Gilgamesh is described by the narrator at the beginning of the epic as being two-thirds divine and one-third human. Since he is the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh is in a position of unlimited power. One way of reading the story is to see it as a process in which Gilgamesh is humbled and forced to come to terms with his humanity. At the beginning of the epic, Gilgamesh is abusive and violent, particularly towards women. The death of his friend Enkidu forces him to confront his own mortality. The human condition is presented as a quest to find meaning in the context of uncertainty, suffering and death.
Gilgamesh is obviously set in a very different cultural climate from the modern world. One interesting way of reading an ancient epic is to contrast its culture with the culture of the reader. How and why do themes, especially moral themes, resonate with the contemporary reader? Greek tragedies and their Latin counterparts, referred to as the "Classics," formed an essential element in Western pedagogy for hundreds of years. What does Gilgamesh say about culture and civilization? Mesopotamia was one of the first civilizations in the ancient world. Mesopotamia had an organized political and legal structure.
The Gilgamesh epic and the Old Testament share many themes and symbols. For example, there are similar creation stories, views of the underworld, and similar stories about universal flood that destroyed the ancient world. The Gilgamesh narrative also has a Noah-like character who saves the world and whose ship comes to rest on top of a mountain. Since Gilgamesh predates the Hebrew Bible by hundreds of years, an obvious question is to what degree the Gilgamesh stories influenced the writers of the Old Testament.
The Gilgamesh epic was probably an oral narrative that was recited through various generations before being written down. Nonetheless, Gilgamesh is one of the first works of literature to emerge in the ancient world. Studying and analyzing both the form and content of the work makes an interesting literary study. On the side of form, the epic can be divided into a two-part structure. The story is told by an anonymous narrator. The first part presents Gilgamesh as rash, reckless, and thoughtless about issues of death and mortality. In the second part, after the death of Enkidu, he becomes obsessed with the threat of death and with finding the meaning of life.