The Mythology Book

192 THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH

T

he story of Gilgamesh

follows the eponymous

hero as he wrestles with

the inevitability of death, discovers

true friendship, and comes to

understand the responsibilities

of kingship. The long poem known

as The Epic of Gilgamesh is among

the world’s earliest known works of

great literature, and weaves

together a series of tales thought to

have been inspired by a king who

ruled the Sumerian city of Uruk

between 2800 and 2500 bce.

Taming the tyrant

King Gilgamesh loved to walk the

walls of Uruk, measuring the size

of his kingdom. It was said that a

king who knew the extent of his

walls was noble and good. In

reality, however, Gilgamesh was

abusive toward his subjects and

was a sexual predator who knew no

bounds. When the people appealed

to their gods for help in restraining

their king, Anu, the sky god and

supreme ruler of heaven, decided

Gilgamesh needed a companion

who could tame his wild nature.

Anu handed the task to Arura,

the goddess of creation, who made

Enkidu. At first, Enkidu was a

savage man who ran with the

animals, ate grass, and lived apart.

In ancient Mesopotamia, if you

lived outside the city walls or as a

nomad, you were considered not

only uncouth but dangerous. Until

Enkidu was brought into civilized

society, he could not fulfill his role

of taming and aiding Gilgamesh.

When Enkidu upset the traps

of a local hunter, the man went to

the king and urged him to provide

Enkidu with a prostitute who

would be able to subdue his wild

temperament. Gilgamesh sent a

temple prostitute called Samhat

to have sex with Enkidu for seven

days. After this, when Enkidu

tried to run with the animals, they

ignored him. Enkidu realized that

something had changed—through

his sexual awakening, he had

started to become civilized.

Samhat then took Enkidu to the

city of Uruk, where she clothed

him, fed him bread, and gave him

beer to drink. Treated like a man

for the very first time, Enkidu’s

transformation from animal to

human was complete.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu wrestle

with lions to show their strength in an

impression made by a 3rd millennium

bce Sumerian cylinder seal.

IN BRIEF

THEME

Mortality

SOURCES

Tablets found in the Library of

Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria

(ca. 668–627 bce), at Nineveh;

The Epic of Gilgamesh,

Benjamin Foster, 2001.

SETTING

Uruk, a city in Sumer,

southern Mesopotamia,

after the Great Flood.

KEY FIGURES

Gilgamesh King of

Mesopotamia.

Enkidu Close friend of

Gilgamesh.

Shamash God of the sun

and of justice.

Ishtar Goddess of fertility

and war.

Utnapishtim An immensely

wise, immortal man.

The goddess Aruru,

she washed her hands,

took a pinch of clay,

and threw it down ...

in the wild, she

created Enkidu.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

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ASIA 193

Meanwhile, Gilgamesh had

dreamed of a being whom he would

love more than a woman—someone

as strong as himself. Gilgamesh’s

mother, Ninsun, a minor goddess

and a priestess in the temple,

interpreted the dream and told him

he would meet a man who would

be an equal to him and a

companion in his adventures.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu

eventually met when Enkidu

blocked Gilgamesh from entering

the quarters of a new bride. The

two men wrestled, and although

Gilgamesh beat Enkidu, the king

acknowledged Enkidu as an equal

and as a brother.

Hunting Humbaba

Gilgamesh had long wanted to go

on a quest to prove his strength.

He set his sights on vanquishing

Humbaba, the divinely appointed

demon-protector of the cedar

forests, and on stealing the tallest

trees to take back as valuable

timber for Uruk. Both man and

beast, Humbaba was a formidable

opponent: his strength was

immense and he could breathe fire.

Gilgamesh armed himself to the

teeth and sought blessings from the

temple priests. Alarmed, the city

elders warned Gilgamesh that he ❯❯

See also: The quest of Odysseus 66–71 ■ The descent of Inanna 182–87 ■

Marduk and Tiamat 188–89

Worshipped as a

judge in the

Underworld

Traditionally

regarded as the

fifth King of Uruk

In Sumerian

sources, the

brother of Ishtar

(Inanna)

Supposed tomb

discovered by

archaeologists

in 2003

Sometimes

linked to

Dumuzid the

shepherd

Named in the

Sumerian

King List

In myth

King

Gilgamesh

Written in clay

The clay tablets from which

the fullest version of the

Gilgamesh epic have been

pieced together were found in

1853 during excavations of the

Library of Ashurbanipal II, in

the ancient Assyrian city of

Nineveh. Building on an oral

tradition and on earlier written

versions of the myth, the 12

tablets combine many different

stories about Gilgamesh into a

single epic poem. While some

verses from the epic date to

ca. 2100 bce, the most recent

version of the text, composed

in Akkadian cuneiform, an

ancient Semitic form of writing

from Mesopotamia, dates to

the Neo-Assyrian period

(9th–6th century bce).

Gaps in the Ninevite

version of the poem have been

filled by text from the Middle

Babylonian period (15th–11th

century bce) found in other

locations. The discovery of

the tablets changed the way

scholars understood daily

life in ancient Mesopotamia.

Part of The Epic of Gilgamesh

is reproduced in this plaster cast

dating from the 9th–7th century

bce. This tablet, the 11th of the

famous 12, recounts the story of

Utnapishtim and the Great Flood.

Humbaba’s mouth is fire; his

roar is the floodwater; he

breathes and there is death.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

In history

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