The Search for Immortality-Tablets 8 and 9

As Enkidu closed his eyes for the last time Gilgamesh mourned, all of Uruk mourned for days on end, they honored him in every way. At the funeral ceremony Gilgamesh spoke to and of the great man. Of his feats, his personality, his epic. This is symbolic for any passing hero, all the people the hero had protected mourn. If a lowly man who worked in the field would have died there would have been nothing but a small funeral including only his close family. But a hero, a giant passing on, is an event in which all the people of the city or village or even country would mourn. As Gilgamesh mourned he questioned his fate. “I am going to die!--am I not like Enkidu?!”, why had he been spared and innocent Enkidu sentenced to death. This got Gilgamesh thinking, was there a way to be exempt from every mortal man’s fate. Could he be exempt from death? There began his search for immortality, to escape human weakness, escape the bonds that restrain us. He traveled far and wide to seek his ancestor and ask him of a way to attain immortality. He wanted to know all and be apart from the rest of mankind. Dangers around every corner confronted him and yet he kept on, persistent and strong he surpassed even the most dangerous threats the great mashu mountains threw at him. After all he is “two thirds a god”.