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Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh (Akkadian: 𒀭𒄑𒂆𒈦, romanized: Gilgameš; Gilgamesh

originally Sumerian: 𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒎌, 𒀭𒄑𒂆𒈦
Bilgames)[7][a] was a hero in ancient
romanized:
Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the Epic of
𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒎌
Gilgamesh, an epic poem written in Akkadian during the King of Uruk
late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of
the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who was posthumously
deified. His rule probably would have taken place sometime
in the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period, c. 2900 –
2350 BC, though he became a major figure in Sumerian
legend during the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112 –
c. 2004 BC).

Tales of Gilgamesh's legendary exploits are narrated in five

surviving Sumerian poems. The earliest of these is likely
"Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld",[12] 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's death, his shade tells Gilgamesh
about the bleak conditions in the Underworld. The poem
Gilgamesh and Aga describes Gilgamesh's revolt against
his overlord Aga of Kish. Other Sumerian poems relate
Gilgamesh's defeat of the giant Huwawa and the Bull of
Heaven, 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
(c. 1600 – c. 1155 BC), based on much older source material.
In the epic, Gilgamesh is a demigod of superhuman Possible representation of
strength who befriends the wild man Enkidu. Together, Gilgamesh as Master of Animals,
they embark on many journeys, most famously defeating grasping a lion in his left arm and
Humbaba (Sumerian: Huwawa) and the Bull of Heaven, snake in his right hand, in an
Assyrian palace relief (713–706
who is sent to attack them by Ishtar (Sumerian: Inanna) BC), from Dur-Sharrukin, now held
after Gilgamesh rejects her offer for him to become her in the Louvre[1]
consort. After Enkidu dies of a disease sent as punishment
Reign c. 2900–2700 BC
from the gods, Gilgamesh becomes afraid of his death and
visits the sage Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Great Flood, (EDI)[2][3][4][5][6]
hoping to find immortality. Gilgamesh repeatedly fails the Predecessor Dumuzid
trials set before him and returns home to Uruk, realizing Successor Ur-Nungal
that immortality is beyond his reach.
Issue Ur-Nungal

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Most scholars agree that the Epic of Gilgamesh exerted Father Lugalbanda (in
substantial influence on the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic Sumerian poetry)
poems written in ancient Greek during the 8th century BC.
The story of Gilgamesh's birth is described in an anecdote Mother Ninsun (in Sumerian
in On the Nature of Animals by the Greek writer Aelian poetry)
(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. Gilgamesh remained mostly obscure until the mid-20th
century, but, since the late 20th century, he has become an increasingly prominent figure in
modern culture.

Name
The modern form "Gilgamesh" is a direct borrowing of the Akkadian 𒄑𒂆𒈦, rendered as
Gilgameš. The Assyrian form of the name derived from the earlier Sumerian form
𒄑𒉋𒂵𒎌, Bilgames. It is generally concluded that the name itself translates as "the
(kinsman) is a hero", the relation of the "kinsman" varying between the source giving the
translation. It is sometimes suggested that the Sumerian form of the name was pronounced
Pabilgames, reading the component bilga as pabilga (𒉺𒉋𒂵), a related term which
described familial relations, however, this is not supported by epigraphic or phonological
evidence.[13]

Historical king
Most historians generally agree that
Gilgamesh was a historical king of the
Sumerian city-state of Uruk,[16][17][18][19]
who probably ruled sometime during the
early part of the Early Dynastic Period (c.
2900 – 2350 BC).[16][17] Stephanie Dalley, a
scholar of the ancient Near East, states that
"precise dates cannot be given for the Seal impression of "Mesannepada, king of Kish",
lifetime of Gilgamesh, but they are generally excavated in the Royal Cemetery at Ur (U. 13607),
agreed to lie between 2800 and 2500 dated circa 2600 BC.[14][15] The seal shows Gilgamesh
BC".[17] An inscription, possibly belonging to and the mythical bull between two lions, one of the
a contemporary official under Gilgamesh, lions biting him in the shoulder. On each side of this
was discovered in the archaic texts at Ur;[20] group appears Enkidu and a hunter-hero, with a long
his name reads: "Gilgameš is the one whom beard and a Kish-style headdress, armed with a
Utu has selected". Aside from this the dagger. Under the text, four runners with beard and
Tummal Inscription, a thirty-four-line long hair form a human Swastika. They are armed with
historiographic text written during the reign daggers and catch each other's foot.[15]
of Ishbi-Erra (c. 1953 – c. 1920 BC), also
mentions him.[18] The inscription credits
Gilgamesh with building the walls of Uruk.[21] Lines eleven through fifteen of the inscription
read:

