Minor Research Project Entitled:

“The Epic of Gilgamesh:

A Study in Archetypal Psychology”

Completed under the financial assistance of &

submitted to:

University Grants commission

Western Regional Office,
Ganeshkhind, Pune-411007

Under the scheme of:

MRP (Humanities)
File No. 23-2029/10 (WRO)
Sanction letter no.
23-2028/10 (WRO), Dated 05.10.10

Name of the Principal Investigator:

Dr. Mahesh Madhukar Nivargi
Associate Professor,
Department of English,
Mahatma Gandhi Mahavidyalaya, Ahmedpur Dist- Latur.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful University Grants Commission and Western Zone

Office of UGC for providing financial assistance to undertake this Minor
Research Project.

I would like to thank management members of VicharVikas Mandal

and Principal, Dr. G.D. Bagde for allowing me to undertake this research
work.

I am always indebted and fall short of words to express my gratitude

to my father, Late Mr Madhukar Nivargi, mother, Usha, my wife, Ashwini,
Brother in law, Bhushan and my daughter Aditi for their love and continual
support in all my endeavors.

I am also thankful to all the members of department of English: Mr.

Jogdand, Mr Biradar, Mr Dode, Mr Penurkar, Mr Mangrule, Ms Sayyed, Ms
Dudhate, Ms Biradar, Mr Rajmalle, and all the staff members of Mahatma
Gandhi Mahavidyalaya, Ahmedpur for supporting me in my academic
endeavors.

A work of this kind requires various kinds of co-

operation and inspiration on all accounts. I have found myself morally
indebted to all those who are directly or indirectly concerned with this
Research project and thank them all from the core of heart.

Dr. M. M. Nivargi
Associate Professor,
Department of English,
Mahatma Gandhi Mahavidyalaya,
Ahmedpur Dist- Latur

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 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the
best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published
or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has
been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university
or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has
been made in the text.

Dr. M. M. Nivargi
Associate Professor,
Department of English,
Mahatma Gandhi Mahavidyalaya,
Ahmedpur Dist- Latur

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 “The Epic of Gilgamesh:
A Study in Archetypal Psychology”

“Great art till now has always derived its fruitfulness from the

myth, from the unconscious process of symbolization which continues

through the ages and which, as the primordial manifestation of the

human spirit, will continue to be the root of all creation in future”

C.G. Jung: The Undiscovered Self

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 Preface

The present research aims at a reinterpretation of the Gilgamesh

epic with the help of critical theories usually classified as “myth

criticism”, “Archetypal criticism”, and more particularly “Archetypal

Psychology”. In the beginning of the 20th century, Carl Gustav Jung,

Mircea Eliade and a host of other scholars started the analysis of human

psyche from a fresh perspective. In Jung's psychology an archetype is

an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the

past collective experience and present in the individual unconscious.

These scholars studied how the hierarchy of ancient gods, polytheistic

religions, and archetypal ideas found in tales might influence modern

life with regard to soul, psyche, dreams and the Self. They put forth

theories about how ancient myths, legends, sagas, and religions

mimicked some of the broad impulses and drives in the psyche. In the

later part of the 20th century, the followers of Jung’s theory made

further developments in this approach. Archetypal psychology as a

basis for developing theory, and especially, down-to-earth applications,

is ongoing and evolving constantly. More recently, James Hillman

evolved his own theory of Archetypal Psychology, relativizing and

deliteralizing the ego and focussing on the psyche, or soul, itself and

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the archai, the deepest patterns of psychic functioning. The proposed

study will attempt to analyse the Epic of Gilgamesh with the help of

these theories to bring out the significant aspects of the text which have

remained hitherto undiscovered. The present study is outlined in the

following manner

I) Introduction to the Sumerian text, people, and civilization

II) An overview of the critical method

III) Plot of the narrative

IV) Analysis of the text

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Introduction to the Sumerian text, people, and civilization

The manuscripts of this epic are cuneiform tablets. The

cuneiform tablets are smooth and rectangular shaped tablets of clay.

The inscription or engraving is on both the sides of the tablets. The

archeological excavations in Iraq have brought forth many tablets

containing the Gilgamesh epic. Finally, there are twelve tablets of the

epic. Each of these tablets consists of six columns. There columns are

engraved on one side and three are engraved on the reverse side. Each

column has 50 lines which makes the total of nearly 3600 lines. Many

of the tablets (nearly more than the half of the total) are from the

collection of Nineveh. Nineveh site has the palace of King

Ashurbanapal whose dates can be fixed between 668 to 626 BC. The

tablets belong to the collection of this king’s library which was

discovered in 1854 by Layard. Additionally, many tablets were brought

together by George Smith.

The tablets of this epic come from several places in Iraq. These

are the sites of the ancient cities of Mesopotamia. The cuneiform

writing is said to have been invented in the ancient Mesopotamian

civilization around the time 3000-3500 BCE. Historically this

civilization (which is called as the Sumerian civilization) is the earliest

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known civilization. This claim to be the earliest civilization can be

supported basing the concept of civilization on two requirements – the

administrative system of city state and the development of a written

script. It can be seen that different other civilizations were also

developing at the same time in other places like China, Egypt and the

South American continent. The Sumerian civilization made

considerable progress in different fields of knowledge viz. astronomy

and mathematics. The development of the written script seems to have

originated from the need to record figures and other details, because

there were big city states and many matters concerned with trade and

administration could not be simply relied to human memory. The

system of writing that was developed in Sumer was capable of

expressing great ideas. All the matters that required a written record

were put in the cuneiform on the clay tablets. The writings on the clay

tablets have withstood the test of time because these tablets are sturdy.

The excavations have unearthed thousands of tablets from sites of this

civilization and many things like the accountant’s record etc, pertaining

to various small as well as important administrative affairs are intactly

preserved on these tablets.

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 The Sumerian Civilization

Source:
http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/SumerianMyth.htm

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Prior to the settlement of the Sumerian people in this territory called as

Mesopotamia (called so because the land is located between the rivers

Euphrates and Tigris, and the ancient Greek term Mesopotamia means

‘the land between rivers’) the Ubadaidian people were living there.

They had settled between 4500 and 4000 BCE. These people first

introduced agriculture in this area. They also had small handicraft

industry that manufactured metal works, leather goods, pottery etc. they

developed trade based on this industry. This region had very little

rainfall, therefore irrigation was very important for agriculture. The

Sumerian people built embankments for controlling the floodwaters of

the Euphrates river. They also formed ditches and constructed canals.

The maintenance of canals and distribution of water required a well

formed government system which the Sumerians developed. The

irrigation system made it possible to have surplus crop production that

brought prosperity to the land. With the prosperity came the

development of arts in these city states because now the artists could

survive on this surplus food production. The city states thus started

comprising of a fair number of craftsmen, artists and traders. The living

pattern of the people also changed. A well defined social structure

came into existence. The villages of the Sumerians were built on

artificial mounds so that they could be protected from floods. They

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mastered the art of making bricks from clay and built kilns for this

purpose.

The houses of the Sumerians were organized alongside narrow

lanes. The constructions were sturdy and sometimes two storyed. The

main cities were surrounded with high walls for protection but people

also lived outside the walls. Those living outside the walls were poor

people and their houses were huts made from reeds and clay. A city had

its own god and the temple of this god was located at the centre of the

city. The temple was a symbol of the city’s prestige and wealth

therefore it was built on a high raised ground to be reached by stairs.

The temple tower was called as holy mountain or ziggurat. All other

houses were located on the grounds surrounding the temple. These

included the houses of important officials, musicians, singers, priests,

accountants etc. who were the prominent citizens. There were also the

store houses for grains and weapons. The animals to be sacrificed to the

gods were housed in the pens on the temple grounds.

The people had domesticated sheep, goats, oxen donkeys and

dogs but horses and camels were not known to them. They had the

knowledge of the wheel and they used it for carts and making pottery.

Similarly, they also had invented the plow. The movement of heavy

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goods was done by carts pulled by the oxen. Oxen were also used for

pulling the plow. Weapons were made from bronze which was

manufactured by smelting copper with tin. There was traffic on the

rivers and canals. Boats moved with heavy goods. Some findings show

that these boats had gone as far as the Indus river valley.

It is often indicated that the writing system of the Sumerians is

the oldest known writing system. In this way the Sumerian literature

becomes the most ancient literature. In the beginning it was a pictorial

script similar to the Egyption hyroglyphical writing. Later on the

cuneiform was developed. It was found easier to impress the soft clay

with a line rather than scratching it. A straight piece of reed with a three

– cornered end was used as a stylus. The stylus could best produce

triangular forms and straight lines and therefore the curved lines for a

picture were to be broken into series of straight lines. In this way the

pictures became stylized Symbols. The triangular forms were wedge

shaped. The latin word for wedge is ‘cuneus’, hence the script is called

as cuneiform writing. These cuneiforms were then associated with the

sound that signified an object. Thus each sigh was the representation of

‘a syllable’. In this way the cuneiform system of writing was

developed.

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 The documents discovered in the cuneiform writings are of

various types. These indicate that the Sumerian people kept record of

many things. There was a strong sense of private property and hence

records have been kept about every object owned by the individual or

the family. There were scribes who rendered their services for making

cuneiform records. The seal of the owner was then stamped on the

tablet. The Sumerian people had made advancement in arithmetic.

Therefore the cuneiform tablets have mathematical and astronomical

accounts. The cuneiform writings also have records of business

transactions. In addition, the cuneiform tablets reveal religious writings

such as prayers and incantations. There are various types of letters and

orders found in the form of cuneiform tablets. The numerous narratives

found in the cuneiform tablets give a fair idea about the Sumerian

literature. In addition it also helps us understand about the other

cultures because the Semitic languages of the Babylonian and Assyrian

people were also started to be expressed in cuneiform and the

communities of Syria, Anatolia, Armenia, and Iran made use of this

script.

The land that is called as Mesopotamia had people of diverse

ethnicity. Along with the Sumerians, the Semite, Indo – European and

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other groups of people also populated this area. The Semites lived their

life largely as nomadic herdsmen. Some Semites adapted to the city life

established by the Sumerians but they dwelt in villages or the suburbs

of the city. They provided livestock to feed the city. Many Semites

were assimilated into the city. Today the Sumerian people are not

prominent groups recognized by history. The Sumerian language had

monosyllabic words. This language is not related to any known

language. It does not survive in any community. This fact can be

contracted to the traditions of other groups in this area. The tradition of

the Arabs and Jews can be traced back to the Semites. These can also

be related to the Assyrian, Babylonian, Palestinian and Egyptian

people. The other group – that of the Indo – European, is also well

known for carrying down its tradition from the ancient times. The

reason for this break in the tradition or the end of Sumerian language

may be related to the fact that later on the Sumerian people were

replaced by the Semites. The political and religious leadership in

Mesopotamia went into the hands of the Semites. Their influenced

increased gradually and the language of Sumerian people was no longer

in use by 1800 BC. It was only kept for sacred texts and royal

communications. Later on, this language become extinct.

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 As mentioned earlier, the Sumerian city had a principal deity.

The people of the one city worked out relationship of their own deity

with the deities of other cities. A hierarchy of gods was later developed.

Some gods were regarded to be one, addressed or known by different

names. The city of Uruk that is the setting for the Epic of Gilgamesh

had the temple of Anu in its centre. Anu was the city god of Uruk. He

was the god of the heavens and the greatest of all the gods. Other

important god was Enlil the god of storn and also like Anu, Enlil has an

important role to play in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Enlil figures also in the

origin myth of the Sumerian people. According to this myth there was

water everywhere in the world in the beginning. It was a watery chaos

whose mother was an immense dragon named Tiamat. Then the gods

decided to bring order out of this Chaos. Tiamat opposed this and

created an army of dragons. At this time Enlil summoned the help of

his winds. When Tiamat came in confrontation, Enlil pushed the winds

in the wide open mouth of Tiamat. This swelled up Tiamat’s body and

she could not move. Enlil then split her body and made two parts out of

it. Half of the body was made flat to from the earth. The other half was

shaped like the arch and heavens were made out of it. Then Tiamat’s

husband was beheaded. His blood was mixed with clay to make the

human beings.

