Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

GILGAMESH EPIC*

Popular legendary composition about a Sumerian hero’s life of adventure and acquisition of wisdom. Gilgamesh was king of Uruk, or Erech (Tell Obeid; modern Warka), at the end of the fourth millennium BC. The legend, which emerged from the first Babylonian dynasty (about 1830–1530 BC), was discovered in the palace library of Ashurbanipal (669–627 BC) at Nineveh.

Written on 12 tablets, the Gilgamesh Epic tells how a strong ruler, Gilgamesh, became friends with Enkidu, a hunter the gods had created to overthrow him. Together the two killed the monster Huwawa. Ishtar, the goddess of love, made advances to Gilgamesh. In resisting her, he killed the sacred heavenly bull. Enkidu died as a punishment for that crime. Gilgamesh, overcome by grief, traveled the world seeking the source of immortality, finally arriving at the homeland of Utnapishtim. In Tablet XI Utnapishtim describes a devastating flood that drowned a large area of Mesopotamia. Through his piety Utnapishtim was saved and given immortality by the gods. The final tablet contains an expression of sadness over Gilgamesh’s mortality.

Biblical scholars have compared the epic’s flood narrative with the one in the book of Genesis. Both accounts concern a flood, a person or persons to be delivered, the sending out of birds, and a sacrifice made by the hero. There are, however, several differences. The biblical account gives a moral reason for the Flood; the Gilgamesh Epic has a more frivolous one: the gods were irritated by human noise. The types of birds, names of heroes, dimensions of the ark, and duration of the flood all differ. The Genesis account clearly does not depend on the epic. Both may go back to a common tradition. It is also possible that the two accounts are independent descriptions of the same devastating flood.