The underworld is a major religious aspect of many cultures. The Greeks portray their beliefs of the horrid misery of life and afterlife through the Odyssey and the ancient Mesopotamians portray their fear of death and struggle through The Epic of Gilgamesh. This essay compares the underworld experience between the two poems and takes into consideration who Gilgamesh and Odysseus meet, what they learn from their journey, and how this new information changes them. In the "Epic of Gilgamesh," the hero realizes soon after Enkidu's death that he too would be victim to death. He embarks on a journey with Urshanabi the boatman overseas to search for the old man people talk about, the only man to have been granted immortality by the gods. "And Gilgamesh and Urshanabi embarked in boats. They cast off the magillu and sailed away" (X.144). In The Epic of Gilgamesh, The hero does not have a literal underworld but his underworld has a different setting and turn of events. Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim in his portrayed underworld where he asks Utnapishtim how he was granted eternal life. "How you came to stand in the gods assembly and sought eternal life  (XI.1-10). In relation to In comparison to The Odyssey, the hero also travels to the underworld just as Gilgamesh does but Odysseus literally has an underworld experience. Odysseus goes to the underworld to meet specifically with Tiresias. "But I, the sharp sword drawn from beside my hip, sat down on alert there and never let the ghosts of the shambling, shiftless dead come near that blood till I had questioned Tiresias myself  (11.53-56). After meeting with Tiresias, Odysseus also meets with different shades (ghosts). Odysseus meets with Elpenor, companion to Odysseus, Telemachus, his mother and Achilles. In relation to The Quest, the hero responds to a call and embarks to the underworld. "Having responded to the call, the hero leaves the Underworld" (322). Both heroes learn from the unde