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 Though the Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of Sumerian

people, the text of this narrative has not fully been found to be

surviving in the Sumerian language. However, the text in Akkadian, a

Semitic language, has survived in the form of twelve tablet. This can be

dated back to the period 700 BC. That was the last period of the

Akkadian Empire. The Persians destroyed the Akkadian city Ninevah

in 612 BC. The Epic of Gilgamesh is recovered from the excavations

on the site of this city Ninevah. The Gilgamesh epic was wiped out

from the course of history because the Persians destroyed the old

religion. The old myths and other stories associated with the religion

also disappeared. The Persians established a new culture in the area.

There is evidence that though the full versions discovered

belong to the period around 700 BCE, the narratives of Gilgamesh were

started to be written in the early period of the second millennium BCE.

These versions are not available and they may have been destroyed.

The most complete version is recorded on the tablets that come from

the collection of the king Assurbanipal/Ashurbanipal (668-627 BCE) of

Assyrian Empire. He was the last strong king of this empire and after

his death this vast empire moved on the road to destruction by enemies

– the Mesopotamians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, medes, Persians,

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Seythians and Cimmerians, Assurbanipal had an impressive collection

of texts of all kinds in the form of clay tablets in his library at Ninevah.

Thousands of clay tablets have been recovered intact from this library

and are now kept in the British Museum at London. It is said that the

library of this king gave inspiration to Alexander the Great to create his

own great library of Alexandria.

The epic of Gilgamesh was first discovered by Sir Austen Henry

Layard (1817 - 1894) in 1851 who was an English traveler as well as an

archeologist, cluneiformist and art historian. Layard uncovered the

library of Assurbanipal in Ninevah and sent the clay tablets to the

British Museum. The vastness and variety of Assurbanipal’s collection

can be surmised from the fact that Layard found over twenty five

thousand tablets in this excavation. The king Assurbanipal had sent his

men to various parts of his kingdom to collect the various types of

documents. After getting these, he had them rewritten or inscribed

again on the tablets. The tablets containing Gilgamesh epic are also

inscribed on the orders of Assurbanipal. These were actually excavated

by Hormuzed Rassam (1826-1910) who was collaborating with Layard

in the work of excavation at the Ninevah site. Rasson was a native

Assyrian and Christion Assyriologist and he is credited with the

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discovery of the tablets containing the Epic of Gilgamesh. However,

this narrative epic did not gain immediate popularity after its

decipherment. The work of deciphering was done by Henry Rawlinson

and his assistant George Smith. In 1872, George Smith declared that he

had found an account of the great flood or deluge in the tablets from

Ninevah. This aroused immediate interest in the contents of the tablets

because of the similar account of deluge contained in the Holy Bible.

George Smith was sent to the Ninevah site by the British Museum to

carry out further excavations. Smith succeeded in finding out more

tablets at the site and the gaps in the descriptions on other tablets were

nearly filled by Smith’s discoveries. In this way George Smith (1840-

1876), the English Assyriologist is to be credited with the first

translation of this great epic. Further additions to the knowledge about

the Epic of Gilgamesh were made by the expeditions carried out

between 1889 and 1898 by Reverend John Punnelt Peters, University

of Pennsylvania Professor of Hebrew. These excavations were carried

out at the site of the ancient city of Nippur located in the Southern part

of Iraq. From these excavation some tablets in Sumerian language were

found. These tablets contained a version of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

There are other versions which were found at various sites viz. Anatolia

or Asia Minor, Ugarit on the Syrian coast, Megiddo in Palestine. These

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are in different languages like Semitic Akkadian & Indo – European

Hittie. These are all fragmentary works. Some are the poems

concerning Gilgamesh. The complete story survives only in the tablets

recovered from the library of Assurbanipal. According to N. K.

Sandars, “ While no element of the story can be later than the

destruction of Nineveh in the seventh century, a recurring situation

typical of the third millennium is discernible behind much of the action,

and probably provided its context. Behind this again the tradition

reaches back into a preliterate age on the borderline of legend and

history, a little later than the Deluge, when gods were replaced by

mortals on the thrones of the city – states. This was the age of the

Archaic Sumerian civilization ” (13)

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An overview of the critical method

It has been more than a century since psychoanalytic

comments on literature, human nature , and society gained critical

attention. Today, the psychoanalytical approach of literary criticism has

become a richly diversified field with a number of critics like Harold

Bloom, Norman Holland, Charles Mauron, Jacques Lacan, and others

building up their own distinctive theories. American psychologist

James Hillman (1926-2011) is one of the prominent theorists that have

played a key role in the contemporary development of psychoanalytical

criticism. The present study offers a brief explication of some major

concepts from Hillman’s theory of ‘Archetypal Psychology’. However,

before embarking on the discussion of Hillman’s concepts, it is

essential to take a brief overview of the most important developments

in the field of psychoanalysis that have preceded and also contributed

to the development of Hillman’s theory.

Modern psychoanalysis started with Freud who succeeded in

transforming Psychology from a branch of Philosophy to a scientific

discipline. In its initial stage of development, the classical

psychoanalysis focused on explanation of events as ‘conscious’ or

‘unconscious’. Significant concepts regarding the structure and

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function of mind were developed by Freud. His work provided insight

into neurosis, dreams, jokes, and artistic creativity. More important is

the fact that Freud’s work paved way for understanding child

development in which specific stages were marked to the formation of

a ‘character’ of the adult. Freud later progressed beyond the division of

the ‘conscious’ and the ‘unconscious’ to recognize that the workings of

the mind involved the interactions of ‘id’, ‘superego’, ‘reality’ and

‘repetition compulsion’ under the control of the ‘ego’.

Freud’s disciple Jung furthered the study with his theories that

differed from his teacher’s. He presented the concept of the ‘collective

unconscious’ which was an advancement on Freud’s idea of the

personal unconscious. The ‘collective unconscious’ consisted of the

primeval imprinting and basic patterns of human life. These were

recognized to be the ‘archetypes’. The archetypes were noticed to be

present in literary types like myths and fairy tales. The archetypes are

the basic patterns which give rise to the development of complexes in

the human psyche. Jung’s Analytical psychology becomes highly

relevant in today’s globalized world as it helps us understand

personality development, relationship conflicts and other psychological

problems. James Hillman has been inspired to a great extent by Jung’s

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theory of archetypes though Hillman’s theories are unique and he is

regarded to be one of the most original theorists of the contemporary

times. In 1970’s Hillman began propounding this theory of “Archetypal

Psychology” mainly because he was dissatisfied with the way in which

Psychoanalysis had shaped up. He proposed to enlarge the scope of this

scientific model beyond the clinical inquiry to include arts , culture, and

the history of ideas and named it “Archetypal”. Hillman has explained

this nomenclature in his Archetypal Psychology,

“Archetypal” belongs to all culture, all forms of human activity,

and not only to professional practitioners of modern

therapeutics. By traditional definition, archetypes are the

primary forms that govern the psyche. But they cannot be

contained only by the psyche, since they manifest as well in the

physical, social, linguistic, aesthetic, and spiritual modes. Thus

Archetypal Psychology’s first links are with culture and

imagination rather than with medical and empirical

psychologies, which tend to confine psychology to the

positivistic manifestations of the nineteenth-century condition of

the soul. (13)

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Hillman’s works explicate his theory of Archetypal Psychology and its

application. A brief review of some of the most important works may

give us a lucid idea about Archetypal Psychology. In presenting this

theory and the various concepts associated with it, Hillman’s main

purpose is to dissociate the psychic phenomena from the analytical

mind and to underline the significance of Mythic, Polytheistic approach

to these phenomena. The fundamentals of Hillman’s theory have been

explicated in the 1972 text The Myth of Analysis: Three Essays in

Archetypal Psychology, the book version of lectures delivered by

Hillman in the 1960s. Here Hillman’s contention is that modern

psychology has been distorting the psyche into a belief that there is

something ‘wrong’ with it; psychology should instead move the psyche

‘into life’, for Hillman, “Moving the psyche into life means moving it,

not from its sickness, but from its sick view of itself as being in need of

professional care and knowledge and professional love” (3). The

psyche suffers and also falls ill but according to Hillman, the helping

professions like psychotherapy must locate the sickness in the ‘soul’ in

order to cure it. Whatever is labeled to be ‘wrong’ with the psyche- the

fantasies, feelings, and behavior associated with these – arises from the

‘imaginal’ part of ourselves; these are archetypal in their sickness and

thus are natural.

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 Hillman’s most popular book that featured on the New York

Times Bestseller list in 1996,The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character

and Calling expounds the ‘Acorn theory’. This theory, taking off from

Plato’s idea of the ‘daimon’(soul companion) and Plotinus’ idea about

‘moirai’(fate, task allowed by the gods) says that there is always a

certain urge in all of us. This urge calls us on to a particular path. The

subject of The Soul’s Code is that urge or that call which makes a

difference in the lives of the human beings. The happenings in life have

a hand of fate. Despite the turn of events in our childhood (these events

may not be favourable), the human beings bear a definite individual

character with some enduring traits right from the start of life.

Psychological theories focus on the traumatic events in the childhood.

Hillman tries to locate something more than these events in the

childhood. He tries to establish that there is a sense of personal calling.

This sense of personal calling is the reason why a human being is alive.

Hillman clarifies that he is not speaking about the meaning of life in

general or a philosophy of religious faith. His focus is on the unique

reason because of which people do what they do in their life. He says

that everyone is answerable to an ‘innate image’, which is the focus of

The Soul’s Code. This innate image cannot be found unless we have an

appropriate psychological theory that grants primary psychological

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reality to the call of fate. Hillman sets aside the paradigms of ‘genetics’

and ‘environment’, which are primarily used for understanding human

life. He does so because these paradigms have been found to be

creating a ‘victim mentality’. Hillman is of the view that today we have

become the victims of all these paradigms set by psychology

(academic, scientific and even therapeutic). These paradigms are to be

set aside because they do not account for the ‘sense of calling’. In the

opening chapter of The Soul’s Code Hillman mentions the four topics

of his focus: calling, fate, character, and innate image.

For Hillman, the individual person is not a process or

development but an essential image that develops. A person is born

with a character. The character is a gift from the ‘guardians’ ( a concept

based on Plato’s theory mentioned in the Republic) . The guardian or

‘daimon’ is the soul companion given to each individual human being

before the time of his/her time of birth .The human being forgets the

daimon in the process of arrival and mistakenly believes that each one

has come alone in this world. But the fact is that , from the time

preceding the birth, the daimon has selected a pattern according to

which a person has to live. Hillman’s theory gives a great importance to

myth. For example, in The Soul’s Code, he mentions the myth of ‘Er’

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and states that “the myth has a redemptive psychological function, and

a psychology derived from it can inspire a life founded on it”(8).

Hillman points out the paradox that though the concept of

individualized soul image has a long history, contemporary psychology

and psychiatry do not include it in the field of their studies. Actually

‘psyche’ or ‘soul’ is the core subject of psychology the discipline omits

the study of its core. Hillman refers to the appearance of the idea of

individualized soul in diverse cultures at various times in the history.

