Epic Of Gilgamesh audiobook with text and illustrations, and dramatized 🎵 with sound effects and music, by Audiobooks Dimension.
Title : Epic Of Gilgamesh
Author : Various unknown authors, Sîn-lēqi-unninniWritten : 2,100 - 1,200 BCE
Place of Origin : Mesopotamia
Original Media type : Clay tablet
Original Language : Sumerian, Babylonian, Akkadian
English Translator : Nancy Katharine Sandars (1914 - 2015)
Genre(s) : Ancient Mesopotamia, Epic, Historical Fiction, Mythology
Narrator : Richard Pascoe
Musicians : Peter Pringle, Aakash Gandhi
Editor : AudioBooks Dimension
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Epic Of Gilgamesh Audiobook Video Time Stamps:
00:00:00 - Prologue00:02:05 - The coming of Enkidu
00:19:52 - The forest journey
00:54:04 - Ishtar and Gilgamesh, and the death of Enkidu
01:20:14 - The search for everlasting life
01:45:31 - The story of the flood
01:57:38 - The return
02:06:51 - The death of Gilgamesh
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Dramatized 🎵
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Epic Of Gilgamesh Dramatized 🎵 Audiobook Video Time Stamps:
00:00:00 - Prologue00:02:08 - The coming of Enkidu
00:19:59 - The forest journey
00:54:14 - Ishtar and Gilgamesh, and the death of Enkidu
01:20:26 - ♪
01:27:04 - The search for everlasting life
01:52:26 - The story of the flood
02:04:36 - The return
02:13:51 - The death of Gilgamesh
02:18:39 - ♫
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The epic poem Epic of Gilgamesh is from ancient Mesopotamia. It is thought to be the oldest piece of writing and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The abstract story of Gilgamesh starts with five Sumerian poems about Bilgamesh (Sumerian for "Gilgamesh"), ruler of Uruk, dating from the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (c. 2,100 BCE). Independent narratives were subsequently utilized as sources for compilations of stories in Akkadian. The first enduring version of this coordinated epic, known as the "Old Babylonian" version, dates from the eighteenth century BCE and was named after its origin, Shūtur eli sharrī ("Surpassing All Other Rulers"). A few clay tablets remained. The New Standard Babylonian Version was assembled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni from the thirteenth to tenth century BCE and conveys the incipit Sha naqba īmuru ("He who Saw the Abyss", in non-allegorical words: " He who Sees the Unknown"). Around two-thirds of these twelve tablets have been recovered. In the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal's library from the 7th century BCE, some of the finest prints have been found. The story of Gilgamesh has been told in many languages, influenced Homer, the Bible, and a lot of art, music, and literature.
The Gilgamesh Epic is the most eminent literary work of Babylonia at this point found in the hills of Mesopotamia. It covers twelve tablets and tells the story of a beloved hero's exploits and adventures. Each tablet has six columns, three on the obverse and three on the reverse, with approximately fifty lines per column for a total of approximately 3600 lines. Of this aggregate, in any case, scarcely more than one-half has been found among the remaining parts of the extraordinary assortment of cuneiform tablets assembled by Ruler Ashurbanipal (668 - 626 BCE) in his castle at Nineveh, and found by Layard in 1854 over his unearthings of the hill Kouyunjik (opposite Mosul). Professor Paul Haupt published in model form the epic fragments that were painstakingly gathered, primarily by George Smith, from the approximately 30,000 tablets and bits of tablets brought to the British Museum; that version actually stays the essential sources for our investigation of the Epic.
The story of Gilgamesh, a famous hero-king from ancient Mesopotamia, is told in The Epic of Gilgamesh. It is full of adventures and encounters with strange creatures, both men and gods. Yet, however these give an enthusiastic and extraordinary story line, the focal worries of the Epic are truly human connections and sentiments — depression, fellowship, love, misfortune, vengeance, lament, and the feeling of dread toward the obscurity of death. These subjects are created in a particularly Mesopotamian colloquialism, yet with a thoughtfulness and excitement that touch all audience across the gap of 4,000 years.
The presence of the Legend has been known to the present world for just the most recent 120 years, since not long after the decipherment of cuneiform composition. The Epic was written in the vernacular of the Akkadian language reserved for literary works called Standard Babylonian. In its finished express the Epic contains around 2,900 lines composed on 11 clay tablets. The 8 - 12 copies of the Epic that have been recovered so far come from the palace and temple libraries at Nineveh (King Ashurbanipal's library) in Assyria. The majority of these tablets are from the 7th century BCE. Different tablets have been found in the northern Mesopotamian destinations of Assur, Nimrud, and Sultantepe, and in the southern Mesopotamian locales of Uruk (the familial city of Gilgamesh) and Babylon. However solidified clay tablets is more impervious to spoil by time and the components than different substances, numerous tablets have been seriously degraded and are in fragmentary condition. Thusly, just some 60% of the text of the Epic is currently safeguarded, however a few lacking pieces can be reestablished based on parallel passages. There are good reasons to anticipate that the complete Epic text will be available within this generation thanks to recent archaeological discoveries. In 1986 the Iraqi archeologists uncovering at Sippar (focal Iraq) found an unblemished library dating to about the late 6th century BCE containing complete education tablets still on their racks. A complete "Legend of Atrahasis" (Flood Story) has been accounted for, and there is a genuine chance that a total Gilgamesh Epic will likewise be recognized.
