Before Achilles fought in Troy, before King Arthur pulled Excalibur from the stone, and long before Hercules or Percy went on their adventure, there was Gilgamesh. A man, a myth, a legend.
His story, named The Epic of Gilgamesh, is the oldest recorded hero’s tale in human history. Written nearly 4,000 years ago, this ancient Babylonian epic gives us the first blueprint of what it means to be a hero, and what it's like to be great. The story has everything: an arrogant king, a wild best friend, battles with monsters, a desperate quest for immortality, and a realization that life’s meaning isn’t about living forever, but about leaving something behind. So from build up to climax everything is wonderful.
The story sounds familiar right? That’s because this story isn’t just old, it’s timeless.
Babylon: The Birthplace of Legends
To understand the story of Gilgamesh, and the man he later became, we first need to understand where he comes from. Imagine a land of towering ziggurats, golden palaces, and some of the earliest written laws in human history. The city is filled with richness and knowledge of Babylon.
Babylon wasn’t just a city; it was the heart of ancient civilization in the present day middle east. This was the place where writing was invented, where the first great libraries existed, and where people looked up at the stars and started mapping the heavens, the Makin story of fortunes and success. The Babylonians were storytellers, and one of their greatest stories took place in a city even older than Babylon itself, Uruk, the legendary home of Gilgamesh.
Uruk was one of the first true cities in human history, built by the Sumerians in modern-day Iraq. It was a place of wealth, power, and innovation. And at its center ruled a king who's story would become larger than his life itself.
Who Was Gilgamesh? The God-King with a Problem
Historians believe there was an actual King Gilgamesh who ruled Uruk around 2800–2500 BCE. But the stories written about him turned him into something far greater: a demigod, two-thirds divine and one-third human. (Don’t ask how that math works.)
The Gilgamesh of legend starts off as… well, kind of a bad role model. He’s an all-powerful king, but he’s arrogant, selfish, and makes his people’s lives miserable. Enjoying his own power while his citizens are miserable, the angry gods looking at this decide to humble him by creating Enkidu, a wild man who lives with animals. He was made to be an exact replica of Gilgamesh in every way. Strength, intelligence, power. He was created to punish Gilgamesh and make him realise his mistake of being overly greedy.
And here’s where things get interesting. Instead of fighting to the death, Gilgamesh and Enkidu become best friends. Think of it like two main characters of a story who respect each other's power and wanna get better then the other but have a brotherly bond. Two powerful warriors who push each other to new heights. Together, they set off on epic adventures, battling legendary beasts like Humbaba, the guardian of the Cedar Forest, and even the Bull of Heaven, sent by the goddess Ishtar after Gilgamesh rejects her. They were truly the most powerful duo, a fact God and goddess can't accept.
Full of jealousy on how they are getting praised and are making a name for themselves. While also angry at Enkidu for getting stray from his real path of showing Gilgamesh his place. Gods decide Enkidu must die for not following their order and asserting his own free will.
The Search for Immortality: A Quest Doomed to Fail
Enkidu’s death shatters Gilgamesh. This unstoppable warrior, this man who could take down gods, is suddenly afraid, not of battle, not of monsters, but of something far worse: death itself. He knows that as powerful he is, and how he can defeat anyone, he is still a human and one day he will lose to the final truth called death.
Afraid of this certain fact, Gilgamesh begins one of the most heartbreaking journeys in literature. Gilgamesh sets off on a desperate quest to find Utnapishtim, the only human to ever be granted immortality by the gods. If Gilgamesh can find the secret to eternal life, he’ll never have to face what happened to Enkidu.
But here’s the catch, immortality isn’t for humans. They can't handle it and would go mad.
Utnapishtim tests Gilgamesh, asking him to stay awake for seven days and nights to prove he’s worthy. Gilgamesh fails. Feeling pity for Gilgamesh, he is given another chance by a plant that restores youth, but even that is stolen by a snake, robbing him of his last chance at eternal life.
And this is where Gilgamesh learns the truth: the real way to live forever isn't by being alive in physical form but by leaving behind a legacy so strong that people from the future get inspired.
He returns to Uruk, wiser and humbled, no longer chasing immortality, but ready to rule as a true king. Writing this story on a tablet for the future generations and Makin himself truly immortal in every form.
Gilgamesh: The Blueprint for Every Hero That Followed
If this all sounds familiar, it’s because every hero’s journey in history has borrowed from Gilgamesh’s story.
The cocky hero who grows through loss? Achilles.
The warrior seeking a deeper meaning to life? Hercules.
The best friend whose death changes everything? Lancelot, Robin, even Tony Stark and Spider-Man.
The hero who returns home wiser? Odysseus, Frodo, Luke Skywalker.
Gilgamesh is the original blueprint, the first to ask the questions we still ask today: What makes life worth living? How do we deal with loss? What does it mean to leave a legacy?
The Legacy of Gilgamesh in Today’s World
For centuries, The Epic of Gilgamesh was lost. It wasn’t until the 1800s that archaeologists dug up the clay tablets containing his story in the ruins of Nineveh, in the Library of Ashurbanipal. And when scholars translated the text, they realized something incredible:
- It contained one of the earliest flood myths, eerily similar to the story of Noah’s Ark.
- It was the first recorded hero’s journey.
- It explored questions about life and death that are still relevant today.
And now, 4,000 years later, Gilgamesh is still everywhere. His influence can be found in literature, movies, philosophy, and even video games. If you’ve ever played Final Fantasy, you might have fought a character named Gilgamesh, a direct tribute to the legendary king.
But more importantly, his story reminds us of something profound:
We’re all going to die one day. But what do we do while we’re here? That’s what matters.
The First, and Forever, Hero
Babylon gave the world many things, great cities, written laws, advancements in astronomy, but perhaps its most enduring gift was the story of Gilgamesh. His tale isn’t just an old myth; it’s the foundation of storytelling itself.
Every hero that followed, every king, warrior, and lone wanderer searching for meaning, walked a path first carved out by a god-king from Uruk who learned that true immortality isn’t about never dying.
It’s about being remembered.
And in that way, Gilgamesh really did achieve eternal life.