How A Best Friend's Last Words Affects Gilgamesh

How a Best Friend’s Last Words Affects Gilgamesh The impact of a best friend’s dying words are strong and is capable of changing the person that is left behind just like Enkidu and Gilgamesh. The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of two unique men who find each other and become a one of a kind pair of friends. Gilgamesh, two thirds god and one third human, is the king of Uruk. His arrogance and superhuman strength makes him different from the rest but when Enkidu someone just as strong, or so thought by the civilians, appears Gilgamesh feels threatened and fights Enkidu. After Gilgamesh wins the two exhausted men suddenly see themselves within each other. Perhaps it was the similarity between them that lead them to developing such close friendship.

For Gilgamesh, Enkidu’s death leads the path to realizing something important. Before Enkidu dies he tells Gilgamesh “ You’ll be alone and wander/ Looking for that life that’s gone or some/ Eternal life you have to find”(49). His words make Gilgamesh realize that although he is king he is also a mortal. And all mortals die when their time is up. Enkidu tells Gilgamesh that in order to not perish and lose everything he will have to go and find a way to become immortal like the gods. Because of Enkidu’s words Gilgamesh starts his journey to realizing something important. When Gilgamesh returns from his failed quest he “looked at the walls/ Awed at the heights/ His people had achieved/ And for a moment -just a moment-/ All that lay behind him/ Passed from view” (92). Gilgamesh matures throughout the story because of the impact Enkidu’s death made. In the beginning he was a tyrant to his people and forced people to allow him to sleep with their brides before they got married but after overcoming obstacles he develops a sense of responsibility and realizes that he’s meant not to find a way to immortality or revive Enkidu but to fulfill his duties as king and help the citizens of