sux, , label=none , image = Hero lion Dur-Sharrukin Louvre AO19862.jpg , alt = , caption = Possible representation of Gilgamesh as Master of Animals, grasping a lion in his left arm and snake in his right hand, in an

Assyrian palace relief Assyrian sculpture is the sculpture of the ancient Assyrian states, especially the Neo-Assyrian Empire of 911 to 612 BC, which was centered around the city of Assur in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) which at its height, ruled over all of Mesopo ...

(713–706 BC), from

Dur-Sharrukin Dur-Sharrukin ("Fortress of Sargon"; ar, دور شروكين, Syriac: ܕܘܪ ܫܪܘ ܘܟܢ), present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Khorsabad is a village in northern Iraq, 15 km northeast of M ...

, now held in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, reign=c. 2900–2700 BC ( EDI), predecessor =

Dumuzid, the Fisherman Dumuzid titled the Fisherman was a legendary Sumerian king of Uruk listed originating from Kuara. According to legend, in the one-hundredth year of his reign, he was captured by Enmebaragesi. Sumerian King List The primary source of informat ...

(as Ensi of

Uruk Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...

) , consort = , siblings = , successor =

Ur-Nungal Ur-Nungal of Uruk was the sixth Sumerian ruler in the First Dynasty of Uruk (ca. 26th century BC), according to the ''Sumerian King List'', which also claims he ruled 30 years.Thorkild Jacobsen, ''The Sumerian King List'' (Chicago: University of C ...

Gilgamesh ( akk, , translit=Gilgameš; originally sux, , translit= Bilgames)). His name translates roughly as "The Ancestor is a Young-man", from ''Bil.ga'' "Ancestor", Elder and ''Mes/Mesh3'' "Young-Man". See also . was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an 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 begins with ...

'', an

epic poem An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. ...

written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of the Sumerian

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

, who was posthumously

deified Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The term has ...

. His rule probably would have taken place sometime in the beginning of the

Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia) The Early Dynastic period (abbreviated ED period or ED) is an archaeological culture in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) that is generally dated to c. 2900–2350 BC and was preceded by the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods. It saw the development of wr ...

(henceforth ED), 2900 – 2350 BC, though he became a major figure in Sumerian legend during the

Third Dynasty of Ur The Third Dynasty of Ur, also called the Neo-Sumerian Empire, refers to a 22nd to 21st century BC ( middle chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur and a short-lived territorial-political state which some historians consider t ...

(). Tales of Gilgamesh's legendary exploits are narrated in five surviving Sumerian poems. The earliest of these is likely "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld", in which Gilgamesh comes to the aid of the goddess Inanna and drives away the creatures infesting her ''huluppu'' tree. She gives him two unknown objects, a ''mikku'' and a ''pikku'', which he loses. After

Enkidu Enkidu ( sux, ''EN.KI.DU10'') was a legendary figure in ancient Mesopotamian mythology, wartime comrade and friend of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. Their exploits were composed in Sumerian poems and in the Akkadian ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', writte ...

's death, his shade tells Gilgamesh about the bleak conditions in the

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...

. The poem ''

Gilgamesh and Aga Gilgamesh and Aga, sometimes referred to as incipit The envoys of Aga ( Sumerian: ''lu2 kin-gi4-a aka'') is an Old Babylonian poem written in Sumerian. The only one of the five poems of Gilgamesh that has no mythological aspects, it has been th ...

'' describes Gilgamesh's revolt against his overlord

Aga of Kish Aga ( Sumerian:) commonly known as Aga of Kish, was the twenty-third and last king in the first dynasty of Kish during the Early Dynastic I period. He is listed in the ''Sumerian King List'' and many sources as the son of Enmebaragesi. The Kish ...

. Other Sumerian poems relate Gilgamesh's defeat of the giant

Huwawa In Ancient Mesopotamian religion, Humbaba ( Assyrian spelling), also spelled Huwawa ( Sumerian spelling) and surnamed ''the Terrible'', was a monstrous giant of immemorial age raised by Utu, the Sun / justice / truth god. Humbaba was the guardi ...

and the

Bull of Heaven In ancient Mesopotamian mythology, the Bull of Heaven is a mythical beast fought by the hero Gilgamesh. The story of the Bull of Heaven has two different versions: one recorded in an earlier Sumerian poem and a later version in the standard A ...

, while a fifth, poorly preserved poem relates the account of his death and funeral. In later Babylonian times, these stories were woven into a connected narrative. The standard Akkadian ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was composed by a scribe named Sîn-lēqi-unninni, probably during the Middle Babylonian Period (), based on much older source material. In the epic, Gilgamesh is a

demigod A demigod or demigoddess is a part-human and part-divine offspring of a deity and a human, or a human or non-human creature that is accorded divine status after death, or someone who has attained the "divine spark" ( spiritual enlightenment). A ...

of superhuman strength who befriends the wild man

. Together, they embark on many journeys, most famously defeating

Humbaba In Ancient Mesopotamian religion, Humbaba ( Assyrian spelling), also spelled Huwawa ( Sumerian spelling) and surnamed ''the Terrible'', was a monstrous giant of immemorial age raised by Utu, the Sun / justice / truth god. Humbaba was the guardi ...

