The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames" [ 3 ] , king of Uruk , some of which may date back to the Third Dynasty of Ur c. Only a few tablets of it have survived. Approximately two-thirds of this longer, twelve-tablet version have been recovered.
Some of the best copies were discovered in the library ruins of the 7th-century BCE Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. The first half of the story discusses Gilgamesh who was king of Uruk and Enkidu , a wild man created by the gods to stop Gilgamesh from oppressing the people of Uruk. After Enkidu becomes civilized through sexual initiation with Shamhat , he travels to Uruk, where he challenges Gilgamesh to a test of strength.
Gilgamesh wins the contest; nonetheless, the two become friends. Together, they make a six-day journey to the legendary Cedar Forest , where they ultimately slay its Guardian, Humbaba , and cut down the sacred Cedar. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the Bull of Heaven, insulting Ishtar in the process, after which the gods decide to sentence Enkidu to death and kill him by giving him a fatal illness. In the second half of the epic, distress over Enkidu's death causes Gilgamesh to undertake a long and perilous journey to discover the secret of eternal life.
Finally, he meets Utnapishtim , who with his wife were the only humans to survive the Flood triggered by the gods cf. Gilgamesh learns from him that "Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands".
The epic is regarded as a foundational work in religion and the tradition of heroic sagas, with Gilgamesh forming the prototype for later heroes like Heracles Hercules and the epic itself serving as an influence for Homeric epics.
