The Epic of Gilgamesh, Part Two
The quest for knowledge for both Gilgamesh and Enkidu is similar in that they followed the same path with Gilgamesh following the steps of Enkidu even after his death. From the story, we are told that Gilgamesh sought knowledge and understanding in various forms throughout the work and after the death of Enkidu, all of his actions are governed by his final question about eternal life. For both Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the quest of knowledge in the epic enables the perception of man as an intellectual creature whose nature inherently desires knowledge.
Based on their encounters, I don’t think that the lessons learned by Gilgamesh and Enkidu are complete lessons and thus are not good. For one, Gilgamesh fails in almost every attempt to become immortal. He fails to stay awake for seven days and falls asleep on the sixth day. Another reason as to why the lessons are incomplete is because Gilgamesh was competing with gods to become immortal, something that has never been and cannot be achieved. Utanapishtim asks Gilgamesh to collect a plant that would grant him immortality but due to his carelessness and absentmindedness, he losses it making him lose his chance of becoming immortal. With these acts of failure makes it impossible for him to be immortal and realizes that the only way to be immortal is to build the great city of Uruk as he will be immortal in the sense that he will be remembered for building the city. The reason why these lessons are incomplete is that being immortal means living forever, and despite his efforts to gain immortality, he did not achieve it, making the lessons worthless.
The idea of physical and intellectual limitations of man in comparison to the gods is a fair distinction in that men are selfish and careless just like Gilgamesh, and if they are provided with equally physical and intellectual capabilities with the gods, they might turn their fellow humans with the knowledge and at the same time they may challenge the gods, which is not a good idea.
