Gilgameš
? · Uruk
Gilgameš is the hero of the most celebrated work of Mesopotamian literature, remembered as a king of Uruk in its legendary age. In the epic he is matched by the gods with the wild man Enkidu, with whom he slays the forest-guardian Ḫumbaba and the Bull of Heaven; Enkidu's death then drives him on a failed quest for immortality, ending in the hard wisdom that eternal life belongs to the gods alone while a lasting name is humanity's portion. He appears in the Sumerian King List among the kings of the First Dynasty of Uruk.
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Uruk
What they did here
Known through legend, not documented history. Tradition makes him a king of Uruk: the Sumerian King List names him among its early rulers, and the Gilgameš poems set his reign and his great city walls here.
About Uruk
One of the oldest cities of Sumer (modern Warka, southern Iraq), sacred to Inanna and Anu, where some of the earliest known writing was found (c. 3300-3000 BCE). The Sumerian King List and later epics name Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh among its early kings; these figures are known through legend and later tradition. Uruk remained a temple city into the Seleucid period, and many late scholarly tablets were excavated here; for a tablet, the pin marks where it was found.
Works
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