Gilgamesh

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Gilgamesh
๐’€ญ๐’„‘๐’‰‹๐’‚ต๐’ˆจ๐’Œ‹๐’Œ‹๐’Œ‹
Hero lion Dur-Sharrukin Louvre AO19862.jpg
Possible representation of Gilgamesh as Master of Animals, grasping a lion in his left arm and snake in his right hand, in an Assyrian palace relief (713โ€“706 BC), from Dur-Sharrukin, now held in the Louvre[1]
Reignc. 2900โ€“2700 BC (Early Dynastic Period)[2][3][4][5][6]
PredecessorDumuzid, the Fisherman (as Ensi of Uruk)
SuccessorUr-Nungal
This article contains cuneiform script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of cuneiform script.

Gilgamesh (Akkadian:๐’€ญ๐’„‘๐’‚†๐’ˆฆ romanized: Gilgameลก; originally sumerian:๐’€ญ๐’‰‹๐’‚ต๐’ˆฉ romanized: Bilgames)[7][lower-alpha 1] was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who was posthumously deified. His rule probably would have taken place sometime in the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period (henceforth ED), c. 2900 โ€“ 2350 BC, though he became a major figure in Sumerian legend during the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112 โ€“ c. 2004 BC).

Tales of Gilgamesh's legendary exploits are narrated in five surviving Sumerian poems. The earliest of these is likely "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld",[12] in which Gilgamesh comes to the aid of the goddess Inanna and drives away the creatures infesting her huluppu tree. She gives him two unknown objects, a mikku and a pikku, which he loses. After Enkidu's death, his shade tells Gilgamesh about the bleak conditions in the Underworld. The poem Gilgamesh and Aga describes Gilgamesh's revolt against his overlord Aga of Kish. Other Sumerian poems relate Gilgamesh's defeat of the giant Huwawa and the Bull of Heaven, while a fifth, poorly preserved poem relates the account of his death and funeral.

In later Babylonian times, these stories were woven into a connected narrative. The standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh was composed by a scribe named Sรฎn-lฤ“qi-unninni, probably during the Middle Babylonian Period (c. 1600 โ€“ c. 1155 BC), based on much older source material. In the epic, Gilgamesh is a demigod of superhuman strength who befriends the wild man Enkidu. Together, they embark on many journeys, most famously defeating Humbaba (Sumerian: Huwawa) and the Bull of Heaven, who is sent to attack them by Ishtar (Sumerian: Inanna) after Gilgamesh rejects her offer for him to become her consort. After Enkidu dies of a disease sent as punishment from the gods, Gilgamesh becomes afraid of his death and visits the sage Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Great Flood, hoping to find immortality. Gilgamesh repeatedly fails the trials set before him and returns home to Uruk, realizing that immortality is beyond his reach.

Most scholars agree that the Epic of Gilgamesh exerted substantial influence on the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems written in ancient Greek during the 8th century BC. The story of Gilgamesh's birth is described in an anecdote in On the Nature of Animals by the Greek writer Claudius Aelianus (2nd century AD). Aelianus relates that Gilgamesh's grandfather kept his mother under guard to prevent her from becoming pregnant, because an oracle had told him that his grandson would overthrow him. She became pregnant and the guards threw the child off a tower, but an eagle rescued him mid-fall and delivered him safely to an orchard, where the gardener raised him.

The Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal in 1849, and was translated in the early 1870s. Gilgamesh remained mostly obscure until the mid-20th century, but, since the late 20th century, he has become an increasingly prominent figure in modern culture.

Name

The modern form "Gilgamesh" is a direct borrowing of the Akkadian ๐’„‘๐’‚†๐’ˆฆ, rendered as Gilgameลก. The Assyrian form of the name derived from the earlier Sumerian form ๐’‰‹๐’‚ต๐’ˆฉ, Bilgames. It is generally concluded that the name itself translates as "the (kinsman) is a hero", the relation of the "kinsman" varying between the source giving the translation. It is sometimes suggested that the Sumerian form of the name was pronounced Pabilgames, reading the component bilga as pabilga (๐’‰บ๐’‰‹๐’‚ต), a related term which described familial relations, however, this is not supported by epigraphic or phonological evidence.[13]

Historical king

Seal impression of "Mesannepada, king of Kish", excavated in the Royal Cemetery at Ur (U. 13607), dated circa 2600 BC.[14][15] The seal shows Gilgamesh and the mythical bull between two lions, one of the lions biting him in the shoulder. On each side of this group appears Enkidu and a hunter-hero, with a long beard and a Kish-style headdress, armed with a dagger. Under the text, four runners with beard and long hair form a human Swastika. They are armed with daggers and catch each other's foot.[15]

Most historians generally agree that Gilgamesh was a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk,[16][17][18][19] who probably ruled sometime during the early part of the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900 โ€“ 2350 BC).[16][17] Stephanie Dalley, a scholar of the ancient Near East, states that "precise dates cannot be given for the lifetime of Gilgamesh, but they are generally agreed to lie between 2800 and 2500 BC".[17] An inscription, possibly belonging to a contemporary official under Gilgamesh, was discovered in the archaic texts at Ur;[20] his name reads: "Gilgameลก is the one whom Utu has selected". Aside from this the Tummal Inscription, a thirty-four-line historiographic text written during the reign of Ishbi-Erra (c. 1953 โ€“ c. 1920 BC), also mentions him.[18] The inscription credits Gilgamesh with building the walls of Uruk.[21] Lines eleven through fifteen of the inscription read:

For a second time, the Tummal fell into ruin,
Gilgamesh built the Numunburra of the House of Enlil.
Ur-lugal, the son of Gilgamesh,
Made the Tummal pre-eminent,
Brought Ninlil to the Tummal.[22]

Gilgamesh is also connected to King Enmebaragesi of Kish, a known historical figure who may have lived near Gilgamesh's lifetime.[21] Furthermore, he is listed as one of the kings of Uruk by the Sumerian King List.[21] Fragments of an epic text found in Mรช-Turan (modern Tell Haddad) relate that at the end of his life Gilgamesh was buried under the river bed.[21] The people of Uruk diverted the flow of the Euphrates passing Uruk for the purpose of burying the dead king within the river bed.[23][21]

Deification and legendary exploits

Sumerian poems

Sculpted scene depicting Gilgamesh wrestling with animals. From the Shara temple at Tell Agrab, Diyala Region, Iraq. Early Dynastic period, 2600โ€“2370 BC. On display at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad.
Mace dedicated to Gilgamesh, with transcription of the name Gilgamesh (๐’€ญ๐’‰ˆ๐’‚ต๐’ˆฉ) in standard Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, Ur III period, between 2112 and 2004 BC

It is certain that, during the later Early Dynastic Period, Gilgamesh was worshiped as a god at various locations across Sumer.[16] In 21st century BC, King Utu-hengal of Uruk adopted Gilgamesh as his patron deity.[16] The kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112 โ€“ c. 2004 BC) were especially fond of Gilgamesh,[16][21] calling him their "divine brother" and "friend."[16] King Shulgi of Ur (2029โ€“1982 BC) declared himself the son of Lugalbanda and Ninsun and the brother of Gilgamesh.[21] Over the centuries, there may have been a gradual accretion of stories about Gilgamesh, some possibly derived from the real lives of other historical figures, such as Gudea, the Second Dynasty ruler of Lagash (2144โ€“2124 BC).[24] Prayers inscribed in clay tablets address Gilgamesh as a judge of the dead in the Underworld.[21]

"Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld"

During this period, a large number of myths and legends developed surrounding Gilgamesh.[16][25][26]: 95  Five independent Sumerian poems narrating various exploits of Gilgamesh have survived to the present.[16] Gilgamesh's first appearance in literature is probably in the Sumerian poem "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld".[27][21][28] The narrative begins with a huluppu treeโ€”perhaps, according to the Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer, a willow,[29] growing on the banks of the river Euphrates.[29][21][30] The goddess Inanna moves the tree to her garden in Uruk with the intention to carve it into a throne once it is fully grown.[29][21][30] The tree grows and matures, but the serpent "who knows no charm," the Anzรป-bird, and Lilitu, a Mesopotamian demon, all take up residence within the tree, causing Inanna to cry with sorrow.[29][21][30]

