The Epic of Gilgamesh

by

Anonymous

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Gilgamesh makes teaching easy.

Civilization and the Fall from Innocence Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
Civilization and the Fall from Innocence Theme Icon
Heroism in Nature vs. Comfort in the City Theme Icon
Friendship, Love, and Sexuality Theme Icon
Mortality and Meaning Theme Icon
Pride and the Gods Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Epic of Gilgamesh, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Civilization and the Fall from Innocence Theme Icon

The Epic of Gilgamesh portrays the idea of civilization in an ambiguous way—as something that provides protection and knowledge, but that can also be a corrupting force. It’s important to keep in mind that the Epic was written in ancient Mesopotamia, an area that has been called the “cradle of civilization,” as the first known city-states in human history began there. Thus the Epic’s portrayal of civilization is especially “contemporary” for its time, but also timeless in the ways it presents the positives and negatives of civilization in general.

On one level, the writers of the Epic show civilization as the end product of mankind’s fall from innocence. Enkidu, like the Biblical Adam and Eve, is created as an innocent being in nature, living freely among the wild animals. And, like Adam and Eve, he is tempted by knowledge and sexuality. Just as Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge and suddenly become aware of their own nakedness, so it is Enkidu’s sexual encounter with Shamhat that symbolizes his transition from unspoiled nature into civilization.

After he sleeps with Shamhat, nature rejects Enkidu. The wild animals run from him. Soon after, Enkidu accompanies Gilgamesh on his quest to earn glory—a drastic change from Enkidu’s earlier, less ambitious life. Civilization has transformed Enkidu, and he no longer lives in harmony with nature. Like Gilgamesh, he is eager to cut down the great Cedar Tree.

In Uruk, Gilgamesh and Enkidu live luxurious lives impossible in nature. Shamhat tells Enkidu that in Uruk “every day is a holiday.” The Epic shows how civilization is both good and bad: it provides safety and community for the people of Uruk, but it also tempts them into complacency, as is best shown by Gilgamesh at the beginning of the epic. But the epic does not suggest that mankind should leave the city and return to nature. Just as the Biblical Adam and all his descendants are punished by being expelled from Paradise and having to work for their survival, in the Epic too it is long past mankind’s chance to remain innocent. Civilization must make do as well as it can.

Importantly, the epic ends with the proclamation that Gilgamesh’s greatest achievement is bringing back the tablets with his story written on themOnly in civilization, not out in nature, is such a feat possible: writing serves to communicate knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge may have been mankind’s fall from innocence, but, now that man must fend for himself, knowledge can help him.

Ultimately, the story does not take a stance on nature being “better” than civilization, or vice versa. Civilization is simply the state of mankind. Enkidu, when dying, curses Shamhat for seducing him and ultimately bringing about his death by bringing him from nature into civilization, but Shamash reminds Enkidu of all that civilization brought him—most of all, his friendship with Gilgamesh. Just before dying, Enkidu comes to terms with this, taking back what he said, and grateful for all the experiences he had as a part of human civilization.

Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…

Civilization and the Fall from Innocence ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Civilization and the Fall from Innocence appears in each part of The Epic of Gilgamesh. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
How often theme appears:
part length:
Get the entire Gilgamesh LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Epic of Gilgamesh PDF

Civilization and the Fall from Innocence Quotes in The Epic of Gilgamesh

Below you will find the important quotes in The Epic of Gilgamesh related to the theme of Civilization and the Fall from Innocence.
Part 1 Quotes

Gilgamesh sounds the tocsin for his amusement, his arrogance has no bounds by day or night. No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh takes them all, even the children; yet the king should be a shepherd to his people. His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior’s daughter nor the wife of the noble; yet this is the shepherd of the city, wise, comely, and resolute.

Related Characters: Gilgamesh
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:

He was innocent of mankind; he knew nothing of the cultivated land.

Related Characters: Enkidu
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:

When next he comes down to drink at the wells she will be there, stripped naked; and when he sees her beckoning him he will embrace her, and then the wild beasts will reject him.

Related Characters: The Trapper’s Father (speaker), Enkidu, The Trapper, Shamhat
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:

And now the wild creatures had all fled away; Enkidu was grown weak, for wisdom was in him, and the thoughts of man were in his heart.

Related Characters: Enkidu (speaker)
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:

O Enkidu, there all the people are dressed in their gorgeous robes, every day is a Holiday, the young men and the girls are wonderful to see. How sweet they smell!

Related Characters: Shamhat (speaker)
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2 Quotes

Here in the city man dies oppressed at heart.

Related Characters: Gilgamesh (speaker), Enkidu
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 5 Quotes

In those days the world teemed, the people multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great god was aroused by the clamour. Enlil heard the clamour and he said to the gods in council, “The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel.” So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind.

Related Characters: Utnapishtim (speaker), Gilgamesh, Enlil
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 6 Quotes

Go now, banished from the shore. But this man before whom you walked, bringing him here, whose body is covered with foulness and the grace of whose limbs has been spoiled by wild skins, take him to the washing-place. There he shall wash his long hair clean as snow in the water, he shall throw off his skins and let the sea carry them away, and the beauty of his body shall be shown, the fillet on his forehead shall be renewed, and he shall be given clothes to cover his nakedness.

Related Characters: Utnapishtim (speaker), Gilgamesh, Urshanabi
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis:

Gilgamesh spoke to him, to Urshanabi the ferryman, ‘Urshanabi, climb up on to the wall of Uruk, inspect its foundation terrace, and examine well the brickwork; see if it is not of burnt bricks; and did not the seven wise men lay these foundations? One third of the whole is city, one is garden, and one third is field, with the precinct of the goddess Ishtar. These parts and the precinct are all Uruk.’

Related Characters: Gilgamesh (speaker), Ishtar, Urshanabi
Page Number: 117
Explanation and Analysis:

This too was the work of Gilgamesh, the king, who knew the countries of the world. He was wise, he saw mysteries and knew secret things, he brought us a tale of the days before the flood. He went a long journey, was weary, worn with labour, and returning engraved on a stone the whole story.

Related Characters: Gilgamesh
Page Number: 117
Explanation and Analysis: