Legends Summarized: The Epic of Gilgamesh

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The fact that the battle between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is obscured due to damage to the tablet seems hilariously poetic to me. Bros were fighting so hard they broke the record.

The irony of Enkidu wondering who'd Remember such a pointless death only to be part of the oldest known story in humanity is just brilliant

The myth of consensual sex “I consent!” “I consent!” Gilgamesh: Isn’t there someone you forgot to ask?

Interesting note on Shamat teaching Enkidu about being civilized through sex as well as her role as a sacred prostitute: for awhile orgasms were actually seen as a moment of clarity and connection with higher realms, etc. The euphoria and all that being a glimpse of enlightenment, so some old cultures actually thought having people around who could bring about the hardest nuts possible were good people to have around. So anyway, basically it seems the Epic of Gilgamesh was implying that by having sex for a fortnight, Shamat gave Enkidu post-nut clarity to last him the rest of his life.

I'm amused that Gilgamesh is genre savvy enough to know that sleeping with a goddess is a terrible idea, but not savvy enough to realize killing multiple divine beasts might have consequences.

The fact that the details of Enkidu and Gilgamesh's fight are obscured by literal damage to the text creates this beautiful symbolism of a fight so destructive it damaged the stone it was carved in- epic.

Fun fact: the man who first translated the tablets of the Epic, George Smith, was employed by the British museum only because of his sheer passion about the discoveries happening in Mesopotamia in those decades. He had no formal higher education, being from a poor family he had to abandon school and work at a low level job in a bank from the age of 14. He learned cuneiform and Akkadian by himself, reading the books and texts being published in those years by the first people studying the recent archaeological discoveries, during his free time. He was employed by the British Museum after the people working there noticed this “non academic” guy, who during every day the museum required no ticket/ had free entrance would spend his lunch break from the bank there, wasn’t simply looking at but actually reading the clay tablets exposed, and after talking to him they realized he was better at it than those museum employees themselves! About a decade later while randomly translating tablets from Ashurbanipal’s massive royal library, stored in the basement archive of the museum, he saw a tablet with a reference to what looked like the biblical flood myth (specifically the part about releasing birds to find land), he looked up which other tablets were supposed to go with that one and BAM now the world knew of the Epic of Gilgamesh (and the museum finally financed an expedition of his in Mesopotamia as he had dreamed to do for the longest time) Sometimes passion can truly get you places, kids

Kinda occurs to me that Enkidu was probably only alive for like, a couple years. He got made, lived in the wilderness, boned for two weeks, beat a guy up, became his best friend for life, killed two divine beasts and died. What a chad

You just gotta love Enkidu literally JUST joining human society, still learning how to use a fork, hearing about Gilgamesh and just going "OH HELL NAW, WHAT A DICK!" and going down to his place to beat some manners into him.

“HOW DARE HE RUIN THE WHOLESOME FUN OF CONSENSUAL BONING!” is yet another peak OSP moment for the books

The way Red's voice fades away as she says "I can't believe they'd do this to me" as if she's walking away is amazing

I love the irony of Gilgamesh being in Civ 6. Like his entire story is about accepting his mortality, and in Civ 6, he really is an immortal ruler

Man the comedic timing of the tablet breaking right as the fight begins like: “and they charge toward each other. Only one would possibly make it out alive from this… …tenderly held him in a warm embrace as they kissed”

Honestly the fact that the oldest story we know was preserved so well was because it was HOMEWORK is quacking hilarious to me.

The great thing about Gilgamesh's immortality isn't that he got his immortality in the most backward way, but the fact that his first journey failed and he came back to his city with nothing, but the second time he left he returned to a new city with immortality not just for him, but everyone he has ever met. It's beautiful.

Hey so as an Australian palaeontology student whose current lab project literally involves cleaning and preparing Diprotodon fossils, the acknowledgement of Aboriginal stories and their connection to history and the fossil record was a super cool surprise to see pop up!! Just another lil tidbit, the giant flightless bird Genyornis newtoni is referred to in the language of the Djab Wurrung people as mihirung paringmal (giant bird). That is a NAME for a specific animal that died out 30,000 years ago that has persisted in the language until today! Genyornis and its older and even bigger relatives like Dromornis are often referred to in Australian palaeontology as mihirungs for this reason.

"Immortality isn't out running death, it's outlasting it" Brilliant quote

I love Red's rant at the end. "Gilgamesh wasn't some twink, he was a bear."

“This? THIS is supposed to be Gilgamesh? This broomstick of a man?” I got a good laugh out of that spiel 😂