Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 2100 BCE) is a Sumerian myth.
Scholars have dated Epic of Gilgamesh to the third millennium BCE. It is thought that the Old Testament scribes who composed the story of Noah's Flood were familiar with the story of Utnapishtim.
==Summary==
Gilgamesh is the oppressive king of Uruk, who is two-thirds god and one-third man (don't ask how that works). The gods create Enkidu to stop Gilgamesh. Enkidu is a wild man who lives in the forest, and farmers complain about him killing their livestock. Gilgamesh sends a "priestess" to "tame" Enkidu. The priestess and Enkidu have sex for 6 days and 7 nights(!) After, a shepherd teaches Enkidu the ways of civilization (eating bread and getting drunk on beerTablet II The Epic of Gilgamesh.), and tells him about Uruk, and its king, Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight; then they become friends. They go to the "Cedar Mountain" and kill "Humbaba", the resident monster. Goddess Ishtar wants to fuck Gilgamesh; Gilgamesh declines, because Ishtar kills or transforms her other lovers when she gets bored of them. Ishtar sends the "Bull of Heaven" to punish Gilgamesh after threatening to let the dead out of the underworld if the other gods don't let her do so; Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill it. As punishment, the gods sentence Enkidu to death and as he dies he speaks to Gilgamesh about the Mesopotamian underworld, which is a terrible place. 
Enkidu's death and description of the underworld makes Gilgamesh seek eternal life. Gilgamesh undergoes a long, dangerous, and ultimately fruitless journey to find it. On the way, he meets immortal man Utnapishtim, who recounts the great flood that he survived in a boat (for which he and his wife were granted immortality). Gilgamesh gets a shot at immortality in the form of a fruit he has to eat to gain eternal youth, but a snake eats it while he's bathing and sheds its skin. Sound familiar? Having finally faced a foe he cannot defeat, Gilgamesh chooses to accept the fact of his own mortality and instead draw attention to his wall and his legend, achieving a kind of immortality through his legacy of being a jerk.
==Flood story==
 also known as and was a hero from the Epic. He can be considered a precursor to the biblical figure of Noah, who built an ark to survive a deadly global flood sent by God as a judgment against mankind. Most Christian creationists, especially Young Earth creationists, believe the Flood to be an actual historical event, and claim there is evidence for its occurrence that supersedes evidence for evolution.
There are many parallels between the myths of Utnapishtim and Noah. When the angry god Enlil decides to destroy humanity by means of a massive flood, Utnapishtim's life is spared when he is tipped off to Enlil's plans by the sympathetic god Ea, who indirectly instructs Utnapishtim (by speaking to Utnapishtim's hut) to build a ship on which he, his wife, and representatives of all the earth's animal life, are rescued. After the flood, the ship comes to rest on the mountain of Nisir. After seven days, Utnapishtim releases several birds (including a dove), eventually confirming there is dry land and the flood waters are receding. Afterwards, Utnapishtim and his wife are granted immortality.
==Biblical archaeology==
Professor of Ancient History and Archaeology , author of Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction (published by Oxford University Press and winner of the 2011 Biblical Archaeology Society's "Best Popular Book on Archaeology"),Dr. Eric Cline Wins 2011 Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Award - Best Popular Book on Archaeology underscores the important role held by the Epic of Gilgamesh as the obvious source from which the Abrahamic monotheisms have plagiarized and rebranded the flood story, commenting;Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction (2009), ISBN 0-19-534263-1, page 73-74.
==See also==
*Global flood
*Old Testament
==External links==
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==References==
Category:Ancient history
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Category:Creationism
Category:Folklore
Category:Global flood
Category:Theology