The Song of Gilgamesh & Other Ancient Flood Stories IX

Supplementary Materials IX

The Song of Gilgamesh

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT-5

I. The King of Uruk

In Uruk’s walls the king stood tall,
A giant born of god and clay,
With restless heart and iron will,
He bent the world to his sway.

The people sighed beneath his hand,
And to the gods their cries were cast,
“Send one to match his might and pride,
That this fierce storm may break at last.”

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II. Enkidu of the Wilds

From sacred clay the gods did form
A man of earth, of breath, of bone.
Enkidu roamed where lions fed,
His heart untamed, his spirit grown.

But love and song the wild unmade,
And to the city he was led.
He met the king in battle fierce,
And brothers rose where blood was shed.

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III. The Cedar Forest

“Let us go where cedars rise,”
Said Gilgamesh with burning fire.
“To fell the beast, to carve our names,
Upon the bark of gods’ desire.”

Humbaba roared — the forest shook —
Yet two hearts struck as one bright flame.
The monster fell, the forest wept,
And men returned with glory’s name.

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IV. The Bull of Heaven

Ishtar came with silken hand,
“Be mine, O king, O flame of might.”
But scorned, she summoned Heaven’s bull
To turn their day to endless night.

They struck the beast; its fury bled.
But gods remembered every wrong.
Enkidu, beloved of Gilgamesh,
Fell silent where he once was strong.

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V. The Wanderer

The king now roamed the sunless lands,
Where scorpions guard the gates of dusk.
He sought Utnapishtim’s shore,
Where death is hushed and ages rust.

“Tell me the path to endless breath,”
Cried Gilgamesh beneath the stars.
The old one whispered, “None shall live
Beyond the hands of death’s bright bars.”

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VI. The Serpent’s Theft

Yet in the deep, a plant of life
Lay waiting in the shadowed stream.
He seized the gift, his hope renewed,
His heart alight with mortal dream.

But from the dark, a serpent came,
It took the flower, shed its skin.
And Gilgamesh, with empty hands,
Stood older than he’d ever been.

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VII. The Walls of Uruk

Back to Uruk’s shining gate
The weary king returned once more.
He touched the stones his hands had raised,
And felt their weight, their ancient core.

“No god am I,” he softly spoke,
“Nor shall my body ever stay.
But these proud walls, these deeds of men,
Will sing my name when I’m away.”

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Epilogue

So ends the tale of mortal might,
Of love and loss, of gods and men.
The oldest song the clay can hold
Still hums beneath the desert wind.

- ChatGPT

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✨ Themes and Legacy

• Mortality and Meaning: Even the mightiest must face death.

• Friendship: Enkidu humanizes Gilgamesh, changing him from tyrant to hero.

• Wisdom through Loss: True greatness is not in living forever, but in living well.

• Cultural Echo: The flood story in this epic predates and influenced later tales, including the story of Noah.

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An  Abridged Retelling of

The Epic of Gilgamesh

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT-5

• Importance: It is one of humanity’s oldest remembered stories, dating back over 4,000 years.

• Date: The earliest written Sumerian tablets are around c. 2100 BCE; the earliest standardized version is around c. 1200 BCE from Akkad.

• Place: The source of the Legend originates from within Ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).

• Why it endures: Because it tells the timeless human story of love, death, and the search for meaning.

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🌿 1. The Mighty King of Uruk

Long ago, in the city of Uruk, there ruled a king named Gilgamesh - two-thirds god and one-third human. He was powerful and wise, but also arrogant. His people cried out to the gods for relief from his pride and tyranny.

🐂 2. The Wild Man, Enkidu

The gods responded by creating Enkidu, a wild man of the steppe, strong and free, living among animals. A temple priestess tamed him through kindness and love, and he came to Uruk to challenge Gilgamesh.

The two men wrestled fiercely - neither could win. And so, they became best friends, brothers in spirit.

🪓 3. The Cedar Forest

Eager for glory, Gilgamesh persuaded Enkidu to journey to the Cedar Forest, home of Humbaba, a monstrous guardian. Together they defeated Humbaba with courage and divine help, cutting down the great cedars and bringing the wood back to Uruk.

Their fame grew - but so did the gods’ displeasure.

💔 4. The Bull of Heaven and Enkidu’s Death

The goddess Ishtar fell in love with Gilgamesh, but when he rejected her, she sent the Bull of Heaven to punish him. Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed the bull.

For this insult to the gods, the council of heaven declared that Enkidu must die. He fell ill and cursed his fate. Gilgamesh wept bitterly over the loss of his friend.

🕊 5. The Quest for Immortality

Stricken by grief and terrified of his own death, Gilgamesh set out on a journey to find eternal life. He crossed deserts and seas to find Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Great Flood — the Mesopotamian Noah — who had been granted immortality by the gods.

Utnapishtim told him:

“The gods gave eternal life to me alone. Death is the fate of all mortals.”

