Thoughts on the "Meaning of the Epic of Gilgamesh".
When Gilgamesh returns to Uruk after the loss of the wonder herb, it seems at first glance to be merely a return to the beginning. It has us wondering if his journey had been in vain. I do not think that this is the case. He did not find the eternal life which he hoped and longed for. But through the inner experiences on his journey when searching for immortality he changed. He must now submit to the ways of the underworld, to death. This seems to be the next task, for which, it seems, he is only now ready; for he has seen Utnapishtim, he came to know the "secret of the gods," and found the herb of life. He saw the light he longed to see, and felt the spirit that he had missed. This makes the loss of the herb of life appear in another light. It is not just a tragic "misfortune" but perhaps, a hint that he was not allowed to keep the herb of life. It seems that the unconscious denied it to him because, though it would have meant rejuvenation and prolongation of life (which was the goal of his longing), it would not have meant a change of the inner man, corresponding to the deeper longing for illumination and enlargement of consciousness for which Shamash, the sun god, had chosen him. Desperation over death had led him seek a way to get around death by eternal prolongation of life on earth, but now it was as if the serpent in him had cast off its skin. He picked up his life on earth again, accepting and including death. The two-thirds god submitted to human existence, and the one-third man experienced the divine.
It seems the Epic of Gilgamesh as a whole shows in its inner structure a process of transformation in the collective unconscious, an anticipation of the individuation process, represented in the hero. At the same time, it seems significant in the history of religion, as a time when the Goddess Ishtar was defeated by the hero under the guidance of Shamash, the archetype of consciousness.