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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 to the Tummal.[22]

Gilgamesh is also connected to King Enmebaragesi of Kish, a known historical figure who may
have lived near Gilgamesh's lifetime.[21] Furthermore, he is listed as one of the kings of Uruk by
the Sumerian King List.[21] Fragments of an epic text found in Mê-Turan (modern Tell Haddad)
relate that upon his death Gilgamesh was buried under the river bed,[21] and the workmen of
Uruk temporarily diverted the flow of the Euphrates for this purpose.[23][21]

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.[16] In the 21st century BC, King Utu-
hengal of Uruk adopted Gilgamesh as his
patron deity.[16] The kings of the Third
Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112 – c. 2004 BC) were
especially fond of Gilgamesh,[16][21] calling
him their "divine brother" and "friend."[16]
King Shulgi of Ur (2029–1982 BC) declared
himself the son of Lugalbanda and Ninsun
Sculpted scene depicting Gilgamesh wrestling with
and the brother of Gilgamesh.[21] Over the
animals. From the Shara temple at Tell Agrab, Diyala
centuries, there may have been a gradual
Region, Iraq. Early Dynastic Period, 2600–2370 BC.
accretion of stories about Gilgamesh, some
On display at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad.
possibly derived from the real lives of other
historical figures, such as Gudea, the Second
Dynasty ruler of Lagash (2144–2124 BC).[24]
Prayers inscribed on clay tablets address
Gilgamesh as a judge of the dead in the
Underworld.[21]

"Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the

Netherworld"

During this period, a large number of myths Mace dedicated to Gilgamesh, with transcription of the
and legends developed surrounding name Gilgamesh (𒀭𒉈𒂵𒈩) in standard
Gilgamesh.[16][25][26][27]:95 Five Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, Ur III period, between
independent Sumerian poems have been 2112 and 2004 BC
discovered narrating his exploits.[16]
Gilgamesh's first appearance in literature is
probably in the Sumerian poem "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld".[28][21][29] The
narrative begins with a huluppu tree—perhaps, according to the Sumerologist Samuel Noah

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Kramer, a willow,[30] growing on the banks of the river Euphrates.[30][21][31] The goddess
Inanna moves the tree to her garden in Uruk with the intention to carve it into a throne once it
is fully grown.[30][21][31] The tree grows and matures, but the serpent "who knows no charm,"
the Anzû-bird, and Lilitu, a Mesopotamian demon, invade the tree, causing Inanna to cry with
sorrow.[30][21][31]

Gilgamesh, who in this story is portrayed as Inanna's brother, slays the serpent, causing the
Anzû-bird and Lilitu to flee.[32][21][31] Gilgamesh's companions chop down the tree and carve it
into a bed and a throne for Inanna.[33][21][31] The goddess responds by fashioning a pikku and a
mikku (perhaps a drum and drumsticks)[34][21] as a reward for Gilgamesh's heroism.[35][21][31]
But Gilgamesh loses the pikku and mikku and asks who will retrieve them.[36] His servant
Enkidu descends to the Underworld to find them,[37] but he disobeys its strict laws and can
never return.[37] In the remaining dialog, Gilgamesh questions the shade of his lost comrade
about the Underworld.[16][36]

Subsequent poems
Story of Gilgamesh and Aga

Story of "Gilgamesh and Agga". Old Babylonian period, from southern Iraq. Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq

Gilgamesh and Agga describes Gilgamesh's successful revolt against his liege lord Agga, king of
the city-state of Kish.[16][38] Gilgamesh and Huwawa describes how Gilgamesh and his servant
Enkidu, with the help of fifty volunteers from Uruk, defeat the monster Huwawa, an ogre
appointed as guardian of the Cedar Forest by the ruling god Enlil.[16][39][40]

In Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven, Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the Bull of Heaven, who has
been sent to attack them by the goddess Inanna.[16][41][42] The details of this poem differ
substantially from the corresponding episode in the later Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh.[43] In
the Sumerian poem, Inanna remains aloof from Gilgamesh, but in the Akkadian epic she asks
him to become her consort.[41] Also, while pressing her father An to give her the Bull of Heaven,
in Sumerian Inanna threatens a deafening cry that will reach the earth, while in Akkadian she
threatens to wake the dead to eat the living.[43]

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. The poem may have
been misinterpreted, and may actually depict the death of Enkidu.[44][16]

Epic of Gilgamesh

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Eventually, according to Kramer (1963):[25]

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 (c. 1830 –

c. 1531 BC), stories of Gilgamesh's legendary
exploits had been woven into one or several The ogre Humbaba, Ancient Mesopotamian
shown in this terracotta terracotta relief (c. 2250 —
long epics.[16] The Epic of Gilgamesh, the
plaque from the Old 1900 BC) showing
most complete account of Gilgamesh's [45]
Babylonian Period, Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of
adventures, was composed in Akkadian
is one of the opponents Heaven,[47] an episode
during the Middle Babylonian Period (c.
fought by Gilgamesh described in Tablet VI of the
1600 – c. 1155 BC) by a scribe named Sîn-
and his companion Epic of Gilgamesh[46][48]
lēqi-unninni.[16] The most complete Enkidu in the Epic of
surviving version of the Epic of Gilgamesh is Gilgamesh.[46]
recorded on a set of twelve clay tablets
dating to the seventh century BC, found in
the Library of Ashurbanipal in the Assyrian capital of Nineveh,[16][21][49] with many pieces
missing or damaged.[16][21][49] Some scholars and translators choose to supplement the missing
parts with material from the earlier Sumerian poems or from other versions of the epic found at
other sites throughout the Near East.[16]

In the epic, Gilgamesh is introduced as "two thirds divine and one

third mortal."[50] At the beginning of the poem, Gilgamesh is
described as a brutal, oppressive ruler.[16][50] This is usually
interpreted to mean either forced labor or sexual exploitation.[16]
As punishment for his cruelty, the god Anu creates the wild man
Enkidu.[51] After being tamed by a prostitute named Shamhat,
Enkidu journeys to Uruk to confront Gilgamesh.[46] In the second
tablet, the two men wrestle and though Gilgamesh wins in the
end,[46] he is so impressed by his opponent's strength and tenacity
that they become close friends.[46] In the earlier Sumerian texts,
Enkidu is Gilgamesh's servant,[46] but, in the Epic of Gilgamesh,
they are companions of equal standing.[46]
Tablet V of the Epic of
In tablets III through IV, Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to the Cedar Gilgamesh. The
Forest, which is guarded by Humbaba (the Akkadian name for Sulaymaniyah Museum,
Huwawa).[46] The heroes cross the seven mountains to the Cedar Iraq
Forest, where they begin chopping down trees.[52] Confronted by
Humbaba, Gilgamesh panics and prays to Shamash (the East
Semitic name for Utu),[52] who blows eight winds in Humbaba's eyes, blinding him.[52]
Humbaba begs for mercy, but the heroes decapitate him.[52] Tablet VI begins with Gilgamesh
returning to Uruk,[46] where Ishtar (the Akkadian name for Inanna) comes to him and demands
him as her consort.[46][52][53] Gilgamesh rejects her, reproaching her mistreatment of all her
former lovers.[46][52][53]

In revenge, Ishtar goes to her father Anu and demands that he give her the Bull of Heaven,

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[54][55][43]
which she sends to attack Gilgamesh.[46][54][55][43] Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the
Bull and offer its heart to Shamash.[56][55] While Gilgamesh and Enkidu are resting, Ishtar
stands up on the walls of Uruk and curses Gilgamesh.[56][57] Enkidu tears off the Bull's right
thigh and throws it in Ishtar's face,[56][57] saying, "If I could lay my hands on you, it is this I
should do to you, and lash your entrails to your side."[58][57] Ishtar calls together "the crimped
courtesans, prostitutes and harlots"[56] and orders them to mourn for the Bull of Heaven.[56][57]
Meanwhile, Gilgamesh holds a celebration over the Bull's defeat.[59][57]

