The development and meaning of the Epic of Gilgamesh: an interpretive essay.

• Author: Abusch, Tzvi

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY

This essay traces the history of the several major versions (Old Babylonian, eleven-tablet, and twelve-tablet) of the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh and examines the development of meaning from one version to the next. The focus is on the underlying conflict or conflicts that define and impart power to the work, that is, the conflict between the extraordinary and the normal. We will notice that in the Epic there is a constant conflict between the heroic values that the warrior-hero Gilgamesh represents and those other existential values that defined Mesopotamian culture and that appear in the Epic in the form of Gilgamesh's several non-heroic identities: in the Old Babylonian version, the conflict is that of hero versus man; in the eleven-tablet version that of hero versus king; and in the twelve-tablet version that of hero versus god.

INTRODUCTION

THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH (1) combines the power and tragedy of the Iliad with the wanderings and marvels of the Odyssey. It is a work of adventure, but it is no less a meditation on some fundamental issues of human existence. The Epic explores many issues; it surely provides a Mesopotamian formulation of human predicaments and options. Most of all, the work grapples with issues of an existential nature. It talks about the powerful human drive to achieve, the value of friendship, the experience of loss, the inevitability of death.

The story draws together the many strands that make up the identity of Gilgamesh: man, hero, king, god. Gilgamesh must learn to live. He must find ways to express his tremendous personal energy but still act in a manner that accords with the limits and responsibilities imposed upon him by his society and universe. But the work emphasizes the theme of death and explores the realization that in spite of even the greatest achievements and powers, a human is nonetheless powerless against death. Thus in the final analysis, Gilgamesh must also come to terms with his own nature and learn to die, for he is both a man and a god, and as both he will experience loss and will die.

In the present essay, I shall discuss the changing emphases of three major versions of the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh. About 1700 B.C.E., a Babylonian author created a unified Epic about the hero Gilgamesh. The new epic "bear[S] witness to a wholesale revision of Gilgamesh material to form a connected story composed around the principal themes of kingship, fame, and the fear of death." (2) This Old Babylonian (OB) account of Gilgamesh is the earliest, perhaps also the most immediately felt and compelling, version of the Akkadian Epic. Subsequent to the Old Babylonian period, the Epic circulated throughout the ancient Near East. Not surprisingly, the work underwent many changes and developments, and a number of new versions took form in Akkadian as well as in other languages. The Babylonian version(s) changed and developed during the course of the second and early first millennium. While a number of new recensions and versions took form, the Standard Babylonian (SB) eleven- and twelve-tablet versions represen t without doubt the two most important post-Old Babylonian Akkadian versions that we possess. Accordingly, in this essay we will examine the Old Babylonian, the eleven-tablet, and the twelve-tablet versions. (3)

THE EPIC: DEVELOPMENT AND MEANING

To understand the Epic, we should now turn to its inner development and meaning. But first we must say a few words about the nature of epic itself, and then we shall assess the evolving meaning of the work by identifying and explicating the particular conflict that is central to it at each major stage of its development.

Epic. Epic deals with a hero, (4) that is, a powerful warrior who shows his mettle in battle. He is aggressive and courageous, even impetuous, and battles strong enemies. He shows little concern for his own safety and focuses all of his energy upon battle, obligation, honor, and victory. As a literary form, the epic draws upon and grows out of songs of lament and songs of praise. (5) In the Sumerian tales of Gilgamesh, we encounter such praises of the warrior as the following passage from "Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven":

Hero in battle, hero in battle, let me sing his song!

Lord Bilgames, hero in battle, let me sing his song!

Lord with beard of black, hero in battle, let me sing his song!

Fair of limb, hero in battle, let me sing his song! (6)

Merry one, hero in battle, let me sing his song!

Rampaging against wrongdoers, hero in battle, let me sing his song! (1-8)

The glorious warrior exists at a time before the emergence of the developed state and of civilization. He usually represents the force needed to fight the enemy prior to the institutionalization of power in the form of the state. But the grand epics like Gilgamesh or the Iliad, whether oral or written, introduce a note of tragedy; they view heroism not from the perspective of the battle itself, as if the battle were now taking place, but from outside or after the battle, from a time after the war. For not only do they recall the inevitable death in battle of the courageous warrior but, even more, they reflect upon the poor fit between the values of power and war and those of the present moment, and they explore the inevitable conflict that the new circumstances call forth. These circumstances may be the requirement that one return to a peaceful occupation and pursue a normal life or that one submit to the discipline of the state and become a warrior or king and leader in its service. Thus, for the individual who chooses to remain a traditional hero, the epic is often a meditation upon and an exploration of the inevitable conflict between, on the one hand, the forces represented by the absolute commitment of the powerful and heroic male to energy and battle and, on the other, the forces that represent some newly emerging situations and value systems.

Growing out of traditions of praise for the heroic warrior, the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh tells of courageous deeds, but it does this only to highlight the pain caused by these deeds and the new problems that must be faced. Gilgamesh, as we shall see, struggles against the world and is as deeply committed to his own personal absolutes as is Achilles, but there is moral growth: he learns, he changes. As with Odysseus, the growth is symbolized by wanderings, wanderings which both reflect and elicit changes in the hero. His wanderings are the mechanism and backdrop for change, but the death of Enkidu is the catalyst for change. By making Enkidu Gilgamesh's friend, the composer has turned the Epic into a tale of growth--of discovery of human suffering, limitation, death, and, finally, human meaning. Without Enkidu's death, there is no development. But without the wandering, there would be no possibility for development, and Enkidu's death would have left Gilgamesh, literally, at a dead end.

In our epic, then, there is moral growth, and Gilgamesh is able to resolve the conflict, even if this is accomplished in pain, and find a life that does not depend solely on violence, impulsiveness, and battle. Conflicts and their resolutions turn the work into an epic about growth.

Conflict. Basic to the Gilgamesh Epic is the issue of death. In the course of the Epic, we witness the transformation of Gilgamesh's heroic indifference to death into an all-consuming knowledge of his mortality and dread of death. But death is not treated in a vacuum, for there are several layers of meaning and stages of development in the work; each resolves the problem of death in its own terms. To understand these levels of meaning and stages of development, we must try to understand the nature of the underlying conflict or conflicts that define and impart power to the work. Gilgamesh is an epic hero, and in his epic we find a constant conflict between the heroic values that the hero Gilgamesh represented and those other existential values that define Mesopotamian culture. These values are of a social, political, and religious nature and appear in the Epic in the form of Gilgamesh's various identities. For in addition to being a hero, Gilgamesh is also a man, a king, and a god, and he must come to terms w ith these several identities.

The basic conflict is that between the extraordinary and the normal. In the Old Babylonian version, the conflict is that of hero versus man; in the eleven-tablet version, it is that of hero versus king; and in the twelve-tablet version, it is that of hero. versus god. If I am not mistaken, each version is organized around and...