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For other uses, see Gilgamesh (disambiguation).
Gilgamesh, known as Bilboṣ in the earliest text,[1] was the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II, first dynasty of Uruk), ruling circa 2900 BCE, according to the Sumerian king list. According to the Tummal Inscription,[2] Gilgamesh, and his son Urlugal, rebuilt the sanctuary of the goddess Ninlil, in Tummal, a sacred quarter in her city of Nippur. Gilgamesh is the central character in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the greatest surviving work of early Mesopotamian literature. In the epic his father was Lugalbanda and his mother was Ninsun (whom some call Rimat Ninsun), a goddess. Gilgamesh is described as two parts god and one part man.
[edit] Cuneiform referencesIn the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is credited with the building of the legendary walls of Uruk. An alternative version has Gilgamesh telling Urshanabi, the ferryman, that the city's walls were built by the Seven Sages. In historical times, Sargon of Akkad claimed to have destroyed these walls to prove his military power. Fragments of an epic text found in Me-Turan (modern Tell Haddad) relate that Gilgamesh was buried under the waters of a river at the end of his life. The people of Uruk diverted the flow of the Euphrates River crossing Uruk for the purpose of burying the dead king within the river bed. In April 2003, a German expedition claimed to have discovered his last resting place. It is generally accepted that Gilgamesh was a historical figure, since inscriptions have been found which confirm the historical existence of other figures associated with him: such as the kings Enmebaragesi and Aga of Kish. If Gilgamesh was a historical king, he probably reigned in about the 26th century BC. Some of the earliest Sumerian texts spell his name as Bilgames. Initial difficulties in reading cuneiform resulted in Gilgamesh making his re-entrance into world culture in 1891 as "Izdubar".[3] In most texts, Gilgamesh is written with the determinative for divine beings (DINGIR) - but there is no evidence for a contemporary cult, and the Sumerian Gilgamesh myths suggest that deification was a later development (unlike the case of the Akkadian god kings). Over the centuries there was a gradual accretion of stories about him, some probably derived from the real lives of other historical figures, in particular Gudea, the Second Dynasty ruler of Lagash (2144–2124 BC).[4] The name Gilgamesh appears in Greek, as "Gilgamos" (Γίλγαμος), in Aelian, Nat. An. (On animals) 12.21.[5] Aelian's story, which has no obvious connection to the Gilgamesh of king-lists, is a variant of the Perseus myth: The King of Babylon determines by oracle that his grandson Gilgamos will kill him, and so he throws him out of a high tower. An eagle breaks his fall, and the infant is found and raised by a gardener. [edit] See also
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
[edit] External links
[edit] Original cuneiform text
[edit] Text translations
Translations for several legends of Gilgamesh in the Sumerian language have been written by:
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