The Epic of Gilgamesh Outline
I. One of the oldest literary works in the world is the Middle Eastern Epic
of Gilgamesh.
A. The modern text is based on a 7th century B.C.E. copy found in
the library of the Assyrian King Assurbanipal.
B. The poem itself dates to about 2800 B.C.E., when Gilgamesh
was king of the Sumerian city of Uruk.
1. The poems written about him were passed down from the
Sumerians to the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians as
these people succeeded to power in the Middle East.
2. The poems were woven into a single narrative in the 2nd
millennium B.C.E. by a Babylonian scribe known as Sin-
lique-uninni.
II. The poem is divided into two parts: a heroic story about the exploits of
a legendary king, and a narrative about a spiritual quest by a man who
has just recognized his own mortality.
A. Gilgamesh is heroic in that he is partly divine and hence larger
than life in all respects. His adventures are told in an epic, which
is a narrative poem about a heroic figure who defines his culture.
B. Gilgamesh begins the story as a ruler who wears out his people,
who pray to the gods for relief.
1. The gods create Enkidu as an alter-ego for Gilgamesh: half
animal, half human in complement to Gilgamesh’s half-
human, half-divine nature.
2. Enkidu is civilized by a prostitute who has sex with him,
introduces him to shepherds – who teach him to eat human
food, wear clothing, and groom himself – and then takes
him to meet Gilgamesh.
3. The two wrestle and then become fast friends.
4. The pair cements the friendship and seeks lasting fame by
going to the cedar forests and killing their guardian,
Humbaba, in an anticlimactic action that angers the god
Enlil. Because there was no wood or stone in Sumeria, this
may have been meant as a necessary quest by a builder-
king.
C. The death of Enkidu provides a transition to the second part of
the poem.
1. Gilgamesh spurns an offer of marriage from Ishtar, the
goddess of love.
2. In retaliation, Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven against Uruk,
but Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill it.
3. The gods decide that the pair of heroes has crossed into
forbidden territory and that one of them – Enkidu—must
die.
4. Gilgamesh stays by Enkidu until after he dies; the,
frightened by death, he lays aside his regalia and goes out
searching for a more literal immortality than a name that
will live after him.
D. The second part of the poem is about the quest for a remedy
against death.
1. Gilgamesh travels to the end of the world, crosses over the
Ocean of Death, and arrives at the island of Utnapishtim;
he and his wife are the only humans ever granted
immortality by the gods.
2. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the Mesopotamian version of
the story of the Great Flood, in which he built a boat that
saved animals and people. As a reward for this act, he was
given eternal life; the act will never be repeated for any
other human being.
3. Gilgamesh is given a plant that renews one’s youth, but a
snake eats it as Gilgamesh is returning to Uruk.
4. The connections between this flood story and the one in the
Old Testament have stimulated much scholarship.
5. The poem presents a pattern in which a hero of unusual
birth undergoes heroic trials, seeks a treasure, and then
returns to ordinary reality a changed person.
6. Gilgamesh returns home empty-handed but becomes
reconciled to the human lot: his own immortality will be
the walls of Uruk.
7. The Sumerians’ depiction of life after death—the first in
literature—is grim; there is no happy afterlife to console
human beings.
8. The poem insists that Gilgamesh is a hero not just because
of what he did but because of what he learned.
III. The poem is rich and complex enough to be interpreted in various ways.
A. Enkidu’s story is a Mesopotamian parable of culture in which the
protagonist moves from the wilderness to pastoral to city life—
from prehistory to history.
1. The story is also a fall from primeval innocence and union
with nature into self-consciousness and the severing of the
bond with nature.
2. Enkidu as a civilized man kills animals that were once his
friends and slays the guardian of the forests so they can be
plundered.
B. Gilgamesh’s story is about coming to terms with mortality.
1. As part of his maturation process, Gilgamesh comes to see
everything in a new way and better understands who he is
and what he can accomplish.
2. The deepest wisdom comes to Gilgamesh from
Utnapishtim: It is about understanding one’s role and
responsibility in life and then performing it—in
Gilgamesh’s case, to go home and resume his duties as
king.
3. The poem also encourages one to find time for some
civilized pleasures throughout life.
IV. In addition to the themes and techniques already noted, this work also deals with
many themes for the first time in literature: the relationship between gods and humans,
the immortalizing power of art, the nature of a paradisial garden, the hunter or shepherd
as a mediating figure between nature and civilization, dreams as potents of the future or a
message from another world, the ferryman across the waters of death, and the fantastic
journey to strange places including the Land of the Dead.