(Sumerian: Huwawa) and the

, who is sent to attack them by

Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Su ...

(Sumerian: Inanna) after Gilgamesh rejects her offer for him to become her consort. After Enkidu dies of a disease sent as punishment from the gods, Gilgamesh becomes afraid of his death and visits the sage

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: ...

, the survivor of the

Great Flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primaeval ...

, hoping to find

immortality Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some modern species may possess biological immortality. Some scientists, futurists, and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immorta ...

. Gilgamesh repeatedly fails the trials set before him and returns home to Uruk, realizing that immortality is beyond his reach. Most scholars agree that the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' exerted substantial influence on the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...

'' and the ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...

'', two epic poems written in

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

during the 8th century BC. The story of Gilgamesh's birth is described in an anecdote in ''On the Nature of Animals'' by the Greek writer Aelian (2nd century AD). Aelian relates that Gilgamesh's grandfather kept his mother under guard to prevent her from becoming pregnant, because an oracle had told him that his grandson would overthrow him. She became pregnant and the guards threw the child off a tower, but an eagle rescued him mid-fall and delivered him safely to an orchard, where the gardener raised him. The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was rediscovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal in 1849. After being translated in the early 1870s, it caused widespread controversy due to similarities between portions of it and the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''

Historical king

Most historians generally agree that Gilgamesh was a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of

, who probably ruled sometime during the early part of the Early Dynastic Period ( 2900 – 2350 BC). Stephanie Dalley, a scholar of the ancient Near East, states that "precise dates cannot be given for the lifetime of Gilgamesh, but they are generally agreed to lie between 2800 and 2500 BC". An inscription, possibly belonging to a contemporary official under Gilgamesh, was discovered in the archaic texts at Ur; his name reads: "Gilgameš is the one whom Utu has selected". Aside from this the

Tummal Inscription The Tummal Inscription , one of the Babylonian Chronicles, is a writing of ancient Sumer from the time of the ruler Ishbi-Erra. The writing lists the names of the rulers that built the temples dedicated to ''Enlil'' within Nippur and temples of ''Ni ...

, a thirty-four-line

historiographic Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians hav ...

text written during the reign of

Ishbi-Erra Ishbi-Erra ( Akkadian: d''iš-bi-ir₃-ra'') was the founder of the dynasty of Isin, reigning from ''c.'' 2017 — ''c.'' 1986 BC on the middle chronology or 1953 BC — ''c.'' 1920 BC on the short chronology. Ishbi-Erra was preceded by Ibbi-Si ...

(), also mentions him. The inscription credits Gilgamesh with building the walls of Uruk. Lines eleven through fifteen of the inscription read:

For a second time, the Tummal fell into ruin, Gilgamesh built the Numunburra of the House of Enlil. Ur-lugal, the son of Gilgamesh, Made the Tummal pre-eminent, Brought
Ninlil Ninlil ( DINGIR, DNIN (cuneiform), NIN.LÍL; meaning uncertain) was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of Enlil. She shared many of his functions, especially the responsibility for declaring destinies, and like him was regarded as a senio ...
to the Tummal.

Gilgamesh is also connected to King

Enmebaragesi Enmebaragesi ( Sumerian: ''En-me-barag-gi-se'' N-ME-BARA2-GI4-SE originally Mebarasi () was the penultimate king of the first dynasty of Kish and is recorded as having reigned 900 years in the ''Sumerian King List''. Like his son and successor ...

of Kish, a known historical figure who may have lived near Gilgamesh's lifetime. Furthermore, he is listed as one of the kings of Uruk by the '' Sumerian King List''. Fragments of an epic text found in Mê-Turan (modern Tell Haddad) relate that at the end of his life Gilgamesh was buried under the river bed. The people of Uruk diverted the flow of the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...

passing Uruk for the purpose of burying the dead king within the river bed.

Deification and legendary exploits

Sumerian poems

It is certain that, during the later Early Dynastic Period, Gilgamesh was worshiped as a god at various locations across Sumer. In 21st century BC, King

Utu-hengal Utu-hengal ( sux, , ), also written Utu-heg̃al, Utu-heĝal, and sometimes transcribed as Utu-hegal, Utu-hejal, Utu-Khengal, was one of the first native kings of Sumer after two hundred years of Akkadian and Gutian rule, and was at the origin ...

of Uruk adopted Gilgamesh as his patron deity. The kings of the

() were especially fond of Gilgamesh, calling him their "divine brother" and "friend." King

Shulgi Shulgi ( dŠulgi, formerly read as Dungi) of Ur was the second king of the Third Dynasty of Ur. He reigned for 48 years, from c. 2094 – c. 2046 BC (Middle Chronology) or possibly c. 2030 – 1982 BC (Short Chronology). His accomplishme ...

of Ur (2029–1982 BC) declared himself the son of

Lugalbanda Lugalbanda was a deified Sumerian king of Uruk who, according to various sources of Mesopotamian literature, was the father of Gilgamesh. Early sources mention his consort Ninsun and his heroic deeds in an expedition to Aratta by King Enmerkar. ...

and

Ninsun Ninsun (also called Ninsumun, cuneiform: dNIN.SUMUN2; Sumerian: ''Nin-sumun(ak)'' "lady of the wild cows") was a Mesopotamian goddess. She is best known as the mother of the hero Gilgamesh and wife of deified legendary king Lugalbanda, and appea ...

and the brother of Gilgamesh. Over the centuries, there may have been a gradual accretion of stories about Gilgamesh, some possibly derived from the real lives of other historical figures, such as Gudea, the Second Dynasty ruler of

Lagash Lagash (cuneiform: LAGAŠKI; Sumerian: ''Lagaš''), was an ancient city state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Ash Shatrah, Iraq. Lagash (modern Al-Hiba) w ...

