THE ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’,the Babylonian epic poem, narrates the tale of glorious king of Uruk, ‘Gilgamesh’, the son of goddess Ninsun, who was two-thirds a god and one-third a man in splendid manner. The story of the epic is narrated and translated bits-by-bits and pieces-by-pieces to recapture [the lost] story of king Gilgamesh and his grandeurs. It was like connecting the missing dots from the buried books unearthed during the last century in shape of broken cuneiform tablets from different parts of ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Turkey and Iran). This epic was considered as one of the earliest surviving masterpieces of literature (2150-1400 BCE). The large scale geologists’ expeditions had excavated a number of broken pieces of tablets. Originally, the tablets were written in the Babylonian languages: Sumerian and Akkadian which were deciphered and translated from cuneiform into easy-to-understand English poem by Andrew George. The story of Gilgamesh revolves around the universal themes: heroism in nature vs. comfort in the city, friendship and love, sexuality and mortality, meaning in life and consistent struggle, restless soul, civilization and fall from the innocence.
The tale first narrates the tyrannical treatment of the king Gilgamesh against the dwellers of Uruk. The oppressed subjects had made supplications to gods for relief against the king. As a result, a wild man, Enkidu was created in the forest to stop the king from the cruelties against the innocent people. Primarily, Enkidu was introduced to the human civilization in the Uruk by the harlot Shamhat by seducing and getting him separated from his wild herd. After challenging the king Gilgamesh in a contest, there was a fierce fight, but after accepting the power and strength of each other — both had become close companion to wage expedition against the guardian of the forests of Cedar in which they had killed Humbaba the terrible. Later on after rejecting the advances of Ishtar due to her unfair treatment of previous lovers, the principal goddess of Uruk had sent the ‘Bull of Heaven’ to punish the king Gilgamesh. But both the companions had succeeded in killing the bull too. Thereafter, the assembly of gods had decided to put an end to the life of Enkidu. But the death of Enkidu had turned to become a turning point in the life of Gilgamesh.
The tragic episode of his friend’s death, his mourning and grief for several days, had changed his focus form extrovert expeditions to introvert existentialist questions. He internalized that sooner or later his mortal nature has to bring him to death. Thus the thinking of death has made him wandering wild. Only by resolving the riddle of mortality could help him feel free. It was this strong motive that had forced him to start a new journey to know about the secrets of eternal life from Uta-napishiti and his wife, the survivors of the great deluge. Uta-napishiti and his wife were amongst the few human beings who were bestowed with eternal life in the boat. Only they were the ones who could help him reveal the secret of eternal life. But it was not humanly possible to reach them. Therefore, on the way, he encounters tough weather conditions, perilous landscapes and dangerous animals. But his consist struggle has made him overcome all of the challenges by crossing the terrain mountains and deep oceans. Ur-shanabi, the ferryman, has guided and helped the king throughout to reach the island where Uta-napishiti and his wife were living. Gilgamesh shared his story from the beginning and his quest for the journey, afterwards, Uta-napishiti has told him the story of the flood — the story of the boat making, collecting of animals, craftsmen, and survival in the flood and secret of their immortality.
While testing the mortal king, Uta-napishiti has asked him to stay awake for six days and seven nights. On failing, he has said that it was not possible for you to conquer sleep so how can you conquer death. However, on his way back he was given boxthorn-like, the anti-aging plant that would make him young again. But that plant too was stolen by serpent when he was taking bath. On reaching to Uruk and seeing great walls, tall gates and building of the city, he was struck with the idea that nonetheless he would be forever remembered by it. Though Gilgamesh could not succeed to achieve immortality but he had learnt a great deal of understanding and wisdom from Ur-shanabi, the ferryman and Uta-napishiti, the survivor of the flood storm. It was he who brought and narrated another story within the story of the epic supporting the revealed story of Prophet Noah (AS). It is evident from the introduction of the epic that collection, addition and improvement is still being carried out for filling the missing gaps in the story of Gilgamesh. The modern interdisciplinary scholarship had made this hallmark achievement possible by recollecting the lost epic of Gilgamesh with the help of geologists, linguists, historians and specialist decipherers. Thus the efforts have re-discovered a literary masterpiece to the world literature translated into English.
—The writer is PhD scholar, Department of English, IIU, Islamabad.
