I’ve kept a copy of the Epic of Gilgamesh on my poetry shelf for years. It’s the oldest surviving work of literature we have — older than the Iliad, older than the Bible, carved into clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia more than four thousand years ago — and it’s still, somehow, a story about the exact thing everyone eventually has to sit with: the fear of dying.
This page is the guide I wish existed the first time I read it: who Gilgamesh actually was, how the story unfolds, who’s who among the gods and companions, and where to read the whole thing free, in one place.
Who Was Gilgamesh?
Gilgamesh was a real king of the Sumerian city of Uruk, ruling somewhere around 2700 BCE, long before he became the subject of myth. Later poets turned him into something else entirely: two-thirds god and one-third man, according to the epic, a king so strong and so restless that his own people cried out to the gods for relief from him.
What they get, in answer, is Enkidu.
The Story, From Beginning to End
How Gilgamesh and Enkidu Became Friends
The gods create Enkidu, a wild man raised among animals, specifically to match Gilgamesh’s strength and give the king someone to contend with. The two meet, fight to a standstill in the streets of Uruk, and come out of it as friends instead of enemies. It’s the making of that friendship, more than anything supernatural, that drives the rest of the poem.
The Battle with Humbaba in the Cedar Forest
Restless again, Gilgamesh talks Enkidu into a journey to the distant Cedar Forest to kill its guardian, Humbaba, and cut down its sacred trees — partly for glory, partly to leave something behind that will outlast him. With help from the sun god Shamash, they succeed. But killing Humbaba, a being the gods themselves had set to guard the forest, turns the gods against them.
The Bull of Heaven
Back in Uruk, the goddess Ishtar proposes marriage to Gilgamesh. He turns her down, bluntly listing every one of her past lovers’ ruined fates, and she retaliates by sending the Bull of Heaven to lay waste to the city. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill it together — a second act of glory that seals what happens next.
How Did Gilgamesh Die? The Death of Enkidu and the Search for Immortality
The gods decide someone has to answer for Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven — and it’s Enkidu who dies for it, not Gilgamesh, wasting away from illness over several days. Enkidu’s death is really the emotional center of the whole poem: it’s what breaks Gilgamesh open and sends him into the wilderness, terrified of dying the same way, searching for the secret of eternal life.
He eventually finds Utnapishtim, a man the gods made immortal after surviving a great flood, and learns that Utnapishtim’s immortality was a one-time gift, not a rule Gilgamesh can follow himself. He goes home to Uruk empty-handed but changed. The epic never actually tells us how or when Gilgamesh himself died; what it gives us instead is a king who stops running from death and starts building something that will outlast him — the walls of his own city.
Who’s Who in the Epic of Gilgamesh
A quick reference for the gods, companions and rivals who move the story along:
| Name | Role in the Story |
|---|---|
| Enkidu | Wild man created by the gods to challenge Gilgamesh; becomes his closest friend |
| Ishtar | Goddess of love and war; sends the Bull of Heaven after Gilgamesh refuses her |
| Humbaba | Monstrous guardian of the Cedar Forest, killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu |
| Shamash | Sun god who favors Gilgamesh and helps him defeat Humbaba |
| Enlil | Chief god who decrees that Enkidu must die for Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven |
| Ninsun | Gilgamesh’s mother, a minor goddess who prays to Shamash on his behalf |
| Utnapishtim | Flood survivor granted immortality by the gods; Gilgamesh seeks him out |
| Urshanabi | Ferryman who carries Gilgamesh across the waters of death |
Why the Epic of Gilgamesh Still Matters
Strip away the gods and monsters and what’s left is the oldest version of a question I keep coming back to on the philosophy shelf: if none of us get to live forever, what’s actually worth building? Gilgamesh doesn’t get an answer so much as a redirection, from chasing immortality to leaving something behind. According to the World History Encyclopedia, that redirection — from fearing death to building meaning anyway — is what makes this the first real exploration of the question in world literature. It sits close enough to the ground I cover in 2 Da Point that I think of them as the same conversation, four thousand years apart.
Read the Full Text
I’ve kept the full text on this site for exactly this reason, so you don’t have to go hunting for a paywalled or heavily abridged version. Download it below, or visit the poetry collection for the rest of what’s on the shelf, including Rimbaud, Eliot and Lorca.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Gilgamesh die?
The epic never says directly. It follows Enkidu’s death in detail, and Gilgamesh’s own search for immortality afterward, but breaks off before describing Gilgamesh’s own death. What survives instead is a king who accepts mortality and turns to building the walls of Uruk as his lasting legacy.
Who is Enkidu?
Enkidu is a wild man created by the gods to humble Gilgamesh. After the two fight to a draw, they become inseparable friends, and Enkidu’s death partway through the epic is what drives Gilgamesh’s search for eternal life.
What is the Bull of Heaven?
The Bull of Heaven is a monster sent by the goddess Ishtar to destroy Uruk after Gilgamesh rejects her marriage proposal. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill it together, an act of glory that the gods ultimately punish.
Why does Gilgamesh want to kill Humbaba?
Partly for glory and partly to leave a lasting name behind him, Gilgamesh sets out to kill Humbaba, guardian of the Cedar Forest, and claim its sacred cedar trees. It’s one of the clearest early signs of his fear of being forgotten.
Who is Ishtar in the Epic of Gilgamesh?
Ishtar is the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war. When Gilgamesh publicly rejects her proposal of marriage, she sends the Bull of Heaven against Uruk in retaliation, setting the epic’s final tragedies in motion.
If this is your first stop on the site, read more about why I keep texts like this one here, or head back to the poetry collection for what else is on the shelf.