Background and Glossary

[Tamara]

The Gilgamesh stories were written around 2150 BCE. They were short, episodic, and written in Sumerian. They were stitched together later and incorporated into the Akkadian epic, probably around 1700 BCE. Akkadian is an ancient Semitic language cognate with Hebrew and Arabic. The standard version of the poem is generally ascribed to a master scribe, Sin-leqi-unninni (around 1200 BCE.), but we don’t know the extent of his contribution to the standard, eleven-tablet version.

Gilgamesh is written in cuneiform script. Cuneiform is the world’s oldest writing system, dating around 4,000 BCE and developed in Uruk (southern Iraq). Taking its name from its wedge-shaped signs, cuneiform was officially deciphered in 1857. Each cuneiform sign carries more than one meaning (hence the challenge of translation). The signs are commonly written by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay. But because clay can be easily shattered, of the half a million cuneiform texts that have been excavated, many are in fragments and must be pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle. Most have yet to be deciphered due to the painstaking nature of the work and to the paucity of scholars qualified to take on the challenge of translation.

The tablets of the standard version were initially discovered in 1853 in Nineveh (modern day Mosul), but the text wasn’t deciphered or translated until a couple of decades later. The last known cuneiform copy of Gilgamesh is dated around 130 BCE. The first translation of the available fragments was published in 1876. Since then, many more fragments have surfaced. Assyriologists have been pouring over them, deciphering available tablets, comparing and dating the different versions, and revising the text. It is very much a fluid document, open to new readings as more material becomes available.

The epic tells the story of Gilgamesh, a historical king. The Sumerian King List, (dated around 1827 – 1817 BCE), a historical chronicle, mentions him as king and as having lived around 7800 BCE. But scholars think he must have lived much later than that. I have read some estimates dating his rule of Uruk (modern day Warka in central Iraq) at around 2750 BCE. But his mention in the Sumerian King List reflects that Gilgamesh was considered ancient history even by people who lived 4,000 years ago.

In order to keep the weekly discussions focused on the text of the work, this is the place for topics external to the text but deserving consideration. The posts welcome here include background, context, history, and other sundry items pertaining to Gilgamesh that others might find interesting.

[Tamara]

To get us started, I have prepared a quick reference guide of the many names that appear throughout the poem to facilitate understanding for those of you who are unfamiliar with it. I think I listed most of the names although some may be mentioned only once or twice.

Antu: Wife of Anu; mother of Ishtar
Anu: Father of the gods; god of the sky; father of Ishtar
Anunnaki: A group of gods. It’s not clear whether they are the gods of heaven or of the underworld. Initially, they are identified as the gods of heaven. Later, they seem to be associated with the underworld and the Igigi are known as gods of heaven
Aruru: Mother goddess who created mankind; also known as Belet-ili
Atrahasis: An epithet for Utnapishtim
Aya: Goddess of dawn; bride of Shamash, the sun god
Belet-ili: Mother goddess; also known as Aruru
Belet-seri: Scribe of the underworld
Dumuzi: Ishtar’s shepherd lover
Ea: God of intellect, creation, wisdom, incantations, and medicine; god of freshwater; known as Enki in ancient Sumer
Enkidu: A wild man created by Aruru to be Gilgamesh’s equal and companion
Enlil: Son of Anu; responsible for the Great Flood
Ereshkigal: Queen of Irkalla (the underworld); Ishtar’s sister
Gilgamesh: Hero of the epic; two-thirds god, one third man
Humbaba: A fire-breathing monster; appointed by Enlil to be the guardian of the Cedar Forest
Ishtar: Babylonian goddess of love and war; known as Inana in ancient Sumer
Lugulbanda: Gilgamesh’s father; Uruk’s guardian deity
Marduk: Patron god of Babylon; named as king of the gods in the Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Epic of Creation
Ninsun: Gilgamesh’s mother
Shamash: Sun god; god of justice; patron of travelers and dream interpreters
Shamhat: Priestess of Ishtar; a sacred prostitute; her name means “voluptuous woman”
Shiduri (also known as Siduri): goddess of brewing and wisdom; tavern-keeper at the edge of the world
Sin: Moon god
Ubara-tutu: Father of Utnapishtim
Urshanabi: the boat man; ferries Gilgamesh across the Waters of Death
Uta-napishti, also known as Utnapishtim: King of Shurruppak; he and his wife survived the Great Flood. Both were made immortal.

