inction between good and evil; all human beings went there upon death . . . .” (Asimov 173). He adds that “The moralization of Sheol, its conversion into a place of torture for the wicked, while the good go elsewhere, came later in history, toward the end of Old Testament times” (Asimov 173). For obvious reasons, the Hebrews were in no great hurry to get to Sheol, any more than Gilgamesh had been in a hurry to “become like” Enkidu. In Genesis 44, Joseph’s brothers plead with him for return of their youngest brother Benjamin, they tell him that if the youth is not returned safely and soon, their father will die of grief, and “[you] will bring down the gray hairs of . . .our father to Sheol” (Genesis 44:31). Clearly the Hebrews dreaded death, not because they feared the tortures of Hell, but because life was so much richer, and so brief. The wish to remain alive is one that human beings share with animals, but only the human being recognizes what the alternative is. According to the psychologist Ernest Becker, man recognizes instinctively that he is very different from the lower animals, because he alone shows evidence of a consciousness. According to Becker, “Man has a symbolic identity that brings him sharply out of nature. He is a symbolic self, a creature with a name, a life history. He is a creator with a mind that soars out to speculate about atoms and infinity. . .Yet at the same time, . . .man is a worm and food for worms. That is the paradox; man is out of nature and yet hopelessly in it” (Becker 26). In both the epics of Gilgamesh and Genesis, the reader can clearly see an effort being made to come to terms with the complex issues and emotions surrounding the transitions of life and death. However, the Sumerians and the Hebrews seem to have taken different paths in terms of their response to this dilemma. Sumerians seem to have dealt with the inevitability...
