Epic of Gilgamesh
Standard Version compiled c. 1300–1000 BCE from earlier Sumerian oral and written sources reaching back to the 3rd millennium BCE.
Source context· Persian stream · Ancient Persian cultural impulse
- Stream
- Persian
- Cultural impulse
- Ancient Persian (2nd post-Atlantean cultural age)
- Composed
- c. 1300 BCE
- Written down
- Egypto-Chaldean (3rd post-Atlantean cultural age) manuscript epoch
- Soul-faculty
- Sentient Soul
What this work carries
The Gilgamesh epic surfaces the transitional consciousness of the Egypto-Chaldean epoch, in which atavistic clairvoyance carried over from the Ancient Persian time was beginning to withdraw. Its older oral roots reach back into the third millennium BCE Sumerian mystery-wisdom and preserve the memory of the post-Atlantean Flood-mysteries.
Language frame
Akkadian heroic epic on twelve cuneiform tablets, composed in saga-form around an initiation-friendship between two contrasting individualities. The narrative form belongs to a stage when mystery-content could still be communicated as outer historical legend.
Steiner’s engagement
- GA 126, 1910-12-27Steiner treats the Gilgamesh epic as a document of occult evolution, identifying Uta-napishtim as the Babylonian Noah-figure and reading the epic as a record of post-Atlantean spiritual events.
- GA 233, 1923-12-26Steiner describes Gilgamesh and Eabani (Enkidu) as two individualities representing different stages in the descent of human ego-consciousness, with Gilgamesh retaining older clairvoyant faculties and Eabani having descended late from a planetary existence.
- GA 233, 1923-12-26Steiner identifies the high priest Xisuthros in the epic as the guardian of an ancient mystery that was a genuine successor to the Atlantean mysteries, which Gilgamesh sought out.
- GA 233, 1923-12-27Steiner extends the picture of Gilgamesh and Eabani by tracing their further incarnations and connecting their stream to the cosmic consciousness preserved in ancient mysteries up to Alexander.
- GA 233, 1923-12-29Steiner contrasts the Gilgamesh epoch with later western consciousness: in the time of the epic one cannot yet speak of memory of past ages, but of present experience of cosmic realities.
- GA 237, 1924-07-08Steiner returns to the individualities connected with the Gilgamesh epic in the karmic-relationships lectures, extending what was given at the Christmas Foundation Meeting.
Cross-tradition congruence
- Hebrew Flood narrative (Noah)Uta-napishtim's transmission of the Flood-account to Gilgamesh parallels the Noah tradition, both preserving the memory of the Atlantean catastrophe within post-Atlantean mystery-wisdom.
- Greek heroic initiation (Heracles, Achilles-Patroclus)The Gilgamesh-Eabani friendship as initiation-pair structurally anticipates the Greek hero-companion motif in which a more earthly and a more spiritual individuality work together.
- 1Preface — Thompson's 1928 preface
R. Campbell Thompson's preface to his 1928 verse translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the leading English version of its day. The Babylonian recension recovered from the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh in the 1850s; Thompson's editorial decisions and source-base.
1,474 words - 2Addenda et Corrigenda — Addenda et Corrigenda
Editorial corrections to Thompson's first printing. Errors of transliteration, missed cross-references, and minor textual variants identified between first manuscript and second printing.
132 words - 3The First Tablet: Of the Tyranny of Gilgamish, and the Creation of Enkidu — Tablet I — Gilgamesh's tyranny; Enkidu created
Opens the epic. Gilgamesh, two-thirds god and one-third man, king of Uruk, oppresses his subjects — no man's son is left to his father, no maid to her lover. The gods hear the people's outcry and create Enkidu, a wild man of the steppe, to be Gilgamesh's equal and so check his tyranny.
3,098 words - 4The Second Tablet: Of the Meeting of Gilgamish and Enkidu — Tablet II — Gilgamesh and Enkidu wrestle and become friends
The harlot Shamhat civilises Enkidu through six days and seven nights; he learns the ways of men. Coming to Uruk, he wrestles Gilgamesh at the city gate. Neither overcomes the other; they recognize equals and become inseparable friends.
