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.