Gilgamesh, who in this story is portrayed as Inanna's brother, comes along and slays the serpent, causing the Anzรป-bird and Lilitu to flee.[31][21][30] Gilgamesh's companions chop down the tree and carve its wood into a bed and a throne, which they give to Inanna.[32][21][30] Inanna responds by fashioning a pikku and a mikku (probably a drum and drumsticks respectively, although the exact identifications are uncertain),[33][21] which she gives to Gilgamesh as a reward for his heroism.[34][21][30] Gilgamesh loses the pikku and mikku and asks who will retrieve them.[35] Enkidu descends to the Underworld to find them,[36] but disobeys the strict laws of the Underworld and is therefore required to remain there forever.[36] The remaining portion of the poem is a dialogue in which Gilgamesh asks the shade of Enkidu questions about the Underworld.[16][35]

Subsequent poems

Story of Gilgamesh and Aga
Story of "Gilgamesh and Agga". Old Babylonian period, from southern Iraq. Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq

"Gilgamesh and Agga" describes Gilgamesh's successful revolt against his overlord Agga, the king of the city-state of Kish.[16][37] "Gilgamesh and Huwawa" describes how Gilgamesh and his servant Enkidu, aided by the help of fifty volunteers from Uruk, defeat the monster Huwawa, an ogre appointed by the god Enlil, the ruler of the gods, as the guardian of the Cedar Forest.[16][38][39] In "Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven", Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the Bull of Heaven, who has been sent to attack them by the goddess Inanna.[16][40][41] The plot of this poem differs substantially from the corresponding scene in the later Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh.[42] In the Sumerian poem, Inanna does not seem to ask Gilgamesh to become her consort as she does in the later Akkadian epic.[40] Furthermore, while she is coercing her father An to give her the Bull of Heaven, rather than threatening to raise the dead to eat the living as she does in the later epic, she merely threatens to let out a "cry" that will reach the earth.[42] A poem known as the "Death of Gilgamesh" is poorly preserved,[16][43] but appears to describe a major state funeral followed by the arrival of the deceased in the Underworld.[16] It is possible that the modern scholars who gave the poem its title may have misinterpreted it,[16] and the poem may actually be about the death of Enkidu.[16]

Epic of Gilgamesh

Main article: Epic of Gilgamesh
The ogre Humbaba, shown in this terracotta plaque from the Old Babylonian Period,[44] is one of the opponents fought by Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[45]
Ancient Mesopotamian terracotta relief (c. 2250 โ€” 1900 BC) showing Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of Heaven,[46] an episode described in Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh[45][47]

Eventually, according to Kramer (1963):[25]

Gilgamesh became the hero par excellence of the ancient worldโ€”an adventurous, brave, but tragic figure symbolizing man's vain but endless drive for fame, glory, and immortality.

By the Old Babylonian Period (c. 1830 โ€“ c. 1531 BC), stories of Gilgamesh's legendary exploits had been woven into one or several long epics.[16] The Epic of Gilgamesh, the most complete account of Gilgamesh's adventures, was composed in Akkadian during the Middle Babylonian Period (c. 1600 โ€“ c. 1155 BC) by a scribe named Sรฎn-lฤ“qi-unninni.[16] The most complete surviving version of the Epic of Gilgamesh is recorded on a set of twelve clay tablets dating to the seventh century BC, found in the Library of Ashurbanipal in the Assyrian capital of Nineveh.[16][21][48] The epic survives only in a fragmentary form, with many pieces of it missing or damaged.[16][21][48] Some scholars and translators choose to supplement the missing parts of the epic with material from the earlier Sumerian poems or from other versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh found at other sites throughout the Near East.[16]

Tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq

In the epic, Gilgamesh is introduced as "two thirds divine and one third mortal."[49] At the beginning of the poem, Gilgamesh is described as a brutal, oppressive ruler.[16][49] This is usually interpreted to mean either that he compels all his subjects to engage in forced labor[16] or that he sexually oppresses all his subjects.[16] As punishment for Gilgamesh's cruelty, the god Anu creates the wild man Enkidu.[50] After being tamed by a prostitute named Shamhat, Enkidu travels to Uruk to confront Gilgamesh.[45] In the second tablet, the two men wrestle and, although Gilgamesh wins the match in the end,[45] he is so impressed by his opponent's strength and tenacity that they become close friends.[45] In the earlier Sumerian texts, Enkidu is Gilgamesh's servant,[45] but, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, they are companions of equal standing.[45]

In tablets III through IV, Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to the Cedar Forest, which is guarded by Humbaba (the Akkadian name for Huwawa).[45] The heroes cross the seven mountains to the Cedar Forest, where they begin chopping down trees.[51] Confronted by Humbaba, Gilgamesh panics and prays to Shamash (the East Semitic name for Utu),[51] who blows eight winds in Humbaba's eyes, blinding him.[51] Humbaba begs for mercy, but the heroes decapitate him regardless.[51] Tablet VI begins with Gilgamesh returning to Uruk,[45] where Ishtar (the Akkadian name for Inanna) comes to him and demands him to become her consort.[45][51][52] Gilgamesh repudiates her, insisting that she has mistreated all her former lovers.[45][51][52]

In revenge, Ishtar goes to her father Anu and demands that he give her the Bull of Heaven,[53][54][42] which she sends to attack Gilgamesh.[45][53][54][42] Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the Bull and offer its heart to Shamash.[55][54] While Gilgamesh and Enkidu are resting, Ishtar stands up on the walls of Uruk and curses Gilgamesh.[55][56] Enkidu tears off the Bull's right thigh and throws it in Ishtar's face,[55][56] saying, "If I could lay my hands on you, it is this I should do to you, and lash your entrails to your side."[57][56] Ishtar calls together "the crimped courtesans, prostitutes and harlots"[55] and orders them to mourn for the Bull of Heaven.[55][56] Meanwhile, Gilgamesh holds a celebration over the Bull of Heaven's defeat.[58][56]

Tablet VII begins with Enkidu recounting a dream in which he saw Anu, Ea, and Shamash declare either Gilgamesh or Enkidu must die as punishment for having slain the Bull of Heaven.[45] They choose Enkidu and Enkidu soon grows sick.[45] He has a dream of the Underworld, and then he dies.[45] Tablet VIII describes Gilgamesh's inconsolable grief over his friend's death[45][59] and the details of Enkidu's funeral.[45] Tablets IX through XI relate how Gilgamesh, driven by grief and fear of his own mortality, travels a great distance and overcomes many obstacles to find the home of Utnapishtim, the sole survivor of the Great Flood, who was rewarded with immortality by the gods.[45][59]

Early Middle Assyrian cylinder seal impression dating between 1400 and 1200 BC, showing a man with bird wings and a scorpion tail firing an arrow at a griffin on a hillock. A scorpion man is among the creatures Gilgamesh encounters on his journey to the homeland of Utnapishtim.[59]

The journey to Utnapishtim involves a series of episodic challenges, which probably originated as major independent adventures,[59] but, in the epic, they are reduced to what Joseph Eddy Fontenrose calls "fairly harmless incidents."[59] First, Gilgamesh encounters and slays lions in the mountain pass.[59] Upon reaching the mountain of Mashu, Gilgamesh encounters a scorpion man and his wife;[59] their bodies flash with terrifying radiance,[59] but, once Gilgamesh tells them his purpose, they allow him to pass.[59] Gilgamesh wanders through darkness for twelve days before he finally comes into the light.[59] He finds a beautiful garden by the sea in which he meets Siduri, the divine Alewife.[59] At first, she tries to prevent Gilgamesh from entering the garden,[59] but later she instead attempts to persuade him to accept death as inevitable and not journey beyond the waters.[59] When Gilgamesh refuses to do this, she directs him to Urshanabi, the ferryman of the gods, who ferries Gilgamesh across the sea to Utnapishtim's homeland.[59] When Gilgamesh finally arrives at Utnapishtim's home, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that, to become immortal, he must defy sleep.[45] Gilgamesh fails to do this and falls asleep for seven days without waking.[45]

