death” which is completely fascinating as no other time in history did Mesopotamians make death seem innocent and peaceful. Instead of death being bleak and dreadful, he describes it as “the fine youth and lovely girl.
The character of Utanapishtim, who appeared in The Epic of Gilgamesh, portrays a symbol which goes against almost every aspect of Mesopotamian ideology. The best instance of this is of Utanapishtim, who is possibly the only human who knows the secret to immortality and has a completely different view of death and afterlife. Nevertheless, there have been some instances in literary text of that time that may contradict this ideology.
It could be argued that the thoughts of one person (Gilgamesh, in this instance) cannot be generalized as beliefs of an entire civilization, however, if we consider the fact a ‘great’ personality like Gilgamesh can be humbled by the thought of death, the common people who were not recognized by their actions at all must have been appalled by the thought of death.
This points towards the fact that Mesopotamian culture valued the ability of unending existence more than the achievements and possessions that one has gained in their entire lifetime. After the death of his compatriot Enkidu, Gilgamesh realizes that “I am going to die! – am I not like Enkidu?!” and hence his main goal in life becomes to find the secret to immortality, even if that meant to sacrifice his respect and dignity. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, it was quite apparent that Gilgamesh was terrified by the concept of death and afterlife. This is clearly seen in Tablet III, when Enkidu cries out, “Sun god, I beseech you.” Even the greatest people alive such as Gilgamesh, King of Uruk and two thirds god, cannot outrun death. The Epic of Gilgamesh gives the reader compelling evidence that people in Mesopotamia were jealous of the gods, specifically the gods’ immortality. According to their religion, only the gods and divine entities were allowed to have peaceful immortality. The Epic of Gilgamesh and Inanna’s Journey to Hell unquestionably give the readers some ideas that would explain the unique ideology of the Mesopotamians, like the mercurial environment, which may have resulted in the development of the notion that gods are not merciful and give out retributive justice in the form of death, hence, jealously towards the gods’ immortality and the belief that leaving a mark on the world is not as important as opposed to being immortal.īy taking some of the literary works of Ancient Mesopotamia into context, it is quite evident that people of that era saw death and the afterlife as a negative and the inauspicious part of their culture. Although it is quite evident that Mesopotamians have a pessimistic view on the afterlife, which is clearly exemplified in their literary works, the reason why they had this outlook is rather uncertain.
Inanna’s Journey to Hell, in which even the goddess Inanna is terrified by the possibility of death, illustrates the inevitability of the prospect of a grim afterlife. Under some certain circumstances the characters in The Epic of Gilgamesh enable us to recognize how and why Mesopotamians had such a skeptical notion of death and afterlife. By analyzing literary texts such as The Epic of Gilgamesh and Inanna’s Journey to Hell, readers can somewhat identify this distinctive mindset and the mentality Mesopotamians had on death and afterlife, although, there are some ambiguities. People in ancient Mesopotamia had a unique way of looking at life and afterlife, and when compared to the ideology of people at a similar time from slightly different cultures and geography, Mesopotamian culture was especially strange.
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