The Epic of Gilgamesh
← all texts · Mesopotamian · c. 2100–1200 BCE
What this is
The oldest great work of literature — the king Gilgamesh and his wild companion Enkidu, the quest for immortality, and a flood story that predates and parallels Noah's. The Old Babylonian version is on Gutenberg.
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Companion reading path
What to read alongside it, and why.
The Enūma Eliš (Babylonian Creation)
Mesopotamian
The Babylonian creation that sets the cosmic stage for Gilgamesh's world.
Genesis (King James Version)
Hebrew
Compare the Gilgamesh flood with Noah's — the literary kinship is unmistakable.
Homer — The Odyssey
Greek
The other foundational hero-journey: mortality, the underworld, the long way home.