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The Epic of Gilgamesh

© Linda Casselman

In 1848-49 archaeologist Austin Henry Layland made an exciting discovery while excavating the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ninevah, now modern-day Iraq. He unearthed several clay tablets which revealed the world's oldest surviving written story - The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh was indeed a renowned hero from ancient Mesopotamia. He was king of Uruk in around 2700 BCE and many stories were generated from his famous exploits. These stories were collected and with some creative embellishments for dramatic purposes and mythic devices galore, The Epic of Gilgamesh was created and has come down to us through the ages to teach us about the meaning of life.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is written in Akkadian in cuneiform script on twelve fragmented clay tablets. It was written between 3000-2000 BCE in the early Bronze Age and the story of Gilgamesh finds us today as a combination of its various earlier versions and translations pieced together to give us a whole story.

And briefly this is the story of the Hero Gilgamesh that we know today:

Gilgamesh, who is 2/3 god and 1/3 human, is a restless king who treats his people badly. In an effort to tame him, the gods create the wildman Enkidu as his match. The two quarrel at first and then become close friends, like brothers. Together they journey to the forest and defeat the terrible Humbaba. And when Gilgamesh offends the goddess Ishtar by refusing to marry her, she unleashes the Bull of Heaven upon the earth. Enkidu wrestles the Bull and Gilgamesh kills it. Later, Enkidu has a terrible dream about death and the underworld and after relating this dream to Gilgamesh, Enkidu dies. Gilgamesh is overcome with grief for the loss of his dear friend and resolves to set out to defeat death, to find the answer to immortality.

Gilgamesh experiences many trials on his journey through darkness then he meets Siduri, the wine-maker, by the sea who tells him that immortality is for the gods alone and that life and living is for humans; so rejoice in life. But Gilgamesh continues on his quest until he arrives in Dilmun and meets Utnapishtim and his wife, survivors of the Great Flood who are indeed immortal. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh of a magic plant under the water that can bestow immortality. So Gilgamesh dives to find it. He recovers it and brings it back with him. Later, while Gilgamesh is resting a snake emerges and snatches the magical plant from Gilgamesh. The snake eats it, sheds its skin, and then disappears again. Gilgamesh has lost the power of immortality, stolen by the snake. So Gilgamesh returns home a mortal man and inscribes his tale on the walls of his great city.

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