Tablet VII begins with Enkidu recounting a dream in which he saw Anu, Ea, and Shamash
declare that either Gilgamesh or Enkidu must die to avenge the Bull of Heaven.[46] They choose
Enkidu, who soon grows sick.[46] He has a dream of the Underworld, and then dies.[46] Tablet
VIII describes Gilgamesh's inconsolable grief for his friend[46][60] and the details of Enkidu's
funeral.[46] 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
Utnapishtim, the sole survivor of the Great Flood, who was rewarded with immortality by the
gods.[46][60]

The journey to Utnapishtim involves a series of

episodic challenges, which probably originated as
major independent adventures,[60] but, in the
epic, they are reduced to what Joseph Eddy
Fontenrose calls "fairly harmless incidents."[60]
First, Gilgamesh encounters and slays lions in the
mountain pass.[60] Upon reaching the mountain
of Mashu, Gilgamesh encounters a scorpion man
and his wife;[60] their bodies flash with terrifying
radiance,[60] but once Gilgamesh tells them his
purpose, they allow him to pass.[60] Gilgamesh
Early Middle Assyrian cylinder seal impression
wanders through darkness for twelve days before
dating between 1400 and 1200 BC, showing a
he finally comes into the light.[60] He finds a
man with bird wings and a scorpion tail firing an
beautiful garden by the sea in which he meets
arrow at a griffin on a hillock. A scorpion man is
among the creatures Gilgamesh encounters on Siduri, the divine Alewife.[60] At first, she tries to
his journey to the homeland of Utnapishtim.[60] prevent Gilgamesh from entering the garden,[60]
and then attempts to persuade him to accept
death as inevitable and not journey beyond the
waters. [60] When Gilgamesh persists in his quest, she directs him to Urshanabi, the ferryman of
the gods, who takes Gilgamesh across the sea to Utnapishtim.[60] When Gilgamesh finally
arrives at Utnapishtim's home, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that, to become immortal, he must
defy sleep.[46] Gilgamesh attempts this, but fails and falls into a seven days sleep.[46]

Next, Utnapishtim tells him that, even if he cannot obtain immortality, he can restore his youth
with a rejuvenating herb.[46][31] Gilgamesh takes the plant, but leaves it on the shore while
swimming and a snake steals it, explaining why snakes shed their skins.[46][31] Despondent at
this loss, Gilgamesh returns to Uruk,[46] and shows his city to the ferryman Urshanabi.[46] At
this point the continuous narrative ends.[46][31][61] Tablet XII is an appendix corresponding to
the Sumerian poem of Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld describing the loss of the pikku
and mikku.[46][31][61]

Numerous elements reveal a lack of continuity with the earlier portions of the epic.[61] At the
beginning of Tablet XII, Enkidu is still alive, despite having previously died in Tablet VII,[61]
and Gilgamesh is kind to Ishtar, despite the violent rivalry between them in Tablet VI.[61] Also,
while most of the parts of the epic are free adaptations of their respective Sumerian

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predecessors,[62] Tablet XII is a literal, word-for-word translation of the last part of Gilgamesh,
Enkidu, and the Netherworld,[62] and was probably relegated to the end because it did not fit
the larger epic narrative.[46][31][61] In it, Gilgamesh sees a vision of Enkidu's ghost, who
promises to recover the lost items[46][36] and describes to his friend the abysmal condition of
the Underworld.[46][36]

In Mesopotamian art

Although stories about Gilgamesh were wildly popular

throughout ancient Mesopotamia,[63] authentic
representations of him in ancient art are uncommon.[63]
Popular works often identify depictions of a hero with long
hair, containing four or six curls, as representations of
Gilgamesh,[63] but this identification is known to be
incorrect.[63] A few genuine ancient Mesopotamian
representations of Gilgamesh do exist, however.[63] These
representations are mostly found on clay plaques and
The Gilgamesh Dream tablet. From
cylinder seals.[63] Generally, it is only possible to identify a
Iraq. Middle Babylonian Period, First
figure as Gilgamesh if the work clearly depicts a scene from
Sealand Dynasty, 1732-1460 BC.
the Epic of Gilgamesh itself.[63] One set of representations Iraq Museum, Baghdad. This dream
of Gilgamesh is found in scenes of two heroes fighting a tablet recounts a part of the epic of
demonic giant, clearly Humbaba.[63] Another set is found in Gilgamesh in which the hero
scenes showing a similar pair of heroes confronting a giant (Gilgamesh) describes his dreams
winged bull, clearly the Bull of Heaven.[63] to his mother (the goddess Ninsun),
who interprets them as announcing

