The Epic of Gilgamesh is from Babylonia, dating from long after the time that king Gilgamesh was supposed to have ruled. It was based on earlier Sumerian legends of Gilgamesh. The most complete version of the epic was preserved on eleven clay tablets in the collection of the 7th century BC Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.
History
There is a twelfth tablet sometimes appended to the remainder of the Epic, although it is clear that this did not form part of the original work, instead representing an Akkadian translation of the Sumerian poem Gilgamesh and the Netherworld.
The earlier Akkadian version of the epic is known, from its incipit, as Surpassing all other kings and dates back to the first half of the second millennium B.C. The "standard" version, carrying the incipit He who saw the deep, was composed by Sin-liqe-unninni sometime between 1300 B.C. and 1000 B.C.
The earliest Sumerian versions of the texts date from as early as the third dynasty of Ur (2100-2000 BC.), or to ca. 400 years after the supposed reign of historical Gilgamesh.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is widely known today. The first modern translation of the epic was in the 1870s by George Smith. More recent translations include one undertaken with the assistance of the American novelist John Gardner, and published in 1984. The current definitive edition is the two volume critical work by Andrew George whose translation also appeared in the Penguin Classics series in 2003.
Contents of the eleven clay tablets
Missing imageGilgamesh_Enkidu_cylinder_seal.jpg Gilgamesh and Enkidu on a cylinder seal from
Ur III
- Introducing Gilgamesh of Uruk, the greatest king on earth, two-thirds god and one-third human, the strongest super-human who ever existed. But his people complain that he is too harsh, so the sky-god Anu creates the wild-man Enkidu. Enkidu is tamed by the harlot Shamhat.
- Enkidu fights Gilgamesh. After a mighty battle, Gilgamesh breaks off from the fight (this portion is missing from the Standard Babylonian version but is supplied from other versions) and they become friends. Gilgamesh proposes the adventure of the cedar forest.
- Preparation for the adventure of the cedar forest; many give support, including the sun-god Shamash.
- Journey of Gilgamesh and Enkidu to the cedar forest.
- Gilgamesh and Enkidu, with help from Shamash, kill Humbaba, the demon guardian of the trees, then cut down the trees which they float as a raft back to Uruk.
- Gilgamesh rejects the sexual advances of the goddess Ishtar. Ishtar gets her father, the sky-god Anu, to send the "Bull of Heaven" to avenge Gilgamesh and his city. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the bull.
- The gods decide that somebody has to be punished for killing the Bull of Heaven, and it is Enkidu. Enkidu becomes ill and describes the Netherworld as he is dying.
- Lament of Gilgamesh for Enkidu.
- Gilgamesh sets out to avoid Enkidu's fate and makes a perilous journey to visit Utnapishtim and his wife, the only humans to have survived the Great Flood who were granted immortality by the gods, in the hope that he too can attain immortality. Along the way, Gilgamesh encounters the "ale-wife" Siduri who attempts to dissuade him from his quest.
- Completion of the journey, by punting across the Waters of Death with Urshanabi, the ferryman.
- Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim, who tells him about the great flood and gives him two chances for immortality. First he tells Gilgamesh that if he can stay awake for six days and seven nights he will become immortal. Gilgamesh fails, but Utnapishtim decides to give him another chance. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that if he can obtain a plant from the bottom of a sea and eat it he will become immortal. Gilgamesh obtains the plant, but it is stolen by a snake. Gilgamesh, having failed both chances returns to Uruk, where the sight of its massive walls provoke Gilgamesh to praise this enduring work of mortal men.
External Links
- Sumerian texts: ETCSL (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcslmac.cgi?text=c.1.8.1*)
Translations for several legends of Gilgamesh in the Sumerian language can be found in Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Fluckiger-Hawker, E, Robson, E., and Zólyomi, G., The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/), Oxford 1998-.
Bibliography
The Epic of Gilgamesh, Foster, Benjamin R., trans. & edit. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. ISBN 0-393-97516-9
bg:Епос за Гилгамеш
de:Gilgamesch-Epos
eo:Eposo pri Gilgamesx
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ko:길가메시 서사시
is:Gilgamesharkviða
he:עלילות גלגמש
ku:Gilgameş
nl:Gilgamesh epos
ja:ギルガメシュ叙事詩
pl:Epos o Gilgameszu
ru:Эпос о Гильгамеше
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