(West Asian mythology)
Semi-legendary King of Uruk and hero of the Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic which was based on myths that had existed for centuries in Sumer. The fullest surviving text is the Assyrian one from the library of King Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, and therefore no older than the seventh century BC, at least a millennium later than composition.
Born of the union of a goddess and a man–possibly the sacral coupling of the ruler and the high priestess during the New Year Festival–Gilgamesh was said to be two-thirds divinity and one-third mortal. In the Sumerian fragment of the myth the haunting fear of death spurs the hero's exploits and one view holds that we have here an account of a funerary ritual connected with the death chamber excavated at Ur. The Akkadian epic portrays Gilgamesh as a tyrant, overbearing and prone to sexual misdemeanours. His people beseeched the gods for help, and on the steppe the mother goddess Aruru fashioned from spittle and clay a hairy, grass-eating, wild man called Enkidu. On hearing the news, Gilgamesh ordered a temple prostitute be sent to ensnare Enkidu who had never known sensual pleasures. She nurtured the wild man in civilized ways, then fired his ambition to topple Gilgamesh. But the fight ended with Enkidu's defeat and the start of a lifelong friendship between the heroes.
Together the friends began a series of adventures. They invaded the cedar forest of the fire-breathing giant Huwawa, or Humbaba, whom they killed with the assistance of fierce winds provided by the sun god Shamash. Next Ishtar offered her love to Gilgamesh, but was rejected with pointed remarks about her fickleness and inconstancy. The goddess, mad with rage, demanded of Anu that a bull of heaven ravage the earth. While great damage occurred, it was slain by the heroes. The wrath of the gods, however, had been excited, and Enlil obtained the death of Enkidu in punishment for their arrogance.
Overwhelmed by grief and stricken to the heart with the realization of mortality, Gilgamesh roamed the steppe. To find a means of personal salvation he finally resolved to consult his ancestor Utanapishtim, who had become immortal. At the edge of the sea that surrounded the world, Gilgamesh was accosted by Siduri, a manifestation of Ishtar. When she urged the mortal joys of the wine jug, he replied that he would not give up Enkidu for burial, but mourned him for seven days and nights till a worm fell from the corpse's nose. ‘The gods appointed death for man’, said Siduri, ‘and kept life for themselves.’ Yet the persistence of the hero forced ‘the celestial barmaid’ to reveal that Utanapishtim dwelt across the waters of death, a voyage he could only undertake with aid from the ferryman Ursanapi.
Gilgamesh found the ferryman, built a special boat, crossed the lethal waters, and came to ‘the mouth of the rivers’, the place which the gods had assigned to Utanapishtim and his wife for their eternal dwelling. Utanapishtim, the survivor of the deluge which had ‘returned all mankind to clay’, reminded Gilgamesh of his mortal third. The quest was hopeless: he could not resist sleep, let alone death. The only chance was a magic plant, ‘Never Grow Old’, which grew at the bottom of the sea. At great risk Gilgamesh fetched it from the deep and happily turned his steps to Uruk, but on his way home, while he slept by a water-hole, a serpent smelled the wonderful perfume of the leaves, stole up, and swallowed the lot. Immediately the snake gained the power to slough its skin. Gilgamesh awoke, saw his own fate as death, and wept in utter grief.
Another text relates how Gilgamesh assisted Inanna in felling a tree, guarded by a snake, a wind, and an eagle. From the sacred timber they made a magic drum and drumstick, which Gilgamesh accidentally let fall into the nether world. When Enkidu tried to recover them, he forgot to observe the special instructions given for his protection, and was trapped forever. Out of a hole, opened in the ground by Ea, the spirit of the dead hero issued ‘like a puff of wind’, and described ‘the house of dust’, where princes were servants and earthly rank offered no protection at all.
A Dictionary of World Mythology. Copyright © Arthur Cotterell 1979, 1986, 2003. All rights reserved.