Later influence the arrival of a new friend, who will

become his companion

In antiquity

The Epic of Gilgamesh exerted substantial

influence on the Iliad and the Odyssey, the
Homeric epic poems written in ancient Greek
during the eighth century BC.[67][64][68][69]
According to classics scholar Barry B. Powell, early
Greeks were probably exposed to and influenced
by Mesopotamian oral traditions through their
extensive connections to the civilizations of the
ancient Near East.[19] German classicist Walter
Burkert 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, but is mildly rebuked by her father The episode involving Odysseus's confrontation
Anu, is directly paralleled in Book V of the with Polyphemus in the Odyssey, shown in this
Iliad.[70] In this scene, Aphrodite, the Greek seventeenth-century painting by Guido Reni,
adaptation of Ishtar, is wounded by the hero bears similarities to Gilgamesh and Enkidu's
Diomedes and flees to Mount Olympus, where she battle with Humbaba in the Epic of
cries to her mother Dione and is mildly rebuked Gilgamesh.[64]
by her father Zeus.[70]

Powell observes that the opening lines of the Odyssey seem to echo the opening lines of the Epic

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of Gilgamesh, both praising and pitying their heroes.[50]

The storyline of the Odyssey likewise bears many
similarities to the Epic of Gilgamesh.[71][72] Both Gilgamesh
and Odysseus encounter a woman who can turn men into
animals: Ishtar (for Gilgamesh) and Circe (for Odysseus).[71]
Odysseus blinds the giant cyclops Polyphemus,[64] while
Gilgamesh slays of Humbaba.[64] Both heroes visit the
Underworld[71] and both find themselves unhappy while
living in an otherworldly paradise in the company of a
seductive sorceress: Siduri (for Gilgamesh) and Calypso (for
Odysseus).[71] Finally, both have an missed opportunity for
immortality, Gilgamesh when he loses the plant, and
Odysseus when he leaves Calypso's island.[71] Indus valley civilization seal, with the
Master of Animals motif of a man
In the Qumran scroll the Book of Giants (c. 100 BC) the fighting two lions or tigers
names of Gilgamesh and Humbaba appear as two of the (2500–1500 BC), similar to the
antediluvian giants,[73][74] rendered (in consonantal form) Sumerian "Gilgamesh" motif, an
as glgmš and ḩwbbyš. This same text was later used in the indicator of Indus-Mesopotamia
Middle East by the Manichaean sects, and the Arabic form relations.[65][66]
Gilgamish/Jiljamish survives as the name of a demon
according to the Egyptian cleric Al-Suyuti (c. 1500).[73]

The story of Gilgamesh's birth is not recorded in any extant Sumerian or Akkadian text,[63] but
a version of it is described in De Natura Animalium (On the Nature of Animals) 12.21, a
commonplace book written in Greek around 200 AD by the Hellenized Roman orator Aelian.
[75][63] According to Aelian, an oracle told King Seuechoros (Σευεχορος) of the Babylonians that

his grandson Gilgamos would overthrow him.[63] To prevent this, Seuechoros kept his only
daughter under close guard at the Acropolis of Babylon,[63] but she became pregnant
nonetheless.[63] Fearing the king's wrath, the guards hurled the infant off the top of a tall
tower.[63] An eagle rescued the boy in mid-flight and set him down in a distant orchard.[63] The
caretaker found the boy and raised him, naming him Gilgamos (Γίλγαμος).[63] Eventually,
Gilgamos returned to Babylon and overthrew his grandfather, proclaiming himself king.[63] This
birth narrative is in the same tradition as other Near Eastern birth legends,[63] such as those of
Sargon, Moses, and Cyrus.[63] The Syriac writer Theodore Bar Konai (c. AD 600) also mentions
a king Gligmos, Gmigmos or Gamigos as the last of a line of twelve kings contemporaneous
with the patriarchs from Peleg to Abraham.[76][77]

