1. The vision of life and human potential reflected in the Epic of Gilgamesh is marked by transition and growth. Abusch identifies three distinct--though also overlapping and converging--narrative elements. The first is called the Old Babylonian (OB) text, the second (a literary rewrite of the oral-tradition OB text) the eleven-tablet version, and the third the Tablet XII addition (614). A version published in 1984 suggests that the most complete rendering of the narrative consists incorporation of OB into the literary rewrite, with Tablet XII completing certain themes of the second.
Abusch cites scholarly disagreement about whether all three elements belong in the same story, concluding that the third element is integral to the other two. Other scholars view Tablet XII--involving Gilgamesh questioning the nature of experience in the world below--as unrelated to the actual epic. For example, writing in 1969, Wolff considers "unlikely" the idea that "a man born a hero could outgrow it, changing his allotted fate by an act of will" (393). Her argument seems based on Tablet XII's depiction of specific fates for men who have no or up to seven children, and for the fallen warrior. Gilgamesh is seen as a hero whose "desire for personal accomplishment [] never leaves" him (Wolff 397), and his "all-consuming purpose . . . is the achievement of eternal life" (398). Yet death stalks him, a pessimistic prospect.
The arguments of Vulpe and Abusch, while not identical, focus more on transformation than fate. Abusch's view is that Gilgamesh outgrows the identity of mortal hero. Out of Tablet XII, where Gilgamesh learns that the fallen hero is fated to wander forever and eat scraps, plus what he takes to be Ishtar's proposal that Gilgamesh marry her so that he may become "a functionary of the netherworld" in Tablet VI (152), Abusch concludes that Gilgamesh, at the end of Tablet XII, is going to accept Ishtar's proposal, i...