What to do with life

While the authors of the Epic of Gilgamesh were concerned with creating the best life for one’s self, the authors of Genesis emphasized more of a life meant to please God. As far as the Sumerians were concerned, the afterlife was grim and depressing, and thus life should be spent making a name for yourself and living it to the fullest. However, the book of Genesis stresses the need to obey God so that you can go to Heaven after you die.
Gilgamesh was in pursuit of glory (and eternal life, but that is not relevant here). He wanted to have his name written down in stone – something permanent, so that he would be remembered after he died. Gilgamesh believed that the afterlife was a horrible place where you sit in darkness and eat dust and, as Siduri pointed out, life needs to be taken a day at a time. The authors of Gilgamesh wanted to make the most of life: they wanted to have a good family, enjoy good food and drink, and be successful in the little time that they had. The gods were there to be feared and dealt with, only.
However in Genesis, God, while meant to be feared, is not really meant to be dealt with. His word was the last, and the authors of Genesis believed that life should be spent doing God’s commands. This can be seen with Adam and Eve. Eve takes fruit from the one tree she was not meant to – the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She and Adam, and the rest of humanity, are “punished” (and that is debatable) for the rest of time.
Now if Gilgamesh found the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he certainly would have taken fruit as well, but I don’t believe that the gods would have punished him. I believe that he would have been a hero for finding it and being the first one to bring knowledge into the human race, and he would have had his name stamped in stone like he strove for.