The oldest story on Earth begins with King Gilgamesh:
The oldest story on Earth begins with King Gilgamesh:
| in extreme inner crisis over his sexuality. He is acting out, running wild, mocking the holy places of Uruk of the Sheepfold and oppressing his people horribly. The people pray to the gods, and their lamentations are heard. The Sun god, Anu, decides that Gilgamesh needs an equal, a companion, a beloved, to open his heart. Beautiful Enkidu is born in the wilderness; he is close to the animals, he is innocent and pure. To lure Enkidu from the wilderness to Uruk of the Sheepfold, a Temple Courtesan is sent to fetch him. She initiates Enkidu into the sacred sexual worship of Ishtar, and, instantly, Enkidu's "mind is widened". His animal companions flee from him, and he and the Temple Courtesan travel to Uruk of the Sheepfold to meet King Gilgamesh. When the two men meet they start out fighting, but, in truth, it is love born of their mutually intertwined destinies. Gilgamesh is fascinated by Enkidu's primordial innocence and Enkidu is awe-struck by the splendor of Uruk of the Sheepfold, and the beauty of his new friend. Finally Gilgamesh has a reason for living and for being a good King. Inspired by true love and Shamash, the sun god, Gilgamesh and Enkidu set out on a daring adventure to kill Humbaba, who guards the sacred cedar groves and who has been ferociously terrorizing the people of Uruk who rely upon the cedars as useful resources. (Deforestation in the Middle East happened early in the history of humanity!) Returning to Uruk of the Sheepfold with the head of Humbaba, victorious and triumphant, Gilgamesh takes a stand against the Goddess Ishtar when she tries to seduce him. King Gilgamesh prefers to worship a male god. Ishtar is furious and she rides the Bull of Heaven down from the sky to kill Gilgamesh, but Enkidu and King Gilgamesh kill the Bull of Heaven instead. But, killing the Bull of Heaven is sacrilege (sp?). After killing the Bull of Heaven, Enkidu is cursed, he gets sick and dies. In profound grief, King Gilgamesh (like the Buddha 2000 years later) deserts his throne and puts on rags. He sets out on a quest to discover the cure to death. First he meets the Scorpion People who guard the gates of the mountains, then he goes into deep darkness after which he enters a heavenly pure land where Siduri the Barmaid lives. But heaven isn't what Gilgamesh is after. All he wants is to find Utnapishtim and his wife, the only mortals who have ever achieved eternal life. They live beyond the Waters of Death, at the source of all rivers. To get there, Gilgamesh has to depend on Urshanabi, the boatman. Finally Gilgamesh reaches Utnapishtim. Yet after all his sincere grief, honest questing and weary traveling, Gilgamesh finds "the fate of mankind". Utnapishtim is a hedonist and materialist. Utnapishtim has been stuck with the curse of immortality at the end of the world. He is living eternally bored and lonely and simply has to tell Gilgamesh the long hard sad tale of how he survived the Flood in his Ark (The "Noah" story found in "The Epic of Gilgamesh" is far more detailed than the later Hebrew version of the story). In humanity's very first piece of hero literature, Gilgamesh finds that there is no cure for death. And, as Utnapishtim says, "There is no word of advice." either. The Gods themselves reveal to Gilgamesh the impermanence of existence, being that Life and Death are one and the same. Still Utnapishtim feels sorry for Gilgamesh's wasted efforts, so he gives the King his servant Urshanabi and a fountain-of-youth sort of plant before he sends him home. But on the journey back to Uruk of the Sheepfold, a snake (probably the same one that we find later in the Garden of Eden) slithers up and steals the magical plant. So King Gilgamesh returns to Uruk of the Sheepfold, returns to being King, returns to his people, with nothing to show for his quest except his new maturity and the acceptance of the inescapabilty of death and the impermanence of all life. He understands that it is by the existence of Uruk of the Sheepfold itself that he will be remembered. The strength and beauty of Uruk's walls will outlast him, as will the clay tablets on which the story of King Gilgamesh is told. There is no more immortality for any of us than this. But, in truth, this isn't so bad. So far, King Gilgamesh has lived for about 4600 years. |
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