Gilgamesh

Notes

Quotes

Enkidu replied to his comrade Gilgamesh:
"Why is your voice now quivering with fear?
You grieve my heart with your simpering mouth.
The challenge is standing directly before us:
the molten copper pours into the mold,
stop stoking the fire and fanning the coals—
let the torrent flow. Crack the whip,
don't retreat one step, don't turn your back.
Strike like a lion. Land the first blow.

Quoted on June 2, 2026

Gilgamesh came wandering out of the distance
draped in a pelt, a startling sight.
The blood of the gods flowed through his body
but deep within him there was sorrow in his heart
and he wore the face of a weary traveler.
The innkeeper cautiously watched his approach.
She spoke to herself, choosing her words,
taking advice from the voice inside her. "No doubt this stranger is a bloodthirsty hunter;
out of nowhere he heads directly for my home.”

[ I love “taking advice from the voice inside her” ]

Quoted on June 2, 2026

[ People keep asking Gilgamesh why he looks so distraught, and this is part of the long response he gives each time explaining how he’s mourning Enkidu. The pivot from ‘my friend is dead’ to ‘and will I also die?’ That hinges on seeing the maggot - that’s so good. ]

My friend, who I loved, my brother in hardship,
my constant companion through struggles and sickness,
who met the end that all men must face.
I wept for six days and seven nights,
refused to hand over his body for burial
till a maggot came crawling out of his nose.
I was suddenly afraid for my own life.

Quoted on June 2, 2026

[ devastating! ]

You strove and labored but achieved nothing.
You drove yourself onward but without profit.
You strained every nerve and sinew with effort
yet brought the day of your death even closer.
Every family tree can be snapped like a reed:
the handsome boy, the beautiful girl,
how suddenly death can spirit them away.
Death appears from nowhere, acts without warning.
No one has seen the face of death.
No one has heard the voice of death,
the silent, invisible, savage assassin.
There comes a time when we build a house;
there comes a time when we fill the nest;
there comes a time of feud between heirs;
there comes a time of hatred in the land.
There came a time of high water and flood;
one moment the dragonfly followed the river,
its face lit by the light of the sun,
then suddenly everyone and everything was gone.
The missing and the dead—how alike they are.
Neither can draw an image of death.
The dead never say good morning to the living.
At the great assembly of the Anunnaki,
the goddess Aruru decreed man's fate:
the gods will give and take away life
and no man will know when death will strike.

Quoted on June 2, 2026