How we cite our quotes: (Tablet.Line)
Quote #10
"Now you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full!
Be happy day and night,
of each day make a party,
dance in circles day and night!
Let your clothes be sparkling clean,
let your head be clean, wash yourself with water!
Attend to the little one who holds onto your hand,
let a wife delight in your embrace.
This is the (true) task of mankind(?)." (Old Babylonian Supplement at 10.72)
Here, Siduri gives us yet another vision of the good life, and it's explicitly based on knowing how short life is. But where Gilgamesh says that you should try to leave an immortal reputation behind, Siduri is basically saying to scrap all that: what you should really do is have a fun time while you're here on earth. Which of these two approaches do you think the poem wants us, the readers, to accept?