(2144–2124 BC). Prayers inscribed in clay tablets address Gilgamesh as a judge of the dead in the Underworld.

"Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld"

During this period, a large number of myths and legends developed surrounding Gilgamesh. Five independent Sumerian poems narrating various exploits of Gilgamesh have survived to the present. Gilgamesh's first appearance in literature is probably in the Sumerian poem "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld". The narrative begins with a ''huluppu'' tree—perhaps, according to the Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer, a willow, growing on the banks of the river

. The goddess Inanna moves the tree to her garden in

with the intention to carve it into a throne once it is fully grown. The tree grows and matures, but the serpent "who knows no charm," the ''

Anzû Anzû, also known as dZû and Imdugud ( Sumerian: ''AN.IM.DUGUD MUŠEN''), is a lesser divinity or monster in several Mesopotamian religions. He was conceived by the pure waters of the Apsu and the wide Earth, or as son of Siris. Anzû was dep ...

''-bird, and '' Lilitu'', a Mesopotamian demon, all take up residence within the tree, causing Inanna to cry with sorrow. Gilgamesh, who in this story is portrayed as Inanna's brother, comes along and slays the serpent, causing the ''Anzû''-bird and Lilitu to flee. Gilgamesh's companions chop down the tree and carve its wood into a bed and a throne, which they give to Inanna. Inanna responds by fashioning a ''pikku'' and a ''mikku'' (probably a drum and drumsticks respectively, although the exact identifications are uncertain), which she gives to Gilgamesh as a reward for his heroism. Gilgamesh loses the ''pikku'' and ''mikku'' and asks who will retrieve them. Enkidu descends to the Underworld to find them, but disobeys the strict laws of the Underworld and is therefore required to remain there forever. The remaining portion of the poem is a dialogue in which Gilgamesh asks the shade of Enkidu questions about the Underworld.

Subsequent poems

''" Gilgamesh and Agga"'' describes Gilgamesh's successful revolt against his overlord Agga, the king of the city-state of

Kish Kish may refer to: Geography * Gishi, Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, a village also called Kish * Kiş, Shaki, Azerbaijan, a village and municipality also spelled Kish * Kish Island, an Iranian island and a city in the Persian Gulf * Kish, Iran, ...

. "Gilgamesh and Huwawa" describes how Gilgamesh and his servant

, aided by the help of fifty volunteers from Uruk, defeat the monster

, an ogre appointed by the god Enlil, the ruler of the gods, as the guardian of the

Cedar Forest The Cedar Forest ( Sumerian: 𒄑𒂞𒄑 𒌁giš eren giš tir) is the glorious realm of the gods of Mesopotamian mythology. It is guarded by the demigod Humbaba and was once entered by the hero Gilgamesh who dared cut down trees from its ...

. In "Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven", Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the

, who has been sent to attack them by the goddess Inanna. The plot of this poem differs substantially from the corresponding scene in the later Akkadian ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. In the Sumerian poem, Inanna does not seem to ask Gilgamesh to become her consort as she does in the later Akkadian epic. Furthermore, while she is coercing her father An to give her the Bull of Heaven, rather than threatening to raise the dead to eat the living as she does in the later epic, she merely threatens to let out a "cry" that will reach the earth. A poem known as the "Death of Gilgamesh" is poorly preserved, but appears to describe a major state funeral followed by the arrival of the deceased in the Underworld. It is possible that the modern scholars who gave the poem its title may have misinterpreted it, and the poem may actually be about the death of Enkidu.

''Epic of Gilgamesh''

Eventually, according to Kramer (1963):

Gilgamesh became the hero par excellence of the ancient world—an adventurous, brave, but tragic figure symbolizing man's vain but endless drive for fame, glory, and immortality.

By the

Old Babylonian Period The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to BC – BC, and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynasty ...

(), stories of Gilgamesh's legendary exploits had been woven into one or several long epics. The ''

'', the most complete account of Gilgamesh's adventures, was composed in Akkadian during the Middle Babylonian Period ( 1600 – 1155 BC) by a scribe named Sîn-lēqi-unninni. The most complete surviving version of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' is recorded on a set of twelve clay tablets dating to the seventh century BC, found in the Library of Ashurbanipal in the

Assyria Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...

n capital of Nineveh. The epic survives only in a fragmentary form, with many pieces of it missing or damaged. Some scholars and translators choose to supplement the missing parts of the epic with material from the earlier Sumerian poems or from other versions of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' found at other sites throughout the Near East. Tablet V of the Epic of Gligamesh

In the epic, Gilgamesh is introduced as "two thirds divine and one third mortal." At the beginning of the poem, Gilgamesh is described as a brutal, oppressive ruler. This is usually interpreted to mean either that he compels all his subjects to engage in forced labor or that he sexually oppresses all his subjects. As punishment for Gilgamesh's cruelty, the god Anu creates the wild man Enkidu. After being tamed by a prostitute named

Shamhat Shamhat ( akk, , Šamḫat; also called Shamkat in the old Babylonian version of Gilgamesh") is a female character who appears in Tablets I and II of the Epic of Gilgamesh and is mentioned in Tablet VII. She is a sacred prostitute who plays a sign ...

