This post is a way to allow me to nerd out. I am a huge fan of history and its influence on religion both modern and ancient. Ancient texts have been used for thousands of years as both religious scripture as well as a way for archaeologists to understand the peoples and their way of life and thinking. The Epic of Gilgamesh is probably one of my favorite ancient stories which has both religious significance for the time it was written, as well as significance in politics and daily life. Not only that, it is a really good story! I understand that it can be a difficult read and not everyone enjoys translations of wordy ancient texts as much as I so I will provide a quick synopsis of the 12 tablets in another post for others to enjoy. However, if you do not mind reading texts such as Homer’s Odyssey, the Nibelungenlied, or Beowulf, then you will absolutely enjoy this one.
Why discuss an ancient epic poem on a site about witchcraft? An excellent question! Many witches today take great influence from the old religions such as Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Celts, Vikings, and many others. Mesopotamian deities may not be as common as others, however, I am a huge fan of studying all religions and noting some of their historical significance, as well as common themes with other religions. Christianity particularly has quite a few commonalities with The Epic of Gilgamesh and it is very interesting to see the different takes on the quite similar stories.
I am a huge fan of reading and learning for the sake of learning. The more I learn, the more I am able to tweak my craft or am inspired to make some kind of creative addition to my home or even add a new concept to my story writing and/or sketch book. The epic was found in an ancient library and is one of the oldest stories in the world. And it is a phenomenal one too that I highly recommend.
Carved on the Stone Cliff side on Mount Behistun is an inscription 15 Meters tall by 25 Meters wide depicting events that occurred before and during the reign of Darius the Great from 522 BC to 486 BC. This inscription is a trilingual cuneiform Monument written in Akkadian, Elamite, and old Persian. Thus it is comparable to the Rosetta Stone in that it enabled Scholars to decipher a previously undecipherable ancient script.
The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, located in modern day Mosul Iraq and named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire, is a collection of more than 30,000 clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BC, including texts in various languages. Among its holdings was the famous Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts or coffin texts of Ancient Egypt. 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 BC). These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic in Akkadian.
The ancient city of Uruk was discovered in the early 20th century some 200 miles south of present day Baghdad. More than any other large town of antiquity, Uruk has shaped our understanding of the beginnings of city life. It was the main force for urbanization in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, when small agricultural villages gradually evolved into a large urban center with a stratified society, complex governmental bureaucracy, and monumental architecture and art. Uruk is known for the development of cuneiform script- the earliest form of writing- as well as for the epic tale of the Hero King Gilgamesh.
The first surviving version of this combined epic, known as the “Old Babylonian” version, dates back to the 18th century BC and is titled after its incipit, Shūtur eli sharrī (“Surpassing All Other Kings”). Only a few tablets of it have survived. The later Standard Babylonian version compiled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni dates from the 13th to the 10th centuries BC and bears the incipit Sha naqba īmuru (“He who Saw the Abyss”, in unmetaphoric terms: “He who Sees the Unknown”). Approximately two-thirds of this longer, twelve-tablet version have been recovered. Some of the best copies were discovered in the library ruins of the 7th-century BC Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.
The first half of the story discusses Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, and Enkidu, a wild man created by the gods to stop Gilgamesh from oppressing the people of Uruk. After Enkidu becomes civilized through sexual initiation with Shamhat, he travels to Uruk, where he challenges Gilgamesh to a test of strength. Gilgamesh wins the contest; nonetheless, the two become friends. Together, they make a six-day journey to the legendary Cedar Forest, where they plan to slay the Guardian, Humbaba the Terrible, and cut down the sacred Cedar. The goddess Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh for spurning her advances. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the Bull of Heaven after which the gods decide to sentence Enkidu to death and kill him.
In the second half of the epic, distress over Enkidu’s death causes Gilgamesh to undertake a long and perilous journey to discover the secret of eternal life. He eventually learns that “Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands”. Nevertheless, because of his great building projects, his account of Siduri’s advice, and what the immortal man Utnapishtim told him about the Great Flood, Gilgamesh’s fame survived well after his death with expanding interest in the Gilgamesh story which has been translated into many languages and is featured in works of popular fiction.
The epic is regarded as a foundational work in religion and the tradition of heroic sagas, with Gilgamesh forming the prototype for later heroes like Heracles (Hercules), and the epic itself serving as an influence for the Old Testament and Homeric epics. The Old Babylonian tablets (c. 1800 BC), are the earliest surviving tablets for a single Epic of Gilgamesh narrative. The older Old Babylonian tablets and later Akkadian version are important sources for modern translations, with the earlier texts mainly used to fill in gaps in the later texts.
Although several revised versions based on new discoveries have been published, the epic remains incomplete. The most recent Akkadian version, also referred to as the Standard Babylonian version, consists of twelve tablets and was edited by Sîn-lēqi-unninni, who is thought to have lived sometime between 1300 BC and 1000 BC.
In 1998, American Assyriologist Theodore Kwasman discovered a piece believed to have contained the first lines of the epic in the storeroom of the British Museum; the fragment, found in 1878 and dated to between 600 BC and 100 BC, had remained unexamined by experts for more than a century since its recovery. The fragment read “He who saw all, who was the foundation of the land, who knew (everything), was wise in all matters: Gilgamesh.”
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