楔形文字的记录

《吉尔伽美什史诗》记载，吉尔伽美什命令兴建乌鲁克的城墙。在史诗的尾段，吉尔伽美什向渡船人乌沙那毕（Urshanabi）吹嘘城墙由七圣贤所建。史书记载，阿卡德王萨尔贡将城墙破坏以展示军事实力。

虽然缺乏直接的证据，大部分学者认为吉尔伽美什真有其人，主要是出土的刻文确认了一些与他相关的人在历史上曾经出现，如恩美巴拉格西和基什之阿伽。若吉尔伽美什确有其人，他的统治年期应大约在公元前2600年。一些苏美尔尔的早期文献将他的名字串成“Bilgames”。由于最初未能充份掌握阅读楔形文字，吉尔伽美什要到1891年才被发现，而且是以“Izdubar”的名字出现。

大部分文献中，吉尔伽美什被标示为神明（丁吉尔），但并无证据显示他当时已被神化；而根据有关吉尔伽美什的神话，他被神化应是后来的事（与阿卡德王的神化不同）。正因如此，其他历史人物的故事可能被张冠李戴，当成是吉尔伽美什的故事，尤其是拉格什第二王朝的统治者古地亚的事迹（前2144年—前2124年）。

无论《吉尔伽美什史诗》是否根据历史原型所作，吉尔伽美什是该史诗的主角，而其名字也曾出现在希腊神话故事中，名字为“Gilgamos”（Γιλγαμος）。该故事与珀尔修斯故事相类似，讲述巴比伦国王相信其孙会杀死他的预言，于是国王将他的孙从高塔投下，但却跌在一只鹰上，跌势被大为减缓，后来婴儿被园丁发现并抚养成人。

生平

吉尔伽美什即位后的第一件事，即为杀掉森林之神胡姆巴巴。此事的象征意义乃在于，指出农耕文明乃是由征服大自然所发展出来，其本质乃在于对大自然之迫害。

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参见

• 吉尔伽美什史诗

注释

参考文献

• 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.