The Story of Gilgamesh

Both the Babylonians and the Assyrians told stories about a great, mythical king named Gilgamesh. The story of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest fairy tales in the world!

nce upon a time, a king named Gilgamesh ruled the city of Uruk.

But Gilgamesh was as cruel as he was strong. He made the people of Uruk serve him day and night. He took their money and their food. He took their children to be his slaves. He never thought of others—only of himself.

The people of Uruk were desperate to get rid of this wicked king. So they called out to the sky-god, Anu. “Help us!” they cried. “Our king is evil, and we cannot fight him, because he has the strength of a god!”

Anu looked down from the sky and was very unhappy. “Look at this king, Gilgamesh!” he said. “He has all the strength and power in the world—and yet he is cruel to the weak and helpless! This is not right. I will send an enemy to teach him a lesson.”

So Anu created a monster called Enkidu—a monster who was half man and half animal, with the strength of a dozen lions. “Go and fight Gilgamesh,” he told Enkidu, and sent the beast-man down into the wild wastelands around the city of Uruk.

Meanwhile, Gilgamesh had a nightmare! He dreamed that a huge axe appeared at his door—an axe so big and sharp that he couldn’t even lift it. When he woke up, he asked his mother what the dream meant. “A man is coming who can destroy you!” his mother told him. “You will have to make friends with him—or die!”

Enkidu came closer and closer to the city of Uruk. But in the forest outside the city’s walls, he met the son of a trapper, out checking his father’s traps.

One day, Enkidu and his friends went into Uruk, to the wedding of a great man who was giving a feast for the whole city. But during the wedding feast, Gilgamesh decided that he wanted the bride. He marched into the hall, grabbed the beautiful girl, and started to drag her away.

Enkidu was furious. He leaped up in front of the door. “You may be the king,” he shouted, “but you’ll have to kill me before you take this woman away from her bridegroom!”

No one had ever told Gilgamesh what to do! He leaped at Enkidu and tried to wrestle him to the ground. They fought all up and down the wedding hall until the food was smashed underfoot and both of them were bleeding. Gilgamesh had never before met anyone so strong. Finally he won the match—he pinned Enkidu down and sat on him. But he was so tired from fighting that he could barely move. He gasped out, “Let us be friends from now on!”

From then on, Enkidu and Gilgamesh were friends. Gilgamesh became kinder to the people in his city, and he and Enkidu had many adventures together.

One day, the bull of the gods escaped from the sky and came down to earth. It came charging through Gilgamesh’s kingdom, killing hundreds of people. It was so powerful that whenever it breathed, huge holes and chasms opened up in the earth. The people called to Gilgamesh and Enkidu for help. Enkidu killed the bull and delivered the whole country.

But the gods were angry with Enkidu for killing their bull. They sent terrible illness upon him.

Gilgamesh mourned his friend’s death. He ordered the whole world to weep over Enkidu. He stopped taking baths; he even stopped eating. He could not bear the thought that death had taken Enkidu away. Finally, he decided that he would have to find the secret of eternal life and conquer death itself.

He decided to go see Utnapishtim—the only immortal man on the whole earth. He traveled for a year and a day, and finally reached Utnapishtim’s home.

“What is the secret of eternal life?” he asked Utnapishtim.

“If you can stay awake for six days and seven nights,” Utnapishtim told him, “you too can become immortal.”

Gilgamesh agreed—and instantly fell asleep. He woke up seven days later. “Give me another chance!” he begged.

“Well,” Utnapishtim said, “there is one more chance for you. If you can swim all the way down to the bottom of the ocean, you will find a magical plant that lives on the sea’s bottom. Pick it and eat it, and you will become young again.”

Gilgamesh leaped up, tied a stone to his feet, and jumped into the ocean. He sank all the way down to the bottom. There he found the magic plant. He picked it, swam back up to the top of the ocean, and began the long journey home. “When I get home,” he thought, “I will eat the plant, and then I will live forever.”

But one night, while Gilgamesh slept, a snake slithered up to him and found the plant. It smelled good—so the snake ate it, and immediately became young again. That is why snakes shed their skins. When they begin to get old, they just climb out of their wrinkled, old skins and become young again.

But Gilgamesh woke up to find his magic plant gone. He went home to Uruk, weeping and mourning. And like all men, he became old and died.

But his story was told to all the children of Uruk, and has been told to all their children, and to their children’s children, until this very day.

Note to Parent: The Gilgamesh Epic was composed between 3000–1200 BC/BCE.