Epic of Gilgamesh

At a glance

History, context & interpretation

The text and its story

Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu slay monsters, and after Enkidu dies Gilgamesh searches for immortality. Tablet XI tells of Utnapishtim, who survives a great flood in a boat.

Traditional attribution

The deeds of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, two-thirds god and one-third man.

Historical scholarship

Sumerian poems later shaped into the 'standard' Babylonian epic by the scholar-priest Sîn-lēqi-unninni.

Context and curiosity

A missing piece of Tablet V turned up in 2011 in an Iraqi museum, adding 20 new lines.

Chronology and transmission

This text belongs to Mesopotamia & the Levant (Sumer & Babylon). The catalogue gives its approximate dating as c. 2100 BCE (Sumerian poems) – c. 1200 BCE (standard version) and original language or script as Sumerian, Akkadian. The dated manuscript witnesses and traditional claims may not refer to the same historical event.

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Sources and further reading

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

Historical descriptions are educational summaries. Religious traditions, scholarly interpretations and unverified claims are distinguished where possible; imagery may be illustrative rather than an artifact photograph.