Death, Darkness, and Fear
The theme of exaggeration to a point of humor seems a bit important to these ancient Mesopotamians while reading the tablets. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are described as non-human beings with their talents and power. When they travel to defeat Humbaba, they are able to reach their destination in three days in contrast to the normal month and a half:
At twenty double leagues…
at thirty leagues…
fifty double leagues they went in a single day,
a journey of a month and a half in three days…
they approached Mount Lebanon. (lines 75-80)
They are able to travel at great speeds in short time, such as double “leagues” and even triple “leagues.” Nonetheless, even with great mighty power like a god, these beings are still mortal. This theme of death and darkness, specifically being afraid of death and darkness is shown through The Great Hymn to the Aten, Genesis, and The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Without the sun, thieves come out…
When you set in Western light land…
Earth is in darkness as if in death… (lines 15-22)
In The Great Hymn to the Aten, these ancient people describe the Sun and its light as the reason there is peace and life. The darkness is described as an evil where thieves come out and when living things die. They hope for the return of the Light after the darkness of the night.
God began to create heaven and earth…
earth was welter and waste… darkness over the deep…
‘Let there be light.’…
divided the light from the darkness…
the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. (Genesis 1)
In a way, the Bible describes the distinction between darkness and light. God creates light to bring peace to the welter (chaos), so there could be perfection in his creation without evil. The darkness is portrayed as chaos, which seems to be “evil,” something to be afraid of. God creates light to banish darkness into the night and let light rule the beautiful day. Through light, God creates humans and life on earth and in the sea, which He saw as very good. This interpretation points in the direction that there shall not be complete darkness because it is not good, maybe even very bad.
Gilgamesh goes on the search for eternal life after the death of Enkidu. At first, Gilgamesh seems unafraid of death, described as the mightiest man, and even two-thirds god. But when Enkidu passes, Gilgamesh questions his own fate, his inability to escape death.
He looked at his friend and laughed:
Now then, my friend, [do you say the same?]:
‘I am afraid [to die]’? (Tablet II line 275-277)
Transitions into
Shall I not die too? Am I not like Enkidu? (Tablet IX line 3)
This shows that even the king of Uruk sought to find eternal life and as the epic continues, we will go on to learn that escaping death is not so easy.
In conclusion, these ancient texts reverberate the fear for darkness, of death, and possibly the unknown of humans. Why are we so afraid of it? Maybe the thoughts of a young person are different from one who is dying. Maybe unreligious people find religion as they come closer to death. But, nonetheless, is living in fear better than living freely? Embrace everything life offers today because we do not know what the future holds.
It is common for people to take life for granted especially when we have other things in mind at the time to distract us. I like how you utilized Gilgamesh and Enkidu as examples where Gilgamesh is perceived to be a king and God-like who thinks he is all powerful up until he witnesses the death of his companion. From there after he begins to question his life and when will it all come to an end and that same ending is what we all fear naturally. Although death is inevitable it does give us a purpose to do as much as we can now and make our mark before our time comes. Because as in The Great Hymn to the Aten our life is like light which interacts with everything it lays upon and once darkness comes engulfs us we rest like that of their God.
The Importance of light and darkness in literature.
Important character of darkness is Grendel, the dragon wakes up at the night and start attacking when he sees the light (fire). In “Beowulf” the significance of darkness is related to theme of death as we discussed in class. Another point that enhances the point of death that legends of past create the meaning of the present life. There is no doubt that stories of legends and songs about them performed by minstrels creates the meaning of the importance of saving memory of past heroes, linking to the medieval idea of dark ages. The Dark Ages – it is a term that brings images of war, destruction and death – like the domain of the evil character in a good fantasy novel .The darkness is easy metaphor to explain whether you are living in bad times. The theory of it was used by Petrarch, who was a great admirer of the ancient Romans and Greeks. He would compare those times with his own, and found that he wasn’t very happy with the present-day situation. The same thing with Beowulf people were seeking for hope, for getting rid of the Grendel, they wanted to live in light.
If in Beowulf darkness correlates with the meaning of death, in Odysseus lines 1-5 in Book 3 contradict with this meaning: “The sun rose from the still, beautiful water,
Into the bronze sky, to shine upon the gods
And upon men who die on the life giving earth…”
Contrasting with Beowulf, the light in Odysseus represents the superiority of death, associated with the death of warriors.
Do you think that light represents courage, rather than threat?
In Odysseus we saw the importance of Dawn which is personified. In Book 12 lines 145-151 after Circe prophesies that Odysseus will lose all his crew the “Dawn [rises] in gold as she finished speaking…” Does it mean that Dawn creates order like in Genesis and Theogony?