A
Book · ◇ Light

Epic of Gilgamesh

majorattestedc. 2100 BCEMesopotamian religion

Sumerian–Akkadian epic; among the oldest surviving literature.

Influence84
Antiquity98
Wisdom75
Mystery74
✦Signature powerThe WordIts verses bind, guide, and outlive the hands that wrote them.
◈ Open relationship graph →

Voices & connections

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

The Great Flood (Deluge)mentionsUtnapishtimfeaturesEnkidufeaturesGilgameshfeatures

Read the story

Illustrated chapters where Epic of 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 →