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AnonymousThe Epic of Gilgamesh
Fiction | Poem | AdultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context
"The Epic of Gilgamesh" is likely based on the life of a real historical king of Uruk—a Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia’s Early Dynastic Period (2900-2350 BCE). As such, he would have lived more than a millennia before the epic would have been transcribed onto the tablets that survive today. Most scholars agree that Gilgamesh lived between 2800 and 2500 BCE, based on contemporary inscriptions that mention the king, and a later text naming him as the one who built Uruk’s walls, among other factors. By the time his life was recorded in the Sumerian poems, Gilgamesh had become a deity and was worshiped in the region; in some places, he was viewed as a god of the underworld. These early tales were oral narratives sung at the royal court of the Third Dynasty of Ur at a time of literary revival in the Sumerian city of Ur.
By the Old Babylonian Period (1830-1531 BCE), a new Babylonian culture had emerged and thrived in the region, along with a return to teaching, transcribing, and preserving literary works. Gilgamesh’s adventures underwent a revival and modernization during this period, when the Babylonian scribe Sin-leqi-unninni recorded the tale. In this later—now classic—transcription, the scribe gave Enkidu the role of companion (rather than servant) and addressed more contemporary themes for the time including the role of the king and good governance, the purpose of a hero, and the elusive nature of mortality. Rather than being depicted as a god, in these later tales Gilgamesh is only one-third deity, allowing the hero to struggle with his fruitless search for immortality.
Literary Context
Beyond the contemporary influence "The Epic of Gilgamesh" had on Babylonian oral histories and texts, the tale has had an enormous influence on the literary heritage of Western civilization. Homer’s ancient Greek epics The Iliad and The Odyssey, both written in the 8th century BCE, include passages and themes mirroring events in "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; Gilgamesh would have likely circulated in Homer’s world from connections to Western Asia. From Aphrodite’s rejection by Diomedes in Book V of The Iliad (and her complaint to her parents), to Odysseus’s visit to the underworld in Book XI of The Odyssey, there are many striking similarities between these ancient stories. Similar themes and episodes can be found in later works from the Roman Empire, including Virgil’s continuation of Homer’s epics in The Aeneid, and Ovid’s Metamorphosis.
When the text was rediscovered in the modern era by English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard, it was first considered by some as the original source material for the story of the flood in the biblical Book of Genesis. German, American, and English scholars provided interpretations of the text, with early psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung interpreting the tale within their respective approaches to the unconscious and sexuality. By the 20th century, authors and composers engaged with the myth following World War II to grapple with some of the existential problems of loss and death. In 1966, Guido Bachmann’s novel Gilgamesch portrayed Gilgamesh and Enkidu as homosexual lovers, which had a major impact on how the epic has been read in recent decades and led to the inclusion of "The Epic of Gilgamesh" in the "Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature" (1998) as an early work of queer literature. Modern authors such as Philip Roth and Joan London have drawn from the myth in their novels.
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