The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient story from Mesopotamia. The story of Gilgamesh began with five poems written in Sumerian about Gilgamesh, a king of Uruk. Some of these poems may have been created around 2100 BCE during the Third Dynasty of Ur. Later, these separate stories were used to create a longer version of the story in Akkadian. The first known version of this combined story, called the "Old Babylonian" version, was written around 1800 BCE. It was named after its opening line, "Surpassing All Other Kings." Only a few pieces of this version have survived. A later version, called the "Standard Babylonian" version, was written between 1300 and 1000 BCE. This version was named after its opening line, "He Who Sees the Unknown." About two-thirds of this longer version, which had 12 parts, has been found. Some of the best copies were discovered in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal, a king of Assyria who ruled in the 7th century BCE.
The first part of the story describes Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, and Enkidu, a wild man made by the gods to stop Gilgamesh from harming his people. Enkidu learns how to live by spending time with Shamhat. He then goes to Uruk and challenges Gilgamesh to a contest of strength. Gilgamesh wins, but they become friends. Together, they travel for six days to the Cedar Forest, where they defeat Humbaba, the guardian of the forest, and cut down the sacred cedar trees. The goddess Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh for refusing her. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the bull, which angers Ishtar. The gods decide that Enkidu must die by becoming very sick.
In the second part of the story, Gilgamesh is deeply sad about Enkidu's death. He begins a long and dangerous journey to find the secret to living forever. He meets Utnapishtim and his wife, the only people who survived a great flood sent by the gods (similar to the story in Athra-Hasis). Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh, "Life, which you seek, you will never find. The gods gave humans death as their share, and life remains in their hands."
The Epic of Gilgamesh is considered an important work in religion and the tradition of stories about heroes. Gilgamesh is seen as the model for later heroes like Heracles (Hercules) and influenced stories such as the Homeric epics. The story has been translated into many languages and appears in many works of popular fiction.
Discovery
This discovery has caused much debate. Currently, those who follow traditional beliefs are very happy because the finding supports parts of Biblical history. However, it is possible that the Chaldean inscription, if real, shows that other traditions about the flood existed besides the Biblical one, which might not be true.
In the early 1850s, Austen Henry Layard, his assistant Hormuzd Rassam, and W. K. Loftus found about 15,000 pieces of Assyrian cuneiform tablets in the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh. Later in the 1850s, the British Museum hired George Smith to study the tablets. In 1872, Smith shared translated parts of the tablets with the Society of Biblical Archaeology. In 1875 and 1876, he published more complete translations, with the second one titled The Chaldaean Account of Genesis. The main character, Gilgamesh, was first known as "Izdubar" until experts could correctly pronounce his name. In 1891, Paul Haupt collected the cuneiform text, and nine years later, scholar Peter Jensen created a full version of it. In 1930, R. Campbell Thompson improved both works. Over the next two decades, Samuel Noah Kramer put together the Sumerian poems.
In 1998, American Assyriologist Theodore Kwasman found a piece believed to contain the first lines of the epic in the British Museum’s storeroom. The fragment, discovered in 1878 and dated between 600 BCE and 100 BCE, had not been studied by experts for over 100 years. It read, "He who saw all, who was the foundation of the land, who knew (everything), was wise in all matters: Gilgamesh." The discovery of artifacts (about 2600 BCE) linked to Enmebaragesi of Kish, mentioned in legends as the father of one of Gilgamesh’s enemies, supports the idea that Gilgamesh was a real person.
In the early 2000s, the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet was illegally brought into the United States. According to the United States Department of Justice, the tablet was covered in dirt and unreadable when a U.S. antiquities dealer bought it in 2003. The tablet was sold in 2007 by an unnamed dealer with a false letter claiming it had been inside a box of ancient bronze fragments bought in a 1981 auction. In 2014, Hobby Lobby bought the tablet to display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. In 2019, U.S. officials seized the tablet, and it was returned to Iraq in September 2021.
Recent use of artificial intelligence software has greatly sped up the process of finding new pieces of the epic that are scattered and often unreadable in museums worldwide.