As a matter of fact, there exist 3 unique version of the Epic Of Gilgamesh, made over a period out of almost thousand years. Based on the tablets from the first millennium BCE (Neo-Assyrian period from Assur, Nineveh, Nimrud, and Sultantepe, and Neo-ad Late Babylonian period from Babylon and Uruk), the eleven-tablet version is the best preserved. Later Mesopotamian custom credited the creation of the Epic to a particular individual, Sinleqqiunninni, a pundit reverend of Uruk, perhaps dating to the 13th century BCE.
"Authorship," as was customary in Mesopotamian literature, consisted primarily of the creative adaptation of previously written themes and plots for new purposes. The Old Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, which was first written between 1,800 and 1,600 BCE and appears to have soon existed in two or more variants, served as the basis for the Standard Version. The remaining parts of the Old Babylonian tablets are fragmentary however very fascinating, for they are much of the time particularly disparate in matter and style from the Standard Version of similar episodes. Between these are a variety of Middle Babylonian fragments, not only from Mesopotamia itself but also from other cuneiform-using regions: Anatolia, Syria, and Canaan. In Anatolia the Epic was likewise adjusted or converted into Hurrian and Hittite.
The first Epic of Gilgamesh formed in the Old Babylonian period was not a demonstration of unadulterated creative mind, nor does it appear to have gotten from old folktales. Similarly as the writer of the Standard Version reworked the previous Old Babylonian epic, instilling it with his own bits of knowledge and concerns, so too the Old Babylonian writer had made his Epic from earlier composed writing. The Old Babylonian author relied heavily on the written literary corpus, which served as the foundation for his splendid work, in good Mesopotamian academic tradition. There existed various unconventional, short gallant stories in the Sumerian language about Gilgamesh; They did not form a cycle that was connected to one another, and there is also no major unifying theme like the fear of death. The Old Babylonian author incorporated themes from a variety of other myths that had nothing to do with Gilgamesh in addition to these stories from Sumeria. These scholarly precursors to the Epic of Gilgamesh merit portraying, both for their innate interest as the earliest Gilgamesh customs known, and for what they uncover about the course of dramatic creation. The ability of the creative mind to transform is demonstrated by comparing these original source texts to the integrated Epic.
It is expected that tales about the deeds of the well known Ruler of Uruk, Gilgamesh, coursed time permitting, ca. 2,700 BCE. It is conceivable that within a few generations his endeavors were at that point recorded, yet of this we have no substantial proof. The earliest composed legends about Gilgamesh were created in the Sumerian language during the rule of Lord Shulgi of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (Ur III), ca. 2,000 BCE. He had guaranteed the divine beings and antiquated rulers of Uruk as his precursors to fortify the authenticity of his sovereignty. In psalms written in Shulgi's honor he is known as the child of Ninsun and Lugalbanda, and he alludes to himself as the sibling and companion of Gilgamesh. A lengthy dialogue between Shulgi and Gilgamesh, in which the divine brothers alternately sing of one another's glory and praise, appears to be contained in one hymn. Almost certainly, Shulgi likewise charged the composition of the sagas about his predecessors, and that they were essentially shaded by his scheme as ruler.
There are no Sumerian epic tablets that actually date to the Ur III period of composition. They exist in later duplicates made for scribal practice and libraries during the Old Babylonian time frame, by which time a few distinct renditions had developed in the scribal circles neighborhood to every city. Some versions are more complicated, while others have details or emphasis that are inconsistent.
Gilgamesh was, without a shadow of a doubt, a real person who ruled the city of Uruk at the end of the Early Dynasty II period (ca. 2,700 - 2,500 BCE). In Sumerian the name was initially Bilgamesh; In an Old Babylonian omen text, the earliest writing with the initial "G" can be found. The name is comparable in line to other bona fide individual names of the Early Dynastic period and may actually imply "The Bygone Old One is Young". Since a name given at birth is unlikely to have such a meaning, it may have been given at his coronation. The names are first mentioned in a list of gods from the end of Early Dynastic II, where the deified Gilgamesh and the deified Lugalbanda are listed. In practically no time there after the idolized precursor Gilgamesh is once in a while found as a part in Sumerian individual names and in Akkadian individual names from Susa, in Elam.
As indicated by the conventional of scholarly texts, Lugalbanda and his significant other Ninsun were Gilgamesh's parents. The Sumerian King List, on the other hand, states that Gilgamesh's father was a "lillu-spirit, a high priest of Kulaba," and that Lugalbanda is two years ahead of Gilgamesh as ruler of Uruk. Texts likewise name a child of Gilgamesh, Urlugal (or Urnungal), and a grandson, Udulkalama — however the Standard Version of the Epic never refer to them.
Gilgamesh is referred to as "lord," "great lord," and "lord of Kulaba" in various literary works (Kulaba was the neighborhood of the city of Uruk where the ancient Ziggurat was located). Although the earliest inscription claiming that Gilgamesh built the wall of Uruk only dates to around King Anam of Uruk, ca. 1,800 BCE, both a significant expansion of the Ziggurat and the construction of the wall of Uruk were traditionally associated with Gilgamesh. The major political accomplishment of Gilgamesh's rule, as seen in later Ur III custom, was the triumph over the lord of Kish by which Gilgamesh "brought over the authority (the political hegemony in Mesopotamia) from Kish to Uruk". The Sumerian King List reports that exchange in its typical concise style: " Kish was stricken with weapon, its majesty was conveyed to Eanna (the Sanctuary of Uruk)".
