Gilgamesh

• 1. Historical King Of Uruk

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  Archaeologists have uncovered a seal impression dated to circa 2600 BC that depicts Gilgamesh and a mythical bull between two lions. This artifact was excavated in the Royal Cemetery at Ur and now resides in the National Museum of Iraq. The inscription on the seal reads "Gilgameš is the one whom Utu has selected." Most historians agree this figure represents a real ruler who governed the Sumerian city-state of Uruk during the Early Dynastic Period. Stephanie Dalley, a scholar of the ancient Near East, states that precise dates for his lifetime remain uncertain but likely fall between 2800 and 2500 BC. A thirty-four-line historiographic text known as the Tummal Inscription credits him with building the walls of Uruk. This document was written during the reign of Ishbi-Erra around 1953 BC. Fragments found at Mê-Turan suggest workers diverted the Euphrates river to bury him under its bed after death. He appears alongside King Enmebaragesi of Kish, another known historical figure from the same era.

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• 2. Sumerian Poems And Myths

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  Five independent poems narrate the exploits of the hero before they were woven into later epics. The earliest surviving work is titled "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld" and begins with a huluppu tree growing on the banks of the river Euphrates. The goddess Inanna moves the tree to her garden in Uruk intending to carve it into a throne once fully grown. A serpent named "who knows no charm," an Anzû-bird, and Lilitu invade the tree causing Inanna to cry with sorrow. Gilgamesh slays the serpent which causes the other creatures to flee. His companions chop down the tree and fashion a bed and throne for the goddess. She rewards his heroism by creating a pikku and mikku but he loses these objects. His servant Enkidu descends to the Underworld to retrieve them but disobeys strict laws and never returns. Another poem describes Gilgamesh's successful revolt against Agga king of Kish. A third text details how he defeats Huwawa an ogre appointed as guardian of the Cedar Forest. A fourth poem relates the defeat of the Bull of Heaven sent by Inanna. The fifth poorly preserved poem appears to describe a major state funeral followed by the arrival of the deceased in the Underworld.

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• 3. Akkadian Epic Composition

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  Sîn-lēqi-unninni composed the standard Akkadian version of the epic during the Middle Babylonian Period between 1600 BC and 1155 BC. The most complete surviving version rests on twelve clay tablets found in the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh dating to the seventh century BC. These tablets contain many missing or damaged pieces that scholars supplement with material from earlier Sumerian poems. Gilgamesh is introduced as two thirds divine and one third mortal. He begins as a brutal oppressive ruler interpreted as either forced labor or sexual exploitation. The god Anu creates the wild man Enkidu to punish this cruelty. After being tamed by a prostitute named Shamhat Enkidu journeys to Uruk to confront him. They wrestle and though Gilgamesh wins he becomes impressed by his opponent's strength. Tablets III through IV show them traveling to the Cedar Forest where they blind Humbaba using eight winds blown by Shamash. Tablet VI describes Ishtar demanding Gilgamesh as her consort after he rejects her advances. She sends the Bull of Heaven which they kill offering its heart to Shamash. Enkidu dies after dreaming of the Underworld following their victory. Tablet VII records his death while Tablet VIII details Gilgamesh's inconsolable grief.

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• 4. Archaeological Rediscovery

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  Austen Henry Layard discovered the Akkadian text in 1849 AD within the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. He sought evidence confirming the historicity of events described in the Hebrew Bible but unearthed much older Mesopotamian texts instead. George Smith produced the first translation in the early 1870s publishing the Flood story from Tablet XI under the title The Chaldean Account of Genesis in 1880. The name was originally misread as Izdubar until Theophilus Pinches published the correct form in 1890. Early interest focused almost exclusively on the flood story which attracted enormous public attention and drew widespread scholarly controversy. Friedrich Delitzsch gave a lecture in January 1902 before the Kaiser arguing that the Flood story in Genesis was directly copied from the epic. By September 1903 thousands of articles criticized this view regarding the relationship between Babel und Bibel. The Kaiser distanced himself from Delitzsch by fall 1904 reducing him to giving lectures in Cologne and Frankfurt rather than Berlin. This putative relationship later became part of his argument in a 1920, 21 book claiming the Hebrew Bible was irredeemably contaminated by Babylonian influence.

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• 5. Modern Literary Adaptations

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  Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton wrote Ishtar and Izdubar in 1884 expanding the original roughly 3,000 lines into 6,000 lines of rhyming couplets grouped into forty-eight cantos. He omitted the famous flood story entirely focusing instead on the romantic relationship between Ishtar and Gilgamesh. His characters dress more like nineteenth-century Turks than ancient Babylonians changing the tone from grim realism to cheery optimism. Hermann Kasack used Enkidu's vision of the Underworld as a metaphor for the bombed-out city of Hamburg in his 1947 novel. Hans Henny Jahnn published River Without Shores between 1949 and 1950 centering a composer whose twenty-year-long homoerotic relationship mirrors that of Gilgamesh with Enkidu. Guido Bachmann released a postfigurative novel in 1966 which became a classic of German queer literature setting a decades-long international trend. The Epic of Gilgamesh appears in The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature published in 1998 as a major early work of that genre. Saddam Hussein wrote Zabibah and the King in 2000 an allegory for the Gulf War blending elements of the epic with One Thousand and One Nights.

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• 6. Psychological Interpretations

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  Sigmund Freud interpreted Gilgamesh and Eabani representing man and crude sensuality respectively drawing on theories by James George Frazer and Paul Ehrenreich. He compared them to other brother-figures noting one is always weaker and dies sooner. In this motif the unequal pair represents the relationship between a man and his libido. Carl Jung frequently discusses Gilgamesh in Symbole der Wandlung written between 1911 and 1912. He cites Ishtar's sexual attraction as an example of the mother's incestuous desire for her son. Humbaba serves as an oppressive father-figure whom Gilgamesh must overcome while Gilgamesh himself forgets dependence on the unconscious punished by gods representing it. Susan Ackerman notes language describing Gilgamesh's relationship with Enkidu implies homoerotic implications when he veils Enkidu's body comparing him to a bride. Wayne R. Dynes observes that Gilgamesh will love Enkidu like a wife which may further imply sexual intercourse. The Green Movement expanded in Europe viewing Enkidu's death symbolizing man's separation from nature through an environmentalist lens.

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