Gilgamesh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Gilgamesh (disambiguation).
Gilgamesh, according to the Sumerian king list, was the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II, first dynasty of Uruk), the son of Lugalbanda, ruling circa 2650 BC. Legend has it that his mother was Ninsun, a goddess.
According to another document, known as the "History of Tummal", Gilgamesh, and eventually his son Urlugal, rebuilt the sanctuary of the goddess Ninlil, located in Tummal, a block of the Nippur city. In Mesopotamian mythology Gilgamesh is credited to have been a demigod of superhuman strength who built a great wall to defend his people from external threats, a sort of Sumerian equivalent to the Greek Heracles.
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[edit] Cuneiform references
In the Epic of Gilgamesh it is said that Gilgamesh ordered the creation of the legendary walls of Uruk. In historical times, Sargon of Assyria claimed to have destroyed these walls to prove his military power. Many scholars feel that the Epic of Gilgamesh is related to the Biblical story of the flood mentioned in Genesis.
Fragments of an epic text found in Me-Turan (modern Tell Haddad) relate that Gilgamesh was buried under the waters of a river at the end of his life. The people of Uruk diverted the flow of the Euphrates River crossing Uruk for the purpose of burying the dead king within the riverbed. In April 2003, a German expedition discovered what is thought to be the entire city of Uruk - including, where the Euphrates once flowed, the last resting place of its King Gilgamesh.
Despite the lack of direct evidence, most scholars do not object to consideration of Gilgamesh as a historical figure, particularly after inscriptions were found confirming the historical existence of other figures associated with him: kings Enmebaragesi and Aga of Kish. If Gilgamesh was a historical king, he probably reigned in about the 26th century BC. Some of the earliest Sumerian texts spell his name as Bilgamesh. Initial difficulties in reading cuneiform resulted in Gilgamesh making his re-entrance into world culture in 1891 as "Izdubar".[1]
In most texts, Gilgamesh is written with the determinative for divine beings (DINGIR) - but there is no evidence for a contemporary cult, and the Sumerian Gilgamesh myths suggest the deification was a later development (unlike the case of the Akkadian god-kings). Historical or not, Gilgamesh became a legendary protagonist in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ In A. Jeremias, Izdubar-Nimrod, eine altbabylonische Heldensage (1891).
[edit] Bibliography
- Cooper, Jerrold S. [2002], "Buddies in Babylonia - Gilgamesh, Enkidu and Mesopotamian Homosexuality", in Abusch, Tz (ed.), Riches Hidden in Secret Places - Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Memory of Thorkild Jacobsen, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2002, pp.73-85.
- George, Andrew [1999], The Epic of Gilgamesh: the Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian, Harmondsworth: Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1999 (published in Penguin Classics 2000, reprinted with minor revisions, 2003. ISBN 0-14-044919-1
- George, Andrew, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic - Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2 volumes, 2003.
- Foster, Benjamin R., trans. & edit. (2001). The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-97516-9.
- Hammond, D. & Jablow, A. [1987], "Gilgamesh and the Sundance Kid: the Myth of Male Friendship", in Brod, H. (ed.), The Making of Masculinities: The New Men's Studies, Boston, 1987, pp.241-258.
- Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, transl. with intro. (1985,1989). The Epic of Gilgamesh. Stanford University Press: Stanford, California. ISBN 0-8047-1711-7. Glossary, Appendices, Appendix (Chapter XII=Tablet XII). A line-by-line translation (Chapters I-XI).
- Jackson, Danny (1997). The Epic of Gilgamesh. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. ISBN 0-86516-352-9.
- Mitchell, Stephen (2004). Gilgamesh: A New English Version. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-6164-X.
- Oberhuber, K., ed. (1977). Das Gilgamesch-Epos. Darmstadt: Wege der Forschung.
- Parpola, Simo, with Mikko Luuko, and Kalle Fabritius (1997). The Standard Babylonian, Epic of Gilgamesh. The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. ISBN 951-45-7760-4 (Volume 1).
[edit] External links
[edit] Text translations
- http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/GILG.HTM
- The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Spiritual Biography
- Sumerian texts: ETCSL
- Gilgamesh and Huwawa, version A - (the adventure of the cedar forest)
- Gilgamesh and Huwawa, version B
- Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven
- Gilgamesh and Aga
- Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the nether world
- The death of Gilgamesh
- Comparison of The Epic of Gilgamesh to the Genesis flood
- The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/), Oxford 1998-.
Translations for several legends of Gilgamesh in the Sumerian language have been written by:
- Black, J.A.,
- Cunningham, G.,
- Fluckiger-Hawker, E,
- Stephen Mitchell
- Stripped Books: Stephen Mitchell on Gilgamesh - a comic-book adaptation of a talk by Stephen Mitchell about the epic poem.
- Mitchell's translation was also adapted as a radio play for Radio 3 by Jeremy Howe, first broadcast on Sunday 11 June 2006 from 19:30-21:30 [1]
- Robson, E.,
- Zólyomi, G.,
[edit] Other links
- "Gilgamesh tomb believed found" - BBC News Online article, 29 April 2003.
| History of Sumer: Notable Rulers of Sumer |
|
|---|---|
| Legendary Kings: | Alulim Dumuzid Ziusudra |
| First Dynasty of Kish: | Etana Enmebaragesi |
| First Dynasty of Uruk: | Enmerkar Lugalbanda Gilgamesh |
| First Dynasty of Ur: | Meskalamdug Mesannepada Puabi |
| Dynasty of Adab: | Lugal-Anne-Mundu |
| Third Dynasty of Kish: | Kubaba |
| First Dynasty of Lagash: | Ur-Nanshe Eannatum En-anna-tum I Entemena Urukagina |
| Third Dynasty of Uruk: | Lugal-Zage-Si |
| Dynasty of Akkad: | Sargon Enheduanna Manishtushu Naram-Sin Shar-Kali-Sharri Dudu Shu-turul |
| Second Dynasty of Lagash: | Gudea |
| Fifth Dynasty of Uruk: | Utu-hegal |
| Third Dynasty of Ur: | Ur-Nammu Shulgi Amar-Sin Shu-Sin Ibbi-Sin |
