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Gilgamesh. An unstable compound of two parts god and one part man, Gilgamesh suffers most from immoderation. He is the greatest of all men, and both his virtues and his flaws are outsized. He is the fiercest of warriors and the most ambitious of builders. Yet until Enkidu, his near equal, arrives to serve as a counterweight to Gilgamesh’s ...
- Enkidu
As those legends evolved into chapters of a great epic poem,...
- Character List
Utnapishtim’s Wife. An unnamed woman who plays an important...
- Utnapishtim
The former king and priest of Shurrupak, Utnapishtim was the...
- Enkidu
Gilgamesh Character Analysis. Next. Enkidu. Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is rumored to be the strongest man in the world. He is at first an arrogant and harsh ruler, but his friendship with Enkidu and Enkidu’s ensuing death show Gilgamesh that even the greatest heroic feats cannot transcend mortality. Throughout the story, Gilgamesh’s ...
After Gilgamesh fails the test of his worthiness to receive the gift of immortality, Utnapishtim tells him about a plant that, while it cannot prevent death, can prolong youth. Gilgamesh risks death to obtain the plant but loses it in a moment of carelessness. Gilgamesh’s second homecoming forms the epic’s resolution.
Analysis: Tablet 1. The narrator introduces Gilgamesh in the past tense—the high walls of the city he built are already ancient. At the same time he suggests that the story is in Gilgamesh’s own words, and that the legendary king himself wrote it down. Gilgamesh’s story commemorates historical people and deeds, and at the same time ...
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The Ninevite version of the epic begins with a prologue in praise of Gilgamesh, part divine and part human, the great builder and warrior, knower of all things on land and sea. In order to curb Gilgamesh’s seemingly harsh rule, the god Anu caused the creation of Enkidu, a wild man who at first lived among animals. Soon, however, Enkidu was ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Gilgamesh ( / ˈɡɪlɡəmɛʃ /, [7] / ɡɪlˈɡɑːmɛʃ /; [8] Akkadian: 𒀭𒄑𒂆𒈦, romanized: Gilgameš; originally Sumerian: 𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒎌, romanized: Bilgames) [9] [a] was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC.
The Epic of Gilgamesh exemplifies the form of the epic in its tale of a hero who is larger than life, performs superhuman feats, and attracts the attention of the gods. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a ...