He uses multiple terms to present his central concept: ‘the acorn’,

‘image’, ‘character’, ‘fate’, ‘genius’, ‘calling’, ‘daimon’, ‘soul’,

‘destiny’. He does not want to limit the understanding of this complex

phenomenon to narrow definitions. It is the function of Psychology to

locate the soul and to recover world as the place of the soul. For

Hillman the soul is not a thing but rather a perspective whose primary

activity is imagining. This imaginative activity is important because

through this activity one’s world is animated. Recovering the world for

the soul is termed as ‘soul making’ by Hillman. In his The Myth of

Analysis he reiterates that “…psychological work must be rethought. If

soul- making is not treatment, not therapy, not even a process of self-

realization but is essentially an imaginative activity or an activity of the

imaginal realm…then the professional is confronted with reflecting

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upon himself and his work”(7). In this text Hillman first points out how

the ideas of the unconscious and psychopathology emerged out of the

Enlightenment and the nineteenth century , and reflects from the

archetypal point of view upon the language of psychology, especially

the terms used for the imaginal phenomena. He shows how the

enlightened egoization of the psyche replaced the imaginal power of

the psyche with the concept of the unconscious. Hillman also

approaches the mytheme of female inferiority in this text. When the

conscious is equated with ‘light’ there has to be an opposite –‘the

darkness’ for expressing it. This opposite is always the inferior and

traditionally it is equated with the ‘female’ from the perspective of the

Jewish, Greek and Christian traditions on which the Western mindset is

built. Basically, Hillman challenges this way of thinking in terms of

oppositions or dualities and stresses the need of not getting caught up in

this habit. Both, the subjective and the objective are embodied in

images and imagination. The imaginal realm contains the human as

well as the divine. Therefore Hillman is against the idea of one sided

perception of the human existence. If such one sided interpretation is

carried out, the reality of the soul-world is lost. The subjective can

never be neglected according to this viewpoint. Moreover, the

subjective has to be extended for inclusion of the impersonal. The soul

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has to be made capable of negotiating the contradictions, paradoxes and

ambiguities of life. For this purpose mythical parallels prove to be of

great use.

Hillman’s Pulitzer Prize winning Re-Visioning Psychology

(1975) is a seminal text in the tradition of Archetypal Psychology, that

helps us grasp Hillman’s concepts more clearly. Here Hillman’s agenda

is “To restore the mythical perspective to depth psychology by

recognizing the soul’s intrinsic affinity with, nay, love for the

Gods….to reaffirm the tragic connection between the mortal and the

immortal, that natural plight of the soul that lies at the base of any

psychology claiming to speak of psyche” (xi). Hillman explains the

task of ‘soul-making’ here. For this to happen, ‘personification ‘ is a

powerful tool. Personification is used to challenge the demarcation

between ‘living subjects’ and ‘dead objects’. By using personification,

we can endow sacredness to the objects of imagination and we can

return life to them. Hillman cautions us not to regard personification as

inferior. In a truly Romantic spirit, he emphasizes the use of

personification for gaining a deep insight into the psychological reality

of a person. For Re-Visioning psychology, it is necessary to change the

way we look at psychopathology. The scientific model views

28 | P a g e
psychopathology as implying negative conditions like disruption of the

social nexus and frustrated spiritual development. Hillman wants us to

be free of these negative connotations associated with

psychopathology. He would rather go with Freud who considered the

fact that the symptoms are a natural part of the regular expression of the

soul. Hillman refers to the later works of Freud and Jung, Moses and

Monotheism , and Answer to Job for emphasizing the need to bridge

psychology with religion. This need to relate to religion is an important

feature of Hillman’s theory. He points out in Re-Visioning Psychology

that Psychology has failed because it has taken its instruments from

other disciplines like economics, medicine etc. but has excluded

religion; this is “ …an astounding neglect in view of the fact that it was

always to religion that the soul belonged. Yet not so astounding, since

psychology has also forgotten that it was study of the soul”( 226). The

two works of Freud and Jung mentioned by Hillman prove his point

that in the later phase of their work, both these great psychologists

recognized the need to align psychology with religion. Hillman’s full

length study on this topic In Search: Psychology and Religion

explicates these poits further.

29 | P a g e
 In In Search: Psychology and Religion(1994), Hillman starts

with what is meant by ‘real life’ and simplifies this complex term by

stating,

“…real life means simply human being, ourselves, and other

people. In these encounters with ourselves and with others, we

fail and are failed. As time goes on, the mounting tragedy over

what happens in life means in part what God, fate, and

circumstances have brought about, but more it means what

happens in the relationships with other people.”(15)

Hillman brings out the fallacy that whenever there is a problem in a

human being’s life, psychology views the human being as a problem.

Then the analysts, counselors and social workers set out to solve this

problem. According to Hillman, a psychological problem is also a

major religious problem. It is the failure or the obstacles faced by one

in the search for the soul and for the belief in its reality. This means, in

simple terms, finding a living connection with one’s own psychic

reality. Hillman feels that analytical psychology can be of help in this.

Ignorance and moralisms damaged the handling of the psyche in the

nineteenth century. Twentieth century onwards, the “soul’ is being

gradually replaced by ‘psyche’ and consequently, a sort of

30 | P a g e
professionalism has emerged. Hillman strongly asserts that psyche

cannot replace the soul and professionalism cannot substitute for

vocation. He wants freedom from this professionalism because soul-

work can only be completed by one who views his/her task as vocation.

Hillman’s Healing Fiction (1994) makes a very important

statement that the very act of psychological healing is ‘fictional’ and

the ‘fiction’ constitutes healing. Referring to Freud, Hillman asks why

Freud got himself tangled between the medical and the literary when

trying to write psychological case reports. He answers the question by

saying, “Freud tangled the two because he was engaged in both at once:

fiction and case history, and ever since then in the history of our field,

they are inseparable, our case histories are a way of writing fiction” (5).

In each of his texts, Hillman has pointed out the lacunas of modern

psychotherapy; in Healing Fiction, one such shortcoming is exposed.

Hillman pints out, “The core mistake in psychology is that it literalizes

functions and actions as discrete moving parts, separated from each

other”(25). His text tries to free soul history to be wholly inner,

important, and symbolic by deliteralizing psychoanalysis. Hillman

shows that, like Freud, Jung also amalgamates psychology with fiction

and Jung’s psychology presents itself as a continuing essay. Hillman

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also takes into consideration the contribution made by Alfred Adler in

the field of Psychotherapy and remarks that the most valuable part of

Adler’s psychotherapy is his understanding of the thoroughly fictional

aspect of our minds. Hillman contends that these three great

psychologists had each a style of their own when they wrote their

findings and their writings have evolved a new genre of fiction that can

be located mid way between medical science and humanities. The main

question raised by Hillman in this text is “What does the soul want?” In

answer he provides a statement which underlines the significance of the

question. He says that there cannot be a definitive answer but “We are,

however attempting to remain in touch with the soul by means of the

question. For Psychotherapy it may be enough to remember- not what it

wants but that it wants, and that the soul’s eternal wanting is

psychotherapy’s eternal question”(129).

In The Force of Character and the Lasting Life (1999), Hillman

takes up the phenomenon of aging as his subject. He tries to

psychologize aging and to discover the soul in it. Looking at aging not

as a process but as a structure having its own essential nature, he tries

to make sense of the absurd predicaments and ridiculous degradations

congruent with age by asking the question, “What is character, and how

32 | P a g e
does it force us into the patterns we live?” (xv). Hillman brings out a

radically special actuality that our last years confirm and fulfill

character. He states that character governs physiology and also

everything else. Here Hillman perceives old age as a ‘state of being’.

For him, ‘old’ is an archetypal phenomenon with its own myths and

meanings. This text reveals how the characters of human beings are

enriched and made meaningful by old age. The point Hillman makes is

that aging is intended by the soul and is necessary for the human

condition. The human beings acquire depth of character by lasting into

later years. The final years of life have a very important purpose – the

fulfillment and confirmation of one’s character.

After this brief review of some of the most important texts by

Hillman, it would be pertinent to attempt for delineating some

significant concepts from the theory of Archetypal Psychology.

Hillman’s choice of the word ‘archetypal’ shows his connection with

the Jungian heritage. For Jung, the archetypes governed the

psychological forces that influenced human behaviour, thought, and

emotion. Jung also located the archetypes in myth and gave a great

value to the images associated with it. He introduced various symbols

like Shadow, Anima, Self to understand the psychic reality. Though

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Hillman takes a radical departure from Jung, he works on the concepts

similar to those propounded by Jung. The difference is that, instead of

looking for answers in the advancement made by culture and science,

Hillman goes back deep into history to find his answers. Some of the

important concepts of Archetypal Psychology need to be discussed here

in the concluding part of this brief study.

The first and foremost is the concept of the ‘soul’. Hillman

wants to give importance to the’ soul’ rather than something which is

called as the ‘psyche’ by modern psychology. Though the term ‘soul’ is

very ancient and the concept is present in all the religious, cultural,

mythical systems of the world, Hillman lends a fresh aspect to this

term. The ‘soul’ is a perspective for Hilman, rather than a substance.

Whenever there is an encounter or an experience there is something

that can be located in the space between the encounter and the person.

Soul making is the process of getting access to this middle space. The

word ‘soul’ refers to that unknown component which turns events into

experience; it makes meaning possible. This word has a religious

concern. In brief, it can be said that soul is that which has connection

with death, love, spirituality; it is the deepening of events into

experience, and it is also the imaginative possibility of human nature.

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 The second important concept for Hillman is that of the

‘imaginal’. This concept owes its origin to Henry Corbin whose

spiritual standpoint held that imagination plays an important role in

human spiritual/inner life. Corbin differentiated between ‘imaginal’ and

‘imaginary’. Imaginary may indicate something fanciful or unreal, but

‘imaginal’ has a deeper spiritual connotation. Hillman uses ‘imaginal’

to describe the self/soul that is to be discovered by human beings. For

him ‘imaginal self’ expresses itself in images that are very important

for psychology.

Many of Hillman’s crucial ideas could not be covered in the

present study due to the brief nature of this criticaloverview. However,

one thing is certain that Hillman’s ideas cannot be neglected in

contemporary psychology. A disciple of Jung, he explored further

grounds and gave impetus to a starkly new method of Archetypal

psychology that attempts to bridge the gap between therapeutic

psychology and humanity. While attempting an archetypal analysis of

The Epic of Gilgamesh, Hillman’s method along with the established

Freudian and Jungian methods prove to be extremely fruitful.

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 Plot of the narrative

There are many versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh text both in the

ancient Akkadian script and also those translated in the modern

languages. The most comprehensive and cohesive is the narrative by

the ancient author Sin-lique-Unnani, a Babylonian scholar. For the

present research the following English versions have been consulted:

1)The Epic of Gilgamesh, An Old Babylonian Version by Morris

Jastrow and Albert T.Clay(San Diego: The Book Tree Pub.1920)

2) The Epic of Gilgamesh, A Prose Rendition Based upon The Original

Akkadian, Babylonian, Hittie and Sumerian Tablets by John Harris

(New York: Wryer’s Club Press,2001)

3) Gilgamesh by Alan Wall (Exeter: Shearsman Books Ltd,2008)

4) Gilgamesh, A Verse Narrative by Herbert Mason (Boston: Mariner

Books, 1970)

5) Gilgamesh by Derek Hines (New York: Anchor Books, 2002)

6) Gilgamesh, A New English version by Stephen Mitchell (London :

Profile Books Ltd.2002)

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7) Gilgamesh, A New Rendering in English Verse by David Ferry (

New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1991)

8) Gilgamesh, The Sumerian King by Keith Ishii ( La Vergne,2011)

9) Gilgamesh, A Novel by Joan London (New York : Grove

Press,2001)

10) The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other

Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian Translated by Andrew George

(London: Penguin 1999)

Of all the texts regarding the Gilgamesh epic, the text by

Andrew George has been found to be the most comprehensive and

lucid. Therefore this text is taken as the main source for delineating the

plot of the narrative. The following plot structure emerges from the

study of all the above mentioned sources of the Gilgamesh epic.

