The Epic of Gilgamesh
1839 Austen Henry Layard set off with a friend to Ceylon, but in Mesopotamia he was delayed by a reconnaissance of Assyrian mounds. It was from this reconnaissance of Nineveh that he found a buried library and lost literature. The importance of this find was not understood until much later when the clay tablets were deciphered. In 1853, Layard's collaborator and successor unearthed the part of the library that contained the tablets of the Gilgamesh Epic. Not until twenty years later, in December of 1872, did they fully understand what a spectacular find this was. The epic poem is about a man named Gilgamesh, who is two-thirds god and one third mortal. There is a belief that he may have been a historical person. The story starts by introducing Gilgamesh, a tyrannical Babylonian king who ruled the city of Uruk. He is described as a wise man, which saw mysteries and knew secret things. He brought us a tale of the days before the flood, as after he returned from his journeys, he wrote the story on tablets of stone. Due to his oppressive nature as a ruler, his subjects cried out to the gods to create a challenger, one who could equal Gilgamesh in mind and body. In response the gods created Enkidu, a wild brutish man. E
Another similarity is the actions of the serpent in stealing man's opportunity for immortality. Upon Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh goes in search of Utnapishtim; a wise man knowledgeable of immortality as Gilgamesh now fears his own death. It is interesting that both accountstrace the landing spot to the same general region of the Middle East. Utnapishtim built a ship to weather the Great Deluge, bringing all of his relatives and all species of creatures aboard the ship with him. The most striking thing about Gilgamesh's epic is how it shares a history with the Old Testament. One story is a bragging of one man's heroic life and the other is a history of one man's heritage. nkidu was innocent of mankind and lived in the forest with the wild animals. The story of a great flood to destroy man with only one man chosen to be saved that carries on the human race. The two become very close, seeing themselves as brothers and set of to find fame and glory. When the contest fails to create a clear victor, Gilgamesh and Enkidu become close friends. Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to destroy the city. Each has a man that lives comfortably amongst the animals until a woman seduces him gaining a new knowledge and destroying his innocence. To find land, Utnapishtim released birds and when one, a Raven did not return, he found a mountain to land the ship upon after the flood. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh a tale of a great flood that destroyed mankind. Some historians claim the Jews borrowed the stories from the Mesopotamian but another possibility is that they share a common history.
Common topics in this essay:
Gilgamesh Enkidu,
Gilgamesh Epic,
Garden Eden,
Gods Enkidu,
Ceylon Mesopotamia,
Uruk Ishtar,
Middle East,
Henry Layard,
Bull Heaven,
utnapishtim tells,
gilgamesh enkidu,
tells gilgamesh,
common history,
utnapishtim tells gilgamesh,
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