Offering were made to Gilgamesh as divinized precursor and hero from the late Early Dynastic period to about the finish of the Ur III period, however we remain unaware of the nature of the cult. We know that King Shulgi was very close to Uruk and its family, so it's possible that he assigned the Sumerian Gilgamesh epics. Despite this, official royal support for the Gilgamesh cult diminished after his dynasty's demise. However, it's possible that the now-purely "literary Gilgamesh" was able to spark the imagination of an Old Babylonian writer thanks to this loss of political support. Incidentally, Gilgamesh established the popularity and eternality he so frantically looked for the more eliminated he became from his authentic character.
In antiquity, the Epic was clearly known to a lot of people. It was in cities all over Mesopotamia for about 1,500 years, and at least until the middle of the second millennium, it was in Anatolia and Syria-Palestine. However, its popularity was probably restricted to cuneiform-literate individuals only. For all its sensational and human characteristics, the Epic doesn't appear to have turned into a precept in the land, to have created any "exemplary" articulations in the language. "As Gilgamesh," no king claims to be as wise, brave, or powerful. No one uses Gilgamesh and Enkidu as an example of friendship in letters. It is not necessarily the case that Gilgamesh was obscure outside scribal circles; be that as it may, the side-effects of the Epic in the general societies of Mesopotamia are not many, restricted to references in a couple of intellectual works (divinatory messages and a political promulgation letter) and a few artistic presentation.
The Gilgamesh Epic is the most eminent literary work of Babylonia at this point found in the hills of Mesopotamia. It covers twelve tablets and tells the story of a beloved hero's exploits and adventures. Each tablet has six columns, three on the obverse and three on the reverse, with approximately fifty lines per column for a total of approximately 3600 lines. Of this aggregate, in any case, scarcely more than one-half has been found among the remaining parts of the extraordinary assortment of cuneiform tablets assembled by Ruler Ashurbanipal (668 - 626 BCE) in his castle at Nineveh, and found by Layard in 1854 over his unearthings of the hill Kouyunjik (opposite Mosul). Professor Paul Haupt published in model form the epic fragments that were painstakingly gathered, primarily by George Smith, from the approximately 30,000 tablets and bits of tablets brought to the British Museum; that version actually stays the essential sources for our investigation of the Epic.
The story of Gilgamesh, a famous hero-king from ancient Mesopotamia, is told in The Epic of Gilgamesh. It is full of adventures and encounters with strange creatures, both men and gods. Yet, however these give an enthusiastic and extraordinary story line, the focal worries of the Epic are truly human connections and sentiments — depression, fellowship, love, misfortune, vengeance, lament, and the feeling of dread toward the obscurity of death. These subjects are created in a particularly Mesopotamian colloquialism, yet with a thoughtfulness and excitement that touch all audience across the gap of 4,000 years.
The presence of the Legend has been known to the present world for just the most recent 120 years, since not long after the decipherment of cuneiform composition. The Epic was written in the vernacular of the Akkadian language reserved for literary works called Standard Babylonian. In its finished express the Epic contains around 2,900 lines composed on 11 clay tablets. The 8 - 12 copies of the Epic that have been recovered so far come from the palace and temple libraries at Nineveh (King Ashurbanipal's library) in Assyria. The majority of these tablets are from the 7th century BCE. Different tablets have been found in the northern Mesopotamian destinations of Assur, Nimrud, and Sultantepe, and in the southern Mesopotamian locales of Uruk (the familial city of Gilgamesh) and Babylon. However solidified clay tablets is more impervious to spoil by time and the components than different substances, numerous tablets have been seriously degraded and are in fragmentary condition. Thusly, just some 60% of the text of the Epic is currently safeguarded, however a few lacking pieces can be reestablished based on parallel passages. There are good reasons to anticipate that the complete Epic text will be available within this generation thanks to recent archaeological discoveries. In 1986 the Iraqi archeologists uncovering at Sippar (focal Iraq) found an unblemished library dating to about the late 6th century BCE containing complete education tablets still on their racks. A complete "Legend of Atrahasis" (Flood Story) has been accounted for, and there is a genuine chance that a total Gilgamesh Epic will likewise be recognized.
As a matter of fact, there exist 3 unique version of the Epic Of Gilgamesh, made over a period out of almost thousand years. Based on the tablets from the first millennium BCE (Neo-Assyrian period from Assur, Nineveh, Nimrud, and Sultantepe, and Neo-ad Late Babylonian period from Babylon and Uruk), the eleven-tablet version is the best preserved. Later Mesopotamian custom credited the creation of the Epic to a particular individual, Sinleqqiunninni, a pundit reverend of Uruk, perhaps dating to the 13th century BCE.
"Authorship," as was customary in Mesopotamian literature, consisted primarily of the creative adaptation of previously written themes and plots for new purposes. The Old Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, which was first written between 1,800 and 1,600 BCE and appears to have soon existed in two or more variants, served as the basis for the Standard Version. The remaining parts of the Old Babylonian tablets are fragmentary however very fascinating, for they are much of the time particularly disparate in matter and style from the Standard Version of similar episodes. Between these are a variety of Middle Babylonian fragments, not only from Mesopotamia itself but also from other cuneiform-using regions: Anatolia, Syria, and Canaan. In Anatolia the Epic was likewise adjusted or converted into Hurrian and Hittite.
