# Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh (/ˈɡɪlɡəmɛʃ/) is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia that is often regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Bilgamesh (Sumerian for "Gilgamesh"), king of Uruk, dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BCE). These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic in Akkadian.

## Gilgamesh

* He came a far road, was weary, found peace.
** Prologue, Tablet I
* Read out the travails of Gilgamesh, all that he went through!
** Prologue, Tablet I
* He carved on a stone stela all of his toils, and built the wall of Uruk-Haven, the wall of the sacred Eanna Temple, the holy sanctuary.
** Tablet I.
* Who is there, my friend, can climb to the sky? Only the gods dwell forever in sunlight. As for man, his days are numbered, whatever he may do, it is but wind.
** Gilgamesh to Enkidu, Tablet III of the Old-Babylonian version
* Enkidu opened his mouth, saying to Gilgamesh: "where you've set your mind begin the journey, let your heart have no fear, keep your eyes on me!"
** Tablet III of the Old-Babylonian version
* O Mighty King, remember now that only gods stay in eternal watch. Humans come then go, that is the way fate decreed on the Tablets of Destiny. So someday you will depart, but till that distant day Sing, and dance. Eat your fill of warm cooked food and cool jugs of beer. Cherish the children your love gave life. Bathe away life's dirt in warm drawn waters. Pass the time in joy with your chosen wife. On the Tablets of Destiny it is decreed For you to enjoy short pleasures for your short days.
** Siduri to Gilgamesh, Sippar tablet (Old Babylonian)
** Variant translation by Andrew George (Penguin Classics):
*** O Gilgamesh, where are you wandering? The life that you seek you never will find: when the gods created mankind, death they dispensed to mankind, life they kept for themselves. But you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full, enjoy yourself always by day and by night! Make merry each day, dance and play day and night! Let your clothes be clean, let your head be washed, may you bathe in water! Gaze on the child who holds your hand, let your wife enjoy your repeated embrace! For such is the destiny [of mortal men].
* The skies roared with thunder and the earth heaved, Then came darkness and a stillness like death. lightning smashed the ground and fires blazed out; Death flooded from the skies. When the heat died and the fires went out, The plains had turned to ash.
** A dream of Gilgamesh, Tablet IV
* Father, let me have the Bull of Heaven To kill Gilgamesh and his city. For if you do not grant me the Bull of Heaven, I will pull down the Gates of Hell itself, Crush the doorposts and flatten the door, And I will let the dead leave And let the dead roam the earth And they shall eat the living. The dead will overwhelm all the living!
** Ishtar to Anu, Tablet VI
* 'Ever do we build our households, ever do we make our nests, ever do brothers divide their inheritance, ever do feuds arise in the land.' 'Ever the river has risen and brought us the flood, the mayfly floating on the water. On the face of the sun its countenance gazes, then all of a sudden nothing is there!'
** Utanapishtim to Gilgamesh, Tablet X 308-15
* Even the gods took fright at the Deluge, they left and went up to the heaven of Anu, lying like dogs curled up in the open. The goddess cried out like a woman in childbirth, Belet-ili wailed, whose voice is so sweet: The olden times have turned to clay, because I spoke evil in the gods' assembly. How could I speak evil in the gods' assembly, and declare a war to destroy my people? It is I who give birth, these people are mine! And now, like fish, they fill the ocean!" The Anunnaki gods were weeping with her, wet-faced with sorrow, they were weeping...
** The Flood, Tablet XI
* The seventh day when it came, I brought out a dove, I let it loose: off went the dove but then it returned, there was no place to land, so back it came to me. I brought out a swallow, I let it loose: off went the swallow but then it returned, there was no place to land, so back it came to me. I brought out a raven, I let it loose: off went the raven, it saw the waters receding, finding food, bowing and bobbing, it did not come back to me. I brought out an offering, to the four winds made sacrifice, incense I placed on the peak of the mountain.
** Spoken by Utnapishtim, Tablet XI
* What should I do and where should I go? A thief has taken hold of my flesh! For there in my bed-chamber Death does abide, and wherever I turn, there too will be Death.
** Spoken by Gilgamesh, Tablet XI

## Nancy Sandars' translation, 1960

    Translated by Nancy Sandars, 1960, Penguin Classics, Third edition, 1972
* The destiny was fulfilled which the father of the gods, Enlil of the mountain, had decreed for Gilgamesh: "In nether-earth the darkness will show him a light: of mankind, all that are known, none will leave a monument for generations to come to compare with his. The heroes, the wise men, like the new moon have their waxing and waning. Men will say, 'Who has ever ruled with might and with power like him?' As in the dark month, the month of shadows, so without him there is no light. O Gilgamesh, this was the meaning of your dream. You were given the kingship, such was your destiny, everlasting life was not your destiny. Because of this do not be sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed; he has given you power to bind and to loose, to be the darkness and the light of mankind. He has given unexampled supremacy over the people, victory in battle from which no fugitive returns, in forays and assaults from which there is no going back. But do not abuse this power, deal justly with your servants in the palace, deal justly before the face of the Sun.

## About

* A story of learning to face reality, a story of "growing up."
** Thorkild Jacobsen, "The Gilgamesh Epic: Romantic and Tragic Vision", in Lingering Over Words: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Literature in Honor of William L. Moran (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), eds. T. Abusch, J. Huehnergard and P. Steinkeller, p. 249
* A document of ancient humanism.
** William L. Moran, "The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Document of Ancient Humanism", in Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 22 (1991)
* Acceptance of human limitations, insistance on human values—this is the teaching of the life of Gilgamesh.
** William L. Moran, in Encyclopedia of Religion, "Gilgamesh", p. 559; as quoted in Myth and Method, eds. L. Patton and W. Doniger (University of Virginia Press, 1996), "The Gilgamesh Epic: Myth and Meaning" by Benjamin C. Ray, p. 303
* ...this discovery is evidently destined to excite a lively controversy. For the present the orthodox people are in great delight, and are very much prepossessed by the corroboration which it affords to Biblical history. It is possible, however, as has been pointed out, that the Chaldean inscription, if genuine, may be regarded as a confirmation of the statement that there are various traditions of the deluge apart from the Biblical one, which is perhaps legendary like the rest.
** The New York Times, front page, 22 December 1872; as quoted in What Is World Literature?, David Damrosch, Princeton University Press, 2003, p.57
* To the extent that Gilgamesh does not achieve the desired immortality, the history also seems to deal with the importance of enjoying life. It is as if to say: that is man's life.
** Jacyntho Lins Brandão, Jacyntho Lins Brandão traduz ‘epopeia’ do século 13 a.C. registrada em argila.
* The Epic of Gilgamesh is not just the world’s oldest poem. It is a classic, in the sense that it remained central to the literature and thought of a whole series of cultures across the Near East over millennia. We can account for its significance in several ways. Some of its themes are universal. We still agonize that even the greatest human life is limited in span; we mourn and rage against the loss of our loved ones; and like Gilgamesh we still want to know about our origins and the meaning of things. One title for the epic was He Who Saw the Deep. Gilgamesh goes on a quest for meaning. His failure to find acceptable answers is our failure, too. His fortitude in the face of that failure is true heroism.
* The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the earliest examples of what is sometimes termed a “Mirror of Princes,” a book that illustrates the conduct of both bad and good rulers, and makes clear the difference between them.
** Greg Woolf. The Urban Gilgamesh (2020)

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Epic of Gilgamesh on Wikipedia
* Works related to Epic of Gilgamesh on Wikisource
* Media related to Epic of Gilgamesh on Wikimedia Commons
* The Epic of Gilgamesh at ancienttexts.org