THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH A BRIEF HISTORY

SETTING Gilgamesh takes place in ancient Sumer, the earliest settlement in Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent. This location is part of modern day Iraq.

HISTORICAL FIGURE Gilgamesh was a king who reigned over the Sumerian city-state Uruk around 2700 BCE. Renowned as a warrior and builder. Sumerians believed that Gilgamesh was both god and hero (man). Gilgamesh worshipped long after his death.

ORIGIN OF GILGAMESH Gilgamesh lived on in the oral tradition of Sumerians. No evidence that events in epic actually occurred. Later, Assyrians and Babylonians adapted their own versions of the story.

EPIC OF GILGAMESH Over time, versions of Gilgamesh were consolidated into large, epic work. Oral epic was recorded. Most complete version found in in Ninevah, in ruins of the library of Assyrian King Assurbanipal.

TABLETS Gilgamesh is the oldest work of recorded fiction. Epic was written in cuneiform, on on twelve clay tablets, sometime before 612 BCE. Tablets name their author as Sin-leqe-unninni, “Sin (the moon god), accept my plea.” Tablets found in 1839 and translated by 1872. .

REFERENCES IN GILGAMESH White Temple and ziggurat at Uruk, Iraq, ca. 3200-3000 BCE Reconstruction Drawing

REFERENCES IN GILGAMESH Ishtar Gate (restored), Babylon, Iraq, ca. 575 BCE.