Pessimism & the Vanity of Life
The great kings are dust and forgotten — so eat, drink, hold your beloved, for the gods kept life for themselves.
Also: pessimism · vanity of life · carpe diem · Shiduri · Siduri · Dialogue of Pessimism · poem of early rulers · futility
A vein of Mesopotamian wisdom looks hard at life's brevity and concludes that lasting achievement eludes everyone. 'The poem of early rulers' observes that even the great kings of old are gone and forgotten, so one should enjoy life while it lasts. In the Gilgamesh epic, the ale-wife Shiduri famously counsels the grieving hero to abandon his hopeless quest for immortality and instead eat, drink, and cherish his family, for the gods kept eternal life for themselves. The Dialogue of Pessimism turns the mood to biting irony. This is the ancient world's clear-eyed reckoning with mortality.
In short
The strand of Mesopotamian reflection on life's futility and the certainty of death — the counsel to seize present joys — voiced in 'The poem of early rulers,' Gilgameš's Šiduri episode, and the Dialogue of Pessimism.
Where it’s found
'The poem of early rulers' (ETCSL 5.2.5, in corpus); Šiduri's counsel, Old Babylonian Gilgameš (akkadian-pending; George); the Dialogue of Pessimism (akkadian-pending; Lambert, BWL)
How the idea developed across Sumer, Babylon & Assyria
Spans the Sumerian 'poem of early rulers' (in corpus) and the Akkadian Šiduri speech (Old Babylonian Gilgameš) and Dialogue of Pessimism (akkadian-pending). The carpe-diem counsel is strongest in the Old Babylonian Gilgameš; the Standard Babylonian recension reframes it.