Date of Submission
Spring 2023
Academic Program
Classical Studies; Interdisciplinary Study of Religions
Project Advisor 1
Daniel Mendelsohn
Project Advisor 2
Bruce Chilton
Abstract/Artist's Statement
In this project, I explore the symbolic web that connects eating, sleeping, reproduction, and mortality—a nexus of associations that runs through the Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer, Genesis, and the writings of John and Paul. First, I aim to demonstrate that these texts use a shared symbolic language of bread and sleep, eating and sleeping, in their discussions of mortality and to reveal the texts’ implicit definitions of mortality and godhood. Second, I aim to demonstrate the tension between the Mesopotamian and Greek texts’ conclusions that man cannot achieve immortality and the notion presented in the biblical texts, particularly the New Testament, that immortality, and even godhood, could be open to man.
Open Access Agreement
Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Desetta, Joshua Daniel, "Sleep, Bread, and Death: Evolving Conceptions of Mortality from the Epic of Gilgamesh and Homer to Genesis, John, and Paul" (2023). Senior Projects Spring 2023. 272.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2023/272
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.