Heracles and Gilgamesh Ramble
There's a comparison to be made between Heracles and Gilgamesh.
They're both demigods with immense strength, have legendary feats in their belts, and are larger-than life figures celebrated over the ages.
Interestingly enough, they both at some point wore a lion skin over them, but they tell two completely different stories.
For Heracles, his lion skin comes from the Nemean Lion—a beast said to be invulnerable to all mortal weapons. Tasked to slay it was meant to kill him at the very start of his labors, yet he succeeded.
Wearing its pelt over his head and shoulders was more than showing off a trophy, it was proof that he beat what couldn't be beaten. He took away what made the Nemean Lion invincible and made it his own.
But for Gilgamesh, it's a sober tone when he's wearing it. It's after the funeral of Enkidu that he's described as going to the wilderness with matted hair and in a lion skin.
There's no triumph, glory, or victory to be claimed here. Gilgamesh is in his lowest moment, trying to escape the inevitability of death, and the lion skin serves as a sign of the distance from the world he once ruled.
And for a moment, the mighty king of Uruk, slayer of Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven, resembles more the wild man his companion once was.
If Heracles' lion skin represents conquering the natural world—a man who keeps climbing heights after heights, then Gilgamesh's is about dissolution—a man who has sunk into grief and fear. It's his hollow crown, representing the feats he's desperately holding because he believes without it, he's nothing.
Conclusion/Interpretation:
Heracles wears the lion skin to show that nothing has broken him (tho that can be questioned due to his dead family being the reason why he's doing this).
Gilgamesh wears it because he already has been.
One overcame the impossible and showed doing it more times afterward, while the other learns that there are some things that cannot be overcome.
And like Gilgamesh learns later on, that's okay.
