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Gilgamesh

He Who Saw the Deep · Bilgames

majorattestedc. 2100–1200 BCE (Sumerian poems to standard version)Mesopotamian religion

King of Uruk, two-thirds god and one-third man, hero of the oldest epic on earth. He oppressed his city until the gods made him an equal; loved him; buried him; and then walked off the edge of the world to un-learn death. He came home with empty hands and a story — and the epic’s verdict is that the story, and the wall of Uruk, are the only immortality on offer.

Light83
Wisdom83
Grace79
Influence69
✦Signature powerThe UnknownA power not yet set down in the record.
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Its universe

The mythic order Gilgamesh belongs to, who comes before and after in the story of this world.

Voices & connections

Figures bound to Gilgamesh, family and rivals within the myth, and the thinkers and writers who shaped how we know them.

Epic of Gilgameshappears inEnkidually ofInannaenemy of

Read the story

Illustrated chapters where Gilgamesh appears. Start reading in a click.

Illustrated storyGilgamesh, Who Saw the DeepThe oldest epic on earth: a tyrant king is given a wild man for a friend, loses him to the one enemy no king can fight, and walks off the edge of the world to un-learn death. The Flood survivor tells him the truth, a snake steals the consolation prize, and he comes home to the wall of Uruk with empty hands and the story itself — which turned out to be the immortality.Begin reading →Illustrated storyThe Descent of InannaThe oldest descent story ever written, four thousand years old: Inanna, Queen of Heaven, turns her ear to the Great Below and walks through the seven gates of the dead. At each gate a garment of her power is stripped away, until she stands naked before her sister Ereshkigal — and is hung on a hook. Her rescue costs a head for a head, and her eye falls on the consort who did not mourn her.Begin reading →