Since The Epic of Gilgamesh was originally born out of folklore and word of mouth and evolved over hundreds of years, it is safe to assume that the epic had far more than one author. It seems that each story or instance of Gilgamesh, not necessarily just the books it is broken up into, contains its own theme, which at times seems to contrast the theme of another book. For example, Gilgamesh fought and defeated Ekindu in the first book and became friends and built a relationship with him afterwards. This seems to drive home the theme of mercy and pity. However in the very next book, Gilgamesh battles and defeats Humbaba, the guardian of the forest in a very similiar situation. This time though he murders Humbaba in cold blood as he was begging for his life, which implies the theme that one should not show mercy and should look out for oneself before all others. Both these themes show two completely opposite points of view and two completely different schools of morality. Since the epic was constantly evolving over the years it seems that the values of the people who wrote it changed, perhaps from a time of peace ( a time when showing mercy to your brother would be acceptable) to a time of war or invasion (when showing the enemy mercy or the slightest weakness could cost the individual everything). After these very pracitcal extrospective views on human interaction, the final two instances (the death of Enkindu and Gilgamesh's search for immortality) become rather philosophical and psycological with an introspective point of view, which suggests its authors were probably deeper thinkers than their pedecessors. At the same time, certain traits of the culture never leave the story, such as the demonation of women and the idol worship of the would be gods. All the authors seemed to share these points of view