The first Epic of Gilgamesh formed in the Old Babylonian period was not a demonstration of unadulterated creative mind, nor does it appear to have gotten from old folktales. Similarly as the writer of the Standard Version reworked the previous Old Babylonian epic, instilling it with his own bits of knowledge and concerns, so too the Old Babylonian writer had made his Epic from earlier composed writing. The Old Babylonian author relied heavily on the written literary corpus, which served as the foundation for his splendid work, in good Mesopotamian academic tradition. There existed various unconventional, short gallant stories in the Sumerian language about Gilgamesh; They did not form a cycle that was connected to one another, and there is also no major unifying theme like the fear of death. The Old Babylonian author incorporated themes from a variety of other myths that had nothing to do with Gilgamesh in addition to these stories from Sumeria. These scholarly precursors to the Epic of Gilgamesh merit portraying, both for their innate interest as the earliest Gilgamesh customs known, and for what they uncover about the course of dramatic creation. The ability of the creative mind to transform is demonstrated by comparing these original source texts to the integrated Epic.
It is expected that tales about the deeds of the well known Ruler of Uruk, Gilgamesh, coursed time permitting, ca. 2,700 BCE. It is conceivable that within a few generations his endeavors were at that point recorded, yet of this we have no substantial proof. The earliest composed legends about Gilgamesh were created in the Sumerian language during the rule of Lord Shulgi of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (Ur III), ca. 2,000 BCE. He had guaranteed the divine beings and antiquated rulers of Uruk as his precursors to fortify the authenticity of his sovereignty. In psalms written in Shulgi's honor he is known as the child of Ninsun and Lugalbanda, and he alludes to himself as the sibling and companion of Gilgamesh. A lengthy dialogue between Shulgi and Gilgamesh, in which the divine brothers alternately sing of one another's glory and praise, appears to be contained in one hymn. Almost certainly, Shulgi likewise charged the composition of the sagas about his predecessors, and that they were essentially shaded by his scheme as ruler.
There are no Sumerian epic tablets that actually date to the Ur III period of composition. They exist in later duplicates made for scribal practice and libraries during the Old Babylonian time frame, by which time a few distinct renditions had developed in the scribal circles neighborhood to every city. Some versions are more complicated, while others have details or emphasis that are inconsistent.
Gilgamesh was, without a shadow of a doubt, a real person who ruled the city of Uruk at the end of the Early Dynasty II period (ca. 2,700 - 2,500 BCE). In Sumerian the name was initially Bilgamesh; In an Old Babylonian omen text, the earliest writing with the initial "G" can be found. The name is comparable in line to other bona fide individual names of the Early Dynastic period and may actually imply "The Bygone Old One is Young". Since a name given at birth is unlikely to have such a meaning, it may have been given at his coronation. The names are first mentioned in a list of gods from the end of Early Dynastic II, where the deified Gilgamesh and the deified Lugalbanda are listed. In practically no time there after the idolized precursor Gilgamesh is once in a while found as a part in Sumerian individual names and in Akkadian individual names from Susa, in Elam.
As indicated by the conventional of scholarly texts, Lugalbanda and his significant other Ninsun were Gilgamesh's parents. The Sumerian King List, on the other hand, states that Gilgamesh's father was a "lillu-spirit, a high priest of Kulaba," and that Lugalbanda is two years ahead of Gilgamesh as ruler of Uruk. Texts likewise name a child of Gilgamesh, Urlugal (or Urnungal), and a grandson, Udulkalama — however the Standard Version of the Epic never refer to them.
Gilgamesh is referred to as "lord," "great lord," and "lord of Kulaba" in various literary works (Kulaba was the neighborhood of the city of Uruk where the ancient Ziggurat was located). Although the earliest inscription claiming that Gilgamesh built the wall of Uruk only dates to around King Anam of Uruk, ca. 1,800 BCE, both a significant expansion of the Ziggurat and the construction of the wall of Uruk were traditionally associated with Gilgamesh. The major political accomplishment of Gilgamesh's rule, as seen in later Ur III custom, was the triumph over the lord of Kish by which Gilgamesh "brought over the authority (the political hegemony in Mesopotamia) from Kish to Uruk". The Sumerian King List reports that exchange in its typical concise style: " Kish was stricken with weapon, its majesty was conveyed to Eanna (the Sanctuary of Uruk)".
Offering were made to Gilgamesh as divinized precursor and hero from the late Early Dynastic period to about the finish of the Ur III period, however we remain unaware of the nature of the cult. We know that King Shulgi was very close to Uruk and its family, so it's possible that he assigned the Sumerian Gilgamesh epics. Despite this, official royal support for the Gilgamesh cult diminished after his dynasty's demise. However, it's possible that the now-purely "literary Gilgamesh" was able to spark the imagination of an Old Babylonian writer thanks to this loss of political support. Incidentally, Gilgamesh established the popularity and eternality he so frantically looked for the more eliminated he became from his authentic character.
In antiquity, the Epic was clearly known to a lot of people. It was in cities all over Mesopotamia for about 1,500 years, and at least until the middle of the second millennium, it was in Anatolia and Syria-Palestine. However, its popularity was probably restricted to cuneiform-literate individuals only. For all its sensational and human characteristics, the Epic doesn't appear to have turned into a precept in the land, to have created any "exemplary" articulations in the language. "As Gilgamesh," no king claims to be as wise, brave, or powerful. No one uses Gilgamesh and Enkidu as an example of friendship in letters. It is not necessarily the case that Gilgamesh was obscure outside scribal circles; be that as it may, the side-effects of the Epic in the general societies of Mesopotamia are not many, restricted to references in a couple of intellectual works (divinatory messages and a political promulgation letter) and a few artistic presentation.
