楔形文字的記錄

《吉爾伽美什史詩》記載，吉爾伽美什命令興建烏魯剋的城墻。在史詩的尾段，吉爾伽美什嚮渡船人烏沙那畢（Urshanabi）吹噓城墻由七聖賢所建。史書記載，阿卡德王薩爾貢將城墻破壞以展示軍事實力。

雖然缺乏直接的證據，大部分學者認為吉爾伽美什真有其人，主要是出土的刻文確認了一些與他相關的人在歷史上曾經出現，如恩美巴拉格西和基什之阿伽。若吉爾伽美什確有其人，他的統治年期應大約在公元前2600年。一些蘇美爾爾的早期文獻將他的名字串成“Bilgames”。由於最初未能充份掌握閱讀楔形文字，吉爾伽美什要到1891年纔被發現，而且是以“Izdubar”的名字出現。

大部分文獻中，吉爾伽美什被標示為神明（丁吉爾），但並無證據顯示他當時已被神化；而根據有關吉爾伽美什的神話，他被神化應是後來的事（與阿卡德王的神化不同）。正因如此，其他歷史人物的故事可能被張冠李戴，當成是吉爾伽美什的故事，尤其是拉格什第二王朝的統治者古地亞的事跡（前2144年—前2124年）。

無論《吉爾伽美什史詩》是否根據歷史原型所作，吉爾伽美什是該史詩的主角，而其名字也曾出現在希臘神話故事中，名字為“Gilgamos”（Γιλγαμος）。該故事與珀爾修斯故事相類似，講述巴比倫國王相信其孫會殺死他的預言，於是國王將他的孫從高塔投下，但卻跌在一隻鷹上，跌勢被大為減緩，後來嬰兒被園丁發現並撫養成人。

生平

吉爾伽美什即位後的第一件事，即為殺掉森林之神鬍姆巴巴。此事的象徵意義乃在於，指出農耕文明乃是由徵服大自然所發展出來，其本質乃在於對大自然之迫害。

相關創作

• Fate係列：聖杯戰爭中登場的英靈，為人類最古老的英雄王。在Fate/stay night、Fate/Zero、Fate/strange Fake中擔任職階Archer。在Fate/EXTRA中沒有職階。在Fate/Grand Order中擔任職階Archer和Caster。配音員：關智一，幼年姿態則為遠藤綾。
• Final Fantasy：ギルガメッシュ
• 魔界王子 devils and realist
• Puzzle & Dragons竜族拼圖：美索不達米亞係列神，火屬性卡片
• 神魔之塔：地獄級關卡的地獄魔王。
• 怪物彈珠
• Crash Fever：超巫師級BOSS
• Divine Gate
• 文明帝國VI：蘇美爾文明的領袖
• 惡魔獵人4：但丁的武器拳套
• 暗影詩章：8費中立銀卡
• 黑騎士と白の魔王：英雄王 吉爾伽美什
• 《十項王子》：作者池上遼一，後來時報文化取得版權後更名為《帝王之子》。
• 《不死煉金術師》：配角
• 《遊戲王》:DDD深淵王-吉爾伽美什 首次定場於LVP2卡包，為強化DDD牌組的連結怪獸。

參見

• 吉爾伽美什史詩

註釋

參考文獻

• Damrosch, David. The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh. Henry Holt and Co. 2007. ISBN 0-805-08029-5.
• George, Andrew , The Epic of Gilgamesh: the Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian, Harmondsworth: Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1999 (published in Penguin Classics 2000, reprinted with minor revisions, 2003. ISBN 0-14-044919-1
• George, Andrew, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic - Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2 volumes, 2003.
• Foster, Benjamin R., trans. & edit. The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2001. ISBN 0-393-97516-9.
• Hammond, D. & Jablow, A. , "Gilgamesh and the Sundance Kid: the Myth of Male Friendship", in Brod, H. (ed.), The Making of Masculinities: The New Men's Studies, Boston, 1987, pp. 241–258.
• Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, transl. with intro. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Stanford University Press: Stanford, California. 1985,1989. ISBN 0-8047-1711-7. Glossary, Appendices, Appendix (Chapter XII=Tablet XII). A line-by-line translation (Chapters I-XI).
• Jackson, Danny. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. 1997. ISBN 0-86516-352-9.
• Mitchell, Stephen. Gilgamesh: A New English Version. New York: Free Press. 2004. ISBN 0-7432-6164-X.
• Oberhuber, K., ed. Das Gilgamesch-Epos. Darmstadt: Wege der Forschung. 1977.
• Parpola, Simo, with Mikko Luuko, and Kalle Fabritius. The Standard Babylonian, Epic of Gilgamesh. The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. 1997. ISBN 951-45-7760-4 (Volume 1).

Gilgamesh (Sumerian: 𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒈨𒌋𒌋𒌋, romanized: Gilgameš; originally Sumerian: 𒀭𒉋𒂵𒈩, romanized: Bilgamesh)^[a] was a major hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was also most likely a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who was posthumously deified. His rule probably would have taken place sometime between 2800 and 2500 BC, though he became a major figure in Sumerian legend during the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112 – c. 2004 BC).

Tales of Gilgamesh's legendary exploits are narrated in five surviving Sumerian poems. The earliest of these is most likely "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld", in which Gilgamesh comes to the aid of the goddess Inanna and drives away the creatures infesting her huluppu tree. She gives him two unknown objects, a mikku and a pikku, which he loses. After Enkidu's death, his shade tells Gilgamesh about the bleak conditions in the Underworld. The poem "Gilgamesh and Agga" describes Gilgamesh's revolt against his overlord King Agga. Other Sumerian poems relate Gilgamesh's defeat of the ogre Huwawa and the Bull of Heaven, while a fifth, poorly preserved poem apparently describes his death and funeral.

In later Babylonian times, these stories began to be woven into a connected narrative. The standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh was composed by a scribe named Sîn-lēqi-unninni, probably during the Middle Babylonian Period (c. 1600 – c. 1155), based on much older source material. In the epic, Gilgamesh is a demigod of superhuman strength who befriends the wildman Enkidu. Together, they go on adventures, defeating Humbaba (Sumerian: Huwawa) and the Bull of Heaven, who is sent to attack them by Ishtar (Sumerian: Inanna) after Gilgamesh rejects her offer for him to become her consort. After Enkidu dies of a disease sent as punishment from the gods, Gilgamesh becomes afraid of his own death, and visits the sage Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Great Flood, hoping to find immortality. Gilgamesh repeatedly fails the trials set before him and returns home to Uruk, realizing that immortality is beyond his reach.

Most classical historians agree that the Epic of Gilgamesh exerted substantial influence on both the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems written in ancient Greek during the 8th century BC. The story of Gilgamesh's birth is described in an anecdote from On the Nature of Animals by the Greek writer Aelian (2nd century AD). Aelian relates that Gilgamesh's grandfather kept his mother under guard to prevent her from becoming pregnant, because he had been told by an oracle that his grandson would overthrow him. She became pregnant and the guards threw the child off a tower, but an eagle rescued him mid-fall and delivered him safely to an orchard, where he was raised by the gardener.

The Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal in 1849. After being translated in the early 1870s, it caused widespread controversy due to similarities between portions of it and the Hebrew Bible. Gilgamesh remained mostly obscure until the mid-20th century, but, since the late 20th century, he has become an increasingly prominent figure in modern culture.