On the day that Enkidu dreamed of his doom, his strength began to wane. For twelve [1] agonizing days he suffered, sick in his bed, unable to sleep, every day growing weaker.

On the twelfth day he sat up and called to Gilgamesh, “Have you forsaken me now, companion? You said that you would aid me when fear struck. I cannot see you—you do not fight death by my side. We were to remain forever together, you and I?”

Unable to comfort his friend, who cruel Death now blinded with her dark Shawl, Gilgamesh was stricken with the sound of Enkidu’s death rasp, to which he called as the dove moans, seeing his friend's face darkened with death, “Beloved, do not leave me alone. Purest of men, don not pass beyond, do not let them take you away.”[2]

1. The number of months in the year will reoccur as a number in this epic at times when the mortal and immortal worlds intersect.

2. As with Achilles and Patroclus, Alexander and Hephaestion there were definitely homosexual overtones to this relationship, which was more common in ancient military leaders than we might like to accept, with the Daimyo and their Samurai in feudal Japan also often striking up such relationships. How much of this ancient impulse had to do with a politically elevated an alienated man seeking the affection of a less domesticated companion to share his war risks with for psychological balance is open to speculation. Balance is a factor though, as one or the other individual of such alpha-male pairings tends to be much more tied to the emasculating social structure than the other.