The first tablet contains a prologue to the epic of the great hero. The

speaker here invites the reader to the site where this hero ruled. The

speaker says that he shall tell the world about the man who found out

all the things, experienced everything and acquired wisdom. This

prologue, before introducing us to the hero Gilgamesh, describes his

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magnificent achievements. The speaker tells that it was Gilgamesh who

built up the wall of Uruk. This wall, shining like a copper band,

surrounds the holy shrine of Eanna. This shrine is the House of the Sky

, the dwelling of goddess Ishtar ( the goddess of fertility and war). The

speaker describes the battlements , the gateway , and the well baked

bricks of the great wall .While describing the wall, he refers to the

seven Councilors who are believed to have taught the men the seven

principal arts of civilization such as architecture, metallurgy, irrigation

etc. Then the city of Uruk is described. The inside of this great wall is

divided into four parts: the orchards, the clay pits, the temple of Ishtar,

and the city of Uruk. A picture of the beauty of the temple Eanna is

created through the words of the narrator- the dazzling mosaic walls of

many colours, the jeweled lions at the high doorway. Inside there is a

copper cabinet that contains the tablets of sky blue lapis lazuli. The

speaker says that these tablets contain the story of Gilgamesh. The

speaker describes him as the person who was a brave warrior , a good

king , a hero to the people of the city , an invincible man , but before

decorating him with all these epithets , the speaker simply refers to him

as ‘Gilgamesh who suffered so much’.

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After this, the readers/listeners are told that Gilgamesh was the son of

goddess Ninsun ( the goddess of the wild cow, noted for her wisdom),

and Lugulbanda. According to the Encyclopedia Mythica

(http://www.pantheon.org/articles/l/lugulbanda.html) he is third on the

post-diluvian King-List, and ruler of Uruk for 1200 years, a semi-

divine person) was his father. Gilgamesh is described as a bold

explorer, who opened passes through the mountains and dug canals in

the rough country. He is also described to have traveled to the ends of

the Earth and beyond. He is the one who met Utnapishtim, the sole

survivor of the great flood. It is told to the audience that Gilgamesh

wrote everything down on a tablet of lapis lazuli and locked it in a

copper chest after he returned from this great journey.

He is two-thirds divine, and one-third mortal. No one can stand up to

him.

Gilgamesh is a very powerful ruler; none can defeat him, but he is not a

benevolent king. He snatches sons from mothers for military

recruitment and he must copulate with every bide before her marriage

to another person. He is described as a ruthless king who kills warriors

whenever he feels like fighting, rapes his officers’ wives, takes

whatever he wants from his people, and destroys anyone who opposes

39 | P a g e
him. The citizens of Uruk therefore pray to the gods for deliverance

from this king. They say that a king is supposed to protect his subjects

like a shepherd, not harass them like a wild ox-

It is he who is shepherd of Uruk- the –sheepfold,

[but Gilgamesh] lets no[daughter go free to her] mother,

[The women voiced] their[troubles to the goddesses,]

[they brought their] complaint before[them:] (George 3).

The prayer is answered and Aruru, the goddess of creation, is told to

make someone strong enough to match Gilgamesh because it was

Aruru who made Gilgamesh. Aruru forms another man, named Enkidu

from clay. Enkidu, when sent to the earth, lives in the wilds with the

animals. He is-

“Coated in hair like the god of the animals,

With the gazelles he grazes on grasses”(George 5).

One day he is noticed by a hunter at a watering hole. The hunter is

terrified by the sight of this giant man. He tells his father he has seen a

giant man, who is undoubtedly the most powerful in the land. The

40 | P a g e
hunter is disturbed because Enkidu has unset his traps and filled in his

pits. Enkidu lives as one of the animals and protects them. The hunter’s

father advises him to go to Uruk to Gilgamesh. He should request for

Shamhat, the temple harlot, whose charms will attract Enkidu and thus

he will be overpowered. The hunter accordingly goes to Gilgamesh and

brings back Shamhat to tame Enkidu. They wait for him near a

waterhole for three days. Finally Enkidu comes and the hunter tells

Shamhat to seduce him by exposing her body. The plan succeeds and

Enkidu is attracted to the woman. They are described to have sex for

six days and seven nights. Then Enkidu’s desire is fulfilled. But he has

now become a human being so the animals do not accept him. He has

also lost his animal skills so he cannot gallop and catch up with the

animals. A change has taken place in his mind and he has acquired

reason as well as wide understanding. When he goes back to Shamhat,

she tells him to behave like a human and informs him about the

pleasures to be had in the city of Uruk. She gives him information

about the aspects of human civilized life: music, food and the festivals.

She also tells him about the powerful and dreadful king, Gilgamesh.

Enkidu, on hearing about Gilgamesh, realizes his own loneliness. He

now wants to see Gilgamesh .It is his instinct to find a friend.But first

he wants to challenge Gilgamesh. Shamhat describes the strength of

41 | P a g e
Gilgamesh and says that Enkidu would not be able to defeat such a

man. But she also tells him that Gilgamesh has a desire to have a

friend. She describes the two dreams that Gilgamesh has just had. In

one dream, he saw a meteor landing in a field outside Uruk. Gilgamesh

was drawn to this meteor as if it were a woman. He went to it and lifted

it with great labour. Then he carried this meteor to his mother, Ninsun.

In the other dream, Gilgamesh found an axe lying in the street and a

large group of people surrounding it.. Gilgamesh was overcome with

admiration and he too loved the axe as if it were his wife. He carried it

to his mother and put it at her feet. These dreams were interpreted by

Ninsun. She has told him that the rock and the axe represent the man

who will be his friend, but before that the man will challenge

Gilgamesh:

My son, the axe you saw is a friend,

Like a wife you’ll love him, caress and embrace him,

And I, Ninsun, I shall make him your equal.

A mighty comrade will come to you, and be his friend’s

savior,

42 | P a g e
 Mightiest in the land, strength he posseses,

His strength is as mighty as a rock from the sky.

(George11)

The second tablet shows Enkidu and Shamhat leaving the forest.

Shamhat has given some part of her garments as clothes to Enkidu. On

their way , they stop at a shepherd’s camp. Shamhat here makes Enkidu

a civilized person. She teaches him how to eat the cooked food, and

how to enjoy wine. The shepherds marvel at this giant of a man.

Shamhat tells them that he is indeed a mighty person. Enkidu now

guards the sheep against the wolves and lions of the forest. A passing

stranger tells him about the practice set by Gilgamesh regarding the

wedding. This person is carrying presents for the wedding ceremony.

He informs that Gilgamesh always enjoys the bride on the first night at

any wedding ceremony. Enkidu is angered by this. He decides to stop

this practice by challenging Gilgamesh. As he goes to Uruk and makes

his intention apparent, the people cheer him. They are amazed to see so

strong a man. Enkidu stands on the threshold of the bridal chamber and

stops Gilgamesh. He fights with Gilgamesh. The walls of the city

tremble due to this terrible fight. Finally, Gilgamesh defeats Enkidu,

but as the fight ends they become friends. Enkidu admits that

43 | P a g e
Gilgamesh is the rightful king of Uruk and pledges his fidelity.

Gilgamesh declares his undying friendship to Enkidu. They embrace

and kiss each other. He takes him to his mother. Ninsun, gives their

friendship her blessing. She declares that Enkidu is to be her son’s

faithful cohort from that time onwards.Gilgamesh expresses his desire

to undertake a bold adventure. He wants to kill Humbaba who lives in

the distant cedar forest as its guard. Humbaba is a fearsome monster

appointed by the god of Earth-Enlil, to protect this forest. Entry into

this forest is forbidden. Enkidu and the elders are apprehensive and try

to warn Gilgamesh, but Gilgamesh has made up his mind to fight a

mighty enemy. He wants to establish himself as a worthy hero. Finally

his decision prevails.

The third tablet describes preparations for the adventure

of these two heroes. When Gilgamesh goes to his mother for her

blessings, she is saddened because she knows how dangerous this

expedition can be. She prepares herself properly for the prayer and asks

the Sun God Shamash, “Why did you afflict my son Gilgamesh with so

restless a spirit?”(George 24). She prays for his safety and asks

Shamash to aid Gilgamesh. She comes back from her prayer and

proclaims Enkidu as her second son. Ninsun and the elders give them

44 | P a g e
advice for their journey. They tell Gilgamesh to use Enkidu’s skills and

knowledge of the life in wilderness. This tablet depicts all the

invocations, sacrifices and speeches made for the safety and victory of

Gilgamesh. and practical preparations, and after listening to more

warnings from the elders and declaring their intention to prevail, the

two heavily armed heroes step outside the seven-bolt gate of Uruk and

set off on their adventure. They do not stop to eat until they have

walked twenty leagues. In three days, they cover 150 leagues (450

miles); it would take an ordinary man three weeks to walk so far. They

dig a well and make an offering to the god Shamash, then continue on

their journey. As they walk, they bolster each other’s spirits. Enkidu

urges Gilgamesh on whenever his courage flags, assuring him that they

can defeat Humbaba. When Enkidu falters, Gilgamesh reassures him

that he is a good warrior, that when the time for battle comes he will

not lose heart, and that they will stand and fight together. When they

finally reach the forest, they pause for a moment and think about what

they are going to do.

The journey to the Cedar Forest is described in the fourth tablet.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu traveled full day before they ate. The distance

they covered is described as [at twenty] leagues they broke bread, [at]

45 | P a g e
thirty leagues they pitched camp: [Fifty] leagues they travelled in the

course of a day, by the third day [a march] of a month and a half; nearer

they draw to Mount Lebanon, (George 30). In the course of their

journey, they pitch a camp every three days and conduct a ritual for

calling a dream. In the first dream Gilgamesh sees that they are at a foot

of a mountain, in a ravine. He looked up and the mountain fell over on

them. They were helpless like the flies. He is upset because of this

dream but Enkidu said that the dream was good and it has conveyed the

meaning that they will seize Humbaba, kill him, and leave his corpse to

waste on the ground. In the second dream Gilgamesh saw that again a

mountain fell upon them as they passed beneath it. The rocks of the

mountain tangled his feet so he could not move. Then an intolerable

blazing light came. Inside this light there was a person who was

inexpressibly beautiful. This person pulled Gilgamesh out, gave him

water and comforted him. Enkidu again said that this dream indicates

their victory over Humbaba who is like a mountain. In the third dream

Gilgamesh saw that the heavens roared and the earth roared up to the

heavens; the daylight failed and there was darkness all around. There

was lighting and fire blazed out of the forest. Clouds gathered and

Gilgamesh and Enkidu were showered by a rain of ashes and coals.

This time also Enkidu tells that the dream is a good omen. In the fourth

46 | P a g e
dream Gilgamesh saw a thunderbird in the sky. This thunderbird rose

like a cloud, soaring above them. Its mouth was fire and its breath was

death. There was also a strange looking man who bound the wings of

the thunderbird and cast it down before Gilgamesh. Enkidu interpreted

that the man was Shamash who bound the wings of mighty

thunderbird-like Humbaba. In the fifth dream Gilgamesh saw that he

had taken hold of a bull from the wild. As the bull bellowed, clouds of

dust arose from the ground. Then there was another man who helped

Gilgamesh and gave him water from his water skin. Enkidn told him

that the wild bull was Shamash and the man who helped him was

Gilgamesh’s father Lugalbanda. Gilgamesh is conveyed that he has the

blessings of both: his god and his father. But later on Enkidu is over

come by fear. This time its Gilgamesh who gives him courage saying,

“Take my hand, friend, and we shall go [on] together, [let] your

thoughts dwell on combat Forget death and [seek] life!” (George 38)

The fifth tablet describes the combat of Gilgamesh and Enkdu

with the mighty Humbaba. It begins with the scene of the two heroes at

the periphery of the cedar forest. They admire the beauty of the forest:

the height of the traces and their sweet incense. Very soon they

confront Humbaba. He speaks with malice to both Gilgamesh and

47 | P a g e
Enkidu. He insults Enkudu. Enkidu urges for a swift action from

Gilgamesh. When Gilgamesh starts to fight Humbaba, it is difficult for

him to carry on the fight. But the sun god Shamash helps him by

raising all the thirteen winds. This weakens Humbaba. And very soon

he is at the mercy of Gilgamesh. He pleads to Gilgamesh for sparing

his life and Gilgamesh considers that this might be done. But Enkidu

insists that Humbaba should not be left alive. Enkidu tells him to kill

Humbaba before the gods find out what they are doing. Finally

Gilgamesh kills Humbaba. They fell the trees of the forest. Gilgamesh

selects one big cedar tree and cuts it for making a great door for the

temple of Enlil, the Earth god and Humbaba’s master.

