What does the “Epic of Gilgamesh” tell us about Mesopotamian views of culture and civilization?

Epic Of Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is known as the oldest literature document after the pyramids text, has five Sumerian poems about Bilgamesh who was king of Uruk. These five poems were independent, then they combined as an epic. Only a few tablets of this epic have survived to the present day. Thanks to the information gathered and obtained from these tablets, we have a lot of cultural, religious, and civilization information about the people of Mesapotamia. I will examine the Epic of Gilgamesh in line with this information. In the Gilgamesh saga, their god sends a new savage creature, Enkidu, to stop the tyranny of Gilgamesh. He had sexual intercourse with Shamhat for Enkidu's transition to humanity and civilization. In short, we see here that a wild creature is accepted after its relationship with a human. Traces of domesticating and the acquiring a new identity in the past are observed. Later, Enkidu and Gilgamesh fight for a long time and become friends at the end of this war. Goddess Ishtar wanted to take advantage of Gilgamesh and she was rejected. The goddess Ishtar could not accept this rejection and she sent the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh. Polytheism was dominant in the Mesopotamian people. The gods were mentioned at the beginning of the epic. I think that the gods sent a creature to protect the people, symbolizing their greatness. On the other hand, it is a common situation in polytheistic beliefs that Goddess Ishtar wants a relationship with Gilgamesh. An example of this is the story of Anchises and Aphrodite from Greek mythology, which is another polytheistic belief. In the second half of the epic, Enkide is killed by the gods and Gilgamesh begins to search for the secrets of an eternal life. After a long and dangerous journey, he eventually learns that “Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands. ” As we understand from this sentence, the condemnation of humans to immortality is a decision made by God. Immortality is not as precious as one might think. According to Utnapishtim, he/she tries to enjoy life because he/she knows he/she is mortal. The main reason why life progresses efficiently is that people are immortal. To sum up, when the Gilgamesh epic is examined in general, the people of Mesopotamia are a people who believe in polytheistic religion, their kings are in contact with the gods, and there are legends in it. This polytheistic belief was a belief accepted by many communities at that time. Also, legends such as the gods and goddesses sending new creatures may be an explanation of the different species they encountered in their own time. One of the most important features of the epic, which is to give information about Mesopotamia, has shown its effect in the writing of other epics for years and has been translated into different languages.