Andy Smith

11/23/2015
Foley: Homer
Achilles and Gilgamesh: Epic Heroes, Loss, and Mortality

Recent studies have begun to see the Homeric epics in the light of
other epic traditions, notably epics from Mesopotamia, and have begun to
look at striking similarities. There is a supposed lineage that can be seen
connecting the Homeric epics most directly with the world of Akkadian
epics (Gresseth 2). The connections run from similarities in methods of
transmission, namely the oral traditions, to themes, characters and
formal structural components. The epic of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk,
and the Iliad, with its focus on the menis of Achilles, provide a look at
heroic life and its relationship with death and immortality. The hero
Gilgamesh is occupied with fear of death throughout the epic (George
XIII). Achilles likewise is concerned with his metaphoric immortality,
which can only exist after the death of his mortal heroic self. Both of the
main heroes share many similar characteristics, including a dynamic
outlook on life and death centered on the death of their heroic comrades,
Patroclus and Enkidu, respectively. The two semi-divine heroes have
many corresponding life-events and characteristics, and are also both
very concerned with their own mortalities, but not quite in the same way.

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Their comrades, Enkidu and Patroclus are outwardly similar, but the
critical differences between Achilles and Gilgameshs view of mortality
may ultimately lie in the finer details distinguishing the two sidemen.
Comparisons between various characters abound in near-eastern
Mesopotamian epic and Homeric epics. Many scholars see Gilgamesh as
similar to both Odysseus and Achilles (Gresseth 5). He is a character who
in some of the earliest epics is involved in martial settings as well as
wanderings throughout the mythological worlds and to semi-divine
mortals. The events in the characters life do indeed cover a broad range
of heroic epic encounters; however it is the character and psychological
or emotional development of Gilgamesh that can lend light most on
ancient heroic perspectives of death and mortality, especially when
compared with Achilles. The hero Gilgamesh has existed throughout
several phases of Mesopotamian civilization, although he generally has
many of the same attributes. The earliest Gilgamesh stories seem to
come from Sumerian texts which most likely reflect the crystallization of
earlier epic traditions, and was probably one of the most well-known and
influential poems available (West 65). The stories concerning Gilgamesh
in Sumerian are short and episodic and present no unifying theme, but

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in the Akkadian versions it appears that the poet has unified these
traditional stories into one larger eleven or twelve tablet epic with more
unified themes (West 65, Noegel 240). This unified epic, where the several
episodes are linked together, provides a picture of a heroic king who
undergoes development and comes to some sort of understanding of the
world where he lives. It is the Standard, or Old Babylonian, version of the
hero Gilgamesh to whom the character of Achilles may best be compared.
Wolff has noted, by looking at the development of characters in
Gilgamesh, that where Gilgamesh changes and his nature is affected by
the presence and loss of his comrade Enkidu, Enkidus nature is static
(Wolff 1). The nature of Achilles follows a similar pattern based around
the presence and loss of his comrade Patroclus.
To begin, Achilles and Gilgamesh have some very basic similarities
of their positions in life. Each is the son of a goddess and a mortal man,
a king, who happens to be far away from the action in the epic.
Gilgamesh is described as two-thirds god and one-third human, which
marks him out as a special kind of character who exists in relationship
with both the divine world and the mortal world (Gilgamesh 1.145) The
king of Uruk is not apparently present in the story of Gilgamesh, and

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Peleus is far away from Troy at Phthia. Achilles as the son of Thetis has a
special relationship which allows him to communicate with the gods by
way of Thetiss favor in the eyes of Zeus (Il. 1.490) Both characters are
headstrong warriors; the epics do relate their preeminence in battle.
Neither man is concerned with family life nor with romantic relationships
with women, such things have no place in the epic heros life. The major
relationships in each heros life are with their mother, to whom they look
for advice and protection, and with their heroic partner. It is from these
relationships they gain the most wisdom and development.
The characters Enkidu and Patroclus are outwardly similar, static
sidemen, although they perish in different ways, it is primarily their
deaths that mold the lasting character and fame of their leader. Enkidu
does develop more than Patroclus, and this may mean that he is a more
complex character, or it may mean that the background and character of
Patroclus was simply well-known in the epic tradition and the necessity
to explicitly develop him in the Iliad which is extant did not exist. What
we know about Enkidu is more satisfying. Enkidu was created by the
gods as a rival to Gilgamesh, and is therefore younger. Gilgamesh was
terrifying his subjects and the gods created Enkidu to be a match for