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Deities appeared in Epic Of Gilgamesh (Alphabetically)
- Anu (Anum/Ilu/An) : the supreme god, the divine personification of the sky, and the ancestor of all Mesopotamian deities. Anu was accepted to be the preeminent wellspring of all power, for different divine beings and for every single human ruler, and he is portrayed in one text as the one "who contains the whole universe".
- Aruru (Ninhursag/Ninḫursaĝ/Ninkharsag/Ninḫursaĝa/Damgalnuna/Ninmah) : the antiquated Sumerian mother goddess of the mountains, and one of the seven extraordinary divinities of Sumer. She is mainly a fruitfulness goddess.
- Enki : one of the Anunnaki and the god of water, knowledge (gestú), crafts (gašam), and creation (nudimmud) in Sumeria. In the Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian) religion, he was later referred to as Ea or Ae, and some scholars have associated him with Ia in the Canaanite religion. The name was extended Aos in Greek sources (for example Damascius). In the beginning, he was the patron god of the city of Eridu. Later, his cult spread all around Mesopotamia and to the Hurrians, Hittites and Canaanites.
- Enlil (Elil) : an old Mesopotamian god related with wind, air, earth, and tempests. He is first verified as the central god of the Sumerian pantheon, however he was later venerated by the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hurrians. Enlil's essential focal point of veneration was the Ekur sanctuary in the city of Nippur, which was accepted to have been worked by Enlil himself and was viewed as the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth. Enlil himself was heavenly to such an extent that not even different divine beings could stare at him. Enlil assumes an imperative part in the Sumerian creation myth; he isolates An (heaven) from Ki (earth), in this manner making the world livable for people.
- Ishtar (Inanna): a goddess of love, beauty, sex, war, justice, and political power from ancient Mesopotamia. She was worshiped in Sumer under the name "Inanna" and later under the names "Ishtar" by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. She was the patron goddess of the Eanna temple in the city of Uruk, which served as her primary cult center. She was also referred to as the "Queen of Heaven."
- Ninsun (Ninsumun) : a goddess, child of Anu and Uras, most popular as the mother of Gilgamesh, and as the tutelary goddess of Gudea of Lagash.
- Shamash (Utu) : the god of truth, justice, morality and the sun in ancient Mesopotamia and the twin of the goddess Inanna, also known as Ishtar in the Assyrian-Babylonian language as the Queen of Heaven. His most important temples were in Sippar and Larsa. He was imagined to ride through the sky in his sun chariot and see everything that occurred during the day. He was the master of heavenly justice and was believed to help those in trouble.
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Deities mentioned in Epic Of Gilgamesh (Alphabetically)
- Adad (Hadad/Haddad/Iškur) : the tempest and rain god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions. Around 2,500 BCE, he was named "Hadda" in Ebla. The Amorites brought Hadad from the Levant to Mesopotamia, where he became known as Adad, the Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian) god.
- Antum, or Antu: a Babylonian goddess. She was the main wife of Anu, and both were the guardians of the Anunnaki and the Utukki. A later version of the Sumerian earth goddess Ki was Antu. She and Kishar were also misidentified.
- Anunnaki (Anunaki/Annunaki/Anunna/Ananaki) : a collection of ancient gods from the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, Armenians, and Babylonians. In the earliest Sumerian composing about them, which come from the Post-Akkadian time frame, the Anunnaki are divinities in the pantheon, progeny of An and Ki (the lord of the sky and the goddess of earth), and their key purpose was to mandate the destinies of humankind.
- Aya : an Akkadian dawn goddess and Shamash's (the sun god's) wife. Sherida, wife of Utu and the equivalent of Shamash, was her Sumerian precursor.
- Dumuzi (Dumuzid/Tammuz) : an old Mesopotamian god related with shepherds, who was additionally the main partner of the goddess Inanna (later known as Ishtar). The annual death of Dumuzid was thought to be the cause of Mesopotamia's hot, dry summers. Dumuzid was associated with fertility and vegetation. During the month in midsummer bearing his name, people across Mesopotamia would participate in grieving rite for him.
- Endukugga : one of the Sumerian gods of the underworld.
- Enmul : Lord Star, Enlil's ancestor, Enul's son, Ninmul's husband, and Enlu and Ninlu's father.
- Ennugi : a character in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology who serves as Enlil's attendant and steward of the throne. Ennugi is spouse of Nanibgal, and father of Gemedukuga.
- The Ereshkigal: the goddess of Kur (the place that is known for the dead or underworld in Sumerian folklore). In later myths, she was said to rule Irkalla together with her spouse Nergal. In Mesopotamia, Ereshkigal was just one of many gods who were thought to be in charge of the underworld. Her cult had a very small following, her main temple was in Kutha, a city that was once associated with Nergal.
- Hanish : a heavenly messenger of tempest and terrible climate. A servant of weather god.
- Mammetun (Mamitu/Mammitum/Mammitu/Mammi) : a Mesopotamian goddess saw as the spouse of Nergal (the lord of death). Mammetun's name could actually imply "vow" or "ice" (in view of comparability to the Akkadian word mammû, "frost" or "ice"). In the earliest sources she is Nergal's most usually validated spouse, however from the Kassite time frame ahead she was in many cases supplanted in this part by the goddess Las.
