Epic+of+Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh was the story of the King of Uruk's (Gilgamesh's) journey to find eternal life. Gilgamesh was depicted as a man created by the gods. Supposedly, they made him one third man and two thirds god. It is one of the oldest known stories, or legends, and was originally written on clay tablets in cuneiform.The story comes from the Ancient Sumerians and was used not only to tell about the story of Gilgamesh, but also to tell about themselves and their culture.

Gilgamesh was seen as a great hero in the legend/epic. He travels all around the world trying to find eternal life and though he succeeds in finding it, it is stolen from him on the last leg of his journey and returns home to tell the story. He eventually dies like the rest of his people. Though in a way, he does live on in his story. Maybe he did find eternal life in word of mouth. Gilgamesh was not meant to live forever.

http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/ [|http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/GILG.HTM]

Image via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:GilgameshTablet.jpg)

Created by: Clare Wolf 8/29/08 Edited by Rachel Mitchell (9/2/08) Edited by Dirk Gadsden (Grammar and image. September 2, 2008) Edited by Allie Pinosky: September 7, 2008

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