Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is regarded as the earliest known long literary text in written history. Its formation extends back to the Sumerian period, around 5000 BCE, when it began to be recorded in writing. The epic was composed in the Akkadian language using cuneiform script on clay tablets and remained popular during the periods of the Assyrian and Babylonian kingdoms.

Access to the texts of the Epic of Gilgamesh became possible through archaeological discoveries in the mid-19th century. The epic began taking shape in the 5000s BCE and was first written down during the Sumerian period. It retained its recognition during the Assyrian and Babylonian kingdoms. The latest known version of the epic was compiled around 250 BCE. After this final compilation, the journey of rediscovering and reading the epic texts began in 1839 in Iraq. From the second half of the 19th century onward, archaeological excavations were conducted across the ancient Near East. During these excavations, clay tablets containing myths from Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian traditions were unearthed.

The most complete and least corrupted version of the epic texts was found in the library established by King Ashurbanipal of the Assyrian Empire in the 7th century BCE (in the library). These archaeological excavations took place in the historical city of Nineveh, now located in modern-day Mosul (Iraq). The epic consists of twelve tablets. The tablets are inscribed in Akkadian using cuneiform script on clay. The decipherment of the tablets was accomplished in the 1870s, and their publication began from the early 20th century.

The text of the Epic of Gilgamesh has been reconstructed by combining translations of tablets found in various regions such as Anatolia, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, and Syria, and written in different languages including Sumerian, Akkadian, and Hittite. With the discovery of these tablets, similarities between Mesopotamian myths and the narratives of the Torah became known in the Western world. Among the key figures who uncovered and deciphered the epic are Assyriologists and archaeologists such as George Smith and his assistant Hormuzd Rassam (the discoverer of Ashurbanipal’s library).

Research on the texts of the epic continues; in 2011, a missing section of the fifth tablet of the twelve-tablet epic was recovered. This tablet was seized from a smuggler by officials of the Süleymaniye Museum in Süleymaniye, Iraq, and translated by Faruk El-Rawi and Andrew George. The Epic of Gilgamesh has become a rich, multilayered, and palimpsestic text, remarkable not only for its narrative but also for its history of composition, writing, discovery, and reception.

The epic consists of twelve tablets in total and is considered a symbolic root text containing the earliest archetypes summarizing individual and collective psychology. Among its fundamental themes are universal values such as love of life, fear of death, heroism, and love. The central theme of the work is humanity’s existential quest for immortality in the face of death.

Representative Image of the Epic of Gilgamesh (Generated by Artificial Intelligence)

Main Characters and Plot Structure

The protagonist of the epic, Gilgamesh, is the king of the Sumerian city of Uruk. He is depicted as a powerful, courageous, and handsome figure, two-thirds divine and one-third human. However, during his rule, he is portrayed as a tyrant who forces young men into labor and abducts newlywed girls to his palace. Gilgamesh’s mother is the wise goddess Ninsun. In response to the people’s complaints, the gods created Enkidu to balance Gilgamesh’s brutality and serve as his rival. Enkidu, fashioned from clay or stone by the goddess Aruru, is hairy and massive. Initially, he lives as a wild man, the first example of the archetype of the primal man, among wild animals.

To civilize Enkidu and sever his bond with nature, Gilgamesh sends Shamhat, a temple prostitute (sacred priestess/love instructor). After seven nights spent with her, Shamhat introduces Enkidu to civilization—clothing, bread, and beer—and breaks his connection with the animals. When Enkidu arrives in the city, he fights Gilgamesh, but their struggle quickly transforms into an eternal friendship.

Enkidu represents Gilgamesh’s shadow and anima, and their friendship illustrates analytical psychology’s principles of opposition, equality, and entropy. The two companions embark on dangerous adventures to gain fame and glory. First, they journey to kill Humbaba, the guardian of the cedar forest (a symbol of the id). Humbaba’s death is presented not as a heroic act but as an excessive and sinful act—the beginning of the destruction of the natural world and forests. Later, Gilgamesh rejects the marriage proposal of Ishtar, the goddess of love and fertility, with insulting remarks. Seeking revenge, Ishtar convinces the sky god Anu to send the Bull of Heaven to Uruk, which Gilgamesh and Enkidu then kill.

Representative Image of the Epic of Gilgamesh (Generated by Artificial Intelligence)

Enkidu’s Death and the Quest for Immortality

As punishment for their crimes—the killings of Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven—the gods decree that Enkidu must die. Enkidu falls ill and dies after twelve days. His death plunges Gilgamesh into profound grief and a deep fear of his own mortality (“the dread of becoming clay”). Driven by this anxiety, Gilgamesh embarks on a long and arduous inner journey to discover the secret of immortality. His goal is to find Utnapishtim, the only human to have survived the Great Flood and gained immortality (the counterpart of Noah). Along his journey, Gilgamesh crosses Mount Mashu (the Mountain of the Gods), encounters scorpion men, and meets Siduri (a symbol of ecstasy, a wise woman) by the sea. Siduri advises him that the gods have allotted immortality only to themselves and that the best course for humans is to enjoy life. With the help of the boatman Urshanabi, Gilgamesh crosses the Waters of Death and reaches Utnapishtim, who recounts to him the story of the Flood.

Gilgamesh fails Utnapishtim’s test of staying awake for seven days and seven nights, and realizes his own mortality. At his wife’s insistence, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh about a plant at the bottom of the sea that grants youth and long life—the Plant of Immortality. Gilgamesh retrieves the plant. However, on his way back to Uruk, while bathing in a pond, a snake smells the plant, steals it, and sheds its skin to become young again. This act of the snake establishes it as a crucial mythic symbol of the universal mystery of rebirth. Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, heartbroken by the loss of immortality, but now as a wise man who has accepted defeat. He examines the walls of Uruk.

Themes, Archetypal and Comparative Elements

The Epic of Gilgamesh contains the earliest archetypes summarizing human individual and collective psychology. Gilgamesh is said to embody the persona archetype (the civilized, tyrannical king), while Enkidu represents his shadow and anima. Enkidu also embodies the first example of the wild man archetype and carries traits of the sacrificial, orphaned, childlike, and innocent archetypes.

Female characters play pivotal roles in the epic:

Shamhat is the sacred priestess who transforms base instincts into virtue through the power of love and civilizes Enkidu.

Siduri represents the archetype of the wise woman.

At the core of the epic lies the universal and fundamental existential tragedy of human consciousness of death and the quest to overcome it. Gilgamesh’s journey culminates in the process of maturation (initiation).

The epic is also regarded as the earliest written record documenting the destruction of a vast forest by human hands. The killing of Humbaba and the plundering of the cedar forest by Gilgamesh and Enkidu are presented as the beginning of the destruction of the natural world. The spirit of the epic upholds the supremacy of nature; the price for transgressions against nature is paid through Enkidu’s death.

In mystical terms, Gilgamesh’s quest is a journey for “ab-i hayat” (the Water of Life). Along this journey, sacred places and obstacles such as Mount Mashu (the sacred structure uniting earth and sky) and the scorpion men (guardians of the secret of immortality) appear. The boatman Urshanabi symbolizes the perfect guide (Kamil Rehber) who shows the path to paradise.