- Namtar (Namtaru/Namtara) : a chthonic minor divinity or evil spirit in Mesopotamian folklore, lord of death, and sukkal and courier of An, Ereshkigal, and Nergal. Enlil and Ereshkigal had a son named Namtar; he was brought into the world before his father ravished the goddess Ninlil. Namtar was viewed as liable for sicknesses and vermin. It was said that he directed sixty illnesses as evil spirits that could infiltrate various parts of the human body; contributions to him were made to forestall those ailments. Namtar was married to the underworld goddess Hušbišag and was regarded as the beloved son of Bêl/Enlil.
- Nergal : a Mesopotamian god revered through all times of Mesopotamian history. He was principally connected with war, passing and sickness and has been depicted as the "lord of incurred demise." He ruled over Kur (the Mesopotamian underworld). Kutha, in northern Mesopotamia, was his primary cult center. His principal sanctuary was the E-Meslam and he was likewise known by the name Meslamtaea, "he who emerges from Meslam."
- Neti (Bitu) : a minor underworld deity. He is the main guard of the Underworld and the retainer of the goddess Ereshkigal.
- Nindukugga : one of the Sumerian gods of the underworld.
- Ningal (Nikkal) : a Mesopotamian goddess of Sumerian beginning viewed as the spouse of the moon god (Nanna/Sin). She was especially firmly connected with his primary cult habitats (Ur and Harran), yet they were additionally venerated together in different urban areas of Mesopotamia. She was especially worshiped by the Third Dynasty of Ur and later by rulers of Larsa.
- Ningizzida (Gishbanda): a god of vegetation and the "chair bearer of the underworld" in Mesopotamia. He was also associated with snakes, including the mythical mushussu, ushumgal, and bashmu, as well as Nirah in one instance, like his father Ninazu.
- Ninhursag (Ninkharsag/Ninḫursaĝa/Damgalnuna/Ninmah) : one of the seven great Sumerian deities and the ancient mountain mother goddess. She is primarily a goddess of fertility.
- Ninki (Ninsar/Ninmah/Ninmu/Nin-shar) : the plant goddess. Ninhursag was conceived by Enki after a nine-day gestation period. Her birth was the result. Ninsar, on the other hand, is conceived by her father, and after nine days of pregnancy, she bears the goddess Ninkur.
- Ninurta (Ningirsu) : an ancient Mesopotamian god who was worshipped for the first time in early Sumer. He was associated with farming, healing, hunting, the law, scribes, and war. In the earliest records, he is a lord of healing and agriculture, who cures people of diseases and free them from the force of evil spirits. He became a warrior deity in later times as Mesopotamia became more militarized, despite keeping many of his earlier agricultural qualities. The Eshumesha temple in Nippur was his primary cult center in Sumer, where he was regarded as the son of the chief god Enlil. King Gudea of Lagash, who ruled from 2,144 to 2,124 BCE and rebuilt Ninĝirsu's temple in Lagash, paid tribute to Ninĝirsu.
- Nisaba : the goddess of writing and grain in Mesopotamia. She was a prominent goddess throughout many periods of Mesopotamian history and is one of the oldest Sumerian deities recorded in writing.
- Samuqan (Samugan/Šumugan/Šamagan/Šumuqan/Šakkan) : a god who was venerated in ancient Syria and Mesopotamia. He was related with creatures. Šumugan was a god of shepherds. He was associated with a lot of quadrupeds, especially donkeys or wild sheep. He was associated with donkeys in Ebla. He was also tasked in literary works with caring for their habitat and the plants that lived there. He was believed to be in charge of prosperity and agricultural fruitfulness.
- Shullat : a minor god in the myths of Akkad and Babylonia. The god was a god-herald of bad weather and storm and a servant of the sun god Shamash.
- Shulpae : the mythological god of feasting in Mesopotamia.
- Sin (Nanna/Nannar/Suen) : the moon deity in the Mesopotamian religions of Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia and Aram. He was likewise associated with cattle, because of the apparent resemblance between bull horns and crescent moon. His wife, Ningal, worshiped alongside him in his major cult centers, and his parents were Enlil and Ninlil, according to Mesopotamian mythology respectively. Their offspring included significant divinities Innanna (Ishtar) and Utu (Shamash) and minor divine beings like Ningublaga and Numushda.
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Characters appeared in Epic Of Gilgamesh (Alphabetically)
- Enkidu : a legendary figure from ancient Mesopotamian mythology who was Gilgamesh's friend and ally during war. He may be the "bull-man" depicted in Mesopotamian art, with a man's head, arms, and body but a bull's horns, ears, tail, and legs, according to some theories. After that, he engages in a series of interactions with humans and learns about human customs, which leads to a wrestling match with Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk. Enkidu personify the wild or world of nature. Even though he is as strong and powerful as Gilgamesh, he is in some ways different from the city-bred warrior king.
- Gilgamesh : a legend in old Mesopotamian folklore and the hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh. He may have been a posthumously deified historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk. Despite the fact that he became a significant figure in Sumerian legend during the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2,112 – c. 2,004 BCE), his rule is most likely to have occurred at the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia) (henceforth referred ED), which is roughly between 2,900 and 2,350 BCE.
- Shamhat (Shamkat) : a religious prostitute.
- Siduri : an "alewife", a sage female holiness associated with fermentation (explicitly wine and beer).
- Trapper : a hunter who was the first person to find Enkidu.
- Trapper's father : a wise old man.
- Urshanabi : the ferryman of the Hubur, Mesopotamian mythology's "river of the dead." His later Assyrian manifestation is called Hamar-tabal, who is depicted as a terrible beast.