, Enkidu travels to Uruk to confront Gilgamesh. In the second tablet, the two men wrestle and, although Gilgamesh wins the match in the end, he is so impressed by his opponent's strength and tenacity that they become close friends. In the earlier Sumerian texts, Enkidu is Gilgamesh's servant, but, in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', they are companions of equal standing. In tablets III through IV, Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to the

, which is guarded by Humbaba (the Akkadian name for Huwawa). The heroes cross the seven mountains to the Cedar Forest, where they begin chopping down trees. Confronted by Humbaba, Gilgamesh panics and prays to Shamash (the East Semitic name for Utu), who blows eight winds in Humbaba's eyes, blinding him. Humbaba begs for mercy, but the heroes decapitate him regardless. Tablet VI begins with Gilgamesh returning to Uruk, where

(the Akkadian name for Inanna) comes to him and demands him to become her consort. Gilgamesh repudiates her, insisting that she has mistreated all her former lovers. In revenge, Ishtar goes to her father Anu and demands that he give her the Bull of Heaven, which she sends to attack Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the Bull and offer its heart to Shamash. While Gilgamesh and Enkidu are resting, Ishtar stands up on the walls of

and curses Gilgamesh. Enkidu tears off the Bull's right thigh and throws it in Ishtar's face, saying, "If I could lay my hands on you, it is this I should do to you, and lash your entrails to your side." Ishtar calls together "the crimped courtesans, prostitutes and harlots" and orders them to mourn for the Bull of Heaven. Meanwhile, Gilgamesh holds a celebration over the Bull of Heaven's defeat. Tablet VII begins with Enkidu recounting a

dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

in which he saw Anu, Ea, and Shamash declare either Gilgamesh or Enkidu must die as punishment for having slain the Bull of Heaven. They choose Enkidu and Enkidu soon grows sick. He has a dream of the Underworld, and then he dies. Tablet VIII describes Gilgamesh's inconsolable grief over his friend's death and the details of Enkidu's funeral. Tablets IX through XI relate how Gilgamesh, driven by grief and fear of his own mortality, travels a great distance and overcomes many obstacles to find the home of

, the sole survivor of the

, who was rewarded with immortality by the gods. Mesopotamian - Cylinder Seal with Scorpion Man Shooting at Winged Creatures - Walters 42807

The journey to Utnapishtim involves a series of episodic challenges, which probably originated as major independent adventures, but, in the epic, they are reduced to what Joseph Eddy Fontenrose calls "fairly harmless incidents." First, Gilgamesh encounters and slays lions in the mountain pass. Upon reaching the mountain of

Mashu Mashu, as described in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' of Mesopotamian mythology, is a great cedar mountain through which the hero-king Gilgamesh passes via a tunnel on his journey to Dilmun after leaving the Cedar Forest, a forest of ten thousand lea ...

, Gilgamesh encounters a

scorpion man Scorpion men ( akk, 𒄈𒋰𒇽𒍇𒇻, translit=girtablullû or aqrabuamelu) are featured in several Akkadian language myths, including the '' Enûma Elish'' and the Babylonian version of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. The Scorpion Men are descr ...

and his wife; their bodies flash with terrifying radiance, but, once Gilgamesh tells them his purpose, they allow him to pass. Gilgamesh wanders through darkness for twelve days before he finally comes into the light. He finds a beautiful garden by the sea in which he meets

Siduri Siduri, or more accurately Šiduri (Shiduri), is a character in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. She is described as an alewife. The oldest preserved version of the composition to contain the episode involving her leaves her nameless, and in the later s ...

, the divine Alewife. At first, she tries to prevent Gilgamesh from entering the garden, but later she instead attempts to persuade him to accept death as inevitable and not journey beyond the waters. When Gilgamesh refuses to do this, she directs him to

Urshanabi Urshanabi was the ferryman of the Hubur, river of the dead in Mesopotamian mythology. His equivalent in Greek Mythology was Charon. He is first mentioned in the myth of Enlil and Ninlil, where he is called SI.LU.IGI and described as a man. In the ...