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the storm of his heartso Uruk may be rested (Gilgamesh 1.98-100).
Enkidu lives in the wild, uncivilized, and runs with the beasts. On the
other hand, Patroclus comes to Phthia with his father Menoetius after
accidentally killing a friend in a game of dice in order to find refuge and
escape persecution (Il. 23.100). Both characters then are in their early
life are violent, although they are not necessarily at fault for that
violence, but it will shape their lives. They are also in a sense uncivilized,
Enkidu literally, and Patroclus because he has killed another human
being for no reason and then fled that particular civilizations jurisdiction
to escape the consequences of his action. Both characters are also lower
in rank than their leaders, who are both kings and semi-divine.
Through the observations of the Sumerian and Babylonian epic
heroes lives, a basic understanding of the definition of man can be
suggested (Wolff 394). It is through the outline of the heroes lives, their
relationships to their heroic partner, the gods, animals, and mere
humans, and their reactions to death that Wolff supposes provide this
basic definition of man and that the epic mediums pervasiveness in a
culture that provides the validity of that definition seems implicit in such
a hypothesis. It would not be unreasonable therefore to look at the

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Homeric epic the same way, since it contains some of the same
interactions, developments and events, but produces a different outcome
and definition of man from those developments.
The basic outline of the epics is dissimilar; however, the similarity
lies in the impact of certain turning points on various characters.
Gilgamesh begins by outwardly stating that Gilgamesh travels far and
sees all, and that his adventures are set down on a tablet of stone, which
implies a sort of immortality right from the outset. It is in this paean to
Gilgamesh at the very opening of the epic which would seem to
summarize all that comes after and set his seemingly uninteresting and
un-heroic end in a perspective, which many commentators seem to
overlook. Gilgameshs overbearing strength and power terrorize the
people and the gods feel the need to give Uruk a break from the king, so
they design a foil for him, Enkidu the man of the wild. Enkidu undergoes
a process of civilizing when he sleeps with the woman Shamhat, and is
then disturbed by Gilgameshs right at weddings to be the first to sleep
with the new wife. Immediately this represents a change in the character
of Enkidu, who moves from a wild animal to a human concerned with
other humans. Gilgamesh and Enkidu do battle and Enkidu yields; the

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result is their friendship and the setting of their status. Enkidu becomes
the protector and hero subservient to Gilgamesh, and Gilgamesh gains a
friend whom he loves like a brother.
We do not find the introduction to the friendship of Patroclus and
Achilles similar, in fact the most we can understand about their
relationship is not contained in events, but simply in the way they relate
to each other, because the events are so few. Achilles and Patroclus both
come from Phthia and are close friends. In book I, Patroclus is shown to
be obedient to Achilles (Il. 1.408), but slightly before that Achilles refers
to him as diogenes, which is an obvious sign of respect. So both epics
share a similarly semi-divine central hero who is preeminent in battle
who has a subservient comrade in arms whom he respects and loves
dearly.
In the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the characters have a series
of adventures in which we further watch the development of their
relationship. The first event involves a journey to the mythical cedar
forest to defeat the monstrous Humbaba, who is described by Ninsun as
a wild thing, repugnant to the god Shamash (Gilgamesh 3.54). Humbaba,
with his supernatural powers, represents a challenge to the semi-divine

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hero and an opponent of the gods; by defeating this creature Gilgamesh
would seemingly be cast positively in the eyes of Shamash. His mother
prays to Shamash for his protection, to be enacted primarily through the
agency of Enkidu, who is knowledgeable about such wild creatures. The
gods do not intervene directly, but Enkidu, who is their creation, fulfills
his task of protecting Gilgamesh by interpreting his dreams and also by
urging him to deal the killing blows.