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.[21][49][27]:95
Layard was seeking evidence to confirm the historicity of the events described in the Hebrew
Bible, i.e. the Christian Old Testament,[21] which was believed to contain the oldest texts in the
world.[21] Instead, his and later excavations unearthed much older Mesopotamian texts[21] and
showed that many of the stories in the Old Testament may be derived from earlier myths told
throughout the ancient Near East.[21] The first translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh was
produced in the early 1870s by George Smith, a scholar at the British Museum,[78][80][81] who
published the Flood story from Tablet XI in 1880 under the title The Chaldean Account of
Genesis.[78] Gilgamesh's name was originally misread as Izdubar.[78][82][83]

Early interest in the Epic of Gilgamesh was almost exclusively on account of the flood story

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In 1880, the English Assyriologist George Smith (left) published a translation of Tablet XI of the Epic of
Gilgamesh (right), containing the Flood myth,[78] which attracted immediate scholarly attention and
controversy due to its similarity to the Genesis flood narrative.[79]

from Tablet XI.[84] It attracted enormous public attention and drew widespread scholarly
controversy, while the rest of the epic was largely ignored.[84] Most attention towards the Epic
of Gilgamesh in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came from German-speaking
countries,[85] where controversy raged over the relationship between Babel und Bibel ("Babylon
and Bible").[86]

In January 1902, the German Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch gave a lecture at the Sing-
Akademie zu Berlin before the Kaiser and his wife, in which he argued that the Flood story in
the Book of Genesis was directly copied from the Epic of Gilgamesh.[84] Delitzsch's lecture was
so controversial that, by September 1903, he had managed to collect thousands of articles and
pamphlets criticizing this lecture about the Flood another about the relationship between the
Code of Hammurabi and the biblical Law of Moses.[87] The Kaiser distanced himself from
Delitzsch and his radical views[87] and by the fall of 1904, Delitzsch was reduced to giving his
third lecture in Cologne and Frankfurt am Main rather than in Berlin.[87] 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[84] and that only by
eliminating the human Old Testament entirely could Christians finally believe in the true, Aryan
message of the New Testament.[84]

Early modern interpretations

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.[88] Hamilton had
rudimentary knowledge of Akkadian, which he had learned from Archibald Sayce's 1872
Assyrian Grammar for Comparative Purposes.[89] Hamilton's book relied heavily on Smith's
translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh,[89] but also made major changes.[89] For instance,
Hamilton omitted the famous flood story entirely[89] and instead focused on the romantic
relationship between Ishtar and Gilgamesh.[89] 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 cantos.[89] Hamilton significantly altered most of the characters and

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introduced entirely new episodes not found in the

original epic.[89] Significantly influenced by Edward
FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Edwin
Arnold's The Light of Asia,[89] Hamilton's characters
dress more like nineteenth-century Turks than ancient
Babylonians.[90] 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".[91]

In his 1904 book Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten

Orients, the German Assyriologist Alfred Jeremias
equated Gilgamesh with the king Nimrod from the Book
of Genesis[92] and argued Gilgamesh's strength must
come from his hair, like the hero Samson in the Book of
Judges,[92] and that he must have performed Twelve
Labors like the hero Heracles in Greek mythology.[92] 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,[92] arguing that Moses
Illustration of Izdubar (Gilgamesh) in a is "the Gilgamesh of Exodus who saves the children of
scene from the book-length poem Ishtar Israel from precisely the same situation faced by the
and Izdubar (1884) by Leonidas Le inhabitants of Erech at the beginning of the Babylonian
Cenci Hamilton, the first modern literary epic."[92] He then proceeded to argue that Abraham,
adaptation of the Epic of Gilgamesh [88]
Isaac, Samson, David, and various other biblical figures
are all nothing more than exact copies of Gilgamesh.[92]
Finally, he declared that even Jesus is "nothing but an
Israelite Gilgamesh. Nothing but an adjunct to Abraham, Moses, and countless other figures in
the saga."[92] This ideology became known as Panbabylonianism[93] and was almost
immediately rejected by mainstream scholars.[93] The most stalwart critics of
Panbabylonianism were those associated with the emerging Religionsgeschichtliche Schule.[94]
Hermann Gunkel dismissed most of Jensen's purported parallels between Gilgamesh and
biblical figures as mere baseless sensationalism.[94] He concluded that Jensen and other
Assyriologists like him had failed to understand the complexities of Old Testament
scholarship[93] and had confused scholars with "conspicuous mistakes and remarkable
aberrations".[93]

