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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.

1 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 as Surpassing all other kings and dates back to the first half of the second millennium B.C. The "standard" version, 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.

2 Contents of the eleven clay tablets

1. 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 EnkiduEnkidu is, in Sumerian mythology, a mythical wild-man, raised by animals, that is tamed by a courtesan and becomes the friend of Gilgamesh after they fight. He assist Gilgamesh in his fight against the monster Humbaba, then is killed by the gods for slayi. Enkidu is tamed by the harlot Shamhat.
2. 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.
3. Preparation for the adventure of the cedar forest; many give support, including the sun-god ShamashShamash or Sama was the common Akkadian name of the sun-god in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu. The name signifies perhaps "servitor," and would thus point to a secondary position occupied at one time by this deity. Both in early and.
4. Journey of Gilgamesh and Enkidu to the cedar forest.
5. Gilgamesh and Enkidu, with help from Shamash, kill HumbabaIn Akkadian mythology Humbaba (Assyrian spelling) or Huwawa ( Babylonian) was a monstrous giant personifying the "river of the dead" (see also Styx), who was also the guardian of the Forest of Cedars, where the gods lived. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgam, the demon guardian of the trees, then cut down the trees which they float as a raft back to Uruk.
6. Gilgamesh rejects the sexual advances of the goddess IshtarIshtar is the Akkadian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess `Ashtart. Anunit, Astarte and Atarsamain are alternate names for Ishtar. The goddess represents the planet Venus. The double aspect of the goddess may c. 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.
7. 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.
8. Lament of Gilgamesh for Enkidu.
9. Gilgamesh sets out to avoid Enkidu's fate and makes a perilous journey to visit UtnapishtimUtnapishtim whose name means "he found life" or "he who saw life", is also known as Atrahasis meaning "the exceptional wise one". In the Akkadian sources, a wise citizen of Shurrupak on the banks of the Euphrates, or Ziusudra in the Sumerian poems. A wise 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.
10. Completion of the journey, by punting across the Waters of Death with Urshanabi, the ferryman.
11. Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim, who tells him about the great flood and gives him two chances for immortality. Gilgamesh blunders both chances and returns to Uruk, where the sight of its massive walls provoke Gilgamesh to praise this enduring work of mortal men.