In the sixth tablet Gilgamesh is shown to be back in Uruk. He

was snow a great Hero with all the splendor. The focus of this tablet is

on Ishtar’s attraction for Gilgamesh. The goddess Ishtar is tempted by

the strength and splendor of Gilgamesh. She proposed to Gilgamesh.

But Gilgamesh wisely refused to marry her. He knew that none of

Ishtar’s lovers lasted long. He recounted to her what happened to all her

lovers. She had made all her lovers suffer. He told her that he did not

want the same fate. This enraged Ishtar greatly. She went to her father,

the sky god. Anu and asked for the bull of heaven to punish Gilgamesh.

48 | P a g e
Anu was reluctant at first, but then he relented. So now the mighty bull

of heaven was sent to Uruk to punish Gilgamesh. The bull created

havoc in Uruk. It killed many citizens. Enkidu and Gilgamesh fought

bravely. Together they overpowered the bull. They found out the weak

spot of the bull and killed him. Enkidu insulted Ishtar by throwing the

flesh of the bull at her. Gilgamesh called the craftsmen and decorated

the horns of the dead bull. He dedicated them to his father Lugalbanda.

The happiness of these two friends was short lived. As the

seventh tablet describes, Enkidu had a dream that night. He saw the

gods Anu, Enlil, Ea and Shamash in assembly. Anu said that

Gilgamesh and Enkidu have killed Humbaba and Bull of Heaven.

Therefore, one of them must die. Enlil suggested the death of Enkidu.

Shamash opposed it but finally the decision of Enkidu’s death

prevailed. Enkidu was saddened due to the knowledge of his imminent

dealth conveyed by this dream. He became delirins and started having

visions. He saw the vision of the great cedar door that he made for the

temple of Enlil. This has failed to secure gods favour for him so cursed

this door. His thoughts then turned to the hunter and Shamhat, the two

people because of whom he had become civilized. Overcome by grief,

Enkidu cursed them. The sun god Shamash reasoned with him and

49 | P a g e
Enkidu took back his curse from Shamhat. He then blessed Shamhat.

Enkidu had another dream in which he saw the Angel of death dragging

him to the world of the Dead. He described this dream to Gilgamesh.

Enkidu was greatly disturbed due to the sight of the Netherworld. In his

illness he cursed his fate. He did not want such a death. He would

prefer to die fighting but not in illness. He said to Gilgamesh, “My

friend, one who [combat, and shall make not my name.]” (George 62).

Enkidu finally died due to the illness sent by gods.

The eighth tablet describes the funeral of Enkidu and the

immense grief of Gilgamesh. Enkidu was more than a friend and a

partner for Gilgamesh. He lamented with grant sorrow for losing what

was almost a part of his life. Gilgamesh performed the funeral of

Enkidu by spending a lot of wealth. He called his craftsmen and made

Enkidu’s funerary statue. He selected precious items from his treasury

to be kept in Enkidu’s grave. It was necessary because all these items

would be carried by Enkidu to the Netherworld. These items would win

Enkidu the goodwill of the deities in the Netherworld. Gilgamesh

showed all these items to the public. He gave a grand banquet to the

people. As a part of the rites Gilgamesh anointed Enkindu’s statue with

50 | P a g e
affection. He decorated it and showed it to Shamash. After finishing the

rites he left the city of Uruk.

Enkidu’s death brought the awareness about his own mortality to

Gilgamesh – “I shall die, and shall I not then be as Enkidu?” (George

70). The ninth tablet, while revealing the fear of death in Gilgamesh’s

heart, describes his wanderings. Now Gilgamesh wanted to escape

death so he set out in search of the only immortal person : Uta –

napishti. He had now removed his attire of the king. He wore the

animal skins and wandered in the open country as if he had no family.

He travelled to the end of the world and arrived to the mountains where

the sum sets and rises. The scorpion – man guarded the way under

these mountains. Gilgamesh asked his help. The scorpion man was

unable to convince him that it was dangerous to pass that way. He

finally allowed him to pass the way under the mountains. Gilgamesh

had to complete his journey on this path of the sun before the sun could

catch up with him. He did this successfully and arrived at the place of

light where sun was in front of him. There was brightness everywhere

and the spiky bushes there blossomed with gemstones.

The tenth tablet describes how Gilgamesh went to his

destination. He first went to the tavern by the sea – shore beyond the

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bright garden. Siduri, a wise old goddness, was the tavern keeper.

When she saw Gilgamesh from a distance, she thought that he was

some hunter and so, closed the door of the tavern. Gilgamesh asked her

to open the door otherwise he would break it. He revealed his identity

and recounted his story to Siduri. He asked Siduri to help him reach

Utanapishti. Initially, Siduri tried to convince him about the futility of

his quest and the dangerous passage he was to cross. She told him that

he could not have a life that does not have death because when the

goods created human beings, they gave the humans death and kept the

immortal life for themselves. Finally Siduri told him how to find

Utanapishti and he rushed out on his way. He went to the place where

there was Urshanabi, the ferryman of Utanapishti. Gilgamesh was

required to cross the waters of Death to reach Utanapishti. He, initially

fought with Urshanabi and the strange creatures that were there with

the ferryman. After the fighting was over, he explained to Urshanabi

his reason for coming so far. He asked for Urshanbi’s help in reaching

Utanapishti. While fighting Urshanbi, Gilgamesh had smashed the

strange creatures ‘stone things’. Urshanbi told him that these were

required to keep him safe while taking a passage over the waters of

Death. However, Gilgamesh could still undertake the journey if he

would cut the poles for punting. He needed three hundred punting poles

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of great length. Gilgamesh took his axe and cut the poles from the

forest. He used these poles to propel the boat forward. When all the

poles were used and gone, he made use of the ferryman’s clothes to

make a sail from them. Finally Gilgamesh and Urshanbi completed

their journey and arrived at Utanpishti’s place. Here

Gilgamesh had to recount his story once again for explaining the

purpose of his journey to Utanapishti. Utanpishti told him that death

was inevitable for all human beings because it had been decided so by

the Anunnaki, the great gods and Mammitum, the maker of destiny.

The eleventh tablet describes the story of Utanapishti’s

immortality as told to Gilgamesh. Long time ago the gods including

Anu (the father of all gods), Ellil (warrior and counselor), and Ea god

of fresh water met in a conference and decided to cause a great flood in

order to destroy all the living beings on earth. Ea was beneficent to the

living creatures so he conveyed this information to Utanapishtim and

instructed him to build a boat. Utnapishtim was told to put on board the

seed of all living things. Therefore when the flood came, Utnapishtim

and other living creatures with him were saved. When the gods

discovered this, they were furious, but Ea reasoned with them and their

anger was subsided. Then the god Ellil went over to the boat and

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blessed Utnapishtim and his wife with immoratlity. Utnapishtim told

Gilgamesh that he was not capable of bringing the gods together for

bestowing immortality on Gilgamesh but there was a possibility of his

becoming immortal if he too, like Utnapishtim, did not sleep for six

days and seven nights. Gilgamesh decided to do so but very soon he

passed into slumber. Utnapishtim told his wife to bake Gilgamesh daily

portion of bread and put it by his head as he slept. He also told her to

mark along the wall the number of days that he had slept. Utnapishtim

then woke Gilgamesh on the seventh day and proved that he had failed

the test. The Ferryman Utnapishtim was also punished for bringing

Gilgamesh across the waters of Death. He was banned entry to

Utnapishtim’s place. While Gilgamesh prepared to depart,

Utnapishtim’s wife spoke to her husband and asked him to show some

mercy; so he told Gilgamesh a secret of a plant by using which he

could always be rejuvenated. As the plant grew in deep waters,

Gilgamesh tied heavy stones to his feet and went under water. He

procured the plant and left for his city Uruk along with Urshanbi on

their way back, they come across a pool of water where the already

tired Gilgamesh took bath in it. A snake was attracted by the fragrance

of the plant and it took the plant away as Gilgamesh’s attention was

diverted. Soon the snake shed its skin and is rejuvenated. Now

54 | P a g e
Gilgamesh realized that he had lost everything. He would not be able to

pluck out another plant because he did not remember the exact sopt

where he dived. Finally, they arrived at the city of Uruk and Gilgamesh

showed Urashanabi the grand walls that he had built around the city. In

a circular manner the epic ends with the description that was given in

the beginning “A square mile is city, a square mile date-grove, a square

mile is clay-pit, half a square mile the temple of Ishtar: there square

miles end a half is Uruk’s expanse” (George 99)”

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Analysis of the Text

The Gilgamesh text is considered as an epic and as a myth for

the purpose of the present analysis. It is to be called as an epic because

it recounts the story of a cultural hero much in the same manner as the

ancient Greek epics like The Odyssey and Iliad, the Indian epic of

Ramayana, or the medieval epic Beowulf. Though this epic was not

meant to be recited with the accompaniment of music, there are

evidences showing that it was to be read aloud on some occasions. The

central figure is a powerful king, a heroic warrior who undertakes

journeys for certain purposes. The journeys start and end in the same

place , the city of Uruk. The cyclical nature of the narrative is clearly

visible as the description in the opening lines and the concluding lines

is the same. The text is also to be regarded as myth because it has the

participation by supernatural beings and it deals with one of the most

fundamental issues of human existence. Though Gilgamesh was

actually a king in the Sumerian history, the deeds and events described

in the poem have passed into the realm of the mythic. Here Gilgamesh

is only partly human. He is more of a superhuman figure. All the same,

his pleasures and pains are essentially human. Myths are the stories that

have both the elements, human and superhuman. Myths discuss a

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certain essential reality of human existence. Such a reality, the reality

of death, is discussed here. Hence the epic of Gilgamesh is treated in

the same manner as a myth.

It is to be noted that when the Epic of Gilgamesh begins the

speaker makes it clear that the hero Gilgamesh himself has written it

down. Therefore, in a way, it has an autobiographical character.

Although Gilgamesh is two-thirds divine and only one-third human, the

story reveals the thematic concerns that are very human. There are

three main thematic concerns depicted in this epic. These are 1)

Immortality and Death 2) Companionship 3) Transformation from a

state of ignorance to knowledge.

The aim of the present study is to carry out an archetypal

analysis of the Epic of Gilgamesh. These three thematic aspects are the

main concerns of the Gilgamesh text and therefore the archetypal

analysis has been carried out along these lines mainly. While doing so,

other symbols have also been considered. Before making any symbolic

interpretation, we should not forget the fact that the deities and sacred

rituals mentioned in the Epic had an objective reality for the Sumerians.

They lived in a world where these deities existed. In the study of any

myth this aspect cannot be sidelined. However, the incidents, action

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and symbols of the Epic of Gilgamesh, whether taken literally or

symbolically, lead us to a deeper meaning that is essentially embedded

in the human condition.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is mainly treated as a myth here. It is not

considered as a historical document. Although Gilgamesh was a real

king of the Sumerians and he actually ruled the city of Uruk, he is a

deity in the Epic. A myth basically tells a story about supernatural

beings. Gilgamesh is a supernatural entity and therefore his story

qualifies for the status of a myth. Like all other myths the action of this

Epic is full of the intervention from the gods. Shamash the sun god,

Enlil, Ea, Ishtar and other Sumerian gods perform significant action in

the Epic. Gilgamesh himself is partly divine, his mother is goddess

Ninsun who plays an important role especially in the earlier part of the

epic. Later parts of the epic do not have the presense of Ninsun.

Though it is told that the king Lugulbanda, (who like Gilgamesh was

an actual historical figure and a king of Uruk) is Gilgamesh’s father, it

is not clear whether he had any direct role in Gilgamesh’s birth. That is

to say , we cannot be sure about the biological relation between

Gilgamesh and Lugulbanda. Like Gilgamesh, Lugulbanda also was

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given the status of deity by the Sumerians and he also was worshipped

as all other kings were.

