The Gilgamesh

The gilgamesh is about an historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in modern Iraq he lived about 2700 b.c people said " he wasn't a very good king".

The Epic begins with Gilgamesh ruling the city of Uruk, but he is not doing a good job. Everyone is mad at him because he has a lot of girlfriends all at once, he spends all his time partying instead of working, and he is disrespectful to the elders in the city.

Then a messenger tells Gilgamesh about a wild man who is living out in the hills near the city. This wild man's name is Enkidu. He goes naked or wears furs, and he drinks only water from the river. But he is very strong. Gilgamesh thinks this is interesting, so he sets a trap for Enkidu to get him to come to the city and be his friend.

Gilgamesh sends a beautiful woman to Enkidu, and when he sees her he kisses her and the kiss works like magic to tame him: he follows her back to the city and becomes civilized.

(Contrast this theme of how living a settled life and farming is so much better than living a nomadic life as a shepherd with the opposite view held by jews at about the same time).

(Also notice similar themes in the later West Asian religion of zoroastriannism

Now that Gilgamesh has a friend, Enkidu, he is not so bored anymore and he stops being mean to everyone and bothering the girls. Instead, Gilgamesh and Enkidu plan a big heroic trip to the West to get wood for building (because very

Little wood grew in Mesopotamia). They travel there and fight the great monster Humbaba.

(Probably the real King Gilgamesh did trade with Lebanon for wood, though he may not have really gone there himself to get it!)

When the two heroes get home, though, they begin to have problems. Gilgamesh is so cool now that the goddess ishtar falls in love with him, but