1. The Epic of Gilgamesh &
Mesopotamian Mythology
Professor Will Adams
Valencia College
Fall 2011

2. Gods and Goddesses
•Sin (the moon), had a
higher place in the
pantheon than his
children:
•Shamash (the sun), who
becomes important as a
deity of all-seeing justice,
and
•Ishtar (the morning
star), whose multifaceted
nature includes goddess of
sexual love, of justice and
warfare, of communal
prosperity . . .

3. Gods and Goddesses
•Tammuz (Dumuzi) was Ishtar’s
husband – a god like Attis (with
Cybele) who died and was reborn
every year.
•Ereshkigal was the goddess of
the Underworld (Kurnugi).
•Ea was the god of fresh water,
thus a fertility god; he is often a
protective figure (asin the flood
myth in Gilgamesh).
•Belili, Dumuzi’s sister – parallel
to Geshtinanna in the Sumerian
story, who takes her brother’s
place in the underworld.

4. Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is on the Sumerian king-list as
one of Uruk’s earliest kings – in the realm of
myth.
He features in several Sumerian myths (such
as the one with Inanna’s hulupu tree), and in
one long poem, the “Epic” of Gilgamesh.
This poem is the most popular pieceof
literature in Mesopotamia, found in many
different languages and versions across 2500
years. We discovered it in about 1920.
There are two major versions: we are reading
the Nineveh version, compiled by a priest in
about 800-700 BCE.

5. Gilgamesh
I shall tell the land of the one who
learned all things, of the one who
experienced everything, I shall
teach the whole. He searched
lands everywhere. He found out
what was secret and uncovered
what was hidden, he brought back
a tale of times before the flood.
He had journeyed far and wide,
weary and at last resigned.
He built the wall of Uruk. . . One
square mile is the city, one square
mile is its orchards, one square
mile is its claypits, as well as the
open ground of Ishtar’s temple.

6. Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is the son of Lugulbanda
and the goddess Ninsun – and he is
2/3 god, 1/3 human. But like all
humans he is destined to die.
As the poem begins he is king of
Uruk, busy building his city ever
greater. When the epic opens,
Gilgamesh, though “perfect in
splendor, perect in strength” is
causing problems at home. His
excess energy (in building,
exploration, and sex – everything in
fact) is causing tension among his
people, who pray to the gods for
relief.

7. Gilgamesh and Enkidu
The gods create Enkidu, a hairy wild man, and place him in the
forest near Uruk. He lives like an animal, startling the locals. They
send to Gilgamesh, who suggests thay they tame him by sending
him a woman to sleep with.
The woman (called Shamhat, a cult
name of Ishtar) sleeps with him –
converting him to humanity. Enkidu
decides to go to Uruk.
Gilgamesh dreams about him, and his
mother Ninsun interprets the dreams.
When the two men meet – at a
celebration of Ishtar – they fight to a
standstill, then become fast friends.
They decide to go on a quest to free
the Cedar Forest of Humbaba.

8. Gilgamesh and Enkidu
So the heroes represent culture
in theis battle against nature . . .
Everyone advises against it.
Ninsun prays to Shamash:
Why did you single out my
son Gilgamesh and impose a
restless spirit on him? He faces
an unknown struggle, he will
ride along an unknown road . .
.
Ellil destined Humbaba to She adopts Enkidu as her son, and
keep the pine forest safe, to entreats him to watch after
be the terror of people . . . Gilgamesh. The heroes depart . . .

9. Gilgamesh
•What does Gilgamesh have in
common with such heroes as
Odysseus, Achilles, Heracles,
and others?
•Is his story (so far) essentially
different from theirs in some
ways?
•You’re reading the poem in
fragmentray form so this may
be hard to tell but . . . are
there essential differences in
how this story is told,
compared to, say, Homer?

10. The Cedar Forest
When Enkidu touches the gates of the
Cedar forest, he feels a supernatural
cold and debility, and at first can barely
continue. Then Gilgamesh has terrible
dreams of destruction, which Enkidu
interprets in a favorable light.
The heroes battle Humbaba, who asks
for mercy. But Enkidu urges Gilgamesh The heroes defeat
to kill the monster, despite the gods’ Humbaba, and return
possible displeasure. Humbaba cries to Uruk in triumph.
out: In Uruk, the goddess
Neither one of them shall outlive Ishtar approaches
his friend! Gilgamesh and Enkidu Gilgamesh to become
shall never become old men! her lover.