Next, Utnapishtim tells him that, even if he cannot obtain immortality, he can restore his youth using a plant with the power of rejuvenation.[45][30] Gilgamesh takes the plant, but leaves it on the shore while swimming and a snake steals it, explaining why snakes are able to shed their skins.[45][30] Despondent at this loss, Gilgamesh returns to Uruk,[45] and shows his city to the ferryman Urshanabi.[45] It is at this point the epic stops being a coherent narrative.[45][30][60] Tablet XII is an appendix corresponding to the Sumerian poem of Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld describing the loss of the pikku and mikku.[45][30][60]

Numerous elements within this narrative reveal lack of continuity with the earlier portions of the epic.[60] At the beginning of Tablet XII, Enkidu is still alive, despite having previously died in Tablet VII,[60] and Gilgamesh is kind to Ishtar, despite the violent rivalry between them displayed in Tablet VI.[60] Also, while most of the parts of the epic are free adaptations of their respective Sumerian predecessors,[61] Tablet XII is a literal, word-for-word translation of the last part of Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld.[61] For these reasons, scholars conclude this narrative was probably relegated to the end of the epic because it did not fit the larger narrative.[45][30][60] In it, Gilgamesh sees a vision of Enkidu's ghost, who promises to recover the lost items[45][35] and describes to his friend the abysmal condition of the Underworld.[45][35]

In Mesopotamian art

Although stories about Gilgamesh were wildly popular throughout ancient Mesopotamia,[62] authentic representations of him in ancient art are uncommon.[62] Popular works often identify depictions of a hero with long hair, containing four or six curls, as representations of Gilgamesh,[62] but this identification is known to be incorrect.[62] A few genuine ancient Mesopotamian representations of Gilgamesh do exist, however.[62] These representations are mostly found on clay plaques and cylinder seals.[62] Generally, it is only possible to identify a figure shown in art as Gilgamesh if the artistic work in question clearly depicts a scene from the Epic of Gilgamesh itself.[62] One set of representations of Gilgamesh is found in scenes of two heroes fighting a demonic giant, certainly Humbaba.[62] Another set is found in scenes showing a similar pair of heroes confronting a giant, winged bull, certainly the Bull of Heaven.[62]

Later influence

In antiquity

The episode involving Odysseus's confrontation with Polyphemus in the Odyssey, shown in this seventeenth-century painting by Guido Reni, bears similarities to Gilgamesh and Enkidu's battle with Humbaba in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[63]
Indus valley civilization seal, with the Master of Animals motif of a man fighting two lions or tigers (2500โ€“1500 BC), similar to the Sumerian "Gilgamesh" motif, an indicator of Indus-Mesopotamia relations.[64][65]

The Epic of Gilgamesh exerted substantial influence on the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems written in ancient Greek during the eighth century BC.[66][63][67][68] According to Barry B. Powell, an American classical scholar, early Greeks were probably exposed to Mesopotamian oral traditions through their extensive connections to the civilizations of the ancient Near East[19] and this exposure resulted in the similarities that are seen between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Homeric epics.[19] Walter Burkert, a German classicist, observes that the scene in Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh in which Gilgamesh rejects Ishtar's advances and she complains before her mother Antu, but is mildly rebuked by her father Anu, is directly paralleled in Book V of the Iliad.[69] In this scene, Aphrodite, the later Greek adaptation of Ishtar, is wounded by the hero Diomedes and flees to Mount Olympus, where she cries to her mother Dione and is mildly rebuked by her father Zeus.[69]

