The Epic of Gilgamesh

The story of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest recorded stories in the world. It
tells the tale of a legendary king and his adventures. Gilgamesh may have
been an actual king as his name is found on ancient lists of kings. This story
was told and retold, eventually being recorded on clay tablets and stored in
the great library of King Ashurbanipal. These have tablets survived because
the language was difficult to learn and as such scribes were taught by
precisely copying text. Historians have found tablets that retell almost the
entire story. Missing parts have been filled in from neighbouring and
successive societies.
Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk; he is a man of dynamic character, handsome
in appearance, and mighty in strength. He has given Uruk its great walls and
temple. However is also a tyrannical leader who is filled with lust, greed and
selfishness he is a womanizer and kidnaps children. His subjects plea to the
gods to send them aid. The gods create a wild man named Enkidu to
contend with Gilgamesh and control his demonic energy.
Enkidu comes to life in the wilderness. He is covered with shaggy hair who
lives with the animals, and eats grass and drinks water as they do and frees
animals from traps. He is wild like the wildness. One day a trapper goes to
Uruk to ask Gilgamesh for help with the wild man. A harlot who served in the
temple is sent to tame Enkidu and bring him back to the city. She teaches
him to eat bread, to drink wine and to wear clothes, and she seduces him
with her sophisticated arts and Enkidu is civilized and rejected by the
animals. She tells him of Gilgamesh and Enkidu sets off to Uruk to challenge
Gilgamesh to a contest of strength to force him to behave properly.
A civilized man, mighty in strength and stature, Enkidu enters Uruk and
meets Gilgamesh. A tremendous struggle ensues as they are almost equal in
force. Gilgamesh finally conquers, but both respect the power and spirit of
their adversary, and the two become friends. Together they set out on some
heroic adventures including the slaying of a terrible ogre. Gilgamesh longs
for glory and to perform great deeds so his name will be remembered. They
decide to go to the cedar forest and slay its guardian monster Humbaba.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu find the beast, and although Humbaba begs for its life
its head is cut off.
After the battle, Gilgamesh goes down to the river to wash up and put on
clean clothes. He is so attractive that Ishtar, the goddess of love, falls madly
in love with him when she sees him at the river. She asks him to marry her,
but he rudely refuses her request. Ishtar is hurt and furious about the
rejection and seeks out her father. She demands that he send the Bull of
Heaven (a drought) to punish Gilgamesh; threatening to smash down the

gates of the underworld if he does not comply. Her father gives in and sends
the Bull of Heaven to Uruk it is captured by Enkidu and killed by Gilgamesh.
During a dream Enkidu discovers that the gods are holding council to
determine who should die as punishment for the attacks on their divinity:
Gilgamesh or Enkidu. Since Gilgamesh is part human and part god, and
Enkidu is part human and part animal, naturally the judgement falls on
Enkidu to be sacrificed. Enkidu falls sick, and as his end approaches he
bitterly laments his fate and he curses the harlot who had lured him from his
rustic life to live in the sophisticated city. Just before his death, Enkidus
mood changes and he blesses the harlot for the joy his friendship with
Gilgamesh has brought.
Enkidus death not only robs Gilgamesh of a friend; it also comes as an awful
revelation of the fate of man everyone must die. Confronted with his own
mortality, and fearing his death, Gilgamesh sets out to find the only two
people, the legendary Utanapishtim and his wife, who were granted eternal
life by the gods. He wants to learn the secret of immortality.
The path to find Utanapishtim is long, difficult and fraught with danger. But
Gilgamesh struggles on, and in the course of his journey he meets Siduri the
divine wine maiden. After learning of his quest she advises Gilgamesh that
he will never find the life which he seeks because when the gods created
man they allotted to him death and kept life to themselves. She suggests he
should accept his fate and enjoy life while he can. Siduri counsels Gilgamesh
to fill his belly, be merry day and night, and to make every day a day of
rejoicing. Gilgamesh insists that he must carry on.
Eventually his patience and strength are rewarded and he wins his way to
the remote abode of Utanapishtim and his wife. Utanapishtim then tells
Gilgamesh the story of how he achieved his immortality. He and his wife
were the only ones to survive a great flood, sent by the gods to punish
mankind. The gods rewarded the couple with life for their survival and placed
them far beyond the habitations of other men. Their case was unique and
only emphasizes the hopelessness of Gilgameshs quest for he could never
win immortality as they did.
Utanapishtims wife takes pity on Gilgamesh and persuades her husband to
reveal the secret location of a marvellous plant that has the properties of an
elixir of eternal youth. The plant grows in the depths of the sea. Gilgamesh
dives down to retrieve it by attaching stones to his feet. Gilgamesh, instead
of availing himself at once to the plants wondrous virtue, decides to take the
plant back to the people of Uruk. Unfortunately the fates prevent him from
doing so. While on the voyage home he stops to bathe in a watering hole
where the plant is seized by a serpent which devours the plant, sheds its
skin, and slithers away.

With empty hands and his quest in vain, Gilgamesh finally returns to Uruk.
The moral is clear; man is by nature mortal and must learn to accept his fate
and adjust his life accordingly. Gilgamesh finds the people of Uruk are
celebrating the excellent construction of the city and its walls for this is the
proper work of a human being. The story ends with the death of Gilgamesh
and the mourning of his people.

What does the Epic of Gilgamesh convey about

Mesopotamian society?
Consider: the role of nature, women in society, religion,
and the human condition.
This text tells us about Mesopotamia's society and their beliefs,
which consisted on believing that their rulers were half-gods. Also,
they believed in higher powers that decided your fate= Rulers
have greater power than people. This text leads to many bible
texts.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

First piece of writing

Society
Talks about the early Mesopotamia
Lead to bible texts
Lead other civilizations to create their own version