Along with the divine or supernatural aspect of the story, the

human aspect happens to be equally important. As the present

discussion is to centre on the archetypal analysis of the Gilgamesh

myth, the first question that comes to mind is about the ‘partly’ divine

nature of the hero. This is not a story about the gods, it is a story of the

deeds of the man called Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is only partly divine. He

may have been described as ‘two thirds’ dive, that is, more divine than

human, but all along we find him at the mercy of the gods (and the

Sumerian gods here represent the forces of fate). The gods do not treat

him as one of their own. Gilgamesh himself does not consider his

person to be a god. He cannot do so, because he is a mortal human

being. Therefore, the two-thirds part which comes as a divine part may

only stand as an explanation for his superhuman strength and nothing

more.

The superhuman strength of Gilgamesh does not propel him

towards good deeds. On the contrary we see a ruthless despot in him

who subjugates and tortures his subjects. The superhuman strength of

Gilgamesh requires an equally strong entity to counter it and lead it to

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the correct course of action. This role is performed by Enkidu. As

described in the earlier chapter of this study, James Hillman’s method

of ‘Archetypal Psychoanalysis’ has established the significance of a

‘daimon’ in everyone’s life. Here we can say that Enkidu is a

personification of that daimon. The daimon is the guardian spirit that

always lead a human being to its fate. The figure of Enkidu is the factor

which brings about change in the action of this epic, and transformation

in the personality of its central character. Enkidu can be looked at from

several points of view. He is the brute, the animal who grazes on the

grasslands and cannot speak. He is hairy, like all other animals. The

animals regard him as one of their own. He protects the animals from

the hunters. Later on, he is humanized/civilized, but nevertheless,

Enkidu can be seen as the human being in its most primary form. He

represents that part of the personality which is not refined. The human

being may become civilized but his/her animal instincts always remain

in the personality.

If we follow the Frenuchian model, then Enkidu is the

representation of id in the earlier part of the epic. Later on, he performs

the role of the ‘super-ego’ because it is only after meeting Enkidu that

Gilgamesh longs for heroic glory and undertakes the adventure in the

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cedar forest. He becomes a benevolent king after confrontation with

Enkidu. Therefore, in Frendian terms, the uncordinated instinctual

trends of Gilgamesh are controlled and a moralizing process takes place

due to Enkidu. The sexual and aggressive drives in the personality of

Gilgamesh are subdued. They are replaced by camaraderie for Enkudu,

benevolent consideration for his subjects and an ambition to achieve

heroic glory.

From a Jungian perspective, Enkidu may be said to represent the

‘Shadow’ aspect of Gilgamesh’s personality. The shadow is the least

desirable aspect of one’s personality. In the Jungain model, the shadow

is a part of the unconscious. It is instinctive and irrational but also a

seat of creativity. In the Jungian process of ‘individuation’, one is

required to confront his/her ‘shadow’ in order to come to a realization

of one’s true self. Gilgamesh’s confrontation with Enkidu can be

looked at as his encounter with his shadow. Though Enkidu is civilized

at the time of clash with Gilgamesh, his transformation is followed by

Gilgamesh’s transformation and certainly Enkidu can be seen as a

symbol of the instinctive.

It can be seen that Gilgamesh’s superhuman strength the divine

aspect, and his instinctual drives – the human aspect are in constant

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contention. Until these two aspects achieve balance, Gilgamesh’s true

character cannot emerge. Enkidu becomes an instrument for bringing

about a balanced state here. Hence, the divine and the human in

Gilgamesh can be seen as harmonized after his contact with Enkidu.

The domestication of Enkidu is required for this process. If Enkidu is to

become an instrument for civilizing Gilgamesh, he must first become

civilized himself. Therefore, the epic shows civilization of Enkidu prior

to the civilization shamhat, the temple harlot performs catalytic role.

Here shainhat can be seen as the mother archetype because like a

mother, she teaches Enkidu the most basis things about civilized life.

The camp of the shepherds here serves as a significant step towards the

acculturation because it is at this camp that Enkidu becomes a civilized

human being. He acquires notions about morality and hence is angered

by teaching about the immoral acts of Gilgamesh.

The conflict of Gilgamesh with Humbaba is a representation of

opposition between good and evil, darkness and light. Shamash, the sun

god, is worshipped by Gilgamesh. The giant creature Humbaba is

referred to as ‘evil’ in this epic. It represents the forces of darkness. In

the fight with Humbaba, Shamash helps Gilgamesh. Here the god of

light is helping the hero to destroy the darkness. The darkness must be

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wiped out completely. Hence, when Gilgamesh is thinking of showing

mercy to Humbaba, Enkidu urges him to kill this giant quickly. Enkidu

is like a voice in the consciousness of Gilgamesh here. He helps the

hero to take a final decision. The archetypal conflict between good and

evil is thus depicted in the episode of fight with Humbaba. Humbaba

does not die with honour. He pleads for mercy, he says that he would

serve Gilgamesh if his life is spared. He is ready to betray his master

Entil. Entil has appointed him to guard the cedar trees of the forest. But

Humbaba is ready to permit Gilgamesh to cut the cedars when his life

is at state. The adventure in the cedar forest is more than just another

heroic show of strength. It can be seen as a journey of initiation.

Gilgamesh has bid his mother adiun to find glory. Similarly, Enkidu

can also be regarded as Ninsun’s son because she herself has conferred

this status to him. Here Gilgamesh and Enkidu can be treated as one

entity. Whenever Gilgamesh feels weak, Enkidu gives him courage and

whenever Enkidu is afraid, Gilgamesh consoles him with words that

bring back strength. It is like two voices in the lend of one person.

From the beginning, when they are entering the forest, to the end, when

Gilgamesh slays Humbaba, these two voices are heard. They are

represented by Gilgamesh Enkidu, but, as mentioned earlier, Enkidu

can be seen as a part of Gilgamesh here. Enkidu has become very much

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like Gilgamesh when they embark on this expedition. He is almost as

strong as Gilgamesh and moreover, he is adopted by Ninsun as her own

son. So, Enkidu is nothing but another part of Gilgamesh. Seen from

yet another perspective, this journey can be regarded as a person’s

inward journey to explore the boundaries that make his/her

consciousness, inner world because Gilgamesh and Enkidu are

undertaking this journey indefiance of one god Enlil to cut the trees that

are sacred. They are entering an area forbidden to the human beings. A

spiritual journey is always a journey into the unknown territory. It takes

courage to make such a journey because it may mean breaking of

certain norms and conventions. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are doing a

similar thing. They wish to break the norms and conventions. They

enter a strange territory to cut the wood regarded as seared. They wish

to make new idols and door to the temple from this wood. They are

making their own spiritual reality. They are also expanding the

horizons of their consciousness. In this way, the journey is worldly as

well as an exploration of the spiritual world. By destroying the

darkness that lies deep in one’s self, the persons/heroes are trying to

illuminate their self. The episode in the cedar forest underlines one of

the important themes of this epic: companionship/friendship. The

significance of collective action is brought out here. Gilgamesh is not

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alone in this adventure. He has the companionship of Enkidu. Together

they are like a community. Therefore Gilgamesh can draw solace from

Enkidu by sharing his dreams. If the dreams are looked at from the

purely scientific or rational point of view, then it is evident that

Gilgamesh’s dreams are reflections of his fear. (the other aspects or

interpretations of dreams are dealt with separately in this study). He is

surely afraid of defeat and death because his adversary is not a common

person. He is the mighty Humbaba. Therefore it is natural for him to

have fears regarding defeat from these fears. Likewise, when Enkidu

faces fear, Gilgamesh is shown to be providing solace. Now Enkidu

and Gilgamesh are carrying out something not for any personal gain

from the purely materialistic viewpoint. Gilgamesh wants his name to

last long after his death. He is thinking about the glory of heroism. He

certainly wants people to remember him as a hero. As Enkidu is his

companion, he also has a share in the glory. Together they embark on

an adventure and win in the conflict. It is important not to overlook the

fact that Gilgamesh is performing a sort of mission which is collective

and not indici9dual. Thus the relevance of companionship is revealed

from this adventure. There will be further actions, as the epic proceeds,

which will bne performed along with Enkidu.

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 Gilgamesh fights the bull of heaven with help from Enkidu. The

bull of heaven is sent by Ishtar whose offer of love is rejected by

Gilgamesh. The wisdom of Gilgamesh is evident here. When he returns

as a hero to Uruk, his glory attracts Ishtar, the goddess of love. She is

the goddess whose temple is central to the city of Uruk. When she

express her wish to take Gilgamesh is her lover, she least expects a

refusal. But Gilgamesh reminds her of what has happened to all her

mortal lovers. Gilgamesh here shows his control over his emotions.

Though Ishtar is a goddess and though it is his duty to obey her, he

cannot forget that all of Ishtar/s lovers have suffered immensely. They

have been changed into animals by Ishtar. Gilgamesh does not want the

same thing to happen to him. Another fact of Gilgamesh’s personality

is reasserted here. He has already transgressed the set pattern by killing

Humbaba. Now he breaks another pattern. He does not get caught up in

the web of the fatal goddess. Ishtar can be seen as an example of the

‘femme fatale’ archetype. This is a common archetype spread across

the mythologies of almost all civilizations. The femme fatale uses her

charms and beauty to achieve her purpose. The purpose may be the

destruction of a demon, as exhibited in the Hindu myth of Mohini

where Vishnu appears as a beautiful woman to destroy the demon

Bhasmasura. The example of Sphinx from the Greek mythology is

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another variant where those who cannot solve the riddle are killed and

eaten by the ravenous monster. There are numerous other femme fatale

figures like Scylla, Aphrodite, Medea, Jezebel in the mythologies of

different cultures. Usually it is the uicred, seductive enchantress to

whose charms the men fall prey. Ishtar’s past lovers have been

destroyed but Gilgamesh not only resists the advances but also repels

her by his taunting. This angers Ishtar greatly and she has to send the

powerful bull of heaven to avenge for the insult inflicted by Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh’s action of refusal to Ishtar can be seen as a decision of a

hero who knows the consequences of his actions.

The Gilgamesh Ishtar confrontation also reveals a facet of the

theme of transformation. Gilgamesh is described to deflower each and

every newly wed girl in Uruk. In the early part of this epic Gilgamesh

appears as a man whose lust for women knows no bounds. But when

the goddess of love and fertility herself offers her love to him, it is not

expected that such a lustful person would refuse her. However,

Gilgamesh is transformed after the arrival of Enkidu and the epic shows

that his way of thinking has changed. He has gained wisdom because

he can foresee what happens to a persons who accepts Ishtar’s love. As

a person belonging to the Sumerian community he must be fully aware

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of the wrath of gods but he willingly takes the risk. Moreover, after

killing the bull of heaven, he is with Enkidu who further insults Ishtar

by throwing the flesh of the bull in her face.

After slaughtering the bull of heaven Gilgamesh and

Enkidu offer the innards not to Ishtar but to the god shamash. They are

described to be prostrating before him and praying him. The theme of

companionship converges with the other themes in the epic. All the acts

performed in these episodes, the insult of Ishtar, the prayer to Shamash

are the collective actions of Enkidu and Gilgamesh. Though Gilgamesh

is the central character of the epic, his acts are all shared by Enkidu.

They are together in times of danger, as in the fight with Humbaba and

the fight with the bull of heaven, and they are also together in victory.

They celebrate the triumph over Humbaba and the slaughter of the bull

of heaven together.

After half of the epic is over, it touches the most important

theme death and immortality. As Gilgamesh and Enkidu have offended

the gods, they are to be punished. Quite arbitrarily, it is decided by the

gods that Enkidu must die. In the incident of the death of Enkidu,

Gilgamesh first realizes the horror of death. In the Sumerian world,

there was no promise of resurrection or even peace and happiness after

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death. There are no concepts of Heaven and Hell in the Sumerian

mythology. Death was the inescapable destiny and the prospect of

afterlife, as gathered from other Sumerian myths, is a very sordid one.