, the ferryman of the gods, who ferries Gilgamesh across the sea to Utnapishtim's homeland. When Gilgamesh finally arrives at Utnapishtim's home, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that, to become immortal, he must defy sleep. Gilgamesh fails to do this and falls asleep for seven days without waking. Next, Utnapishtim tells him that, even if he cannot obtain immortality, he can restore his youth using a plant with the power of rejuvenation. Gilgamesh takes the plant, but leaves it on the shore while swimming and a snake steals it, explaining why snakes are able to shed their skins. Despondent at this loss, Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, and shows his city to the ferryman Urshanabi. It is at this point the epic stops being a coherent narrative. Tablet XII is an appendix corresponding to the Sumerian poem of ''Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld'' describing the loss of the ''pikku'' and ''mikku''. Numerous elements within this narrative reveal lack of continuity with the earlier portions of the epic. At the beginning of Tablet XII, Enkidu is still alive, despite having previously died in Tablet VII, and Gilgamesh is kind to Ishtar, despite the violent rivalry between them displayed in Tablet VI. Also, while most of the parts of the epic are free adaptations of their respective Sumerian predecessors, Tablet XII is a literal, word-for-word translation of the last part of ''Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld''. For these reasons, scholars conclude this narrative was probably relegated to the end of the epic because it did not fit the larger narrative. In it, Gilgamesh sees a vision of Enkidu's ghost, who promises to recover the lost items and describes to his friend the abysmal condition of the Underworld.

In Mesopotamian art

Although stories about Gilgamesh were wildly popular throughout ancient Mesopotamia, authentic representations of him in ancient art are uncommon. Popular works often identify depictions of a hero with long hair, containing four or six curls, as representations of Gilgamesh, but this identification is known to be incorrect. A few genuine ancient Mesopotamian representations of Gilgamesh do exist, however. These representations are mostly found on clay plaques and cylinder seals. Generally, it is only possible to identify a figure shown in art as Gilgamesh if the artistic work in question clearly depicts a scene from the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' itself. One set of representations of Gilgamesh is found in scenes of two heroes fighting a demonic giant, certainly Humbaba. Another set is found in scenes showing a similar pair of heroes confronting a giant, winged bull, certainly the Bull of Heaven.

Later influence

In antiquity

Guido Reni - Polyphemus - Google Art Project

The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' exerted substantial influence on the ''

'' and the ''

'', two epic poems written in

during the eighth century BC. According to

Barry B. Powell Barry Bruce Powell (born 1942) is an American classical scholar. He is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Classics Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, author of the widely used textbook ''Classical Myth'' and many other books. Trained at ...

, an American classical scholar, early Greeks were probably exposed to Mesopotamian oral traditions through their extensive connections to the civilizations of the ancient Near East and this exposure resulted in the similarities that are seen between the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and the Homeric epics.

Walter Burkert Walter Burkert (; 2 February 1931 – 11 March 2015) was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult. A professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he taught in the UK and the US. He has influenced generations of studen ...

, a German classicist, observes that the scene in Tablet VI of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' in which Gilgamesh rejects Ishtar's advances and she complains before her mother

Antu Antu may refer to: * Antu (goddess), a goddess, in Akkadian mythology * Antu (Mapuche mythology), the Pillan spirit in the Mapuche mythology * Antu, India, a town in Pratapgarh District, Uttar Pradesh, India * Antu County, in Jilin, China * Alpha ...

, but is mildly rebuked by her father Anu, is directly paralleled in Book V of the ''Iliad''. In this scene,

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols inclu ...

, the later Greek adaptation of Ishtar, is wounded by the hero Diomedes and flees to

Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (; el, Όλυμπος, Ólympos, also , ) is the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, be ...

, where she cries to her mother Dione and is mildly rebuked by her father

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

. Powell observes the opening lines of the ''Odyssey'' seem to echo the opening lines of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. The storyline of the ''Odyssey'' likewise bears many similarities to the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. Both Gilgamesh and Odysseus encounter a woman who can turn men into animals: Ishtar (for Gilgamesh) and

Circe Circe (; grc, , ) is an enchantress and a minor goddess in ancient Greek mythology and religion. She is either a daughter of the Titan Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse or the goddess Hecate and Aeëtes. Circe was renowned for her vas ...

(for Odysseus). In the ''Odyssey'', Odysseus blinds a giant Cyclops named

Polyphemus Polyphemus (; grc-gre, Πολύφημος, Polyphēmos, ; la, Polyphēmus ) is the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes described in Homer's ''Odyssey''. His name means "abounding in songs and leg ...

, an incident which bears similarities to Gilgamesh's slaying of Humbaba in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. Both Gilgamesh and Odysseus visit the Underworld and both find themselves unhappy whilst living in an otherworldly paradise in the presence of an attractive woman: Siduri (for Gilgamesh) and Calypso (for Odysseus). Finally, both heroes have an opportunity for immortality but miss it (Gilgamesh when he loses the plant, and Odysseus when he leaves Calypso's island). In the

Qumran Qumran ( he, קומראן; ar, خربة قمران ') is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli ...

scroll known as ''

Book of Giants The ''Book of Giants'' is an apocryphal Jewish book which expands upon the Genesis narrative of the Hebrew Bible, in a similar manner to the Book of Enoch. Together with this latter work, the ''Book of Giants'' "stands as an attempt to explain h ...

'' (c. 100 BC) the names of Gilgamesh and

appear as two of the

antediluvian The antediluvian (alternatively pre-diluvian or pre-flood) period is the time period chronicled in the Bible between the fall of man and the Genesis flood narrative in biblical cosmology. The term was coined by Thomas Browne. The narrative takes ...

giants, rendered (in consonantal form) as ''glgmš'' and ''ḩwbbyš''. This same text was later used in the Middle East by the Manichaean sects, and the Arabic form ''Gilgamish''/''Jiljamish'' survives as the name of a demon according to the Egyptian

cleric Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

Al-Suyuti ( 1500). The story of Gilgamesh's birth is not recorded in any extant Sumerian or Akkadian text, but a version of it is described in ''

De Natura Animalium Claudius Aelianus ( grc, Κλαύδιος Αἰλιανός, Greek transliteration ''Kláudios Ailianós''; c. 175c. 235 AD), commonly Aelian (), born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus ...