Powell observes the opening lines of the Odyssey seem to echo the opening lines of the Epic of Gilgamesh.[49] The storyline of the Odyssey likewise bears many similarities to the Epic of Gilgamesh.[70][71] Both Gilgamesh and Odysseus encounter a woman who can turn men into animals: Ishtar (for Gilgamesh) and Circe (for Odysseus).[70] In the Odyssey, Odysseus blinds a giant Cyclops named Polyphemus,[63] an incident which bears similarities to Gilgamesh's slaying of Humbaba in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[63] Both Gilgamesh and Odysseus visit the Underworld[70] and both find themselves unhappy whilst living in an otherworldly paradise in the presence of an attractive woman: Siduri (for Gilgamesh) and Calypso (for Odysseus).[70] Finally, both heroes have an opportunity for immortality but miss it (Gilgamesh when he loses the plant, and Odysseus when he leaves Calypso's island).[70]

In the Qumran scroll known as Book of Giants (c. 100 BC) the names of Gilgamesh and Humbaba appear as two of the antediluvian giants,[72][73] rendered (in consonantal form) as glgmลก and แธฉwbbyลก. This same text was later used in the Middle East by the Manichaean sects, and the Arabic form Gilgamish/Jiljamish survives as the name of a demon according to the Egyptian cleric Al-Suyuti (c. 1500).[72]

The story of Gilgamesh's birth is not recorded in any extant Sumerian or Akkadian text,[62] but a version of it is described in De Natura Animalium (On the Nature of Animals) 12.21, a commonplace book which was written in Greek sometime around 200 AD by the Hellenized Roman orator Aelian.[74][62] According to Aelian's story, an oracle told King Seuechoros (ฮฃฮตฯ…ฮตฯ‡ฮฟฯฮฟฯ‚) of the Babylonians that his grandson Gilgamos would overthrow him.[62] To prevent this, Seuechoros kept his only daughter under close guard at the Acropolis of the city of Babylon,[62] but she became pregnant nonetheless.[62] Fearing the king's wrath, the guards hurled the infant off the top of a tall tower.[62] An eagle rescued the boy in mid-flight and carried him to an orchard, where it carefully set him down.[62] The caretaker of the orchard found the boy and raised him, naming him Gilgamos (ฮ“ฮฏฮปฮณฮฑฮผฮฟฯ‚).[62] Eventually, Gilgamos returned to Babylon and overthrew his grandfather, proclaiming himself king.[62] The birth narrative described by Aelian is in the same tradition as other Near Eastern birth legends,[62] such as those of Sargon, Moses, and Cyrus.[62] Theodore Bar Konai (c. AD 600), writing in Syriac, also mentions a king Gligmos, Gmigmos or Gamigos as last of a line of twelve kings who were contemporaneous with the patriarchs from Peleg to Abraham; this occurrence is also considered a vestige of Gilgamesh's former memory.[75][76]

Modern rediscovery

In 1880, the English Assyriologist George Smith (left) published a translation of Tablet XI of the Epic of Gilgamesh (right), containing the Flood myth,[77] which attracted immediate scholarly attention and controversy due to its similarity to the Genesis flood narrative.[78]

The Akkadian text of the Epic of Gilgamesh was first discovered in 1849 AD by the English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh.[21]His excavations and those of others after him revealed the existence of much older Mesopotamian texts[21] and showed that many of the stories in the Old Testament may actually be derived from earlier myths told throughout the ancient Near East.[21] The first translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh was produced in the early 1870s by George Smith (Assyriologist), a scholar at the British Museum,[77][79][80] who published the Flood story from Tablet XI in 1880 under the title The Chaldean Account of Genesis.[77] Gilgamesh's name was originally misread as Izdubar.[77][81][82]

Early interest in the Epic of Gilgamesh was almost exclusively on account of the flood story from Tablet XI.[83] The flood story attracted enormous public attention and drew widespread scholarly controversy, while the rest of the epic was largely ignored.[83]

