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The Epic of Gilgamesh, from ancient Mesopotamia (today's Iraq), is one of the oldest surviving works of literature; the first poems about its hero were written down about 4,000 years ago. It follows Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, whose grief at the death of his friend Enkidu sends him in search of eternal life.

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The first Gilgamesh poems were written in Sumerian around 2100 BC, and by about 1800 BC they had been joined into one story in Akkadian, the language of Babylon. The best-known version fills twelve clay tablets in cuneiform, a script of wedge-shaped marks pressed into wet clay. In it, Gilgamesh finds Utnapishtim, the man who survived a great flood, and wins a plant that restores youth, but a snake steals it while he bathes. He goes home to Uruk and takes pride in its great walls, the work that will outlast him. The epic was forgotten once cuneiform fell out of use. Tablets turned up in 1853 in the ruins of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh, and in 1872 George Smith of the British Museum caused a sensation when he deciphered its flood story, so close to Noah's.

Türkçe oku
Gılgamış Destanı, günümüze ulaşan en eski edebî eserlerden biridir: Kahramanını anlatan ilk şiirler yaklaşık 4.000 yıl önce, eski Mezopotamya'da (bugünkü Irak) yazıya geçirildi. Destan, dostu Enkidu'nun ölümüyle sarsılan Uruk kralı Gılgamış'ın ölümsüzlüğü arayışını anlatır.

Gılgamış'ı anlatan ilk şiirler MÖ 2100 dolaylarında Sümerce yazıldı. MÖ 1800 civarında bu şiirler, Babil'in dili Akadcayla yazılmış tek bir destanda birleşmişti. En bilinen hâli on iki kil tablete yayılır ve çivi yazısıyla yazılmıştır; bu yazının işaretleri, ıslak kile bastırılan kama biçimli çentiklerdir. Destanda Gılgamış, büyük tufandan kurtulan Utnapiştim'i bulur ve gençliği geri getiren bir bitki ele geçirir; ama o yıkanırken bitkiyi bir yılan çalar. Uruk'a döner ve kendisinden sonra da ayakta kalacak kent surlarıyla övünür. Çivi yazısı unutulunca destan da unutuldu. Tabletler 1853'te Ninova'da, Asur kralı Asurbanipal'in kütüphanesinin kalıntıları arasında bulundu. 1872'de British Museum'dan George Smith, Nuh tufanına çok benzeyen tufan anlatısını çözüp okuyunca büyük yankı uyandırdı.

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Background reading: Epic of Gilgamesh
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