Gilgamesh and the Quest for ImmortalityThe stories of the hunt for immortality collected in the Epic of Gilgamesh describe the conflict felt in ancient Sumeria. As urbanization swept through Mesopotamia, social status shifted from a nomadic hunter society to a static agricultural gathering society. In the midst of this ancient "Renaissance", man found his relationship with the sacred uncertain and precarious. The Epic portrays the conflict created between ontological nostalgia for a simpler time and the dawn of civilization breaking into the Near East. In this epic, Gilgamesh is seen trying to achieve immortality through the methods of both the old and the new. His journeys through the sacred and the profane typify in many ways the confusion resulting from the unstable social climate. Therefore, society, by writing the story of Gilgamesh, guarantees not only his immortality, but also the immortality of the new order that is established. The beginning of the epic finds Gilgamesh hunting for immortality through the ways of antiquity. He is trying to achieve eternal life through the fertility of young virgins promised to another. This action of Gilgamesh led the people of Uruk to invoke the gods to restore the order that the foreign traveler had destroyed (p.62). From the sacred order of the mind of the goddess Aruru Enkidu emerges from the profane desert (p. 63). It is said that a fur trapper came "face to face" with Enkidu's chaotic ways and was "frozen with fear." It is only through the love of a woman that order is brought into Enkidu's life. He is then declared wise enough to defy Gilgamesh and restore order to "fortified Uruk" (p.65). So, when Gilgamesh heads to the wedding bed to partake...... middle of paper......It is worth noting that in the last chapter, after the fate of death hunts down and kills Gilgamesh, he inhabitants themselves offer the gods the sustenance of life for Gilgamesh. Therefore, it is through the praise of the citizens that he is declared immortal (p.119). More importantly, the company ensures its continued success by demonstrating that civilization has indeed been sanctioned by the gods. This representation, however slight, would allow the new order to exert influence in achieving its goals. By representing to his people that the only way to maintain order, kill the profane, and achieve immortality is through the tools of society, the dawn of civilization secured the support necessary to grant eternal life to the new world order. In fact, it is precisely thanks to these tools prepared by the ancient Sumerians that they and Gilgamesh still live today.