'' (''On the Nature of Animals'') 12.21, a

commonplace book Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are simi ...

which was written in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

sometime around 200 AD by the Hellenized Roman orator Aelian. According to Aelian's story, an oracle told King Seuechoros (Σευεχορος) of the Babylonians that his grandson Gilgamos would overthrow him. To prevent this, Seuechoros kept his only daughter under close guard at the Acropolis of the city of Babylon, but she became pregnant nonetheless. Fearing the king's wrath, the guards hurled the infant off the top of a tall tower. An eagle rescued the boy in mid-flight and carried him to an orchard, where it carefully set him down. The caretaker of the orchard found the boy and raised him, naming him ''Gilgamos'' (Γίλγαμος). Eventually, Gilgamos returned to Babylon and overthrew his grandfather, proclaiming himself king. The birth narrative described by Aelian is in the same tradition as other Near Eastern birth legends, such as those of Sargon, Moses, and

Cyrus Cyrus ( Persian: کوروش) is a male given name. It is the given name of a number of Persian kings. Most notably it refers to Cyrus the Great ( BC). Cyrus is also the name of Cyrus I of Anshan ( BC), King of Persia and the grandfather of Cyrus ...

. Theodore Bar Konai (c. AD 600), writing in Syriac, also mentions a king ''Gligmos'', ''Gmigmos'' or ''Gamigos'' as last of a line of twelve kings who were contemporaneous with the patriarchs from Peleg to Abraham; this occurrence is also considered a vestige of Gilgamesh's former memory.

Modern rediscovery

The Akkadian text of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was first discovered in 1849 AD by the English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. Layard was seeking evidence to confirm the historicity of the events described in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Old Testament, which, at the time, was believed to contain the oldest texts in the world. Instead, his excavations and those of others after him revealed the existence of much older Mesopotamian texts and showed that many of the stories in the Old Testament may actually be derived from earlier myths told throughout the ancient Near East. The first translation of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was produced in the early 1870s by George Smith, a scholar at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, who published the Flood story from Tablet XI in 1880 under the title ''The Chaldean Account of Genesis''. Gilgamesh's name was originally misread as ''Izdubar''. Early interest in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was almost exclusively on account of the flood story from Tablet XI. The flood story attracted enormous public attention and drew widespread scholarly controversy, while the rest of the epic was largely ignored. Most attention towards the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came from German-speaking countries, where controversy raged over the relationship between ''Babel und Bibel'' ("Babylon and Bible"). In January 1902, the German Assyriologist

Friedrich Delitzsch Friedrich Delitzsch (; 3 September 1850 – 19 December 1922) was a German Assyriologist. He was the son of Lutheran theologian Franz Delitzsch (1813–1890). Born in Erlangen, he studied in Leipzig and Berlin, gaining his habilitation in 1874 as ...

gave a lecture at the

Sing-Akademie zu Berlin The Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, also known as the Berliner Singakademie, is a musical (originally choral) society founded in Berlin in 1791 by Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch, harpsichordist to the court of Prussia, on the model of the 18th-century ...

in front of the Kaiser and his wife, in which he argued that the Flood story in the Book of Genesis was directly copied from the one in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. Delitzsch's lecture was so controversial that, by September 1903, he had managed to collect 1,350 short articles from newspapers and journals, over 300 longer ones, and twenty-eight pamphlets, all written in response to this lecture, as well as another lecture about the relationship between the Code of Hammurabi and the Law of Moses in the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...

. These articles were overwhelmingly critical of Delitzsch. The Kaiser distanced himself from Delitzsch and his radical views and, in the fall of 1904, Delitzsch was forced to give his third lecture in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

and

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

rather than in Berlin. The putative relationship between the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and the Hebrew Bible later became a major part of Delitzsch's argument in his 1920–21 book ''Die große Täuschung'' (''The Great Deception'') that the Hebrew Bible was irredeemably "contaminated" by Babylonian influence and that only by eliminating the human Old Testament entirely could Christians finally believe in the true, Aryan message of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

Early modern interpretations

ISHTAR-EPOS p221 IZDUBAR TAKING LEAVE OF SABITU AND SIDURI IN THE HAPPY HALLS

The first modern literary adaptation of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was ''Ishtar and Izdubar'' (1884) by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton, an American lawyer and businessman. Hamilton had rudimentary knowledge of Akkadian, which he had learned from

Archibald Sayce The Rev. Archibald Henry Sayce (25 September 18454 February 1933) was a pioneer British Assyriologist and linguist, who held a chair as Professor of Assyriology at the University of Oxford from 1891 to 1919. He was able to write in at least twe ...

