Religion and Humanity in Mesopotamian Myth and Epic

Religion and Humanity in Mesopotamian Myth and Epic
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date: 22 December 2022
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is the most famous and enduring of all Mesopotamian literary works.
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The adventures 
of the legendary king of Uruk are the subject of a number of compositions—all of which are 
incomplete—spanning a wide variety of genres, timeframes, and forms. Gilgamesh is two-thirds 
divine and one-third human, although the human third makes him entirely mortal. The mixed 
quality of Gilgamesh’s nature gives liminality to his character and provides a lens through which 
to consider themes of divinity, humanity, and animality.
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Despite his quasi-divinity and royalty, 
Gilgamesh is a man who must come to terms with his own humanity, and also find meaning it. 
Gilgamesh’s quest for meaning has very likely influenced the lasting fascination with his story in 
a range of cultures and periods.
Throughout the twelve tablets of the Gilgamesh Epic, the hero has many adventures involving 
battles with supernatural enemies—Humbaba, the guardian of the cedar forest, Ishtar, the 
goddess of love, the Bull of Heaven, and the Stone Ones (sailors of Ur-shanabi who are involved in 
ferrying across the waters of death). In his early adventures, the young king seeks to make a name 
for himself through great deeds, and he is accompanied by his companion, Enkidu. The hero’s 
desire to achieve a type of immortality through lasting fame places him at odds with his religious 
and royal responsibilities, as is seen through the punitive response of the primary deities after 
Gilgamesh’s killing of Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven.
As a result of divine punitive measures, Enkidu dies. Enkidu is an intriguing character: he is 
created out of clay (like all of humanity in several myths) by a mother goddess (in Gilgamesh, 
Aruru), with his creation inspired by the desire to provide a companion for Gilgamesh. 
Interestingly, it is the complaints of Gilgamesh’s human subjects that provide the motivation for 
the gods to create Enkidu, demonstrating the reciprocity of the divine/human connection in epic 
literature. Human actors in Gilgamesh bring their problems to the gods to solve, deities such as An 
(the god of heaven) show concern for humanity’s well-being and survival, and humans make 
sacrifices for the deities (at times on a daily basis). Like humanity more broadly, Enkidu is born to 
give a divinely conceived service, yet this does not preclude him from taking individual and 
rebellious actions, and he is deeply loved by the hero for whom he was generated (after some 
early conflict between the pair). Enkidu’s death causes Gilgamesh to descend into a period of 
heavy mourning and makes the hero fear his own mortality.
Gilgamesh then searches for genuine immortality, rather than the lasting fame of great deeds. He 
seeks out the Flood survivor, Utanapishtim (analogous to Atrahasis), the only known mortal to be 
gifted with immortality by the gods. Gilgamesh finds that he cannot follow Utanapishtim’s path 
to immortality, but he is given the amurdinnu (“heartbeat”) plant, which, in place of immortality, 
gives a return to youth—although Gilgamesh loses this before he is able to experience the plant’s 
benefits. Finally, Gilgamesh returns home to Uruk and admires the city walls, with the 
implication being that a type of immortality can be gained through shared human endeavors.
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Early in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero expresses a concern at the heart of the human condition— 
the brevity of life and desire to leave a legacy. He says that all man ever did is “wind,” with the 
implication that human life passes quickly (compared to the timespans inhabited by immortals) 
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