[Tamara]

For those of you like me who are curious to hear what the words sound like, the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London (SOAS) has an amazing website where different scholars read selections of Babylonian literature, including Gilgamesh. Stephanie Dalley, whose translation is mentioned in the previous post, is one of the readers.

Just scroll down when you get in the website to see the Gilgamesh readings. Click to hear the recording. And just below the recording is the original transcript so you can follow along. It’s awesome stuff!
https://www.soas.ac.uk/baplar/recordings

[Roger]

Tamara wrote: "For those of you like me who are curious to hear what the words sound like, the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London (SOAS) has an amazing website where different scho..."

Great find!

[Tamara]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[Emil]

Tamara wrote: "For those of you like me who are curious to hear what the words sound like, the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London (SOAS) has an amazing website where different scho..."

This is great, thanks!
I've never heard Akkadian before, but it definitely sounds Semitic to me, I think I even recognised the word "ummi" - mother.


Tamara wrote: "The Gilgamesh stories were written around 2150 BCE. They were short, episodic, and written in Sumerian. They were stitched together later and incorporated into the Akkadian epic, probably around 1700 BCE...."

I understand that sumerian was still used in parallel for religious, artistic and educational purposes. Are there any surviving sumerian texts of the Gilgamesh stories?

[Tamara]

Emil wrote: "I understand that sumerian was still used in parallel for religious, artistic and educational purposes. Are there any surviving sumerian texts of the Gilgamesh stories?.."

The short answer is yes. It is my understanding that a series of short, known Sumerian stories about Gilgamesh existed which were then compiled into the Akkadian epic.

To clarify the relationship between Sumerian and Akkadian, this is what Sophus Helle says in Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic:

Of the many languages that cuneiform was used to write, two concern us here: Sumerian and Akkadian. The languages were brought into close contact during the third millennium BCE, but in linguistic terms they could hardly be further apart. Akkadian is a Semitic language like Arabic and Hebrew, while Sumerian is a linguistic isolate, meaning that it is unrelated to any other known language. . . . The two languages coexisted for millennia and became thoroughly intertwined, exchanging loan words and grammatical features. Cuneiform culture was thus bilingual from the start, and Gilgamesh is no exception: Gilgamesh's story is found in both a Sumerian cycle and an Akkadian epic.
Sumerian died out as a spoken language sometime around 2000 BCE, but it continued to be used for the next two thousand years as the language of scholarship and religious rituals.

This what Stephanie Dalley in Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others says about early Sumerian stories from Uruk:

Around 2150 BCE, there existed in written form three groups of stories about kings of Uruk. One group featured the exploits of Enmerkar, who was perhaps the grandfather of Gilgamesh. Another group featured the exploits of Lugalbanda, and a third group featured Gilgamesh. Most of the tales were very short; and they were all written in Sumerian. . . The standard version [of the Akkadian epic] uses and adapts some known Sumerian stories as well as others for which written forerunners are not known . . .

As I said above, it is believed Sin-leqi-unninni pieced together and fixed the standard version of the poem based on the early Sumerian stories although we don’t know the extent of his contribution.

I hope this answers your question.

[Anisha Inkspill]

Tamara wrote: "The Gilgamesh stories were written around 2150 BCE. They were short, episodic, and written in Sumerian. They were stitched together later and incorporated into the Akkadian epic, probably around 17..."

thanks for the info and the pointers Tamara, I am interested to have a better grasp of all the old stories. I consider myself a newbie who has made several attempts at reading Gilgamesh. I have read Stephanie Dalley's translation last year and I'm tempted to read again. I also have read translations by NK Sandars (which I know its outdated but for first steps it made the read less daunting). I also have Andrew George (yet to be read), and the one by Sophus Helle is on my wish list.

[Tamara]

Anisha Inkspill wrote: "thanks for the info and the pointers Tamara, I am interested to have a better grasp of all the old stories. I consider myself a newbie who has made several attempts at reading Gilgamesh.."

I'm glad you found the information helpful.

It's great that you have access to a lot of different translations. The only one I don't have is the Andrew George. It's supposed to form the foundation of many other translations. So I'm glad you have it and will be able to compare.

My suggestion, however is not to get too bogged down with what scholars have said about the text in their introductions or elsewhere. The fun in reading something like this is to see how we, as readers, react to the material and are able to articulate the ways in which it resonates with us. And for that we don't need to rely on anyone but ourselves.

I'm delighted you're on board and are excited about the reading. I look forward to your participation.

