Statue of King Gilgamesh, hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh
Statue of King Gilgamesh, hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the fifth king of Uruk. This statue was found in the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II in Dur Sharukin (Khorsabad).
He is a legendary historical king of the Sumerian state of Uruk, an important hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology, and the main character in the Epic of Gilgamesh (the first epic poem in history, written in Akkadian during the late second millennium BC). He probably ruled for a period of time between 2800 and 2500 BC and was deified after his death. Gilgamesh became an important figure in Sumerian mythology during the Third Dynasty of Ur (2112 - 2004 BC). “Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Underworld” is the earliest poem among these poems, in which Gilgamesh helps the goddess Inanna and expels the creatures that disturb her milkweed tree. Inanna gives him two unknown items called mikku and biku, but Gilgamesh loses them. After Enkidu's death, his ghost tells Gilgamesh about the dismal conditions in the underworld. The poem “Gilgamesh and Agha” describes Gilgamesh’s revolt against his overlord, King Agha. Other Sumerian poems recount Gilgamesh's defeat of the monster Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven, and a fifth, much distorted poem, describes Gilgamesh's death and funeral.
Most classical historians agree that the Epic of Gilgamesh fundamentally influenced both the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems written in ancient Greek during the 8th century BC. Tales of Gilgamesh's heroic exploits are told in five surviving Sumerian poems. It is a poem
The story of Gilgamesh's birth is described in a funny story found in the book “On the Nature of Animals,” written by the Greek writer Elian in the second century AD. Elyan narrates that Gilgamesh's grandfather placed Gilgamesh's mother under guard to prevent her from becoming pregnant, because the oracle told him that his grandson would overthrow him. Gilgamesh's mother became pregnant, and the guards threw the newborn from the tower, but an eagle rescued the child in the middle of the fall and delivered him safely to a field, where the gardener raised him. The Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered in the Ashurbanipal Library in 1849. After being translated in the early 1870s, it caused widespread controversy due to its similarity to the Hebrew Bible. Gilgamesh remained obscure until the mid-twentieth century, but since the late twentieth century, he has become a prominent figure in modern culture.
- It is preserved in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
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