Friendship & the Loss of a Companion
A king and a wild man become inseparable — and it is grief, when one dies, that teaches the other he too must die.
The Epic of Gilgamesh gives world literature one of its first great portraits of friendship. The gods create the wild man Enkidu to match the overbearing king Gilgamesh; after a wrestling-match they become inseparable companions, adventuring and fighting monsters together. When Enkidu sickens and dies as punishment from the gods, Gilgamesh's grief is overwhelming and transformative: it is the loss of his friend, not abstract fear, that forces him to confront his own mortality and sets him on his desperate search for eternal life. Love and loss, not conquest, are the engine of the epic's deepest reflection.
Key passages(6)
At the first glimmer of dawn, Gilgameš [... ]: ' [... ] your mother, a gazelle, your father, a wild donkey,... [... ]; ' [... ] reared with their milk, [... ] ' taught all the pastures! The paths, o E
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Humbaba opened his mouth to speak, saying to Gilgameš: ' Let idiots, Gilgameš, consult a very stupid man. Why did you come into my presence? ' Come, Enkidu, spawn of a fish, who did not know his fathe
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(Enkidu speaks:)' [... ] your thickness, ' [... ] are from a single (piece); ' [... ] I hung you up. ' [... ], o door, that this would be your reward,: ditto ([... ], o door, that this) would be your
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(Šamhat said to Enkidu:)' Why with the animals [... ]?' Taking his own counsel... [... ], on his initiative... [... ]. His very wise heart [... ], of Šamhat [... ]. The first garment [... ] herself, a
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(Gilgameš said to Enkidu:)' Let... [... ]. ' Let them smash [... ], ' the dust storms [... ].' Enkidu [... ] his mouth [... ]: ' How can we go [... ]? ' That road [... ]. ' The guardian of the forest
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[... ] her (Aruru's) hearing [... ], she created [... ] for her heart. [... ] she washed her hands, [... ] she threw down in the open country. [... ] hero, (the hunter said to Gilgameš:)' he (Enkidu)
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