[Chris]

Thanks for all the info Tamara. Very helpful and makes me more eager to start. It seems as if in the back of my mind I had read that the text was written in Babylonian, you identify Sumerian as the originating language. Are they similar? Is Sumeria an older civilization than Babylonia? I probably should look this up myself, but since I was on this site reading the thread, I thought I would just pose the question now.

[Tamara]

Chris wrote: "Thanks for all the info Tamara. Very helpful and makes me more eager to start. It seems as if in the back of my mind I had read that the text was written in Babylonian, you identify Sumerian as the..."

Chris, Babylonian is a dialect of Akkadian. See post #7 where I cite Sophus Helle who discusses the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. His translation of Gilgamesh includes the Old Babylonian version and the Standard Babylonian (Akkadian) version. The standard Akkadian consists of pieces from and adaptations of a series of short Gilgamesh stories written in Sumerian.

[Emil]

Tamara wrote: "To clarify the relationship between Sumerian and Akkadian, this is what Sophus Helle says in Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic:..."

Thank you. I ordered Helle's "Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic" last week and just received my copy today. Your quotation reassures me that it was the right purchase.

[Tamara]

Emil wrote: "Thank you. I ordered Helle's "Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic" last week and just received my copy today. Your quotation reassures me that it was the right purchase..."

Great! I'm delighted you'll be joining us in the discussion.

[Chris]

Well, it looks as if I am not going to get my book from the library in time to start with the group. I did find a book on the shelves that discusses G by Michael Scmidt called Gilgamesh: The life of a Poem.

[Tamara]

Chris wrote: "Well, it looks as if I am not going to get my book from the library in time to start with the group. I did find a book on the shelves that discusses G by Michael Scmidt called Gilgamesh: The life o..."

The Schmidt book is not a translation. It discusses the poem and its reception.
There is an online prose version translated by N.K. Sandars that is accessible. You might consider reading that until you get your library book. I'd hate to have you miss out on the discussion.
http://www.aina.org/books/eog/eog.pdf

[Anisha Inkspill]

Tamara wrote: "... My suggestion, however is not to get too bogged down with what scholars have said about the text in their introductions or elsewhere. The fun in reading something like this is to see how we, as readers, react to the material and are able to articulate the ways in which it resonates with us. And for that we don't need to rely on anyone but ourselves. ..."

fantastic advice Tamara, thank you

[Tamara]

You're welcome.

[Chris]

Tamara I realize the Schmidt isn't a translation. But it discusses the poem and background on discovery & translations. I thought it would be helpful until I got the Mitchell. Which will be soon, as I got an email that it is ready for pickup at the library.

[Tamara]

Great.

[Emil]

I just finished reading the first two Tablets, and I am impressed by Helle's translation. His ingenious approach to dealing with the gaps in the text involved using blank spaces or lines enclosed in raised dots. This technique allows you to visualize and fill in the gaps, almost as if he's inviting the reader to solve the puzzle.

[Tamara]

Emil wrote: "This technique allows you to visualize and fill in the gaps, almost as if he's inviting the reader to solve the puzzle.."

That's a great observation.

[Ian]

For those interested in the older, Sumerian, versions of Gilgamesh stories, only some of which show up in the Akkadian epic, there is a fairly up-to-date translation in the Second Edition of The Epic of Gilgamesh (Norton Critical Editions) (Goodreads shows first edition only), translated and editted by Benjamin R. Foster (2001, 2019). Foster's main translation was thoroughly revised in the light of Andrew George's text edition of 2003: the Sumerian texts were originally translated by Douglas Frayne, and revised by Foster for the Second Edition in the light of subsequent scholarship. It also contains the Hittite Gilgamesh fragments, and other minor versions and offshoots.

A less up-to-date, but free, source of the Sumerian stories can be found on-line, as part of the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, at https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/

The texts and translations are not as up-to-date, because funding for the project ran out in 2006. On the other hand, it contains the related stories of earlier kings and heroes of Uruk, Enmerkar and Lugalbanda (the latter the father of Gilgamesh). Your can see the whole catalogue of genres at https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/edition....

You can go directly to the list of narratives athttps://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin...*# and scroll down to the titles at 1.8. This is the Unicode version. If your device only supports Asci, see the genres list as above. N.B. This URL is not coming through on Goodreads. Use the genre list as above for Unicode versions as well.

[Tamara]

Ian wrote: "For those interested in the older, Sumerian, versions of Gilgamesh stories, only some of which show up in the Akkadian epic, there is a fairly up-to-date translation in the Second Edition of [book:..."

Very helpful resources. Thank you, Ian.

