Isaiah Langford - The “Second Self” as Divine Retribution - 1/28/2026

 In Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, Thomas Van Nortwick develops the concept of the “second self” as it relates to the journey of the protagonist in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Specifically, he looks to Enkidu as representative of what Gilgamesh lacks and discusses the role his death plays in Gilgamesh’s journey. I find it interesting that Enkidu is sent as a sort of “divine intervention” intended to play this exact role, and yet is taken away by similar “divine intervention” for his action in harming the natural world. It would seem that both the bestowal of the second self and its removal is commonly connected to a gift (or rather, curse) from the mystical powers-that-be, as in perhaps “The Frog Prince” or “Beauty and the Beast” where the image of the “second self” is clearly that of a wild creature, given to the respective princes of those tales as a means to learn some higher reality than they had considered in their prior self-centered lives. Divinely gifted as payback, the “second self” provides an interior look for the protagonist, allowing their first, egotistical self to die to the reality that they are not perfect, even in their vain goals to acquire or maintain wealth or power.

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