In English-speaking countries, the prevailing scholarly interpretation during the early twentieth
century was one originally proposed by Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet,[95] which held that
Gilgamesh is a "solar hero", whose actions represent the movements of the sun,[95] and that the
twelve tablets of his epic represent the twelve signs of the Babylonian zodiac.[95] The Austrian
psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, 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.[96][97] He compared them to other
brother-figures in world mythology,[97] 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."[97] He also saw Enkidu as representing the
placenta, the "weaker twin" who dies shortly after birth.[98] Freud's friend and pupil Carl Jung
frequently discusses Gilgamesh in his early work Symbole der Wandlung (1911–1912).[99] He,
for instance, cites Ishtar's sexual attraction to Gilgamesh as an example of the mother's
incestuous desire for her son,[99] Humbaba as an example of an oppressive father-figure whom

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Gilgamesh must overcome,[99] and Gilgamesh himself as an example of a man who forgets his
dependence on the unconscious and is punished by the "gods", who represent it.[99]

Modern interpretations and cultural significance

In the years following World War II, Gilgamesh,

formerly an obscure figure known only by a few
scholars, gradually became increasingly popular
with modern audiences.[100][81] The Epic of
Gilgamesh's existential themes made it
particularly appealing to German authors in the
years following the war.[81] In his 1947
existentialist novel Die Stadt hinter dem Strom,
the German novelist Hermann Kasack adapted
elements of the epic into a metaphor for the
aftermath of the destruction of World War II in
Germany,[81] portraying the bombed-out city of
Existential angst during the aftermath of World Hamburg as resembling the frightening
War II significantly contributed to Gilgamesh's Underworld seen by Enkidu in his dream.[81] In
rise in popularity in the middle of the twentieth Hans Henny Jahnn's magnum opus River
century.[81] For instance, the German novelist Without Shores (1949–1950), the middle section
Hermann Kasack used Enkidu's vision of the of the trilogy centers around a composer whose
Underworld from the Epic of Gilgamesh as a twenty-year-long homoerotic relationship with a
metaphor for the bombed-out city of Hamburg friend mirrors that of Gilgamesh with Enkidu[81]
(pictured above) in his 1947 novel Die Stadt and whose masterpiece turns out to be a
hinter dem Strom.[81] symphony about Gilgamesh.[81]

The Quest of Gilgamesh, a 1953 radio play by

Douglas Geoffrey Bridson, helped popularize the epic in Britain.[81] In the United States,
Charles Olson praised the epic in his poems and essays[81] and Gregory Corso believed that it
contained ancient virtues capable of curing what he viewed as modern moral degeneracy.[81]
The 1966 postfigurative novel Gilgamesch by Guido Bachmann became a classic of German
"queer literature"[81] and set a decades-long international literary trend of portraying Gilgamesh
and Enkidu as homosexual lovers.[81] 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.[81] 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.[81] As the Green Movement expanded in Europe, Gilgamesh's story began to be seen
through an environmentalist lens,[81] with Enkidu's death symbolizing man's separation from
nature.[81]

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.)"[102] The Epic of Gilgamesh has been translated into many major world
languages[103] and has become a staple of American world literature classes.[104] Many
contemporary authors and novelists have drawn inspiration from it, including an American
avant-garde theater collective called "The Gilgamesh Group"[105] and Joan London in her novel
Gilgamesh (2001).[105][81] The Great American Novel (1973) by Philip Roth features a character
named "Gil Gamesh",[105] who is the star pitcher of a fictional 1930s baseball team called the

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"Patriot League".[105]