[Gayle]

I’ve read many of the well-known ancient writings but I hadn’t come across Gilgamesh. Great reading idea and superb insights. I now wonder if there are more I haven’t heard of!

[Ian]

I should have mentioned that Foster's Norton Critical Edition includes several excellent essays on Gilgamesh, including the complete final chapter of Thorkild Jacobsen's The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion.

For anyone interested in how much has been recovered from the epic since the 1940s, a free pdf of Alexander Heidel's The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels is available from the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, Egypt and Western Asia (formerly the Oriental Institute) of the University of Chicago at https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/pu...

For the Institute's mostly free (if available in PDF) publications, mainly on Egypt and Mesopotamia, see https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/ca.... This is an amazing resource, and includes the complete Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (now aka the Asssyrian Dictionary of the University of Chicago) in PDF, one of the landmarks of cuneiform scholarship. It is a sort of Oxford English Dictionary of the Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian) language. (The Assyrian in title goes back to the early twentieth century, when "Assyriiology" was the name of the new science, partly at least because so many of the ancient texts were excavated in ancient Assyria in the nineteenth century. I suspect that" Babylonology," if ever considered, was found unsatisfactory.)

It took some time for it to sink in that Assyrian and Babylonian were regional dialects of the Eastern Semitic Akkadian language, the name of which was at one time applied to the newly-discovered Sumerian texts, then readable only in bilingual tablets, some of which turned out to be schoolboy exercises of limited reliability. But the story of deciphering of cuneiform scripts has been told many times.

[Anisha Inkspill]

Ian wrote: "For those interested in the older, Sumerian, versions of Gilgamesh stories … translated and editted by Benjamin R. Foster (2001, 2019). Foster's main translation was ..."

Ian, I wondered who Benjamin R Foster was after having read his lengthy essay on Mesopotamia in The Penguin Handbook of Ancient Religions, which I found interesting though I managed to follow only some of it but it has the potential to be informative with several more rereads.

Thanks for pointing out the Norton edition.

[Ian]

Foster is also the translator of “Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature,” now in its third (2005) one-volume paperback edition of 1044 pages. It contains all the major Akkadian works except Gilgamesh, and a great many shorter ones. It is currently available on Amazon for $50. You might want to find a library copy before deciding to buy it. Besides the price, it is physically difficult to handle, and the binding isn’t as secure as it might be. It includes mythological texts not translated by Stephanie Dalley, as well as many duplications, and other things that otherwise have to be searched out in learned journals in major research libraries.

[Anisha Inkspill]

Ian wrote: "Foster is also the translator of “Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature,” now in its third (2005) one-volume paperback edition of 1044 pages. It contains all the major Akkadian work..."

Thanks Ian

[Lily]

Gayle wrote: "I’ve read many of the well-known ancient writings but I hadn’t come across Gilgamesh. Great reading idea and superb insights. I now wonder if there are more I haven’t heard of!"

It often surprises me how many have missed Gilgamesh -- even met a doctorate-trained pastor with an exceptionally exploring mind who hadn't encountered it. It was long after I first learned of the legend, but one day browsing in our local library in the young people's section, the book I pulled had a graphic (comic book style) version. Twas interesting to see the visualizations chosen, although not exactly ones my recollections matched.

[Monica]

Lily wrote: "... It often surprises me how many have missed Gilgamesh!..."

Lily, that's true. Although it is considered the most ancient written myth that we know so far, it is amazing that it was brought to "modern" knowledge only in the 19th century (less than 200 years ago). So it is fascinating to observe how the myth was initially received in academic world and then it slowly came to "popular" culture. Many teachers now mention the myth or ask their students to research and read about it - I never listened about it during my school years...

[Emil]

Some interesting facts about the Sumerian Sexagesimal numeral system.

Sexagesimal is a numeral system with sixty as its base, originating with the ancient Sumerians 5,000 years ago. But why on earth did they come up with this idea, why "60" and not 10?

The number 60 is divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, and 20—making it ideal for dividing a group into smaller, equal parts. Great for trade, doing math, and counting /dividing various goods.

Interestingly, it is also easy to count using your fingers. You can utilize the 12 knuckles on one hand (3 knuckles per finger, excluding the thumb) and the 5 fingers on the other hand. This way, 12 times 5 equals 60.

Here’s how it works:

1 = the first knuckle of the pinky finger + the first finger of the other hand

2 = the second knuckle of the pinky finger + the first finger of the other hand

...

