GILGAMESH

Era: c 2750 bce
Location: Mesopotamia / Iraq
Categories: LITERATURE, RELIGION

The ideal heroic king of ancient Mesopotamian society. His story is best known in the form of the Gilgamesh Epic dating from c 1200 BCE. It tells of a search for wisdom and the building of a city, and includes the threat from a great flood, the promise of living for ever and the threat to this via a snake. Some link with the Eden and Flood stories of Genesis is highly probable

Life

Entry on Gilgamesh from the World History Encyclopedia
BBC Radio 4 programme 'In Our Time' on the Epic of Gilgamesh

Works

'Gilgamesh and Huwawa'
Britannica summary of the Epic of Gilgamesh