ABSTRACT
The finitude of death cuts through the ambiguities of Gilgamesh’s narrative, and provides his story with lasting resonance through his identification as a powerful yet mortal figure. This chapter considers Gilgamesh’s relationship with death. Death and the afterlife in Ancient Mesopotamia were areas of important religious significance, and the focus of a range of religious observances. Death is a biological reality, but death as opposed to life “is a culturally determined dualism, disparate from biological condition”. The varied nature of the sources on the Mesopotamian afterlife reflects diversity in its conception in ancient times. Gilgamesh is less than enamoured of his own mortality and the prospect of death. The death of Enkidu holds great narrative significance; it provides the impetus for Gilgamesh’s performance of funerary rites and mourning, and separates the pair at a time when they have become deeply bonded.