Starting in the late twentieth century, the Epic of Gilgamesh

began to be read again in Iraq.[103] Saddam Hussein, the
former President of Iraq, had a lifelong fascination with
Gilgamesh.[106] Saddam's first novel Zabibah and the King
(2000) is an allegory for the Gulf War set in ancient Assyria
that blends elements of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the One
Thousand and One Nights.[107] Like Gilgamesh, the king at
the beginning of the novel is a brutal tyrant who misuses his
power and oppresses his people,[108] but, through the aid of a
commoner woman named Zabibah, he grows into a more just
ruler.[109] When the United States tried to pressure Saddam to
step down in February 2003, Saddam gave a speech to a group
of his generals posing the idea in a positive light by comparing
himself to the epic hero.[103]

Scholars like Susan Ackerman and Wayne R. Dynes have

noted that the language used to describe Gilgamesh's
relationship with Enkidu seems to have homoerotic
implications.[110][111][112] Ackerman notes that, when
Gilgamesh veils Enkidu's body, Enkidu is compared to a A modern statue of Gilgamesh
"bride".[110] Ackerman states, "that Gilgamesh, according to stands at the University of
both versions, will love Enkidu 'like a wife' may further imply Sydney.[101]
sexual intercourse."[110]

In 2000, a modern statue of Gilgamesh by the Assyrian sculptor Lewis Batros was unveiled at
the University of Sydney in Australia.[101]

The Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard recorded a song titled
"Gilgamesh" as the fifth track of their October 2023 album The Silver Cord, with references to
the epic in the song's lyrics.[113]

See also
Atra-Hasis
Ziusudra
Enūma Eliš
Gilgamesh: A New English Version
Ancient literature

References

Informational notes
a. /ˈɡɪlɡəmɛʃ/,[8] /ɡɪlˈɡɑːmɛʃ/)[9] 𒄑𒂅𒈦, Gilgameš, originally Bilgames (Sumerian:
𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒎌). His name translates roughly as "The Ancestor is a Young-man",[10]
from Bil.ga "Ancestor", Elder[11]: 33 and Mes/Mesh3 "Young-Man".[11]: 174 See also The
Electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary (https://web.archive.org/web/20180924044239
/http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd1/nepsd-frame.html), U Penn, archived from the original

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Gilgamesh - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgamesh

(http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd1/nepsd-frame.html) on 24 September 2018, retrieved

7 August 2014.

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Further reading
"Narratives featuring… Gilgameš" (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.1.8.1*).
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
Gmirkin, Russell E (2006). Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus. New York: T & T
Clark International.
Foster, Benjamin R., ed. (2001). The Epic of Gilgamesh (https://archive.org/details/isbn_978
0393975161). Translated by Foster, Benjamin R. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

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ISBN 978-0-393-97516-1.
Hammond, D.; Jablow, A. (1987). "Gilgamesh and the Sundance Kid: the Myth of Male
Friendship". In Brod, H. (ed.). The Making of Masculinities: The New Men's Studies. Boston.
pp. 241–258.
Jackson, Danny (1997). The Epic of Gilgamesh (https://archive.org/details/epicofgilgamesh0
000unse). Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. ISBN 978-0-86516-352-2.
Kluger, Rivkah Sch. (1991), The Archetypal significance of Gilgamesh: a modern ancient
hero (https://books.google.com/books?id=oALOCGuQHK0C), Switzerland: Daimon,
ISBN 978-3-85630-523-9
Kovacs, Maureen Gallery (trans.) (1989) [1985]. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Stanford,
California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-1711-3.
Maier, John R. (2018). "Gilgamesh and the Great Goddess of Uruk" (https://digitalcommons.
brockport.edu/sunybeb/4/). Suny Brockport Ebooks.
Mitchell, Stephen (2004). Gilgamesh: A New English Version (https://archive.org/details/gilg
ameshnewengl0000mitc). New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-0-7432-6164-7.
Oberhuber, K., ed. (1977). Das Gilgamesch-Epos. Darmstadt: Wege der Forschung.
Parpola, Simo; Mikko Luuko; Kalle Fabritius (1997). The Standard Babylonian, Epic of
Gilgamesh. The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. ISBN 978-9514577604.
Pettinato, Giovanni (1992). La saga di Gilgamesh. Milan: Rusconi Libri.
ISBN 978-88-18-88028-1.

External links
Media related to Gilgamesh at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to Gilgamesh at Wikiquote
The dictionary definition of Gilgamesh at Wiktionary

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