Epic of Gilgamesh Summary
The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Summary
Gilgamesh was a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in what is now Iraq; he lived about 2700 BCE. Many stories and songs were told and sung, and later written down, about Gilgamesh, The earliest of that have survived date to about 2000 BCE, and are in the Sumerian language. These Sumerian Gilgamesh stories were integrated into a longer poem, versions of which survive not only in Akkadian (a Semitic language, related to Hebrew and Phoenician, that was spoken by the Babylonians), but also on tablets written in the ancient Hurrian and in Hittite languages that were spoken in what is now Turkey. These languages were written in a script known as cuneiform, "wedge-shaped," after the appearance of the letters. The fullest surviving version, which is the main source of the following summary, is derived from twelve stone tablets, in the Akkadian language, that were found by modern archaeologists in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria 669-633, at the ancient city of Nineveh. The library was destroyed by the Persians in 612, and all the tablets suffered damage, some more than others. The tablets actually bear the name of an author, that is, the person who put together this version of the traditional material, Shin-eqi-unninni, who is in fact the earliest human writer known by name from one of his own documents. This summary, which has been slightly adapted from one by Richard Hooker, was derived from translations, commentaries, and academic scholarship.
Tablet 1: Gilgamesh in the City and Enkidu in the Wilderness
The one who saw all, him I will declare to the world,
The one who knew all, I will tell about
[line missing]
He saw the great mystery, he knew what is hidden:
He recovered the knowledge of all the times before the Flood.
He journeyed beyond that which is distant, he journeyed beyond exhaustion,
And then carved his story
Gilgamesh was a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in what is now Iraq; he lived about 2700 BCE. Many stories and songs were told and sung, and later written down, about Gilgamesh, The earliest of that have survived date to about 2000 BCE, and are in the Sumerian language. These Sumerian Gilgamesh stories were integrated into a longer poem, versions of which survive not only in Akkadian (a Semitic language, related to Hebrew and Phoenician, that was spoken by the Babylonians), but also on tablets written in the ancient Hurrian and in Hittite languages that were spoken in what is now Turkey. These languages were written in a script known as cuneiform, "wedge-shaped," after the appearance of the letters. The fullest surviving version, which is the main source of the following summary, is derived from twelve stone tablets, in the Akkadian language, that were found by modern archaeologists in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria 669-633, at the ancient city of Nineveh. The library was destroyed by the Persians in 612, and all the tablets suffered damage, some more than others. The tablets actually bear the name of an author, that is, the person who put together this version of the traditional material, Shin-eqi-unninni, who is in fact the earliest human writer known by name from one of his own documents. This summary, which has been slightly adapted from one by Richard Hooker, was derived from translations, commentaries, and academic scholarship.
Tablet 1: Gilgamesh in the City and Enkidu in the Wilderness
The one who saw all, him I will declare to the world,
The one who knew all, I will tell about
[line missing]
He saw the great mystery, he knew what is hidden:
He recovered the knowledge of all the times before the Flood.
He journeyed beyond that which is distant, he journeyed beyond exhaustion,
And then carved his story