- Utnapishtim (Uta-na’ishtim/Atra-Hasis/Ziusudra/Xisuthros) : he is portrayed as a wise king and Shurrupak priest in Sumerian poetry; According to Akkadian sources, he is an intellectual Shurrupak resident. He is Ubara-Tutu's son, his name can be translated as "He Who Saw Life". He survives the flood with his family and "the seed of all living creatures" thanks to the help of the god Ea, his protégé; After that, the gods take him and give him the name "Faraway" to live forever at "the mouth of the rivers"; or on the other hand as per the Sumerians he resides in Dilmun where the sun rises. Utnapishtim is entrusted by the god Enki to leave his worldly belongings and build a huge ship to be called Preserver of Life. The Preserver of Life was made of equal length and width of solid timber to block the sun's rays and prevent them from entering. Enki is said to have drawn the ship's design on the ground. The ark's frame took five days to build and measured 200 feet in length, width and height, with an acre of floor space. The interior of the ark consisted of seven floors, with each floor consisting of nine sections that were completed on the seventh day. After everyone had gotten on the ship, the door was locked.
- Utnapishtim’s Wife : a kind woman, survive the great flood along with her husband.
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Characters mentioned in Epic Of Gilgamesh (Alphabetically)
- Etana : the thirteenth king of Kish's first dynasty (probably fictitious). He is recorded in the Sumerian King List as the successor of Arwium (Mashda's son) as lord of Kish. In addition, the list referred to Etana as "the shepherd, who ascended to heaven and consolidated all the foreign countries", and it states that he ruled for 1,560 years (some copies say 635) before his son Balih took over. According to a Babylonian legend, Etana wanted a child so badly that one day he saved an eagle from starvation and the eagle took him up into the sky to find the plant of birth. This led to the birth of his son, Balih.
- Ishullana : a gardener of Anu in Mesopotamian mythology. The goddess Ishtar tried to woo Ishullana, but he turned it down. She transforms him into a mole as punishment.
- Lugalbanda : a Sumerian king of Uruk who was deified and was, according to various Mesopotamian texts, Gilgamesh's father. Early sources introduce his wife Ninsun and his gallant deeds in an expedition to Aratta by Ruler Enmerkar. In the Sumerian King List, Lugalbanda is listed as the second king of Uruk, says that he ruled for 1200 years and gave him the title "Shepherd."
- Puzur-Amurri : the steersman of Utnapishtim during the flood.
- Seven Sages : seven wise men who brought civilization to the seven most established cities of Mesopotamia.
- Ubara-tutu : the last antediluvian ruler of Sumer. It was believed that he ruled for 18,600 years, or five sars and one ner. He was the son of En-men-dur-ana, a Sumerian mythological figure often compared to Enoch, as he entered heaven without dying. Ubara-Tutu was the king of Sumer until a flood swept over his land. He is known as the father of Utnapishtim.
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Other Beings in Epic Of Gilgamesh (Alphabetically)
- Bull of Heaven : a mythical beast that Anu created for Ishtar as a personification of drought.
- Humbaba (Huwawa) : a monstrous ancient giant created by Utu (the Sun/justice/truth god). The god Enlil made Humbaba the guardian of the Cedar Forest, where the gods lived. Enlil chose Humbaba to be a terror for humans.
- Man-Scorpion (Scorpion man) : Scorpion men are featured in a few Akkadian language myths, including the Enûma Elish and the Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. They were also referred to as girtablilu or aqrabuamelu. The Scorpion Men are said to have the body of a scorpion and the head, torso, and arms of a man. They were first made by Tiamat to take up arms against the more youthful divine beings for the murder of her consort Apsu. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, they stand guard outside the doors of the sun god Shamash at the mountains of Mashu. These give entrance to Kurnugi (the land of darkness). The scorpion men open the entryways for Shamash as he goes out every day, and close the entryways after him when he gets back to the underworld at night time. Additionally, they warn travelers of the dangers beyond their post. Their "glance is death" their "terror is awesome" and their heads touch the sky.
- Silili : a female divine figure with a strong connection to the horse.
- Urnu snakes : an unintelligible things that Urshanabi collecting as curious occupation.
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Places mentioned in Epic Of Gilgamesh (Alphabetically)
- An : the sky, heaven.
- Anshan : one of the earliest urban states to exist, and one of the Elam's earliest capitals from the late 4th millennium BCE. One of the world's oldest civilizations is thought to have begun in Anshan. From before 4,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE, it was continuously occupied, and it was politically connected to the Elamites at Susa and the Mesopotamians. It was situated in the Zagros Mountains in southwestern Iran.
- Cedar Forest : the glorious realm of the gods in mythology of Mesopotamia. The demigod Humbaba guards it.
- Dilmun (Telmun) : a prehistoric East Semitic-speaking civilization in Eastern Arabia mentioned from the third millennium BCE onward. It was in the Persian Gulf, close to the sea and artesian springs, on a trade route between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley Civilization, according to contextual evidence. The great commercial and trading connections among Mesopotamia and Dilmun were solid and significant to the point where Dilmun was a focal figure to the Sumerian creation myth. Dilmun was regarded by the Sumerians as a sacred location, the Sumerian paradise, a paradisiacal state free of predators, disease, and ageing.
- Eanna : an ancient Sumerian temple in Uruk. Referred to as "the home of Ishtar (Inanna)" and Anu.
