What is the epic of gilgamesh?

Question

What is the epic of gilgamesh?

Answer 1

it is the Sumerian version of the great flood that is told in the Bible but it happened 1000 years before the Hebrew version was told.

Answer 2

The Epic of Gilgamesh explores certain aspects of human nature.  Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu try to accumulate as much glory and honor as they can by accomplishing great feasts of strength and courage, such as killing a forest demon named Humbaba, or attaining immortality. It seriously ponders the nature of death.  Gilgamesh is fraught with despair when Enkidu dies, and becomes obsessed with becoming immortal.  He is terribly afraid of death (a theme common through out out classical literature) and seeks to surmount it.  He however fails, and comes to terms with the fact that everyone must die.  It also shows the pessimistic world of the ancient Sumerians.  The afterlife is shown as a brutal and horrific place to be.  

Answer 3

It's an ancient sumerian text, that pre-dates the bible, and was the source of many old testament stories.

Answer 4

Sumerian myth about a semi-divine king and his sidekick seeking immortality.

Answer 5

It is an ancient Akkadian epic (edited together about 1330 BCE – 1000 BCE) about a hero named Gilgamesh, an extraordinarily strong man, who has marvelous adventures. Gilgamesh may have been an historic king who ruled the city-state of Ur in Sumer (the southern region of modern Mesopotamia) about 2600 BCE.  Gilgamesh freed his people from the hegemony of King Agga of Kish.

Some of the episodes in the epic appear as separate stories in earlier Sumerian texts which also include material not found in the later epic.

In the Akkadian epic, one of Gilgamesh’s adventures involves him journeying to a far-off country to meet the flood hero himself, Ut-napishtim, who has been made immortal and who relates the flood story to Gilgamesh.

The central theme of this epic is the story of a man who is almost a god, certainly the greatest man of his era, but who is still mortal. When Gilgamesh’s companion Enkidu dies, the fact of death hits Gilgamesh hard, and he seeks by any means to become immortal, or at least magically long-lived. He fails. Gilgamesh will eventually have to sink down to the underworld, and his only legacy will be the city walls that he caused to be built and the memory of his exploits.

The epic of Gilgamesh is possibly the oldest surviving hero story.