Why is Enkidu's death important to teach?

With this post, I'll mostly be discussing Enkidu's death and why that's important to teach to our students.  I am in no way trying to discredit Tablet VIII, but it mostly reflects on Gilgamesh's grief.  I'll touch upon his devastation, but the brunt of this post will be dealing with the death of Enkidu.

Tablet VII is the halfway point of the epic.  It is markedly different than the first half of the poem.  The first half exalts the physicality and greatness of Gilgamesh and Enkidu.  The one problem with the physical prowess of Gilgamesh and Enkidu is the fact that they blatantly defied the gods.  It's a teachable moment for students to see that cultures had a strong belief in pleasing the gods.  They may be fickle, but one must not go against them or arbitrary punishments will be passed. 

The physicality of the first tablets comes to a halt when the two best friends are faced with mortality and an agonizing death.  Enkidu does not die quickly or painlessly.  He suffers for twelve days and Gilgamesh never leaves his side.  This is the climax of the story and the point where Gilgamesh realizes he is not untouchable.  The main theme of the poem comes from this point:  the inevitability of death. 

In terms of teaching, I think this is a good moment for students to be asked, "Why?  Why did the author decide to put this in the poem?  And why is it important to us?"  I think it's important to dissect this text together, then have students answer these questions on their own.  Again, Socratic seminar and think-pair-share can be helpful in getting students engaged with the text.  I love the idea of double entry journals, and I think it could definitely work for this tablet.  Here is a link to see how double entry journal work:  Double Entry Journal Guide.  With this, you can put the three questions I stated at the beginning of the paragraph and have students answer them in their journal.  It's a great way to get students to think critically about a text.

Like I said, I know today was short and sweet, but these tablets are rather important in terms of plot, theme, and teaching.  I hope you got the gist of how important the death of Enkidu is.

Tomorrow will be how Gilgamesh deals with his grief and the ending of the poem.  It might be late again tomorrow, but as the old cliché goes, better late than never!

Cassy