Gilgamesh also reveals an

important aspect of his personality in his reactions to these dreams, and

Enkidu serves to put them in a practical perspective for Gilgamesh.
Gilgameshs recurrent interpretation of his dreams seems to be defeat
and death at the hands of Humbaba, his greatest fear and greatest
challenge yet.
After defeating Humbaba Gilgamesh offends Ishtar with his
arrogant recounting of her various loves and his refusal to join them. All
the creatures whom Ishtar had loved suffered some kind of unfortunate
or ignoble fate, which Gilgamesh refuses to suffer. Ishtar retreats to
heaven and lodges her complaint with Anu, who agrees to send the bull
of heaven against Gilgamesh for his effrontery. As a side note, this
episode has some parallels in the Iliad. Diomedes injures Aphrodite, who

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is analogous to Ishtar; both wounded love-goddesses complain to their
father Anu/Zeus and their mother Antu/Dione, who are both generic
words for Mr. God and Mrs. God. A second instance of parallelism
occurs when Achilles battles with the river Scamander, personified as a
god. We will see later, however, that these events though outwardly
similar, are used differently by each epic, because they occur at different
stages of heroic development.
In Gilgamesh, after the heroes attack and kill the second mythical
opponent, the bull of heaven, a turning point arises. The gods hold a
council (albeit in a dream of Enkidu, but still valid since he holds
shamanistic dream-interpretation powers) debating which of the two
heroes lives to end, deciding at the suggestion of Enlil that Gilgamesh
must not die. The death of one of the two main characters in the epic
impels Gilgamesh to change his views on mortality and also at the same
time presents us with a picture of his current views on mortality by
means of the way he reacts to the death of Enkidu, as well as Enkidus
views on death and heroism, which we may take to be in line with
Gilgameshs views because of their closeness.

At his impending doom

Enkidu first curses various people who had civilized him and paved the

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way for the fate which he was suffering, but then shortly after cursing
them he blesses them after Shamash tells him about the magnificent
mourning and honor which will be paid to him by Gilgamesh and the
people. Near the end of the tablet, when Enkidu falls sick in bed he
laments that his death will not be like that of a warrior who falls in the
midst of combatand makes his name (Gilgamesh 7.264-6). These are
the last words of Enkidu, the tablet ends here. Before moving to the
mourning for the dead hero, it will be important to look at his death. The
gods apparently have chosen the more mortal of the two heroes to die.
Gilgamesh may still be under the protection of the gods due to his
mother Ninsuns prayers and the fact that she is a god. It is very
interesting that the hero does not die in battle, but as a result of the gods
damning him he becomes ill and dies. The insults which the gods cite are
the slaying of Humbaba and the bull of heaven and the insults to Ishtar,
all of which were incited by Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh mourns Enkidu lavishly and makes mourning his death
into nearly a state ritual. After begging all the people in Uruk individually
to mourn Enkidu, Gilgamesh then tells how he will mourn his friend: like
a hired woman mourner, like an eagle, like a lioness (Gilgamesh 8.45-60).

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He then defiles himself ritually by pulling his hair and his clothes.
Gilgamesh also devotes various gifts to his friend in order that Ereshkigal
the queen of the underworld may welcome him (Gilgamesh, 8.144-6).
Never once in the mourning scene however does Gilgamesh acknowledge
his participation in the insults against the gods and his responsibility for
his friends death. This will be a difference from the responsibility
Achilles feels at the death of Patroclus and the heroic outlook on death
and responsibility altogether.
In returning to the Iliad again differences arise in this outwardly
similar story. From the outset, the anger of Achilles has prevented him
from participating in society, which is similar to the terrorizing of Uruk
by Gilgamesh. The main difference in these uncivilized behaviors is that
it is possible to ascribe more cause to Achilles and allow him to feel
justified in what amounts to inflicting harm on his comrades, by his lack
of participation in the battle. In book nine, the Greeks have come to such
a point that they desperately need Achilles to fight for them, and this is
really the next time when we see Achilles. Achilles shows here that he
has transitioned in his thoughts about death and mortality from book
one, where he was certain that his life would be short but honored highly

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by Zeus (Il. 1.418-20). This is exactly what Odysseus promises the hero
in his diplomatic mission, that the men will honor you like a god (Il.
9.366-7). But now Achilles has decided that the honor is not worth his
death, and rebuts Odysseus with his new philosophy on life: fighters and
lazy men, the man who works hard and the man who hangs back all go
down to Hades (Il. 9.485-7). Achilles appears fairly unshakable in his
sense of mortality, which we can only suppose he has been developing
since book one when he was insulted. Although now Zeus has done what
Achilles initially prayed, namely that the Greeks be pressed hard and
remember how they need Achilles, he no longer appears to want the
honor which he sought from them.
Patroclus, however, does not share Achilles opinions as closely. He
still feels pain at the death of the Greek comrades, and since his honor
was not insulted, he does not feel as strongly the battling emotions that
Achilles does. Patroclus prays that he never feel as strongly as Achilles, a
meaningless prayer since Achilles anger stems from the insult to his
semi-divinity. He even dares call Achilles a coward, wondering if he is
avoiding the fight because he knows of the short-lived doom he faces if
he battles. Achilles gives him, in his exhortation to win glory, the warning

