Motives and manifestations of anxiety in the Epic of Gilgamesh. A modernistic inthrohistorical study

Abstract

The Mesopotamian literary and mythological records are considered as part of the most important historical sources in ancient civilizations, if not the oldest ones. The Epic of Gilgamesh is at the forefront of all these records, which later influenced the entire literary, epic, and mythological production of the ancient world. The eternal question presented by this epic is one of the most significant and difficult historical questions that humanity has ever known. Taha Baqir says that it is a fundamental question which disturbed and troubled the human existence. This has led the researcher to follow the motives of this humanitarian anxiety, as repeated by the hero of The Epic. It has been found out that it goes in two directions: human anxiety and existential anxiety. The two anxieties, in their material and spiritual dimensions, have deepened the old existential question (can man be immortal?), Which are manifested in the concept of fear from the significance of life and what is after death. There is no doubt that literature, in its fundamental nature, is a human and intellectual effort production, which man tried to unify its images through his inferences. Max Miller says "We have to believe that epic literature is not only a school of wisdom, but it is also a school of adventure()". "Samuel said," The purpose of  writing it is to present it to people in a wonderful and pleasant way "(). In this regard, Taha Baqir confirms that these literary texts have been deposited and produced in older times than the era of codification. The successive generations dealt with the oral narrative in which there was a lot of development until people began to write it on clay slabs in their final forms. Careful reading of old Mesopotamian literature (such as the epic of Gilgamesh), can help the researcher learn about the lifestyle of the ancient Iraqis as represented in the images derived from their daily reality() Through the experience of painstaking rather than the analysis and conclusion similar to what the nowadays man.(). Before entering into the subject, we have to clarify this study, which is based on the assumptions of the epic and its implications that can diagnose the kind of anxiety resulting from the problem that emerged from the collective popular consciousness in ancient Iraq, which characterized it in terms of material and  spiritual anxiety, and analyzing them according to the theories of anxiety, which can be employed In the problems of the epic. The goal of these epics and poems was to present their wonderful stories to the people in an animating and enjoyable way() Before we get to details, we have to explain this study, that were stems from the assumptions made in the epic, its possible implications for diagnosing the kind of anxiety resulting from the problem that emerged from the collective popular consciousness in the old Iraq, which characterized it in terms of the first concerns the material and the second spiritual concern and analysis according to the theories of anxiety Can be accommodated in the problems of the epic.