Versions
There are many sources from a time period lasting over 2,000 years. The earliest Sumerian poems are now considered to be separate stories, not parts of one single epic. Some of these may date back to the Third Dynasty of Ur (around 2100 BCE). The oldest surviving tablets that tell the story of a single version of the Epic of Gilgamesh are the Old Babylonian tablets (around 1800 BCE). These older tablets and later Akkadian versions are important for modern translations, as the earlier texts help fill in missing parts (lacunae) of the later ones. Even though new discoveries have led to revised versions, the epic is still not complete. Analysis of the Old Babylonian text has helped scholars guess what earlier forms of the epic might have been like. The most recent Akkadian version, called the Standard Babylonian version, includes twelve tablets and was edited by Sîn-lēqi-unninni, who lived between 1300 BCE and 1000 BCE.
From the many sources found, two main versions of the epic have been partly reconstructed: the Standard Babylonian version, also called "He who saw the deep," and the Old Babylonian version, called "Surpassing all other kings." Five earlier Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh have also been found, some containing early versions of specific stories in the Babylonian version, and others with unrelated tales.
The Standard Babylonian version was discovered in 1853 by Hormuzd Rassam in the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh. "Standard Babylonian" refers to a style of writing used for literary works. This version was compiled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni between 1300 BCE and 1000 BCE, using earlier texts. One change Sîn-lēqi-unninni made was to focus more on the theme of mortality, allowing the character to grow from an adventurer into a wise person. A Brazilian scholar, Lins Brandão, suggested that the Standard version could be seen as "sapiential literature" (wisdom literature), a type of writing common in the Middle East, though this idea is not widely accepted.
The Standard Babylonian version begins with different words than the older version. The older version starts with "Surpassing all other kings," while the Standard version begins with "He who saw the deep" (ša naqba īmuru). "Deep" refers to the secrets of knowledge Gilgamesh learned from Uta-Napishti (Utnapishtim) about Ea, the source of wisdom. Gilgamesh learned how to worship the gods, why humans must die, what makes a good king, and how to live a good life. The story of Utnapishtim, who survived a great flood, also appears in the Babylonian epic of Atra-Hasis. The Standard version is also known as iškar Gilgāmeš, meaning "Series of Gilgamesh."
The 12th tablet is a follow-up to the original 11 tablets and was likely added later. It is not closely related to the well-structured 11-tablet story. The beginning lines of the first tablet are repeated at the end of the 11th tablet, creating a sense of completion. Tablet 12 is nearly a copy of an earlier Sumerian story, a prequel in which Gilgamesh sends Enkidu to retrieve items from the Underworld, and Enkidu returns as a spirit to describe the Underworld to Gilgamesh.
In terms of style, the poetic patterns in the Standard Babylonian version are inconsistent and still debated by scholars. However, there is a lot of use of parallelism, where two or three lines are similar in structure, much like in the Hebrew Psalms.
When the story was discovered in the 19th century, it was classified as a Greek epic, a type of story known in Europe, even though it is older than Greek culture. Alfred Jeremias, who translated the text, connected it to the Bible by calling it "Izdubar-Nimrod" and classifying it as Greek heroic poetry. Although the link to Nimrod was later removed, the idea of it being a Greek epic remained. In 1966, Martin Litchfield West noted that Greek literature shares similarities with literature from the Middle East.
It is difficult to understand how the text would have been viewed in its time, as George Smith pointed out that ancient Sumerian and Akkadian languages had no word for "myth" or "heroic story," just as there was no ancient recognition of poetry as a genre. Lins Brandão suggested that the prologue of "He who Saw the Abyss" might reflect the influence of Greek Muses, though Sumerian gods are not involved. In more popular discussions, scholars like Sir Jonathan Sacks and Neil MacGregor describe the flood story as involving gods who are hostile to humans and willing to destroy them.
It is also clear that Gilgamesh became known as an "ancient wise man" (antediluvian). Lins Brandão noted that the poem might have been written on a stone tablet ("narû"), and that "narû" could have been the genre of the poem, as readers or scribes would have been expected to copy it without adding or removing anything.
This summary is based on Andrew George's translation.
The story introduces Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk. Gilgamesh, who is two-thirds god and one-third human, is oppressing his people, who call on the gods for help. For young women in Uruk, this means Gilgamesh rapes brides on their wedding night. For young men (the tablet is damaged here), it is believed that Gilgamesh exhausts them through games, strength tests, or forced labor on building projects. The gods answer the people's prayers by creating a strong and equal match for Gilgamesh who can stop his oppression.
