– 400 C.E.
Ancient Cultures

- 400 C.E. Ancient Cultures

It is difficult to imagine what life was like five thousand years ago, when writing first emerged in Ancient Mesopotamia (in what is today Iraq). While it is tempting to imagine that the people who lived then were different from us in every way, our experiences were in some ways similar. Perhaps it is most accurate to say that our experiences may have been different, but our reactions to those experiences are often exactly the same.

Here is a passage from the ancient poem the Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh mourns over the death of his friend Enkidu, fears his own death, and longs for eternal life:

Yes, he who endured my hardships with me!
He now has gone to the fate that awaits mankind!
Day and night I have wept for him
I would not give him over for burial
For what if he had risen at my beseeching?
Six days and seven nights I waited
Until a worm fell out of his nose
Since he has gone
There is no life left for me.
I have roamed the steppe like a hunter
But oh, Refresher, now that I have seen your face,
Let me not see Death,
Which I so dread!'
The Refresher said to him, said to Gilgamesh:
'Gilgamesh, whence do you direct yourself?
You shall not find the life you seek,
For at the creation of mankind
The gods allotted Death to men.
They retained life in their own hands.
Gilgamesh, let your belly be full,
Make you merry by day and by night.
Make everyday a day of feasting and of rejoicing
Dance and play, by day, by night,
Let your clothes be sparkling and fresh
Wash your hair
Bathe your body
Attend to the babe who holds you by the hand
Take your wife and let her rejoice in you.
For this is the lot of mankind to enjoy
But immortal life is not for men.

 

A verse version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, by Robert Temple, 1991.

 

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