Immortality in the Great Religions and Myths of Iran, Mesopotamia, Sumer, and Greece

In every mythological story, a quest for immortality and eternality depicts man’s inner fervor for unity with gods and the supreme power. Man seeks full immersion in life and longs for immortality at the same time. In other words, he wants to live both in time and in eternity. The desire for eternity in man shows his ceaseless struggle with time, and even more so an intense fight with death to conquer eternal life.Thisarticle studies religious and mythological figures who have either been immortal or sought to be so. Jesus Christ, Idris (Enoch), Khidr, and Elias (Elijah) from religious schools of thought;Peshotanu, Giv, Tous, Kay Khosrow, Garshasp, and Zahhak from Persian myths; and Utnapishtim in Mesopotamia are immortals. Some mythological figures such as Gilgamesh and Alexander also sought deathlessness, yet failed to find it.Most mythological and even religious schools of thought have dealt with immortality. Anyone who has set out to find eternality has returned empty-handed, losing their life during the quest: Gilgamesh and Alexander sought immortality and the structures of their journey and quest are similar in many ways. However, they both failed. Those who received immortality from God, on the other hand, remain eternal, as immortality belongs to the realm of God’s grace, not man’s struggle.

Keywords:

immortality , myths , quest , eternality , sempiternity