's 1872 ''Assyrian Grammar for Comparative Purposes''. Hamilton's book relied heavily on Smith's translation of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', but also made major changes. For instance, Hamilton omitted the famous flood story entirely and instead focused on the romantic relationship between Ishtar and Gilgamesh. ''Ishtar and Izdubar'' expanded the original roughly 3,000 lines of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' to roughly 6,000 lines of rhyming couplets grouped into forty-eight

canto The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. Etymology and equivalent terms The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from the ...

s. Hamilton significantly altered most of the characters and introduced entirely new episodes not found in the original epic. Significantly influenced by Edward FitzGerald's ''

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam ''Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám'' is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (') attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dubbed "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia". Altho ...

'' and

Edwin Arnold Sir Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI (10 June 183224 March 1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work '' The Light of Asia''.The Light of Asia ''The Light of Asia'', or ''The Great Renunciation'' (''Mahâbhinishkramana''), is a book by Sir Edwin Arnold. The first edition of the book was published in London in July 1879. In the form of a narrative poem, the book endeavours to describe ...

'', Hamilton's characters dress more like nineteenth-century Turks than ancient Babylonians. Hamilton also changed the tone of the epic from the "grim realism" and "ironic tragedy" of the original to a "cheery optimism" filled with "the sweet strains of love and harmony". In his 1904 book ''Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients'', the German Assyriologist Alfred Jeremias equated Gilgamesh with the king

Nimrod Nimrod (; ; arc, ܢܡܪܘܕ; ar, نُمْرُود, Numrūd) is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and therefore a great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of ...

from the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...

and argued Gilgamesh's strength must come from his hair, like the hero

Samson Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...

in the

Book of Judges The Book of Judges (, ') is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom ...

, and that he must have performed

Twelve Labors The Labours of Hercules or Labours of Heracles ( grc-gre, οἱ Ἡρακλέους ἆθλοι, ) are a series of episodes concerning a penance carried out by Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes, whose name was later romanised as ...

like the hero

Heracles Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptiv ...

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

. In his 1906 book ''Das Gilgamesch-Epos in der Weltliteratur'', the Orientalist Peter Jensen declared that the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was the source behind nearly all the stories in the Old Testament, arguing that Moses is "the Gilgamesh of Exodus who saves the children of Israel from precisely the same situation faced by the inhabitants of Erech at the beginning of the Babylonian epic." He then proceeded to argue that

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Je ...

Isaac Isaac; grc, Ἰσαάκ, Isaák; ar, إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq; am, ይስሐቅ is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was th ...

, Samson,

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, and various other biblical figures are all nothing more than exact copies of Gilgamesh. Finally, he declared that even

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

is "nothing but an Israelite Gilgamesh. Nothing but an adjunct to Abraham, Moses, and countless other figures in the saga." This ideology became known as Panbabylonianism and was almost immediately rejected by mainstream scholars. The most stalwart critics of Panbabylonianism were those associated with the emerging '' Religionsgeschichtliche Schule''.

Hermann Gunkel Hermann Gunkel (23 May 1862 – 11 March 1932), a German Old Testament scholar, founded form criticism. He also became a leading representative of the history of religions school. His major works cover Genesis and the Psalms, and his major in ...

dismissed most of Jensen's purported parallels between Gilgamesh and biblical figures as mere baseless sensationalism. He concluded that Jensen and other Assyriologists like him had failed to understand the complexities of Old Testament scholarship and had confused scholars with "conspicuous mistakes and remarkable aberrations". In English-speaking countries, the prevailing scholarly interpretation during the early twentieth century was one originally proposed by

Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, KLS (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was a British East India Company army officer, politician and Orientalist, sometimes described as the Father of Assyriology. His son, also Henry, was to bec ...

, which held that Gilgamesh is a "solar hero", whose actions represent the movements of the sun, and that the twelve tablets of his epic represent the twelve signs of the Babylonian zodiac. The Austrian psychoanalyst

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...

, drawing on the theories of James George Frazer and Paul Ehrenreich, interpreted Gilgamesh and Eabani (the earlier misreading for ''Enkidu'') as representing "man" and "crude sensuality" respectively. He compared them to other brother-figures in world mythology, remarking, "One is always weaker than the other and dies sooner. In Gilgamesh this ages-old motif of the unequal pair of brothers served to represent the relationship between a man and his

libido Libido (; colloquial: sex drive) is a person's overall sexual drive or desire for sexual activity. Libido is influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors. Biologically, the sex hormones and associated neurotransmitters that act u ...

." He also saw Enkidu as representing the

placenta The placenta is a temporary embryonic and later fetal organ that begins developing from the blastocyst shortly after implantation. It plays critical roles in facilitating nutrient, gas and waste exchange between the physically separate mate ...

, the "weaker twin" who dies shortly after birth. Freud's friend and pupil

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...

frequently discusses Gilgamesh in his early work ''Symbole der Wandlung'' (1911–1912). He, for instance, cites Ishtar's sexual attraction to Gilgamesh as an example of the mother's

incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adopti ...

uous desire for her son, Humbaba as an example of an oppressive father-figure whom Gilgamesh must overcome, and Gilgamesh himself as an example of a man who forgets his dependence on

the unconscious The unconscious mind (or the unconscious) consists of the processes in the mind which occur automatically and are not available to introspection and include thought processes, memories, interests, and motivations. Even though these processes exis ...

and is punished by the "gods", who represent it.