11. Gilgamesh & Ishtar
Come to me, Gilgamesh, and be my
lover! Bestow on me the gift of your
fruit! You can be my husband, I can
be your wife. I shall have a chariot of
lapis lazuli and gold harnessed for
you . . . kings, nobles and princes
shall bow down beneath you. . .
But Gilgamesh scornfully rejects her:
You are a door that can’t keep out
winds and gusts, a palace that rejects
its own warriors, a waterskin which
soaks its carrier . . . which of your
lovers lasted forever? Which of your
paramours went to heaven?

12. The Bull of Heaven
Enraged, Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to ravage Uruk.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill it, and when Ishtar reviles them, Enkidu
also insults her, even throwing the “thigh” of the bull in her face.
Inanna calls together the women to mourn the bull – a type scene
related to fertility ritual. (The Bull of Heaven is the husband of
Ereshkigal.)

13. Enkidu’s death Enkidu gets sick and over
12 days, he dies. He
Enkidu has a terrible nightmare: curses the hunter and the
prostitute who found
The gods were in council last night. him and made him
And Anu said to Ellil, “As they have human, but Shamash
slain the Bull of Heaven, so too have persuades him not to
they slain Humbaba: One of them curse the prostitute.
must die.” Enlil replied, “Let Enkidu
die, but let Gilgamesh not die.” Gilgamesh mourned
bitterly for Enkidu his
Then heavenly Shamash said, “Was it
friend, and roved the
not according to your plans?” But
open country. “Shall I
Enlil turned in anger to Shamash:
die too? Am I not like
“You accompanied them daily, like
Enkidu? Grief has
on of their comrades.”
entered my innermost
being . . .

14. Gilgamesh travels to the ends He meets Siduri, the (female)
of the earth, through the dark innkeeper (another cult name
mountain, the pathways of of Ishtar), to whom he pours
Shamash: out his troubles. She directs
him to Utnapishtim, and adds:
When he had gone one As for you, Gilgamesh, let
double-hour, thick is the your belly be full, Make
darkness, there is no light; he merry day and night. Of
can see neither behind him nor each day make a feast of
ahead of him… When he had
rejoicing. Day and night
gone seven double hours, thick dance and play!
is the darkness, there is no
light… At the nearing of
eleven double-hours, light
breaks out. At the nearing of
twelve double-hours, the light
is steady.

15. Utnapishtim
With the help of the boatman
Urshanabi, Gilgamesh travels across
the water to Dilmun, the land at the Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh:
edge of time . . . •how Ea told him to build a
He cuts 60 saplings for poles, and as hige arc because a flood was
each enters the waters, it is eaten coming;
away. He finally uses his tattered •how built the amazing thing,
clothing for a sail and arrives how he and his family alone
exhausted to Utnapishtim: of all mortals were saved from
the Flood,
I crossed uncrossable
mountains. I travelled all the •how Ishtar mourned the
seas. No real sleep has calmed dead;
my face. I have worn myself
• and how he and his wife
out in sleeplessness; my flesh is
came to Dilmun, living as
filled with grief.
immortals.

16. Gilgamesh says to him, to
Utnapishtim offers Gilgamesh a Utnapishtim the remote,
way to become immortal: "as soon as I was ready to
fall asleep, right away you
Test yourself! Don't sleep for touched me and roused
six days and seven nights." me."
But as soon as Gilgamesh sits But Utnapishtim shows him
down, he falls asleep. He sleeps the loaves, and Gilgamesh
for seven days and nights, and realizes that he has failed his
each day, Utnapishtim’s wife puts quest.
a loaf of bread beside him. The
Utnapishtim gives Gilgamesh
old loaf is rotting when the last
a “consolation prize”: a
one is fresh: a metaphor for the
rejuvenating plant. But on
seven decades of human life.
the way home, a snake takes it
from him.

17. Homecoming Go up onto the wall of Uruk, and
walk around! Inspect it . . . One
Urshanabi accompanies
square mile is the city, one square
Gilgamesh home, and
mile is its orchards, one square mile
when they reach the city,
is its claypits, as well as the open
Gilgamesh proudly
ground of Ishtar’s temple.
points it out to him:
The story's quiet close belies the significance of Gilgamesh's
return. He is back where he started but a changed man, his
description of Uruk here suggesting in the context a new
acceptance of the meaning of the city in his life, an embracing
rather than a defiance of the limits it represents… the king has
evolved from a hubristic, dominating male into a wiser man,
accepting the limitations that his mortal side imposes…[and]
his essential kinship with all creatures who must die .
Thomas van Nortwick