He offered Gilgamesh a test — to stay awake for six days and seven nights - but Gilgamesh failed. Still, Utnapishtim revealed the secret of a plant that could restore youth.

🐍 6. The Serpent and the Return

Gilgamesh found the plant, but as he bathed in a cool spring, a serpent stole it away, shedding its skin and slithering off. Gilgamesh wept again - but this time, more wisely. He returned to Uruk, realizing immortality belongs to the gods.

🏛 7. The End of the Journey

Standing atop the great walls of Uruk, Gilgamesh admired what he had built.

He understood that human deeds, friendships, and the memory we leave behind are what endure, not eternal life.

“Look at the walls of Uruk,” he said. “They will outlast me. This is my immortality.”

 

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The Epic Of Gilgamesh In Sumerian

by Peter Pringle

The Epic of Gilgamesh - Sumerian Mythology

by "See U in History"

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What are the Oldest Remembered Legends?

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT-5

🏺 1. The “Epic of Gilgamesh” (c. 2100-1200 BCE, Mesopotamia)

• Origin: Ancient Sumeria (Uruk, in modern Iraq)

• Written form: c. 2100 BCE on clay tablets in cuneiform (Old Babylonian versions); standardized around 1200 BCE.

• Language: Sumerian and Akkadian.

• Plot: Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, seeks immortality after the death of his friend Enkidu.

• Themes: Friendship, mortality, gods and humans, the flood narrative.

✅ Why it matters:

• Widely regarded as the world’s oldest surviving literary work.

• Contains a flood story that predates the biblical Noah narrative.

• Survived as both oral myth and written epic.

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🌊 2. Aboriginal Australian Flood and Landscape Myths (possibly 10,000+ years old)

• Origin: Indigenous peoples of Australia.

• Estimated age: At least 10,000 years, possibly older.

• Medium: Oral storytelling traditions (Dreamtime).

• Content: Stories describe rising sea levels and the flooding of land bridges - now corroborated by geological evidence.

✅ Why it matters:

• These oral traditions encode accurate environmental memory over millennia.

• They may be the oldest continuously told stories in human history.

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🐍 3. The Descent of Inanna (c. 1900-1600 BCE, Sumeria)

• Origin: Sumerian city-states.

• Plot: Inanna (Ishtar), goddess of love and war, journeys into the underworld and dies, then returns to life.

• Themes: Death and rebirth, feminine power, cosmic order.

✅ Why it matters:

• One of the oldest myths of descent and resurrection, influencing later myths (Persephone, Osiris, Jesus).

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⛵ 4. The Pyramid Texts & Egyptian Creation Myths (c. 2400 BCE)

• Origin: Old Kingdom Egypt.

• Content: Creation myths, afterlife journeys, sun god Ra, Osiris myth cycle.

• Medium: Hieroglyphic inscriptions inside pyramids.

✅ Why it matters:

• Some of the earliest religious texts ever written.

• Echo oral traditions that likely go back much further.

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🏞 5. Indo-European and Vedic Creation Hymns (c. 1500-1200 BCE)

• Origin: Ancient India.

• Text: Rig Veda (Nasadiya Sukta).

• Themes: Cosmic origins, the birth of the universe from the “non-existent.”

• Medium: Oral hymns later written in Sanskrit.

✅ Why it matters:

• Among the oldest surviving religious-philosophical hymns.

• Still recited today in traditional Vedic ceremonies.

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🌍 6. Other Ancient Story Traditions with Deep Time Roots

• Greek myths (e.g., Titanomachy, c. 800 BCE - but rooted in earlier Indo-European myth).

• Biblical Genesis (compiled c. 6th-5th century BCE, drawing from earlier Mesopotamian sources).

• Chinese flood myths (Yu the Great, c. 2000 BCE oral roots).

• Native American and Polynesian origin stories, often describing migrations and land formations tied to geological events.

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🧠 Why These Stories Endure

• They encode cosmic explanations, ethical codes, and environmental memory.

• Many are mythopoetic - meaning they carry both cultural and existential meaning.

• Some (especially Indigenous stories) may have survived continuously for 10,000+ years, making them the oldest remembered narratives on Earth.

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🏆 Summary of the Oldest Stories Still Remembered

Story / Tradition	Region	Estimated Age	Transmission	Notes
Aboriginal Dreamtime Myths	Australia	10,000+ years	Oral	Flood and landscape myths tied to real events.
Epic of Gilgamesh	Mesopotamia	c. 2100 BCE	Written & oral	Oldest written epic.
Descent of Inanna	Sumeria	c. 1900 BCE	Written & oral	Proto-resurrection myth.
Pyramid Texts	Egypt	c. 2400 BCE	Written	Early afterlife & creation myths.
Vedic Hymns (Nasadiya Sukta)	India	c. 1500 BCE	Oral & written	Still recited today.

