Sunday, February 21, 2010

Back From Nether World

In this tablet, at last, Gilgamesh is over. It starts with something very out-of-nowhere, because it starts talking about how Gilgamesh's drum and drumstick fell to Nether World, and he is asking everyone who can help him have it back. For a strange reason, Enkidu hears his cry and promises to help him.

Even though Gilgamesh gives him lots of instructions on what to do and what not to do, Enkidu doesn't follow any, and as Gilgamesh predicted, the Cry of the Dead seized him and held him. Gilgamesh, again, grieved for the death of Enkidu.

He told the story to many gods, but none interceded, until he talked to Ea, the god of the abyss. He interceded, and asked the god of the Nether World to open up a hole in the roof, so that Enkidu can rise like vapor into the normal world. The god does it, and Enkidu and Gilgamesh meet each other again.

Enkidu told Gilgamesh how it is down there, and Gilgamesh started to weep. Later, he asked Enkidu if he had seen all types of people, and Enkidu each time responded with a how their life was. That was how the book came to an end.



For me it was a little weird to read this book, because it has many aspects of life that are different from what we normally see. There are different beliefs about life and death, and culture in general is different. They believed in polytheism, so much of the story revolves around the different gods.

They also believed that anything the gods wanted to happen to us would happen, so they prayed to them and even looked for immortality by asking them. There was a difference in how people treated each other, like Enkidu and Gilgamesh. Also in the social structure; the kind of respect the town had towards Gilgamesh isn't exactly like that these days.

I liked the book a lot, because it helped me understand about the history of that period, and to understand better the differences in literature that have occurred since then. I liked the description of death that is portrayed, and how they show hell.

This is an image that I really liked that represents Gilgamesh and Enkidu at the moment of his death.

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