12 = the last knuckle of the index finger + the first finger of the other hand

13 = the first knuckle of the pinky finger + the second finger


Every child was able to count up to 60. No wonder they were better at math than Europeans in the Middle Ages!

We still measure time, angles, and coordinates using the Sumerian sexagesimal system: 60 seconds, 60 minutes, 12 months, 360°, etc.

Sometimes we might even buy a dozen doughnuts instead of 10. Let's thank the Sumerians for the extra two doughnuts!:)

[Tamara]

Emil wrote: "Some interesting facts about the Sumerian Sexagesimal numeral system.

Sexagesimal is a numeral system with sixty as its base, originating with the ancient Sumerians 5,000 years ago. But why on ear..."

That's fascinating stuff, Emil. I know some elderly people from the Middle East who still count using their knuckles and fingers, but I had no idea the practice stems from the Sumerian Sexagesimal numeral system.

For those of you who are interested in knowing more about Sumer, Samuel Noah Kramer's History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History is full of fascinating information, including the first legal court case, the first tax reform. These were all written on tablets. One of my favorites is the first recorded instance of a father telling his son to stop goofing around and focus on his studies! I guess some things never change.

[Emil]

Tamara wrote: For those of you who are interested in knowing more about Sumer, Samuel Noah Kramer's History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History is full of fascinating information..."

Thanks, this one went straight to the "to-read" list.


If anyone has the opportunity to visit London, please don't miss the British Museum. It has several rooms dedicated to Mesopotamia (6000–500 BC). Last time I lost hours in there, between full-sized bas-reliefs, tombs, skeletons, musical instruments, jewelry, and a ton of tablets in cuneiform.

I still have mixed feelings about these objects being held so far away from their place of origin, but at least they are in good hands.

[Tamara]

I don't want to burden you with a lot of reading, but you might also be interested in Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda H. Podany.

Dr. Podany derives some fascinating insights about the period through her analysis of even the smallest smidgeon of a cuneiform tablet. She breathes life into everyday characters, including an administrator who made a mistake in adding up totals of deliveries 4,000 years ago; a young scholar who doodles in the margins when copying words from an ancient text. It is fascinating stuff and gives one a glimpse into the everyday lives of ordinary people.

[Roger]

Here's an article about using AI to fill in lacunae in cuneiform tablets. Maybe we'll be able to recover some of the missing parts of Gilgamesh.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...

And the original paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2109.04513

[Tamara]

This is absolutely fascinating, Roger. Needless to say, I didn't understand their methodology with their metrics and diagrams and whatnot, but it's exciting to think that AI may be able to fill in the missing parts using their methodology. Thank you so much for sharing it.

[Rafael]

I am quite skeptical of using AI for this, because AI works stealing someone's work, it not thinks by themselves. It depends of an already existing input.

[Chris]

Monica wrote: "Lily wrote: "... It often surprises me how many have missed Gilgamesh!..."

Lily, that's true. Although it is considered the most ancient written myth that we know so far, it is amazing that it was..."

I hadn't ever read it either, and I'm 71!! I have so enjoy reading about Gilgamesh and the poem itself with Tamara leading the way!

[Tamara]

Chris wrote: "I hadn't ever read it either, and I'm 71!! I have so enjoy reading about Gilgamesh and the poem itself with Tamara leading the way!."

Thanks, Chris! I'm enjoying it, too. It's been a great collaborative effort and a lot of fun.

[Michael]

Just dropping these here for my own purposes.

The hero overpowering a lion (identified with Gilgamesh). Palace of Sargon II. Assyrians. Throne room. Assyrians. 721-705 BC. Khorsabad Palace
https://c7.alamy.com/comp/HTEDAJ/the-...

Gilgamesh the King of Uruk (Mesopotamia), ruled sometime between 2800 and 2500 BC, depicted standing on the head of the slain Humbaba.
https://c7.alamy.com/comp/2B2GDG1/657...

Mesopotamia, Sumer, Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeating lions, cylinder seal print, New Sumerian, 3rd millenium BC, Musee dS Art et dS histoire, Geneve
https://c7.alamy.com/comp/AMDP1W/fine...

What the Cedar Forest may have looked like
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...

[Tamara]

Thanks for posting the images, Michael. But I would appreciate it if you could possibly remove the images and just post links to them. That way, people who want to see them can just click on the link. I am concerned about opening the floodgates to image posting. A link would serve the same purpose without interrupting the texts.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

[Michael]

done

[Tamara]

Michael wrote: "done"

You are the bestest! Thank you.