It was believed that the human beings travel to the netherworld after

death. Ereshkigal is the queen of the underworld and the god Nergal is

her consort. From a myth concerning these gods and a myth regarding

Ishtar where she travels to the underworld to revive one of her lovers,

the picture of the netherworld can be constructed. Belitseri, goddess of

the desert is the scribe of the netherworld. This place was believed to

be in the west. The western direction also indicates the direction of the

desert for the Sumerians. The goddess Ereshkigal is figured as a

monster having head of a lion, snakes in her hand and animals sucking

her breast. When a persons’s spirit went to the underworld, the scribe

or the guardian is to give the name of the person to Ereshigal. Then the

goddess of the underworld decided whether to curse the person or not.

The access to the underworld was through graves. The universe was

conceptualized as a sphere. One half of this sphere was occupied by the

living and the other half was occupied by the dead. The Sumerian gods

and goddesses had rule over these two parts of the sphere. As

mentioned earlier Ereshkigal and Negral were the goddess and the god

of the underworld. The two worlds were linked by the gates that were

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guarded by other gods. The dead are not pictured to be in any good

condition in the Sumerian mythology. The dead were said to be eating

dust and were always thirsty. The living relatives of the dead thought it

as their duty to provide food etc. to the dead. Death was the destiny of

all the people and it did not matter whether one was good while living

or if one performed evil deeds. All the people were destined to go to the

netherworld from which there was no hope of salvation. The idea of

divine compassion or judgment after death is absent in the Sumerian

mythology. All these elements make death a very grim and detectable

reality.

Enkidu is conveyed the verdict about his death through his

dream. The gods Anu, Enlil, Ea and Shamash are in assembly.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu are to be punished for killing Humbaba and the

Bull of Heaven. Enlil says that Enkidu could die but Gilgamesh is to

live. In a way, Enkdidu is bing sacrificed for the acts performed by both

of them. Enkidu is unable to understand the logic behind this decision.

He is confused, afraid and also enraged. In his enragement he curses all

those who made him civilized, not understanding that his existence was

conceived for the sake of Gilgamesh. In the other dream he sees a dark

faced bird-man lending him to the underworld. This bird man may be a

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demon of the underworld. Enkidu sees the scribe of the underworld

Belitseri, receiving him. He tells Gilgamesh that he saw the kings

(“crowned heads”) and common people in the same state of being. He

also describes seeing the priests and gods. The underworld is called as

the ‘House of Dust’ here. The reference to ‘crowned heads ’ is

significant here. It signifies that one may be a king or a common

person, the same fate awaits them all. The netherworld is called as ‘the

Houses of Dust’ signifying the value of the dead people. Enkidu then

falls ill and dies. Gilgamesh grieves deeply for his friend. The has lost

the most valuable companion. He takes care to give him all the honours

after death and carries out the rituals in a grand manner. The most

important message of the text is conveyed here to Gilgamesh : death is

inevitable and it is a detestable state of being.

The grief of Gilgamesh on losing Enkidu is very great. It takes

him to the point of madness. Here one can detect the mixture of two

feelings grife and fear for death. Before Enkidu’s death, the two have

been engaged in killing but the realization of the horror of death did not

come to any of the two. Now when Gilgamesh watches Enkidu

disappearing from the world of the living he feels both sad and

helpless. The Sumerian view of death and afterlife has already been

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described earlier in the foregoing discussion. They did not have any

hope in the state of being after death. Gilgamesh comes to a realization

that he may be the mightiest of all but it is going to end in death. His

life and the life of all others have a common destiny – death. And death

is horrific. Gilgamesh cannot rejoice in the fact that he has been spared

from punishment from the gods. He is a different person now. He

discards his royal garments, wears animal skins and departs in search of

the immortal being. This is yet another transformation in the

personality of Gilgamesh. First, he became a benevolent ruler from a

despotic one. As a human being, he became conscious of his duties

towards other human beings. His lust and arrogance were transformed

into quest for glory. In a way, he started thing beyond the time of his

existence because his adventure in the cedar forest was undertaken for

heroic glory. He wanted his name to last after his death. He also

exhibited wisdom and courage in refusing the offer of Ishtar. Now he

has come to a stage in his life where a stark reality has dawned on him.

He is able to see futility of all existence. He has mixed emotions. There

is the grief of losing the companion, there is the horror of impending

death, however far away in time it may be. One can also see a sort of

reversal of roles here. In the earlier part of the epic Enkidu was brought

into the civilized world. When he had anointed his body liked civilized

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people and when he had put on the clothes of the civilized people, they

had noticed that he appeared to be like the mighty king Gilgamesh now,

when Enkidu is gone, Gilgamesh seems to be adopting the role of a

person who is living in times prior to the civilization. The discarding of

royal clothes and use of the animal skins for covering his body is an act

that makes him resemble Enkidu. Earlier Enkidu was transformed into

a person like Enkidu. But there is a great difference in the two

personalities. The person Enkidu before entry into the civilized world

was almost like an animal, the person Gilgamesh who chooses to wear

animal skin is far from being so. He is a human being tormented to the

extreme by a realization. In this way the reversal is only physical.

Enkdu, in his earlier phase, represented the wild human being and

Gilgamesh, in this later phase represents a totally different human being

with a deeper realization.

One thing that is to be noted in the episode regarding Enkidu’s

death is to examine how Enkidu is brought to accept his death. The Sun

god Shamash plays an important role here. While cursing all who made

him a civilized person, Enkidu also curses Shamahat the temple

priestess of Shamash who copulated with him and brought him to the

city of Uruk. The sun god reasons with him and tells him that Shamasht

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has made it possible for him to enjoy the pleasures of a civilized

person. He makes Enkidu take back his curse and Enkidu actually gives

blessings to her after this. Shamsh offers comfort to Enkidu and tells

him that living the life of a civilized person is better than living like

animals. Love, glory and other refinements of a cultured existence are

important. A person should be loved when she/he lived and should be

mourned after death. Enkidu is thus provided with solace. He finally

accepts death as his destiny. But the same cannot be done for

Gilgamesh. The sun god does not appear and reason with Gilgamesh.

This indicates that it is the destiny of Gilgamesh to explore the reality

of life and finality of death for himself. He is to take the journey

himself. He must himself discover the answer to his questions. The epic

brings him to a point in his life when he has to forsake all the power

and glory and set out to search for the immortal life. This becomes the

mission of his life. He cannot rest until he has achieved his goal,

however difficult it might be. While embarking on this journey,

Gilgamesh is reticent. Like the previous episode when he had set out to

destroy Humbaba, he does not declare his intentions to his subjects. He

does not boast of what he is going after. This shows s significant

change in his mental state.

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 When Gilgamesh sets out on his final adventure, he is a person

with humility. He is also confused and uncomfortable. But

nevertheless, he is brave and determined. The dream at the foot of the

mountain Mashu, describes his state of mind. Prior to the dream he has

been visited by the Sun god Shamash has told him that he can never

find an unending life but Gilgamesh has not been convinced. Now what

he needs is a guiding vision from the gods. But the Sumerian belief is

that the gods have kept immortality for themselves. So it is not

surprising that Gilgamesh does not get any help from any of the gods.

In his dreams he is surrounded by lions. He fights the lions with his axe

and sword. He defeats these lions. The dream shows Gilgamesh’s state

of mind and it also indicates his impending struggle with the powers of

the netherworld or underworld. Nergal, the god of the underworld is

represented in iconography as a loin. Ereshkigal, the goddess queen of

the underworld is pictured as a being with lion’s head. Therefore, the

struggle with the lions can be an indication of Gilgamesh’s contest with

these deities. By seeking the secret of immortality, Gilgamesh is again

defying the order set by the gods. He may be confused because he is

travelling on a new path and does not know what confronts him, but he

has the courage to defeat anyone or anything that comes in his way.

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 The actions or plot of the epic after the tablet describing

Enkidu’s death clearly follow the ‘quest of the hero’ archetype. Earlier

in the epic the hero Gilgamesh has undertaken a journey in search of

glory. But that is to be viewed as a sort of collective action. Now, the

hero is alone and entering in an a unknown territory. So the features of

the quest archetype are most prominently asserted in the later part of

the epic of Gilgamesh. The archetype of the hero’s journey has been

most famously dealt with by Joseph Campbell. Campbell has identified

different stages in the journey of the hero. The quest pattern is very

popular in the stories of all times. Myths, being the most ancient

stories, have used the quest archetype over and again. In the epic of

Gilgamesh the quest serves both as a plot device and as a symbol. As

this epic is regarded to be the most ancient of all, it can be said that it is

the most earliest example of the quest motif. It predates the other

prominent quest stories of odyssens, Jason, and Psyche. Odyssens was

cursed by the gods to wonder and suffer for a long time. Then, through

the intervention of the goddess Athena, the Olympian gods allowed him

to return to his kingdom. Jason undertook the journey to recover the

golden fleece. Psyche had lost her lover cupid and she travelled to

different worlds in his search. There are numerous such stories of quest

that can be found in almost all the cultures of the world. What

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differentiates the quest of Gilgamesh is the purpose of his quest. The

basis pattern of the quest myth is that the protagonist / hero is in search

of some object or some knowledge. In the course of the journey, the

hero has to face and overcome various challenges and adversaries. The

journeys described in diverse mythologies adhere to this pattern. After

successful completion of the journey, and after acquiring the object or

the knowledge for which the journey was undertaken, the protagonist

achieves the status of a mythical hero / culture hero. In case of

Gilgamesh, he has already undertaken such a journey and has achieved

this status. This journey for finding the secret of immortality is his

second and most significant quest. As stated earlier, the purpose of the

quest is the hallmark of Gilgamesh’s quest. The other mythical heroes

have been described to undertake journeys for different purposes, but

none of these has been for immortality. One parallel can be detected in

the Maori mythology where the culture hero Mani tries to win

immortality for the human race. Like Gilgamesh, Mani has also

successfully completed the tasks that have earned him the status of a

hero, before undertaking this quest. The most important of these tasks

have been the discovery of the secret of fire, the raising of the sky, and

the restraining of the Sun, all for the benefit of humankind. Mani in

Polynesian mythology, is described to have decided to defeat the

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goddess of death Hine-nui-te-po. She is described as an old woman and

Mani decides to creep into his body. But while doing so, the woman

gets woken up by the laughter of Mani’s companions and Mani is cut

into two. As Polynesian mythology is much more recent in history,

Gilgamesh can be regarded as the first hero who tried to find

immortality.

Before going into the further analysis of Gilgamesh/s quest, it

would be pertinent to briefly describe the common pattern of the hero’s

journey as delineated by Joseph Campbell. According to this pattern,

the hero is first introduced as person who is uneasy, uncomfortable or

unaware. This creates sympathy towards the hero figure. It is shown

that for some reason the hero is dissatisfied or is seeking something.

This is the reason for the hero’s restlessness. The hero must start on the

journey or the adventure. Different reasons can bring about a change in

hero’s situation and can make him set out in search of something.

Sometimes the hero is unsure whether to take up the challenge and

refuses to undertake the journey. These are the first phases of the myth

and are labeled as ‘the call to adventure’ and ‘Refusal to call’. In case

of refusal, the hero loses the power of significant affirmative action and

becomes a victim to be saved. The hero who begins the adventure is

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provided aid by a protective figure. With guidance from the benign

helper the hero comes to the threshold guardian who is at the entrance

to the zone of magnified power. The threshold guardian are the powers

that watch the boundary between the known and the unknown. The

conflict with these powers is risky, yet the hero succeeds with his

courage. This stage is called as ‘The crossing of the first threshold’.

