mythology

Bronze Age mythology also gave us the first myths of the hero. The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh is the earliest hero epic and, along with the Descent of Innana, was the most influential of Bronze Age myths. Gilgamesh is the part god-part human king of Uruk. In the course of his adventures, Gilgamesh and the wild man Enkidu, who was sent by the gods to challenge Gilgamesh, kill Humbaba, the demon Humbaba and cut down …

…such as would become the staple of classical religions. It is also the first myth to show tension between the individual and the collective in humanity. Gilgamesh fights with the gods, who have by now become more of a reflection of the higher human whole than of nature. And having lost the concept of eternal rebirth in nature, but not having the concept of a collective human heaven, Gilgamesh experiences the existentialist fear of death.