Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient poem written in Mesopotamia more than four thousand years ago. It is among the earliest known works of literature. The Epic of Gilgamesh probably began as a series of legends told by storytellers throughout Sumer for hundreds of years. The legends were then collected and written down on clay tablets.

The story involves two close friends named Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Gilgamesh was a king who is said to have ruled the Sumerian city of Uruk about 2700BC. Enkidu was raised in the wild and learns about civilization through Gilgamesh and the other people he encounters.

In the first part of the poem, the two friends go on many adventures, but when Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh began to search for the secret of eternal life. One version of the epic says that Gilgamesh went on a long journey to meet Utnapishtim. A great flood covered the earth many years before the time of Gilgamesh. Utnapishtim survived the flood because one of the gods warned him of the coming deluge. Gilgamesh learns from Utnapishtim that everyone's life must end. Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh, "When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping." +The Epic of Gilgamesh had many parallels with to the story of Noah in the Old Testament of the Jewish and Christian holy books. Other cultures also have legends of a great flood. The Greeks legends say a god named Zeus once unleashed a flood because he was displeased with a sacrifice made in his name. The Hindus speak of Manu, a Brahmin king who saved mankind from a deluge.

Modern science has discovered that there was a marked increase in the sea levels about 6,000 years ago as the last ice age ended. The melting ice drained to the oceans causing the sea levels to rise more than ten feet in one century. Gilgamesh and the other flood legends may be connected with the end of the ice age.

Resources:

Download this lesson as a Microsoft Word file or as an Adobe Acrobat file.

Listen to Mr. Dowling read this lesson. (mp3)