Sîn-lēqi-unninni ( akk, ) was a '' mašmaššu'' who lived in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

, probably in the period between 1300 BC and 1000 BC. He is traditionally thought to have compiled the best-preserved version of the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh ...

''. His name is listed in the text itself, which was unorthodox for works written in

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...

. His version is known by its ''

incipit The incipit () of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin and means "it beg ...

,'' or first line "ša nagba īmuru" ("He who saw the deep" or "The one who saw the Abyss"). The extent to which his version is different from earlier texts is unknown; Andrew R. George argues that Sîn-lēqi-unninni "gave he ''Epic of Gilgamesh''its final, fixed form". Tigay acknowledges that Sîn-lēqi-unninni shifted "Gilgamesh's greatness from deeds to the acquisition of knowledge". At time it was also known as "Gilgamesh series" (''iškar Gilgāmeš''). The prologue features the only instance of

first person narration A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...

by Sîn-lēqi-unninni. His version includes

Utnapishtim Ut-napishtim or Uta-na’ishtim (in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''), Atra-Hasis, Ziusudra ( Sumerian), Xisuthros (''Ξίσουθρος'', in Berossus) ( akk, ) is a character in ancient Mesopotamian mythology. He is tasked by the god Enki (Akkadian: E ...

's story of the Flood in tablet XI and, in tablet XII, the

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...

ian ''Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld''. Sîn-lēqi-unninni's name means ' Sîn (the Moon God) is one who accepts my prayer'. It is also sometimes transcribed, albeit less probably, as 'Sîn-liqe-unninni', meaning 'O Sîn! Accept my prayer'. Several Úruk families in the Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenid and Seleucid periods claimed Sîn-lēqi-unninni as their ancestor, specifically those who acted as scribes and ''kalû'', creating something of a "dynasty of intellectuals". Sîn-lēqi-unninni may have been a legendary figure, with a list from the first millennium B.C. describing him as "Gilgamesh's wise councilor".

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Babylonian people Epic of Gilgamesh Ancient Near Eastern scribes 13th-century BC people {{ANE-bio-stub