p. 17 (5 verses): “If I should fall, my fame will be secure. ... My fame will be secure to all my sons.”
This is a sentence that is repeated twice already in this page, and is also appearing later on in the book. It shows that there is a great importance in being remembered. In being a part of slaying the demon he has achieved something great and will therefore be talked about and the memory of king Gilgamesh will be carried on through the next generations. It is a way for him to live on, not in human life but in the memory of his sons and further down in the generations. It is not only the sons who will remember him though, but the whole generations they are in, and “all my sons” are just representing all people in the next generations passing his stories down.
I think it is relevant to assume that” living on” is the greatest motivation for Gilgamesh to push himself to these heroic acts since much of the story take on how Gilgamesh´s fear of dying motivate him to go through anything in a search for eternal life. He has control of everything, but dying is something he cannot picture for himself. However, like I mentioned, already at the beginning of the story, where this sentence is found, there is a fear of dying present in Gilgamesh want to be remembered. and have no control of and I think that is where the fear comes from. The fear gets even greater as he, later on in the story, sees how Enkidu dies a painful death. Enkidu´s strength can be compared to Gilgamesh´s and is a reminder that even the strongest one can die. Whit this, the desire to live an eternal life drives him not only to perform memorable achievements, but to go and search for immortality at the edge of the world.
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