Modern interpretations and cultural significance

The Quest of Gilgamesh, a 1953 radio play by Douglas Geoffrey Bridson, helped popularize the epic in Britain.[80] In the United States, Charles Olson praised the epic in his poems and essays[80] and Gregory Corso believed that it contained ancient virtues capable of curing what he viewed as modern moral degeneracy.[80] The 1966 postfigurative novel Gilgamesch by Guido Bachmann became a classic of German "queer literature"[80] and set a decades-long international literary trend of portraying Gilgamesh and Enkidu as homosexual lovers.[80] This trend proved so popular that the Epic of Gilgamesh itself is included in The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature (1998) as a major early work of that genre.[80] In the 1970s and 1980s, feminist literary critics analyzed the Epic of Gilgamesh as showing evidence for a transition from the original matriarchy of all humanity to modern patriarchy].[80] As the Green Movement expanded in Europe, Gilgamesh's story began to be seen through an environmentalist lens,[80] with Enkidu's death symbolizing man's separation from nature.[80]

A modern statue of Gilgamesh stands at the University of Sydney.[84]

Starting in the late twentieth century, the Epic of Gilgamesh began to be read again in Iraq.[85] Saddam Hussein, the former President of Iraq, had a lifelong fascination with Gilgamesh.[86] Saddam Hussein's first novel Zabibah and the King (2000) is an allegory for the Gulf War set in ancient Assyria that blends elements of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the One Thousand and One Nights.[87] Like Gilgamesh, the king at the beginning of the novel is a brutal tyrant who misuses his power and oppresses his people,[88] but, through the aid of a commoner woman named Zabibah, he grows into a more just ruler.[89] When the United States pressured Hussein to step down in February 2003, Hussein gave a speech to a group of his generals posing the idea in a positive light by comparing himself to the epic hero.[85]

In 2000, a modern statue of Gilgamesh by the Assyrian sculptor Lewis Batros was unveiled at the University of Sydney in Australia.[84]

See also

References

Informational notes

  1. โ†‘ |/หˆษกษชlษกษ™mษ›สƒ/,[8] |/ษกษชlหˆษกษ‘หmษ›สƒ/)[9] ๐’„‘๐’‚…๐’ˆฆ, Gilgameลก, originally Bilgames (Sumerian: ๐’€ญ๐’‰‹๐’‚ต๐’ˆฉ). His name translates roughly as "The Ancestor is a Young-man",[10] from Bil.ga "Ancestor", Elder[11]: 33  and Mes/Mesh3 "Young-Man".[11]: 174  See also The Electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary.

Citations

  1. โ†‘ Delorme 1981, p. 55.
  2. โ†‘ George, A.R. (2003). The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. Penguin Books. p. lxi. [ISBN] 9780140449198.
  3. โ†‘ Isakhan, Benjamin (May 13, 2016). Democracy in Iraq: History, Politics, Discourse. Taylor & Francis. p. 200. [ISBN] 9781317153092.
  4. โ†‘ Marchesi, Gianni (2004). "Who Was Buried in the Royal Tombs of Ur? The Epigraphic and Textual Data". Orientalia. 73 (2): 197.
  5. โ†‘ Pournelle, Jennifer (2003). Marshland of Cities:Deltaic Landscapes and the Evolution of Early Mesopotamian Civilization. San Diego. p. 268.
  6. โ†‘ "Pre-dynastic architecture (UA1 and UA2)". Artefacts.
  7. โ†‘ The Babylonian Gilgamesh epic : introduction, critical edition and cuneiform texts. A. R. George. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2003. pp. 71โ€“77. [ISBN] 0-19-814922-0. [OCLC] 51668477.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. โ†‘ "Gilgamesh". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  9. โ†‘ George, Andrew R. (2010) [2003]. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic โ€“ Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts (in English and Akkadian). Vol. 1 and 2 (reprint ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 163. [ISBN] 978-0198149224. [OCLC] 819941336.
  10. โ†‘ Hayes, J.L. A Manual of Sumerian Grammar and Texts (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
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Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gilgamesh.
  • Quotations related to Gilgamesh at Wikiquote
  • The dictionary definition of gilgamesh at Wiktionary
Regnal titles
Preceded by En of Uruk
ca. 2900-2700 BCE 		Succeeded by
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