egohood

Contrary to the theories of Julian Jaynes stating that consciousness only rose in the sixth century B.C., it is absolutely clear that with this great work of art we have entered into the world of self-consciousness, for the dilemma of consciousness is what the Gilgamesh epic is all about. The name is the label of egohood. The heroes have achieved egohood and consciousness and now they are painfully aware that they are no longer part of the cyclical eternal round of the Great Mother.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 195