Gilgamesh and Enkidu

In the great walled city of Uruk, Gilgamesh ruled as king. He was two-thirds god and one-third man, a towering figure of unmatched strength who had built the magnificent walls and temples of the city with his own hands. But Gilgamesh was also a tyrant. He forced the young men of Uruk to labor endlessly on his building projects and claimed the rights of the first night with every new bride. The people cried out to the gods for relief.

In response, the goddess Aruru formed a rival from clay: Enkidu, a wild man covered in shaggy hair who roamed the steppe with the gazelles and ate grass with the cattle. When hunters reported this fearsome creature, Gilgamesh sent a temple prostitute named Shamhat to tame him. After seven days and seven nights with Shamhat, Enkidu was civilized but could no longer return to the wild. He came to Uruk and confronted Gilgamesh. They fought like wild bulls, shaking the city walls, and their battle ended not in death but in mutual respect. They became the closest of companions, brothers in arms.

Together, Gilgamesh and Enkidu set out on great adventures. First they traveled to the Cedar Forest of Lebanon to slay Humbaba, the monstrous guardian appointed by the god Enlil. Gilgamesh was terrified, but Enkidu urged him forward. With the help of the sun god Shamash, they defeated Humbaba and cut down the sacred cedars, returning to Uruk in triumph. The goddess Ishtar, impressed by Gilgamesh's glory, proposed marriage. Gilgamesh scorned her, listing the grim fates of all her previous lovers. Furious, Ishtar demanded the Bull of Heaven from her father Anu and sent it to punish Uruk. The bull ravaged the city, but Gilgamesh and Enkidu together slew the divine beast and threw its thigh in Ishtar's face.

The gods were outraged that mortals had killed their guardians and their bull. They decreed that one of the heroes must die. Enkidu fell ill with a fever that no medicine could cure. He suffered for twelve days, cursing the gate of the cedar forest and the temple prostitute who had brought him to civilization, before Gilgamesh persuaded him to bless Shamhat instead. Enkidu died, and Gilgamesh was shattered. He wept for his friend until his tears ran dry, then roamed the wilderness in grief, wearing animal skins and refusing to wash or eat.

Consumed by the fear of his own death, Gilgamesh resolved to seek Utnapishtim, the only mortal to survive the Great Flood and be granted eternal life by the gods. He crossed the twin-peaked mountain where the sun passes each night, traversed a garden of jeweled trees, and found the ale-wife Siduri, who urged him to accept mortal life and enjoy its simple pleasures. Gilgamesh refused and pressed on. The boatman Urshanabi ferried him across the Waters of Death, a vast ocean that no mortal had crossed before.

At last, Gilgamesh found Utnapishtim, who told him the story of the Great Flood: how the gods had decided to destroy humanity, how the god Ea had warned him to build a great boat, how he had loaded his family and craftsmen and animals aboard, and how the storm had raged for six days and nights until the boat rested on Mount Nisir. Utnapishtim challenged Gilgamesh to stay awake for seven days to prove his worthiness, but Gilgamesh fell asleep at once. Then Utnapishtim revealed a secret: at the bottom of the ocean grew a plant that could restore youth. Gilgamesh dove deep, tied stones to his feet, and retrieved the thorny plant. But while he rested at a water hole on the journey home, a serpent slithered by and stole the plant, shedding its skin as it departed. Gilgamesh sat and wept, realizing that immortality was not meant for mortals. He returned to Uruk at last, looking upon the great walls he had built, and understood that this enduring legacy was the closest any human could come to living forever.