This is Enkidu, a nearly invincible man covered in hair who lives in the wilderness with his animal relatives. A trapper notices Enkidu because he destroys all the trapper's traps. The trapper tells the sun god Shamash about Enkidu, and it is decided that Shamhat, a temple prostitute, will seduce Enkidu to tame him. After six days and seven nights (or two weeks, according to more recent research) of being with Shamhat, Enkidu becomes "weakened," and his animals flee in fear. Enkidu feels lonely, but Shamhat comforts him, saying, "Do not grieve, you now have knowledge, like the gods." Meanwhile, Gilgamesh has dreams about a new companion and asks his mother, the goddess Ninsun, to help him understand them.
Shamhat takes Enkidu to a shepherd's camp, where he learns to live like humans, including cutting his hair and eating human food and drinking beer. In the camp, Enkidu becomes a night watchman. After learning about Gilgamesh's treatment of brides, Enkidu becomes angry and travels to Uruk to stop him. When Gilgamesh tries to enter the wedding chamber, Enkidu blocks his way, and they fight. After a fierce battle, Enkidu admits Gilgamesh is stronger, and they become
Later influence
Many stories, characters, and ideas in the Hebrew Bible are similar to those in the Epic of Gilgamesh. These include the story of the Garden of Eden, advice found in the Book of Ecclesiastes, and the flood story in Genesis.
Scholars have long noticed similarities between the characters Enkidu and Shamhat from the Epic of Gilgamesh and Adam and Eve from the Bible. In both stories, a human is created from the earth by a god and lives in nature. A woman is introduced to the man, and she gives him food. This causes him to feel shame and leaves him unable to return to his previous life. Both stories also include a snake that steals a plant of immortality. However, Enkidu feels regret for leaving nature, but this feeling is temporary. After being reminded by the god Shamash, Enkidu forgives the woman who seduced him before he dies. In contrast, Adam's mistake is seen as a punishment for disobeying God and losing innocence about good and evil.
Some scholars believe that the advice given by Siduri in the Epic of Gilgamesh influenced the writing of Ecclesiastes. A saying about the strength of a rope made from three strands appears in both the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible.
Andrew George argues that the flood story in Genesis is very similar to the one in the Epic of Gilgamesh. He says that the Genesis story follows the same events in the same order as the Gilgamesh story, even when other possibilities exist. A 2001 Jewish commentary suggests that both stories may have come from a shared Mesopotamian tradition about the flood. The heroes of these stories are Ziusudra (Sumerian), Utnapishtim (Akkadian), and Noah (biblical).
Other characters in the Epic of Gilgamesh have parallels in the Bible. For example, Ninti, a Sumerian goddess of life, was created from Enki’s rib to heal him after eating forbidden flowers. This story is thought to have inspired the story of Eve being made from Adam’s rib in Genesis. Esther J. Hamori also notes that the story of Jacob and Esau is similar to the wrestling match between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
The name Gilgamesh appears in one version of The Book of Giants, which is connected to the Book of Enoch. This version mentions Gilgamesh, the monster Humbaba, and the Watchers and giants.
Many scholars have noted that the Epic of Gilgamesh influenced the works of Homer, including the Iliad and the Odyssey. Tzvi Abusch says the poem combines the powerful and tragic elements of the Iliad with the journey and wonders of the Odyssey. Martin Litchfield West suggests that Greek poets may have learned about Gilgamesh through a lost poem about Heracles.
Stories about Alexander the Great, such as his search for the Fountain of Life, were inspired by Gilgamesh’s quest for eternal youth. However, there are differences. Gilgamesh seeks a plant of youth, while Alexander seeks water of life. In Alexander’s story, a fish is revived by the fountain, unlike the snake shedding its skin in Gilgamesh’s tale. These changes were influenced by Christian ideas.
The Epic of Gilgamesh has inspired many works, including books, art, and music. It became widely known after World War I and was used in many forms of media after World War II. Hayao Miyazaki’s 1997 anime film Princess Mononoke includes elements from the Cedar Forest story in the Epic of Gilgamesh.