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not to fight beyond warding the Trojans away from the ships, because he
says it will diminish Achilles glory. We see Achilles fight for glory
returning at the same time as his rationality that once a man has died,
there is nothing left of him. This is a contradiction confusing the mind of
the great hero, which will require the upcoming tragic event to untangle.
Patroclus, with the reluctant approval of Achilles, goes to battle
and forgetting his friends warning continues fighting, dying at the hands
of Hector. In the middle of the battle we get a message from the gods
about mortality and fate, essentially that it is unchangeable, even by the
gods, but that the living will pay honors to the dead (Il. 16.544). Zeus
then instigates the death of Patroclus by causing him to disobey the
direct orders from Achilles. Zeus causes the Trojans to retreat, after
whom the emboldened Patroclus charges. The will of Zeus is the enforcer
of fate, and it is unchangeable. As soon as the helmet of Achilles is lost,
the Trojans realize that it is Patroclus and not the great son of Thetis,
and they move in for the kill.
This event is one of the few which Achilles does not know about in
advance from his mother, and it is because of this it affects him so
strongly: Achilles was not prepared for the death of his comrade the way

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he seemed to be prepared to meet his own death (Il 17.474-5). He knew
that one, the best of the Myrmidons, would die with him still alive, and
he now gains the insight that the prophecy was about Patroclus. Achilles
reacts to the death of his friend by defiling himself, and his followers
clutched his hands for fear that he might kill himself. Achilles refers to
Patroclus in his mourning as the man he loved beyond all others, even as
much as his own life. He wishes he had never been born, and then
quickly moves on to what can remedy his life, which he sees as being
purposeless without Patroclus. Achilles seeks the death of Hector,
knowing that his death will follow quickly. Achilles has gone from being
civilized to uncivilized, seeking death because of his comrades death, the
only person that made living the mortal life worth living. Patroclus on the
other hand thinks of his glory that he might achieve if he kills the
Trojans and Hector, he goes from his concern for the other Greeks at the
beginning of book sixteen to concern for himself only, ignoring the
commands of his dearest comrade. A combination of the battle, the lust
for glory, and the fate caused by Zeus cause the degradation of his
civility and heighten his quest for glory and death. Achilles, being bereft
of his comrade seeks death and also becomes uncivilized, even

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sacrilegious. As Achilles and Hector battle, Achilles is aided by the
goddess Athena, who tricks Hector, but at the same time he is behaving
like an animal, threatening to eat Hectors entrails. At the funeral of
Patroclus he sacrifices Trojan boys. His savagery increases to this point,
but then begins to recede when he returns the body of Hector to Priam.
Gilgamesh similarly becomes uncivilized after the death of Enkidu,
wandering the wilds in tablet 9. The death of Enkidu causes Gilgameshs
concern with his own mortality, but as something to be feared and
avoided rather than sought out. He decides to seek out Uta-Napishtim
the distant, who has gained immortality from the gods, in hopes that he
too might not have to die and become like Enkidu. He goes on a killing
spree in the wild, as the poet says, enjoying life. Upon coming to the
scorpion-men, they remark on his uniqueness and semi-divinity, singling
him out from other mortals. After crossing the waters of death with UrShanabi he comes to Uta-Napisthim, whom he asks about immortality.
Uta-Napishtim first tells Gilgamesh about the duties of kings and the lot
of fools. He asks Gilgamesh what he gained for all his toil, struggling
hard to achieve immortality, and then says that death comes to everyone;
there is no way to forestall it or predict it. Mammitum, the maker of

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destiny has fixed for every man their fate, unavoidable and secret
(Gilgamesh 10.319-20). Uta-Napishtim tells Gilgamesh about the flood
and ensuing council of the gods, which results in his immortality. But
Gilgamesh has no way to assemble a council of the gods, and
immediately fails Uta-Napishtims test of forgoing sleep for six days and
seven nights. The hero and Ur-Shanabi prepare to return to Uruk, after
cleaning up and making Gilgamesh appear more kingly. As they are
leaving, Uta-Napishtim tells Gilgamesh the secret of the plant of
heartbeat, which will restore youth. Gilgamesh plans to test it by feeding
part of it to an elder of Uruk, but a snake steals the plant and eats it,
sloughing off its skin. At this point he and Ur-Shanabi return to Uruk
and admire the walls and buildings, the lasting monument that
Gilgamesh will leave behind after having been forced to accept his
mortality by his failures in the mythical lands beyond the Waters of
Death.
Achilles undergoes revelations induced by the gods after his
uncivilized period following the death of his comrade. Patroclus comes as
ghost to Achilles reminding him of their oath that their ashes be placed
in the same urn so that they may reside together after death. This begins

