Gilgamesh- Tablet XII

This Tablet is one of the strangest of all. It does not make me think of a final ending nor does it make me question what comes next. It is very confusing because it's not clear if it is Gilgamesh who is dead or Enkidu who has revived. I don't see what the importance of 'the Drum and the Drumstick that [Gilgamesh] had that fell through a hole into the Nether World', it obviously symbolizes something else but I couldn't understand what that was just from the text. In fact, nothing from this Tablet means anything or makes sense to me, except maybe the fact that the only god who helped and listened to Gilgamesh was Ea, who had also helped Utnapishtim save himself from the flood.
What I noted on was that now it was Gilgamesh who was wise and gave advice to Enkidu, and it was Enkidu who ignored it. Enkidu is again the one who ends up paying for his actions, only that now he did deserve it, and we can see how Gilgamesh still has help from Enkidu and the god Ea. This makes me reinforce my belief that Gilgamesh represents civilization, and you can see those aspects in him and in it.




This quote and image somehow makes me think of a possible meaning for 'the Drum and the Drumstick that [Gilgamesh] had that fell through a hole into the Nether World'. They might represent all the problems we have, how in just one minute, everything might come crashing down, and what we can do about it as a whole society.








We are each dependent on each other, and working together we can solve almost anything.