From a literary point of view, the Epic of Gilgamesh is as secular as the Odyssey, and as contemporary as any heroic tale of an exciting life. Gilgamesh is in mature manhood when the Epic begins, but being semi-divine (2/3rd human and 1/3rd god) and vastly superior to other men, he can find no worthy match in love or war. Accordingly, as the fifth king of Uruk following the Great Flood, he lords it over his people to the point where they pray for relief. They receive it in the form of a “natural man”, Enkidu, who has been reared by the animals and is enormously strong and swift as a gazelle.
Enkidu is sought out and seduced by a female (either priestess or harlot, depending upon the predilections of the translator), and with his subsequent loss of innocence, he takes the first step toward becoming civilized (i.e. the animals reject him). This quickly brings him into direct conflict with Gilgamesh. After a knock-down-drag-out fight, the two become the greatest of friends (it’s a guy thing), and ultimately set out on great quests. The most notable is going into the forest where Humbaba dwells. “Because of the evil that is in the land, we will go to the forest and destroy the evil.” Unfortunately, the evil Humbaba is the protégé of Enlil (of Enki and Enlil fame), and the forest episode is a cruel trap set by Enlil in order to destroy Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
Gilgamesh survives, but Enkidu doesn’t. Because it was Enkidu’s hubris in refusing the prayer of Humbaba for mercy, Enlil brings the case before the Anunnaki, the council of the gods, and retribution is accordingly doled out. In an independent poem, Enkidu and the Underworld, Enkidu goes down alive into the underworld to bring back a mysterious drum and drumstick that Gilgamesh has let fall into it. In spite of warnings, Enkidu breaks all the taboos and finds himself ultimately held by the underworld.
The loss of Enkidu is devastating to Gilgamesh. The lost of the great friendship and the knowledge that death is inevitable sets Gilgamesh out on a bold undertaking to find ever- lasting life. His first clue is the legend of the day which insisted that King Zi-u-sudra (aka Noah) had not only survived the Flood, but had entered the company of the gods and been taken faraway “to live at the mouth of the rivers”. Gilgamesh’s trek, akin to Odysseus’s journey, constitutes the last half of the Epic, where he encounters a variety of obstacles -- including one god’s advise that his quest is certain to fail.
Gilgamesh also encounters a woman named Siduri, an enigmatic figure living in a place “where east and west were confused”, and who dispenses the philosophy of eat, drink and be merry, “for this too is the lot of man”. Siduri, nevertheless provides Gilgamesh with the instructions on how to cross the waters of death, using the boatman Urshanabi to ferry him across in much the same manner as that of the sun’s journey into the west each day.
An important and notable event occurs during the meeting between Gilgamesh and the ferryman, involving the “Things of Stone”, which Gilgamesh rashly smashes, making it then necessary for the ferryman to use “punting poles” -- the latter which are somehow connected with “wings” or “winged beings or figures”.