Gilgamesh Epic

The ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh has earned a preeminent place in world literature because of its universal themes of love, loss, despair, and coming to terms with fate. Its motifs and themes have echoed throughout the early religious traditions of the Middle East. Introduced to the modern world in the late 19th century, the story struck a chord with biblical and classical scholars, who recognized the motifs of a forfeited paradise, initiation by seduction, a catastrophic flood, and the powerful love between heroes, one of whom dies. Along with the Enuma Elish, the Epic of Atrahasis, and other discoveries, the Epic of Gilgamesh excited research into the shared Mesopotamian-Mediterranean religious imagination. Today, the stories are studied as biblical and Greek Ur literature and also ...