The Epic of Gilgamesh

Introduction

Gilgamesh, a Sumerian hero, god, and ruler of the city-state Uruk, is the subject of a classic epic poem that Mesopotamian tradition attributes to the priest-exorcist and scribe Sin-leqi-unnini. The poem was the product of a lengthy compilation effort, which resulted in the composition of the national poem of Babylon. Until the 1990s there were five known Sumerian works that described the deeds of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. The Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer identified them as: "Gilgamesh and Agga," "Gilgamesh and Hubaba," "Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven," "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Underworld," and "The Death of Gilgamesh." The environment in which they were conceived and composed has been generally regarded as the court of the third dynasty of Ur (c. 2100-2000 BCE), whose sovereigns sought to trace a direct link between the figure of Gilgamesh and the royalty of Uruk. Giovanni Pettinato has suggested that a 107-line text found in 1975 at Tell Mardikh-Ebla is related to the Gilgamesh saga. This text, and the entire library from which it comes, can be dated to 2500 to 2400 BCE. The events described in this text concern relations between the king of Uruk and the city of Aratta. The narrative fits well with the tradition of epic wars between the royal dynasty of Uruk and the colony founded in an indeterminate location in Iran: both King Enmerkar and Lugalbanda, the supposed divine father of Gilgamesh, waged war against Aratta according to the four epics that concern these figures.

A new version of "The Death of Gilgamesh," rediscovered at Me-Turan in 1979, serves to confirm the narrative translated by Kramer, while also, because it is more complete, opening up new avenues of understanding concerning the complex nature of Sumerian civilization. This version verifies for the first time the Sumerian custom of collective burial, something for which there is archaeological evidence at Ur and Kish, but which had not been previously confirmed by epigraphic sources. This text also includes confirmation of the legend of Urlugal, the son of Gilgamesh, specifically named in the Sumerian King List as Gilgamesh's son and successor to the throne of Uruk.

Sin-leqi-unnini was not simply responsible for a brief summary in twelve tablets of the story from earlier times; it can be said with some certainty that he, in a sense, reconsidered and re-created the entire story from scratch. An important piece of evidence for the unity of the classical epic is the presence of a prologue, as well as an epilogue found at the end of Tablet XI, where part of the prologue is repeated. Its contents consist of a literal translation of part of the Sumerian story known as "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Underworld." (Matouš, 221)

The epic may be divided as follows:

Prologue: The hero Gilgamesh (Tab. I.1-51).

Enkidu, the alter ego of Gilgamesh (Tab. I.52-II.155ff.).

Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the monster Hubaba (Tab. II.184-V.266).

Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Bull of Heaven (Tab. VI.1-182).

Death of Enkidu and despair of Gilgamesh (Tab. VI.183-VIII.207ff.).

Gilgamesh in the quest for immortality (Tab. ...