Spoiler
IMMORTALITY THROUGH REMEMBRANCE
"The life that you seek you never will find:
when the gods created mankind,
death they dispensed to mankind,
life they kept for themselves.” (Sippar Tablet iii(1-5))
Says Shammash, in The Epic of Gilgamesh. The desire of living is the most fundamental element of being human. Even though it is impossible, throughout history, immortality wanted to be achieved, people desperately searched for it. This desire indeed has been reflected in the literature, especially in The Epic of Gilgamesh and Homer’s Iliad. This essay will cover the different perspectives on immortality and death and their relation in society, for both texts.
To begin with, in The Epic of Gılgamesh, the desire of being remembered forever had been represented by Gilgamesh’s wanting the cut down the Cedar Forest. He claims his thoughts on immortality by saying “I will establish for ever a name eternal!” (Tablet 2, 87) Since he is aware that he cannot live forever, he wanted to be remembered. That is why he wants to cut down the Cedar Forest, and makes a gate out of the trees, so that everyone who sees the gate, will remember him. I argue that his motivation for cutting down the Cedar Forest is just a despondent need of being remembered. He thinks, by doing so, he can be remembered forever, even after he is dead. After his bellowed friend Enkidu’s death, he realizes that he is also mortal and yet, he cannot accept that reality and desperately begins his journey of finding immortality. At this point, I argue that Gilgamesh’s being the King of Uruk, sort of makes him think like he has to live forever, since all warriors and leaders have to be remembered, in his point of view. He cannot acknowledge that he is mortal since he sees himself as the strongest man alive and the ultimate leader. In my opinion, he sees death as something that an ordinary human would encounter, not himself. In addition, we cannot see a particular scene that indicates that a common citizen of Uruk wants to be immortal. In the perspective of society, I allege that The Epic of Gilgamesh demonstrates that immortality only should be given to the heroes, or leaders, not common members of society. Finally, I consider Gilgamesh as an immortal man, although he is not. He left the gate behind him, as a monument, something concrete, and something that can narrate his legacy. I believe that he achieved his goal.
Similarly, immortality is a very important theme in The Iliad as well. Heroes in The Iliad fight for themselves, but mostly for their “kleos”. Even though there is no exact translation for this term, as far as I am concerned, it means “eternal glory and what people say after your death.” I argue that kleos is a form of immortality since kleos is basically what people say after you, especially about your glory. I believe that it is ironic that heroes on Iliad fight on the battlefield to gain some sort of immortality by giving up their lives. In my opinion, even some regard The Iliad as unemotional, Homer emphasizes the deaths of characters in a very detailed and emotional way. He represents their deaths as the ceremony of passing the immortal life. I believe that is why Homer describes the heroes’ deaths in a very detailed way. On the other hand, it is also ironic that even though “kleos” is determined by society, I think it is not probable that a normal member of society has kleos. However, I do not think that all the heroes have obtained kleos. We know the most important ones such as Achilles. Yet, I believe that although other heroes has remembered and obtained their kleos, we do not know exactly today, so it would be wrong to consider all of these heroes as immortals. However, heroes such as Achilles, will be remembered forever, thus I claim that he is immortal, just like Gilgamesh.
As I mentioned in the previous paragraphs, immortality was a crucial theme in both The Iliad and The Epic of Gilgamesh. After analyzing these two texts, I assert that both of them displays the destructive nature of becoming immortal. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh destroys the Cedar Forest, to be remembered forever. In The Iliad, soldiers violently fight to obtain their kleos, thus to be remembered. I believe that due to this destructive nature of becoming immortal, it should not be tried to achieve. Everyone lives and dies just as everyone before them did. Like Glaucus stated in The Iliad:
“Like the generation of leaves, the lives of mortal men.
Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth,
now the living timber bursts with the new buds
and spring comes round again. And so with men:
as one generation comes to life, another dies away.”(Book 6,171)
·
618 Gösterim
2 Yorum
Lütfen giriş yapınız.
In particular, I agree completely that one should not seek immortality. Your article was intriguing. I'm adding the book to my future reads. Good luck with your enthusiasm.