Modern interpretations and cultural significance

Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945

In the years following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Gilgamesh, formerly an obscure figure known only by a few scholars, gradually became increasingly popular with modern audiences. The ''Epic of Gilgamesh''s existential themes made it particularly appealing to German authors in the years following the war. In his 1947

existentialist Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...

novel '' Die Stadt hinter dem Strom'', the German novelist

Hermann Kasack Hermann Robert Richard Eugen Kasack (24 July 1896 – 10 January 1966) was a German writer. He is best known for his novel '' Die Stadt hinter dem Strom'' (''The city beyond the river''). Kasack was a pioneer of using the medium broadcast for l ...

adapted elements of the epic into a metaphor for the aftermath of the destruction of World War II in Germany, portraying the bombed-out city of

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

as resembling the frightening Underworld seen by Enkidu in his dream. In

Hans Henny Jahnn Hans Henny Jahnn (born Hans Henny August Jahn'';'' 17 December 1894 – 29 November 1959) was a German playwright, novelist, and organ-builder. Personal life Hans Henny Jahn was born in 1894 in Stellingen, one of Hamburg's suburbs, and was the s ...

's ''

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

'' ''River Without Shores'' (1949–1950), the middle section of the trilogy centers around a composer whose twenty-year-long homoerotic relationship with a friend mirrors that of Gilgamesh with Enkidu and whose masterpiece turns out to be a symphony about Gilgamesh. ''The Quest of Gilgamesh'', a 1953 radio play by Douglas Geoffrey Bridson, helped popularize the epic in Britain. In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Charles Olson Charles Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation modern American poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York ...

praised the epic in his poems and essays and

Gregory Corso Gregory Nunzio Corso (March 26, 1930 – January 17, 2001) was an American poet and a key member of the Beat movement. He was the youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burrou ...

believed that it contained ancient virtues capable of curing what he viewed as modern moral degeneracy. The 1966 postfigurative novel ''Gilgamesch'' by Guido Bachmann became a classic of German " queer literature" and set a decades-long international literary trend of portraying Gilgamesh and Enkidu as homosexual lovers. This trend proved so popular that the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' itself is included in ''The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature'' (1998) as a major early work of that genre. In the 1970s and 1980s, feminist literary critics analyzed the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' as showing evidence for a transition from the original matriarchy of all humanity to modern patriarchy. As the Green Movement expanded in Europe, Gilgamesh's story began to be seen through an environmentalist lens, with Enkidu's death symbolizing man's separation from nature. Gilagmesh

Theodore Ziolkowski, a scholar of modern literature, states, that "unlike most other figures from myth, literature, and history, Gilgamesh has established himself as an autonomous entity or simply a name, often independent of the epic context in which he originally became known. (As analogous examples one might think, for instance, of the Minotaur or

Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, often referred to as simply "Frankenstein", is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. Shelley's title thus compares ...

.)" The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' has been translated into many major world languages and has become a staple of American

world literature World literature is used to refer to the total of the world's national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European lit ...

classes. Many contemporary authors and novelists have drawn inspiration from it, including an American

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

theater collective called "The Gilgamesh Group" and Joan London in her novel ''

Gilgamesh sux, , label=none , image = Hero lion Dur-Sharrukin Louvre AO19862.jpg , alt = , caption = Possible representation of Gilgamesh as Master of Animals, grasping a lion in his left arm and snake in his right hand, in an Assy ...

'' (2001). '' The Great American Novel'' (1973) by

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

features a character named "Gil Gamesh", who is the star

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

of a fictional 1930s

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

team called the "Patriot League". Starting in the late twentieth century, the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' began to be read again in Iraq.

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

, the former

President of Iraq The president of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Con ...

, had a lifelong fascination with Gilgamesh. Hussein's first novel '' Zabibah and the King'' (2000) is an allegory for the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

set in ancient Assyria that blends elements of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and the '' One Thousand and One Nights''. Like Gilgamesh, the king at the beginning of the novel is a brutal tyrant who misuses his power and oppresses his people, but, through the aid of a commoner woman named Zabibah, he grows into a more just ruler. When the United States pressured Hussein to step down in February 2003, Hussein gave a speech to a group of his generals posing the idea in a positive light by comparing himself to the epic hero. Scholars like Susan Ackerman and

Wayne R. Dynes Wayne R. Dynes (August 23, 1934 – late July 2021) was an American art historian, encyclopedist, and bibliographer. He was professor emeritus in the Art Department at Hunter College, where he taught from 1972 to 2005. Dynes spent his early yea ...

have noted that the language used to describe Gilgamesh's relationship with Enkidu seems to have homoerotic implications. Ackerman notes that, when Gilgamesh veils Enkidu's body, Enkidu is compared to a "bride". Ackerman states, "that Gilgamesh, according to both versions, will love Enkidu 'like a wife' may further imply sexual intercourse." In 2000, a modern statue of Gilgamesh by the

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

sculptor Lewis Batros was unveiled at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

in Australia.

References

Informational notes

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* * {{Authority control 29th-century BC Sumerian kings 28th-century BC Sumerian kings 27th-century BC Sumerian kings Kings of Uruk Demigods - Heroes in mythology and legend Mesopotamian gods Nimrod Characters in the Epic of Gilgamesh Deified people