![]() He leaves his kingdom and roams the wilderness, looking desperately for some solution to the problem of mortality.” Read more. He faces his own mortality, and it’s terrifying. He sees his friend die, and thinks if this heroic human being, the strongest of the strong, can die, that means I’m going to die too. ![]() It’s then that Gilgamesh realises the truth of mortality. They kill all sorts of ogres and beasts, until the gods think this is getting a bit much and decide Gilgamesh’s friend has to die. They fight, realise neither can win, then become best friends and go off on all sorts of adventures. So the gods make a rival to him in strength, a wild man. ![]() He starts off as the king of a small kingdom, making a nuisance of himself – enforcing droit du seigneur, sleeping with women on their marriage night, pushing other men around, being a bit of an arse. ![]() He’s half-god, enormously strong, a bit randy, a bit dim, and he goes through adventures which embody the human experience writ large. Together they journey to the Spring of Youth, defeat the Bull of Heaven and slay the monster Humbaba. “Gilgamesh is a hero in the ancient mould. Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu are the only heroes to have survived from the ancient literature of Babylon, immortalized in this epic poem that dates back to the third millennium BC. Foreign Policy & International Relations. ![]()
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