Only after a frustrating and vain attempt to find eternal life does he emerge from immaturity to realize that one’s achievements, rather than immortality, serve as an enduring legacy. The new version of the epic explains that Gilgamesh, although he is king of Uruk, acts as an arrogant, impulsive, and irresponsible ruler. “Surpassing All Other Kings” now became a new composition called “He Who Saw the Deep.” In the poem, Sin-leqi-unninni recast Enkidu as Gilgamesh’s companion and brought to the fore concerns about unbridled heroism, the responsibilities of good governance, and the purpose of life. Not content to merely copy an old version of the tale, this scholar most likely assembled various versions of the story from both oral and written sources and updated them in light of the literary concerns of his day, which included questions about human mortality and the nature of wisdom. Some time in the twelfth century B.C., Sin-leqi-unninni, a Babylonian scholar, recorded what was to become a classic version of the Gilgamesh tale. Differing versions of classic compositions, including the Akkadian Gilgamesh story, proliferated, and translations and adaptations were made by poets in various lands to reflect local concerns. Hundreds of years later, toward the end of the second millennium B.C., literary works in Babylonian dominated scribal learning. A shift in political power and culture took place under the newly ascendant Babylonian dynasties centered north of Sumer. By the end of the eighteenth century B.C., large areas of southern Mesopotamia, including Nippur, were abandoned the scribal academies closed as the economy collapsed. Only fragments of this composition survive. Called “Surpassing All Other Kings,” this poem combined some elements of the Sumerian narrative into a new Akkadian tale. One noteworthy tale was sung in Akkadian rather than in Sumerian. In addition to the Sumerian compositions, young scribes studying in the Old Babylonian schools made copies of different oral stories about the hero Gilgamesh. They decide that he, like all of humankind, shall not be granted eternal life. In the final composition, “The Death of Gilgamesh,” the hero dreams that the gods are meeting to review his exploits and accomplishments. Enkidu descends into the depths to find them and, upon his return to life, describes the horrid fate that awaits the dead. In “Gilgamesh and the Netherworld,” the hero loses two sport-related objects, which fall into the Netherworld. Seeking revenge, the goddess sends the Bull of Heaven to kill Gilgamesh, but the hero, with the assistance of Enkidu, slays the monster. A third tale, “Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven,” deals with Gilgamesh’s rejection of the amorous advances made by Inanna, the Queen of Heaven. “Gilgamesh and Huwawa” recounts the journey of the hero and his servant Enkidu to the cedar mountains, where they encounter and slay the giant Huwawa, the guardian of the forest. “Gilgamesh and Akka” describes the triumph of the hero over his overlord Akka, ruler of the city of Kish. These tales, which were not part of an epic cycle, were originally oral narratives sung at the royal court of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Five Sumerian stories about Gilgamesh were copied in these schools. Shulgi claimed Lugalbanda as his father and Gilgamesh as his brother.Īlthough little of the courtly literature of the Shulgi academies survives, and Sumerian ceased to be a spoken language soon after the end of his dynasty, Sumerian literature continued to be studied in the scribal schools of the following Old Babylonian period. He sponsored a revival of older literature and established academies of scholars at his capital Ur and at the holy city of Nippur. During the twenty-first century B.C., Shulgi, ruler of the Sumerian city of Ur, was a patron of the literary arts. Nor is there any preserved early third-millennium version of the poem. No contemporary information is known about Gilgamesh, who, if he was in fact an historical person, would have lived around 2700 B.C. His father is identified as Lugalbanda, king of Uruk, and his mother is the wise cow goddess Ninsun. The tale revolves around a legendary hero named Gilgamesh (Bilgames in Sumerian), who was said to be the king of the Sumerian city of Uruk. Copies of parts of the story have been found in Israel, Syria, and Turkey, and references to the hero are attested in Greek and Roman literature. The myth known today as the Epic of Gilgamesh was considered in ancient times to be one of the great masterpieces of cuneiform literature.
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