Two-thirds god and one-third man, he tyrannised his city until the gods made him an equal
The wild man Enkidu is moulded from clay to match him.
Myth · Mesopotamian
Gilgamesh
Mesopotamian mythology — hero-king of Uruk
Hero of the oldest great poem in world literature. Two-thirds god and one-third man, he is the overbearing king of Uruk until the gods send him a wild equal to be his friend. When that friend dies he crosses the world in search of immortality, fails, and comes home to the city walls he built — the only immortality on offer. The epic survives on clay tablets from Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh.
How to spot them
- ▸King of the Sumerian city of Uruk, on the Euphrates, and builder of its walls
- ▸Two-thirds divine, one-third human
- ▸Often identified with the bearded hero gripping a lion on Assyrian reliefs
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Humbaba', 'Utnapishtim', 'the plant of rejuvenation', 'the Flood tablet'
Stories & episodes
Marched to the Cedar Forest and killed its ogre guardian with his friend's help
Humbaba, appointed by Enlil to guard the cedars, is beheaded.
Turned down a goddess's proposal of marriage, listing what had become of her previous lovers
Ishtar then demands the Bull of Heaven in revenge.
Crossed the Waters of Death to question the only man who survived the Flood
Utnapishtim, granted eternal life by the gods at Shuruppak.
Failed a test of staying awake for six days and seven nights
Bread baked daily beside him proved how long he had slept.
Won a rejuvenating plant from the sea floor and lost it to a snake at a waterhole
The snake sheds its skin and goes away renewed — hence the serpent's moult.
Its eleventh tablet, read aloud in London in 1872, startled Victorians with a flood story older than Genesis
George Smith's discovery at the British Museum.
Quick-fire facts
- •He appears in the Sumerian King List as a king of Uruk, traditionally around 2700 BC
- •The standard Babylonian version, on twelve tablets, is attributed to Sin-leqi-unninni
- •Most of the text comes from the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, excavated from 1850
- •George Smith announced the flood tablet to the Society of Biblical Archaeology in December 1872
- •His mother is the goddess Ninsun; his father is given as Lugalbanda
- •The ferryman who takes him across the Waters of Death is Urshanabi
- •The scorpion-people guard Mount Mashu, through which he passes in total darkness
- •The alewife Siduri advises him to enjoy food, family and life instead of chasing immortality
- •Andrew George's Penguin translation is the standard modern English version
Drill it — 10 cards
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Sources
- Andrew George — The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation
- Oracc / University of Pennsylvania Museum — Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses: Gilgameš