"The Epic of Gilgamesh"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (anonymous), which was discovered in the mid-nineteenth century in the ruins of the great library at Nineva, was written on twelve clay tablets in the ancient Sumerian writing known as cuneiform and dated to 650 B.C. but pieces of the tablets were from 2000 B.C.. The author points out that these tablets are not necessarily the original writing, since certain linguistics believe that the story was written well before 2000 B.C., which is a definite possibility considering the fact that "The Epic of Gilgamesh" was originally an oral tradition passed down through generations. The paper relates that a major interest is that the flood written in "Gilgamesh" is almost identical to the flood story found in the Book of Genesis in the Bible.

From the Paper:

"The story of "Gilgamesh" is essentially related to the ancient Sumerian culture, mainly since it is thought by some that the King truly did exist and the story is based on his real life rule. In the story, Gilgamesh rules the ancient Mesopotamian town of Uruk which actually existed at some point in time. He is said to be the son of the god Ninsun and a mortal father, however, historians have not obtained clear details on that matter. Although it is unclear whether or not King Gilgamesh actually existed, the story still acted as in "instructive text" for the people of Mesopotamia."

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