dangerous and challenging ways to demonstrate his superiority and immortality. However, as is often a theme in ancient literature, that hubris will ultimately contribute to Gilgamesh’s undoing. Indeed, while it is the unlikely friendship that seemingly augmented Gilgamesh’s power, it is the sudden loss of the friendship that causes the text’s central existential crisis.

Indeed, when Enkidu prematurely dies, Gilgamesh must confront the human and mortal part of himself: He is left alone with his grief and the fear of his own death. This sparks the quest in the second half of epic, which does not neatly fit into the archetypal hero’s journey typical of Western literature. After Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh wanders in search of immortality, but is twice defeated by his basic, human needs. He first fails when challenged by Utnapishtim to stay awake for seven days: The needs of his mortal body betray his desperate desire for immortality. Second, even though he was able to obtain the sacred plant that would have granted him immortality, while tending to his body’s need to be cleansed, he is outsmarted by a snake who steals the plant in this moment of human vulnerability. These simple, human necessities stand between Gilgamesh and eternal life, as if to reveal the inherent weakness of the mortal, human body. With the moral and physical support of Enkidu, Gilgamesh was invincible. The partnership created a sort of immortality in which one could uplift the other. Without it, Gilgamesh’s innate frailties are insurmountable.

However, returning to the “Prologue” of "The Epic of Gilgamesh", the reader remembers that “[Gilgamesh] had journeyed to the edge of the world and made his way back, exhausted but whole” (Line 69). Despite the loss of his best friend and the undeniable realization of his own mortality, these experiences have made Gilgamesh a “whole” man. Experiencing success, glory, adventure, and friendship, in conjunction with sadness, grief, fear, and one’s own limitations is what makes a person whole—including the mighty Gilgamesh.