1,099 words - 5The Third Tablet: The Expedition to the Forest of Cedars against Humbaba — Tablet III — The expedition to the Forest of Cedars
Gilgamesh proposes the great heroic expedition — to slay Humbaba, guardian of the Forest of Cedars, and bring back its timber. The elders of Uruk advise against; Ninsun the mother of Gilgamesh prays to Shamash; the friends set out.
2,849 words - 6The Fourth Tablet: The Arrival at the Gate of the Forest — Tablet IV — Arrival at the gate of the Forest
The journey of forty leagues a day across mountains and rivers. Five dream-visions of Gilgamesh on the way — bull, mountain, lion, thunderbird, fire — each interpreted by Enkidu as favourable. They reach the gate of the Forest of Cedars.
846 words - 7The Fifth Tablet: Of the Fight with Humbaba — Tablet V — The fight with Humbaba
The encounter with the giant Humbaba. The friends initially terrified; encouraged by Shamash who sends the thirteen winds against the monster. Humbaba pleads for his life; Enkidu insists Gilgamesh strike him down. The hero felled and the cedars cut for the temple of Enlil.
1,169 words - 8The Sixth Tablet: Of the Goddess Ishtar, Who Fell In Love With the Hero After His Exploit Against Humbaba — Tablet VI — Ishtar's wooing rejected; the Bull of Heaven
Ishtar, smitten with the post-Humbaba hero, offers herself in marriage. Gilgamesh's famous rebuke catalogues her former lovers and how each came to grief. Ishtar in fury demands the Bull of Heaven from Anu; Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the Bull and throw its hindquarters at Ishtar.
2,027 words - 9The Seventh Tablet: The Death of Enkidu — Tablet VII — The death of Enkidu
The gods judge that for the killing of Humbaba and of the Bull of Heaven, one of the two heroes must die. The lot falls on Enkidu. Twelve days of dying — Enkidu cursing the harlot who civilised him, then blessing her again; the vision of the House of Dust where the dead exist. Enkidu dies.
1,310 words - 10The Eighth Tablet: Of the Mourning of Gilgamish, and What Came of It — Tablet VIII — Mourning of Gilgamesh; the funeral
Gilgamesh's lament for Enkidu. Hear me, O elders of Uruk, hear me, O men! For seven days he refuses burial, hoping a worm will not appear from Enkidu's nose. The maggot at last; Enkidu buried; Gilgamesh dresses in the skin of a lion and wanders the wild.
749 words - 11The Ninth Tablet: Gilgamish In Terror of Death Seeks Eternal Life — Tablet IX — Gilgamesh in terror of death seeks eternal life
The hero's encounter with his own mortality. Must I also die as Enkidu? He sets out to find Uta-Napishtim, the survivor of the flood, who alone has been granted eternal life. The journey through the mountains of Mashu where the sun rises and sets; the scorpion-men; the long passage through darkness.
954 words - 12The Tenth Tablet: How Gilgamish Reached Uta-Napishtim — Tablet X — Siduri the ale-wife; Uta-Napishtim
Gilgamesh reaches the Garden of the Sun and the ale-wife Siduri who counsels him to eat thou and drink, and let thy heart rejoice — the famous proto-carpe diem of world literature. Refusing, he crosses the Waters of Death with the boatman Urshanabi to the island where Uta-Napishtim dwells.
2,320 words - 13The Eleventh Tablet: The Flood — Tablet XI — The Flood account; Gilgamesh's return
The most famous tablet — the Babylonian Flood narrative that Sumerian-Akkadian originals share with Genesis. Uta-Napishtim tells how Ea warned him in secret, how he built the great ark, how the seven-day flood destroyed mankind, how the gods regretted what they had done. The test of sleep that Gilgamesh fails; the plant of youth lost to a serpent.
3,172 words - 14The Twelfth Tablet: Gilgamish, In Despair, Enquires of the Dead — Tablet XII — The vision of the dead (a late appendix)
An appendix-tablet derived from a separate Sumerian poem (Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld). Gilgamesh causes Enkidu's shade to be raised; Enkidu describes the conditions of the dead — those who fell in battle, those who died unburied, those who died childless. The Babylonian eschatology in summary.
1,606 words
JSON: /api/sources/epic-of-gilgamesh/index.json · Back to Sources.