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the process of bringing Achilles back into the civilized world by reminding
him of the actuality of his mortality. Thetis gives him a command handed
over by Zeus that he must return the body of Hector for a ransom, a
command that cannot be denied. His encounter with the dead continues
at the actual ransoming, when he promises a fitting portion of the
ransom to Patroclus. It is at the ransoming of Hector where Achilles
completes his education about mortality and immortality. Priam urges
Achilles to think about his own father, who is old past the threshold of
deadly age (Il. 24.570). Priam also urges Achilles to pay attention to the
gods and accept the ransom, because it would be against the will of Zeus
to leave a body unburied. Achilles thinks about his dead friend and his
living father, the two men who seem to have been his two models or
options throughout life, and seems to realize that he has chosen to follow
Patroclus. He reflects that though his father was mortal, he was granted
the divine honor of an immortal wife and a blessed happy life, whereas
Achilles will have a short life of pain. He does at this point come back
into line with the reality of his mortal existence, by acknowledging the
respect due to the gods and following what is concerned correct behavior:

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he accepts the ransom for Hector so that Hector may be buried
appropriately. In doing this he accepts his own death as a certainty.
In both epics two pairs of heroes, one semi-divine and one mortal,
go through their heroic lives seeking glory in battle and some sort of
everlasting life. Their views differ, though they are brought about by
similar patterns and events. Gilgamesh and Achilles both start out our
stories in an uncivilized manner, without regard for their people. Both
are accompanied by a comrade whom they cherish beyond all others, and
both are protected by a divine mother. Both heroes become responsible
for the death of that comrade, although only through the agency of Fate
and the gods. One of the major differences between Gilgamesh and
Achilles is that Gilgamesh does not think or reflect about mortality until
the death of Enkidu, where Achilles does realize that glory can be fleeting
and so can be taken away, depriving the dead of their hoped-for
immortality. After the death of his comrade, Gilgamesh seeks desperately
not to join him in death, where he will no longer be able to achieve heroic
deeds. Achilles, on the other hand believes that he has choice in his fate,
that oft-proposed long undistinguished life versus the short heroic life,
and strives to shorten his life as much as possible. His concern, however,

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is not for the glory but the death. After some divine intervention,
however,

both

heroes

come

to

an

understanding

that

fate

is

unchangeable and that death will come to all. Both heroes however have
achieved a form of immortality in their glory, though at points in their life
they sought to deny that immortality. Gilgamesh has the stone
mentioned at the beginning of the epic (Gilgamesh 1.10) and the walls of
Uruk, his renown as a warrior and his life as a king, and Achilles has the
honor of being the best of the Achaeans. Not all epics deal with death on
such a profound level, and so it falls to these two to show that ancient
civilizations all had some way of dealing with the blind terror most people
feel upon the realization of their own mortality. They illustrate that one
can run from it, run toward it, try and achieve literal and metaphorical
immortality, but death comes to all at a time which cannot be
determined, regardless of affiliations with gods. Epic heroes provide
examples of how man interacts in his world with the sub-human animals
and the super-human divine, as well as with abstract concepts.
Gilgamesh and Achilles provide models for humans to deal with their
own mortality and the deaths of their friends. They begin each epic as a

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hero-figure, but by the end of each epic have become in some sense more
human, which allows the audience to relate to their pain and reasoning.

Bibliography
Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books,
1990.
Gresseth, Gerald K. "The Gilgamesh Epic and Homer." The Classical
Association for the Midwest and South 70.4 (1975): 1-18

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Foley: Homer
The Epic of Gilgamesh. Translated by Andrew George. New York: Penguin
Books, 1999.
Scott B. Noegel. Mesopotamian Epic. A Companion to Ancient Epic. Ed.
John Miles Foley. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.
West, M. L. The East Face of Helicon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997
Hope Nash Wolff. Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Heroic Life. Journal of
the American Oriental Society. Vol. 89, No. 2 (1969): 392-398.

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