Essay On Gilgamesh Afterlife

In The Epic of Gilgamesh it’s shown that ancient Mesopotamian’s believed in a higher being and afterlife. The Mesopotamians are polytheistic. This is obvious in many parts of the story. They believed that the gods were the creators of everything around them. This was shown in the story through the creation of Endiku and by the goddess of creation Aruru. The Mesopotamians had gods of for various things such as death, love, war and eternal life. The gods were used to explain just about every feature of the life. Their gods were very powerful and could grant people God-like features. An example from the story was when Gilgamesh’s fear of death kicks in and he goes on a quest for eternal life from the gods. They believed that afterlife was a dark, dreadful place where they would face the same privation as they would while they were mortal. The
They also believed that any nobility they had as a mortal was no longer recognized nor relevant. This meant that even the greatest rulers wouldn’t be recognized as a noble in front of the gods of death. Their ideas about afterlife wasn’t dependent on what they did while they were living that determined how their afterlife would be, it really didn’t matter what they did while they were living, everyone was going to the same place. Death for the Mesopotamian people was believed to be in the hands of the gods. The gods decided when and how a person would die and once that decision was made there was nothing they could do to prevent it. This was shown with the death of Endiku. The Gods made the decision that Endiku should die because of his actions with Gilgamesh. The gods had a lot of power it was kind of like their life was in their hands. They could also punish them if they did something that didn’t approve of or not doing what they were told to do. For example, Anu sending the bull after Gilgamesh because he didn’t want to date his daughter. It’s also