Then comes a stage called ‘The Belly of the whale’ where the hero,

instead of conquering the threshold guardian, gets swallowed into the

unknown. These stages comprise of the First phase termed as

‘Departure’ after which the second phase ‘Initiation’ starts. This phase

consists of ‘The Road of Trials’ that are to be faced before the hero

comes to the stage of ‘The Meeting with the Goddess’. This is the final

test after which the hero wins the boon of love. But then the woman

figure becomes tainted. This symbol of life becomes intolerable to the

pure soul. Here the woman becomes the symbol of defeat and is termed

by Campbell as “Woman as the Temptress”. This is succeeded by the

stage called as “Atonement with the Father” where the hero opens his

soul to his father and the two are atoned. Then come the stages labeled

as ‘Apothesis’ and ‘The Ultimate Boon’ in which immortality and

illumination are enjoyed. In the final or the third phase ‘Return’ there is

first the stage of ‘refusal of the Return’ which is followed by ‘The

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Magic Flight’ in which the hero is explicitly commissioned to return to

the world. The hero is brought back with the stage ‘Rescue from

without’. Then there is ‘the crossing of the Return Threshold’ after

which the hero becomes ‘Master of the Two Worlds’ and has ‘The

Freedom to Live’

To a considerable extent, the journey of Gilgamesh fits the

pattern delineated by Campbell. In the first phase, like Campbell has

described, Gilgamesh leaves the comfortable and familiar world and

ventures into an unknown territory. The Scorpion-man who guards the

passage of the sun at the Mashu mountain can be regarded as the

‘threshold guardian’. Gilgamesh does not have to fight with him

because he lets Gilgamesh pars after listening to the king’s sad account.

Here the first phase can be seen to be ending with Gilgamesh going into

the cavern which is dark and Gilgamesh has to run the race against

time, this can be called as the ‘Belly of the Whole’ after the first phase

of ‘Departure’ the ‘Initiation’ begins with Gilgamesh emerging out of

the dark cavern into the land of brightness. Here he meets Siduri, the

alesife who is a tavern keeper at the edge of the world. The road of

trails for Gilgamesh starts. First he has to fight with the boatman of

Utnapishtim – Urshanabi before Urshanabi agrees to take him to

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Utnapistim. The voyage to Utnapishtim over the ‘Waters of Death’ is

dangerous but Gilgamesh succeeds in reaching the immortal being.

Utnapishtim likeShamash, Siduri, tells him that he cannot have what he

has come for. Gilgamesh fails the final test or remaining awake. Here

the pattern of Campbell’s hero cannot be seen to be running parallel

with Gilgamesh narrative. Gilgamesh must once again face failure. At

the instance of his wife, Utnapishtin tells him where to get a plant that

rejuvenates the living. Gilgamesh, with his courage and boldness is

able to secure this plant; but again it is stolen by a snake from him. In

this way, Gilgamesh fails twice. There are no boons for him or the

stage of ‘Apothesis’. He has to carry out his ‘Return’ with no prize. But

at a deeper level, Gilgamesh’s return is not with failure. He has gained

a certain knowledge which he himself had denied from his person. Like

every human being, he had realized at Enkidu’s death that sooner or

later he would die. This knowledge had come to him as a shock. He had

felt defeated at that point. The warrior in him had felt cornered. With

his instincts he had set out to defeat what he had presumed to be his

enemy-death. At that point of time Gilgamesh had felt that life had no

meaning because it inevitably led to death. This feeling is more acute

than what most human beings experience normally. Most of human

beings try to forget about death and succeed. But a hero like Gilgamesh

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struggles. In fact the realization of ones mortality is one of the most

basic differences between human beings and animals. But a person like

Gilgamesh cannot face it squarely because everything he has done in

his life has a certain intensity that is far greater than what a common

person can experience.

The last phase of Gilgamesh brings the essential message of the

text. Here the Jungian theory individuation can help to see clearly what

the narrative aims to convey. In Jungian psychology individuation

expresses the process of development of an individual self out of an

undifferentiated unconscious. Gilgamesh has carried out this journey –

through the dark cavern, over the ‘Waters of Death’. When a person

attains individuation the components of his immature psyche became

integrated into a whole. Gilgamesh’s denial about the inevitability of

death showed the lack of maturity. After his failures he is shown to

return to Uruk with a certain knowledge. This is the knowledge of his

self. With the return of Gilgamesh the process of his psychological

integration is complete. He went into the journey as a wild man,

wearing animal skins, he comes out as a human being, aware of his

limitations and moreover, an idea of what he has to do next. Across all

the civilization, the different philosophies and religions have tried to

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bring out a plausible answer to the complex phenomenon of death. As it

has been seen earlier in the foregoing discussion, no such explanation

has been clearly evident from the Sumerian texts. The inevitability of

death has been expressed in some of the myths. The myth of Adapa is

noteworthy in this regard. In the Sumerian mythology seven sages are

sent by the wise god Ea to bring knowledge about civilization to

mankind. Adapa is the first of these who gave knowledge about proper

religious rites. Adapa has been described as a fisherman who broke the

wings of the South Wind called as Ninlil because the wind overturned

his boat. Because of this action he was called before the greatest of the

gods Anu. Adapa’s patron god Ea instructed him to apologize for this

actions. Ea also warned Adapa not to eat or drink anything that was

offered to him while he was in the god’s assembly because that food or

drink would bring him death. When Adapa humbly apologized to Anu

for his actions, the god was impressed by his immortal. But Adapa,

following the advice of his patron god, unwittingly refused this food

and consequently remained a mortal man. This myth aptly indicates

that immortality was not meant for humankind. It means that the

Sumerian mythology and religion could not provide any other answer

to the question raised in Gilgamesh’s mind – “Must I also die and

perish?.” Now, the text of Gilgamesh narrative, as it is firmly rooted in

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the Sumerian tradition, must bring its protagonist to accept this answer

only as the solution to his problem. This problem is not mearly physical

but also psychological. In Jungian psychology, the individuation

process heals the psychic wounds. Here in the case of Gilgamesh, it can

be seen that in the end he has calmly accepted the reality of death and

hence his psychic wounds also seem to have healed.

James Hillman’s archetypal psychology has also to be

considered alongside Jung’s analytical psychology while attempting an

archetypal analysis of the Gilgamesh epic, and references to Hillman’s

theory have already been made in the present study earlier. The most

important concept in Hillman’s theory is that of ‘Soul making’.

Hillman borrowed this ferm from John Keats and used it to describe the

process through which an individual establishes deep connection with

himself/herself, other individuals, and with the world at large. The

importance is given to the present moment rather than the individual’s

wishes for the future. Here the individual comes to accept and

moreover, give priority to his/her humanity, his/her basically wounded

psyche/his/her essentially human nature. This means recognizing that

there are certain limits over human beings quest. It may be a quest for

perfection or a quest for transcendence and transformation. Most

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importantly, ‘Soul making’ means embracing the prospect of inevitable

death and understanding how this facet of life gives meaning and

substance to our days or the time in which we are alive. As Hillman

puts it in Archetypal Psychology :

So the question of soul-making is “what does this event, this

thing, this moment move in my soul? What does it mean to my

death? ”. the question of death enters because it is in regard to

death that the perspective of soul is distinguished most starkly

from the perspective of natural life. (39)

The process of soul making involves the turning inwards of a person.

Hillman, in Senex and Puer (Ed. And Intro by Glen Slater. Putuam

conn : Spring Pub. Inc 2005) describes the ‘puer qeternus’ as the

individual who is unwilling to admit defect and instead of turning

inward means going deeper into one’s soul life. This action leads to

what is, in terms of psychology, called as ‘containment’. The psyche of

the individual is viewed as a container. The individual is expected to

grow in order to hold his/her energies and emotions until these can be

acknowledged and experienced consciously. In the former part of the

epic Gilgamesh acts like the ‘puer aeternus’, always turning outward,

seeking glory in the outer world and never turning inward. Later, this

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circumstance changes, and his final journey makes him turn inwards.

This turning inwards is important for him to attain wholeness. The

change that occurs can be expressed in Hillman’s words as described in

Senex and Puer as

The shift from anima-mess to anima – vessel shows in different

ways : as a shift from weakness and suffering to humility and

sensitivity, from bitterness and complaint to a taste for salt and

blood; from focus upon the emotional pain of a wound – its

causes parameters, cures – to its imaginal depths, from

displacement of the womb onto women and ‘feminity’ to its

locus in one’s own bodily rhythm (232)

When Gilgamesh loses the chance to win immortality, he is given the

location of the rejuvenating herb. When he plucks this plant from the

deep sea, again it is stolen from him by a serpent. At the second failure

Gilgamesh weeps bitterly and reaches the conclusion that his quest is

finished. He asks urshanabi, who is his companion on the journey back

to Uruk, why is he still alive? What is the purpose of his life? The

psyche of Gilgamesh is wounded and it is not yet ready to accept the

woundedness. But the journey to Uruk is a transforming journey

because after reaching the destination Gilgamesh recognizes who he is.

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He says that it is he who built the wall of Uruk and describes the city.

He comes to accept the present moment in his life. He connects with

himself and his surroundings. In Hillman’s terms then the process of

Gilgamesh “soul making” is complete here.

Works cited

George, Andrew. The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Baylonian Epic Poem

and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian.London: Penguin

Books.1999.Print.

Hillman,James. Archetypal Psychology. Rev. and expanded 3rd ed.

Putnam CT: Spring Publications, Inc.2007.Print.

---.In Search: Psychology and Religion.2nd rev. ed. Putnam CT: Spring

Publications, Inc.1994.Print.

---.Healing Fiction. 7th ed. Putnam CT: Spring Publications,

Inc.2009.Print.

---.Mythic Figures. Putnam CT: Spring Publications, Inc.2007.Print.

---.Re-Visioning Psychology. New York:Harper Collins. 1992. Print.

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---.The Force of Character and the Lasting Life. New York: Random

House.2000.Print.

---.The Myth of Analysis. Evanston IL: Northwestern U P.1998. Print.

---.The Soul’s Code. London: Random House.1997. Print.

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 Select Bibliography

Dalley, Stephanie. Myths from Mesopotamia, Creation, The Flood,

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Damrosch, David. The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the

Great Epic of Gilgamesh. New York :Henry Holt and Co, 2007.

Ferry, David. Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse. New

York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1993.

Fiore, Silvestro. Voices from the Clay: The Development of Assyro-

Babylonian Literature. Norman :University of Oklahoma Press, 1965.

George, Andrew R., trans. & edit. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic:

Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. England: Oxford University

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Jacobsen, Thorkild .The Treasures of Darkness, A History of

Mesopotamian Religion. Yale University Press. 1976.

----. The Sumerian King List. Chicago:The University of Chicago Press,

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Jackson, Danny .The Epic of Gilgamesh. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-

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Kendall, Stuart, transl. with intro. Gilgamesh. New York: Contra

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Kluger, Rivkah . The Archetypal Significance of Gilgamesh. A Modern

Ancient Hero. Am Klosterplatz :Daimon. 1991.

Knoche, Grace F. The Mystery Schools. Pasadena:Theosophical

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Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, transl. with intro. The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Stanford University Press: Stanford, California. 1985.

Kramer, S. N. History Begins at Sumer. London:Thames & Hudson,

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----. Sumerian Mythology . New York:Harper Torchbooks, 1961.

Mason, Herbert. Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative. Boston: Mariner

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Mitchell, Stephen (2004). Gilgamesh: A New English Version. New

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Parpola, Simo, with Mikko Luuko, and Kalle Fabritius .The Standard

Babylonian, Epic of Gilgamesh. The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus

Project, 1997.

Sandars, N. K. The Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin Epics). London:

Penguin ,1960.

Temple, Robert. He Who Saw Everything: A Verse Version of the Epic

of Gilgamesh. London :Rider, 1991.

Tigay, Jeffrey H. The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic. Philadelphia

:University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.

West, Martin Litchfield The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic

Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth. London:Clarendon Press, 1997.

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 Web Resources

Academy for Ancient Texts:

www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/

Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL): www-

etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk

Internet Sacred Text Archive: http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/eog/

www.gilgameshonline.com

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