Gilgamesh Summary by Michael J. Cummings 2009

...... When the gods created Gilgamesh, they made him two-thirds divine and one-third human and endowed him with extraordinary size, strength, and good looks. Like his father before him, Lugulbanda, he became king of Uruk, a city-state between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (in present-day Iraq). Thirsty for adventure, he crossed seas and roamed many lands. When he returned to Uruk, he carved into stone the story of his adventures...... Gilgamesh was renowned as the greatest of kings and as the builder of Uruk's temples and the city's gigantic walls. Here is his story.

Main Story

...... As the young king of Uruk, Gilgamesh is the protector of his people. But in time he takes advantage of his powers, oppressing the people and freely using any woman to satisfy his desires. His subjects complain to the heavens. In response, the mother goddess Aruru makes a new creature*, Enkidu, who rivals Gilgamesh in size and good looks. Ninurta, the god of war, gives him the gift of great strength. With no knowledge of earth and its creatures, Enkidu grazes with gazelles and other wild animals and drinks with them at water holes. He protects the beasts, freeing them from snares set by a trapper. His enormous size terrifies the trapper. The trapper’s father advises his son to go to Uruk to seek the help of Gilgamesh. In particular, he tells his son to ask Gilgamesh for a sultry harlot from the temple of Ishtar, the goddess of love, to tempt the wild man away from the animals. The trapper will then be able to resume his livelihood. After he goes to Uruk and states his request, Gilgamesh provides him a woman called Shamhat...... After the trapper returns to the wilds with her, she displays herself to Enkidu. So enchanted is he that he spends a week at her side before he can tear himself away and return to the animals. But the animals reject him now, for they realize he is not really one of them. He is a human. When he returns to the woman, she invites him to go with her to Uruk to meet Gilgamesh, the mightiest of men. Enkidu agrees to the proposal, for he wants to make the acquaintance of someone like himself, a comrade. And he wants to prove that he is superior to Gilgamesh. When Enkidu arrives in Uruk, the people gather around to admire him, remarking that he is certainly the equal of Gilgamesh. At this time, Gilgamesh is planning to invade the bed of a new bride even before her husband has a chance to be with her for the first time. At night, as she waits for her husband, Gilgamesh approaches the house. However, Enkidu sees him in the street and, eager to prove himself, blocks his access to the gate of the house. They fight like to raging animals. The posts of doors break as they struggle for advantage. Walls shake. Finally, Gilgamesh throws Enkidu to the ground. But rather than continuing to fight, Enkidu compliments Gilgamesh on his strength, saying there is no other like him on earth. They embrace and become the best of friends.

The Battle With Humbaba

In time, Enkidu languishes for lack of activity to maintain his strength. So Gilgamesh proposes that they go into the vast cedar forest and kill Humbaba, the giant whom the god of the winds and earth, Enlil, had made protector of the trees. But Enkidu tells Gilgamesh that he is wary of the scheme. Having lived in the wilds, he well knows that Humbaba has incredible strength. Even the breath he exhales is a windstorm. But Gilgamesh says they must live life to the fullest, not letting fear stand in the way of their exploits. Even if Humbaba kills him, Gilgamesh says, his name will live on in history for having had the courage to fight the monster. Gilgamesh petitions the sun god, Shamash, for permission to undertake his and Enkidu’s adventure, promising to erect in the forest a monument to the gods. If he returns safely, he says, he will offer gifts to Shamash and glorify his name. Shamash grants the request. In addition, he orders great winds to assist the two friends in their struggle. Then Gilgamesh directs armorers to fashion huge axes, bows and arrows, and swords for them.

*She creates Enkidu out of clay or earth. When counselors of Uruk warn him against fighting the terrible Humbaba, Gilgamesh ignores their advice. The counselors then give him their blessing and implore Shamash to protect the adventurers. In just a few days, Gilgamesh and Enkidu walk a distance that would take ordinary men six weeks to traverse. After entering the forest of Humbaba, Gilgamesh cuts down one of the tall cedars. Far off in the forest, Humbaba—who never sleeps—hears the tree strike the ground. Enkidu is afraid and wants to turn back, but Gilgamesh heartens him with brave words. When Humbaba approaches, Gilgamesh calls upon Shamash for assistance, and the sun god sends the winds—eight of them in all, some blazing hot, some icy cold. They close in on Humbaba from different directions and prevent him from moving. Humbaba pleads for his life. Gilgamesh feels pity for him and is ready to release him, but Enkidu goads him on. Gilgamesh then drives his sword into Humbaba’s neck, and Enkidu strikes a second blow. After they finish him, Enlil curses them.

The Flood

Deep sorrow for the loss of his beloved companion overwhelms Gilgamesh. Moreover, Enkidu’s death awakens a fear of death in Gilgamesh. His terrible sorrow and his new fear linger on and on; he can find no relief from them. At length, he decides to set out for the land of Utnapishtim the Faraway, who survived the Great Flood with his wife. (Although some researchers conjecture that this was the same flood that prompted the biblical Noah to build his ark, evidence is lacking to prove this theory or to make a claim that the biblical account was a retelling of the Gilgamesh account.) They were the only mortals to whom the gods granted immortality. Surely, Utnapishtim will know the secret to eternal life, Gilgamesh believes. There, Gilgamesh recounts his tale of woe. Utnapishtim then tells him that houses are not made to stand forever. Nor is man. The gods have decreed that man is mortal, but the day of his death they keep secret. Then why is it, asks Gilgamesh, that Utnapishtim—himself a man—will live forever? Long ago, Utnapishtim says, the world abounded with human life. As men went about their activities, they made a great noise that rose to the heavens and disturbed the sleep of the gods. At the instigation of Enlil, they approved a plan to annihilate humankind. However, the god Ea warned Utnapishtim of the impending doom, telling him to construct a gigantic boat that would carry him through a great flood. Marshaling his family, relatives, and shipbuilders, Utnapishtim built the vessel and took aboard all of his loved ones and the workers. In addition, as instructed by Ea, he took with him a variety of animals, wild and tame. After the waters came and swept over civilization, Utnapishtim’s boat road the waters safely until coming to rest on the mountain of Nisir. There it remained grounded for seven days. Then Utnapishtim released a dove. If it did not return, he would know that it had found land. But it returned. He next released a swallow. It too returned. Finally, he released a raven. It did not return. Heartened, Utnapishtim made sacrifices to the gods. In turn, they recanted their condemnation of humankind and spared the boat and its cargo. Utnapishtim and his wife won immortality.

The Return

Utnapishtim then tells Gilgamesh that he must undergo a trial to prove himself worthy of eternal life: Through seven nights, he must remain fully awake. But Gilgamesh fails the test. At the prompting of Utnapishtim's wife, who pities Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim gives the king a second chance, telling him about a prickly underwater plant that confers youthfulness on its bearer. Gilgamesh dives into the sea and finds it in the depths. But he does not eat of it immediately. Instead, he decides to take it back to Uruk to let an elder of Uruk eat of it first. (It is not clear here whether he wants to protect himself against possible ill effects or whether he wants to share his good fortune with his people.) Unfortunately, after stopping to bathe on his way back to Uruk, he sets the plant aside and a snake slithers off with it, eats of it, molts, and becomes young again. Gilgamesh thus returns to Uruk without having gained eternal life. But he is wiser now by far than when he left the city. He accepts the inevitability of death and takes comfort in the fact that the city he built and his other great achievements will immortalize his name. And, as the information in the prologue pointed out at the beginning of the epic, he became a great king to his people.