The history of the epic is quite remarkable. Although it is thought to be one of the first stories carved in stone this is not the birth place of this wonderful epic. The legend itself was told verbally and passed on for many years. Scholars have dated the written version of the epic to at least as early as 2000 B.C. The tale is from the Sumerian culture and found on various sets of tablets in Mesopotamia. Each tablet h

Now Gilgamesh felt empty, he never knew what this felt like so he did not know what to do. Gilgamesh’s new undertaking in life was to find the secret of eternal life; he was determined to find out how to end the sadness he had. It seems sort of contradictory though, because he was so sad at losing a good friend he wanted to live forever now. Most people would not think something like that in times of sorrow they would not want to live forever. This would only mean that one could really not stop thinking about the sadness they felt. Living forever would not solve the problem of being sad over a death; it would only keep that memory around longer. Gilgamesh searched far and wide to find out how to live forever. He asked the gods, he went on long journeys to seek wise men, and he asked everyone he thought might have the answer. To his surprise he could not find it, it was unattainable. After looking so long and going so far he could not find eternal life. Only gods could live forever and because he was not fully a god he was mortal and could not find the secret to eternal life because there wasn’t one.

Although the story does not mention it, this is the first point in the story where Gilgamesh shows man-like characteristics. A god would not let a mortal come along and fight like that with him, and even let the man have a chance at winning. Gilgamesh shows his first sign of weakness, and it did not take much to break him down. By some this could be viewed at as Gilgamesh having a self-esteem problem. One the outside he seems real tough and harsh, but as soon as someone stands up to him; he puts on a little fight but it did not last that long. This shows another weakness of Gilgamesh, that he would most likely break down easily if others were to stand up to him. He may have only thrown his power around only because he was unsure of himself and felt like on the inside he was weak and had to make up for it on the outside.

as a slightly different story; some even have different events that took place. It is believed by most historians that because of the many different findings of the epic and the different variations of the story that is was not collected all in one piece or at one time. It has kind of evolved and grown by the many story tellers over the years.

Things have not changed today. In times of sadness people look for something to fill the void. When a good friend dies a person feels empty and wants to find something to replace the loss with. It is human nature to fill a hole when one is found. No matter if it is a hole from the lose of a loved one or a hole in the street, when something is missing people want to fill it. People will go to great lengths to replace something they lost, just as Gilgamesh did. Some people turn to drugs, or replace a loss with another person, or even think that

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