- Egalmah : the 'Great Palace' in Uruk, the home of the goddess Ninsun (mother of Gilgamesh).
- Elam : an ancient civilization that spread from the lowlands of what is now Khuzestan and Ilam Province to a small portion of southern Iraq and had its center in the far west and southwest of modern day Iran.
- Eridu : one of the earliest settlements in the area, established around 5,400 BCE near the mouth of the Euphrates River and close to the Persian Gulf. In light of collection of residue at the coastline throughout millennia, the remaining parts of Eridu are presently some distance from the gult at Abu Shahrain in Iraq.
- Euphrates : the longest and one of the most historically significant streams of Western Asia. It is one of the two rivers that define Mesopotamia (the "Land Between the Rivers"), along with the Tigris. Starting in Turkey, the Euphrates flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab, which empties into the Persian Gulf.
- Garden of the gods : it's possible that Sumer was the birthplace of a divine paradise or a Sumerian paradise. The Babylonians, who conquered Sumer, received the idea of this home of the immortals later.
- House of dust : the underworld, land of the dead.
- House of Reeds : old residence of Utnapishtim in Shurrupak.
- Ki : the earth.
- Kullab : the Uruk's city quarter where major temple complexes were located next to Eanna. However, the most ancient deity that was worshipped at Kullab was goddess Ninsun. The headquarters of the city monarch were located in the Kullab district of Uruk.
- Mount Hermon : a group of mountains that make up the Anti-Lebanon mountain range's southernmost point. At 2,814 meters (9,232 feet) above sea level, its summit sits on the border between Syria and Lebanon and is the highest point in Syria.
- Mount Lebanon : Lebanon's mountain range. It has a height of over 2,500 m (8,200 ft) on average and a peak elevation of 3,088 m (10,131 ft). The Mount Lebanon range runs parallel to the Mediterranean coast for about 170 kilometers (110 miles) across the entire nation. At 3,088 meters (10,131 feet), Qurnat as Sawda' is their highest peak. The range gets a lot of precipitation, including snow that is about 4 meters (13 feet) deep on average.
- Mount Mashu : a massive cedar mountain with two peaks, from which the sun descends at dusk and rise again at dawn.
- Mount Nisir (Mount Nimush) : the resting spot of Utnapishtim's ship. It is said to be the mountain that is now known as Pir Omar Gudrun (elevation 9000 ft. (approx. 2743 m)), in Iraqi Kurdistan, close to the city of Sulaymaniyah. "Mount of Salvation" may be the meaning of the name.
- Palace of Irkalla (Ganzir) : Underworld palace where the queen of darkness (goddess Ereshkigal) live.
- Shurrupak : present day Tell Fara, was an old Sumerian city located around 55 kilometers (35 mi) south of Nippur on the banks of the Euphrates in Iraq's Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate. The air and grain goddess Ninlil, also known as Sud, was honored in Shuruppak. Shuruppak developed into a grain distribution and storage center with more silos than any other Sumerian city.
- Ur : an important Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia, it was located at modern "Tell el-Muqayyar" in the Dhi Qar Governorate in the south of Iraq. Ur used to be a city on the coast near the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf. However, the coastline has changed, and the city is now well inland on the south bank of the Euphrates, 16 kilometers (9.9 miles) away from Nasiriyah in modern-day Iraq. The city dates from the Ubaid time frame around 3,800 BCE, and is recorded in history as a city-state from the 26th century BCE, its previously recorded ruler being Mesannepada. The Sumerian and Akkadian moon god Nanna (Sin in Akkadian) was the city's patron deity.
- Uruk (Warka/Warkah) : an ancient city in Sumer (and later Babylonia) located east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates 30 km east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq. Uruk is the typical place for the Uruk era. In the middle of the fourth millennium BCE, Uruk play a key role in the initial urbanization of Sumer. By the last period of the Uruk time frame around 3,100 BCE, the city might have had 40,000 occupants, with 80,000-90,000 citizen living in its environs, making it the biggest urban region on earth at that point. The conflict between Babylonia and Elam around 2,000 BCE made the city lost its prime, but it continued to be inhabited during the Seleucid (312 – 63 BCE) and Parthian (227 – 224 BCE) periods until it was abandoned shortly before or after the Islamic conquest in 633 – 638 BCE.
- Waters of Death : the water that separates the garden of the sun from the paradise where Utnapishtim lives forever (the Sumerian Dilmun), instantly kills anyone who comes into contact with it.
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Terms mentioned in Epic Of Gilgamesh (Alphabetically)
- Acre : a measure of land area, an area of land that could be ploughed by one man using a team of oxen in a single day was thought to be an acre.
- Cubit : an ancient measurement of length based on the distance from the middle finger to the elbow. It was primarily associated to the Egyptians, Sumerians, and Israelites.
- Harlot : female followers of Ishtar, erotic and work in women art, they revere their god by sexual service, this is a very honorable vocation.
- League : a length unit that is no longer used as an official measurement in any country today. It was represent the distance a person could stroll in one hour.
- Magilum boat : a boat of the underworld in Sumerian religion, also called the 'boat of the west'.
- Sacred Stones : a sacred stone that can withstand the waters of death.
- Shekel (Sheqel) : a weight unit of approximately 11 grams (0.39 oz).
- Talent : a weight unit that was introduced in Mesopotamia at the end of the fourth millennium BCE and was normalized at the end of the third millennium BCE during the Akkadian-Sumer period. It was divided into 60 minas, which is equal to 360 shekels.
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