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👉 Summary:

• Oldest written story: Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100 BCE)

• Oldest still told story: Aboriginal Dreamtime flood myths (10,000+ years)

• Oldest religious-philosophical hymn still recited: Nasadiya Sukta (Rig Veda, c. 1500 BCE)

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~ Return to Introduction ~

Evolution of Worship & Religion

• Introduction
• Maps, Tables & Data
• A Proposed Outline
• Resources

• Part I - Foundations: The Birth of the Sacred
• Essay 1 - Animism and the Living Cosmos
• Essay 2 - From Tribe to Totem

• Part II - The Age of Gods
• Essay 3 - The Mesopotamian Fertile Crescent
• Essay 4 - Egypt, Indus, and Minoa Sacred Cultures
• Essay 5 - From Polytheism to Henotheism

• Part III - Axial Awakenings
• Essay 6 - Ancient Israel, Persia, and Monotheism
• Essay 7 - India's Axial Age
• Essay 8 - Greece and the Birth of Reason

• Part IV - The Sacred Made Universal
• Essay 9 - The Age of Universal Religions
• Essay 10 - Modernity and the Eclipse of the Sacred
• Essay 11 - The Rebirth of the Sacred
• Essay 12 - A Processual Summation of Worship and Religion
• Essay 13 - The Way of Cruciformity: When God Refused Power

• Part V - Supplementary Materials
• I - The Ancient History of Mesopotamia
• II - The History of Language in Ancient Mesopotamia
• III - The Ancient History of the Hebrew Language
• IV(A-C) How the Ancient Near East Gave Shape to Israel's God
• Why the ANE is Essential for Israel's Received Theology (I-II)
• Affecting Cultic Syncretism Across the Ancient Near East (III-V)
• Cultural Identity Formation & the Rejection of Syncretism (VI-IX)
• V (A-C) The History & Compilation of the Hebrew Bible
• From Oral Memory to Proto-Canon (I-II)
• Exile, Redaction, and the Birth of Scripture (III)
• Second Temple Scribalization to Canonization (IV-V)
• VI - The Unhelpful Oxymorons of "Biblical Authority" & "Inerrancy"
• VII - The Evolution of Inerrancy: From Ancient Plurality to Modern Certainty
• VIII - A Historical-Theological Study of "Son of Man" vs "Son of God"
• IX - The Song of Gilgamesh & Other Ancient Flood Stories

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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I. Primary Ancient Texts (Translations & Editions)

George, Andrew.

The Epic of Gilgamesh. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

→ Definitive critical edition with transliteration, translation, and commentary.

George, Andrew.

The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

→ Scholarly reference standard for Akkadian tablets.

Dalley, Stephanie.

Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others. Rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

→ Includes Atrahasis, Enuma Elish, and flood narratives.

Foster, Benjamin R.

The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation, Analogues, Criticism. New York: Norton, 2001.

→ Highly readable translation with comparative materials.

Kovacs, Maureen Gallery.

The Epic of Gilgamesh. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989.

→ Clear academic translation widely used in teaching.

Sandars, N. K.

The Epic of Gilgamesh. London: Penguin Classics, 1972 (rev. ed. 2003).

→ Influential literary translation that popularized the epic.

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II. Flood Narratives & Comparative Mythology

Lambert, W. G., and A. R. Millard.

Atrahasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.

→ Core Mesopotamian flood text predating Gilgamesh Tablet XI.

Pritchard, James B. (ed.).

Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. 3rd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.

→ Comparative flood texts (Mesopotamian, biblical, Egyptian).

Tigay, Jeffrey H.

The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.

→ Traces oral-to-written development and flood integration.

Frazer, James George.

Folk-Lore in the Old Testament. London: Macmillan, 1918.

→ Classic comparative myth study (methodologically dated but historically important).

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III. Aboriginal Australian Flood & Landscape Memory

Reid, Nick et al.

“Aboriginal Memories of Inundation of the Australian Coast Dating from More Than 7,000 Years Ago.”

Australian Geographer 46, no. 2 (2015): 1–15.

Nunn, Patrick D., and Nicholas Reid.

“Aboriginal Memories of Sea-Level Change and Coastal Flooding.”

Quaternary Science Reviews 55 (2013): 1–11.

Chatters, James C. et al.

Stories Written in Stone: Oral Traditions and Geological Memory.

→ Demonstrates long-term cultural memory of floods.

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IV. Egyptian, Vedic, and Ancient Cosmologies

Allen, James P.

The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005.

Assmann, Jan.

Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005.

Jamison, Stephanie W., and Joel P. Brereton.

The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

O’Flaherty, Wendy Doniger.

Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook. New York: Penguin Classics, 1975.

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V. Oral Tradition, Memory, and Myth Theory

Ong, Walter J.

Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Routledge, 1982.

Assmann, Jan.

Cultural Memory and Early Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Eliade, Mircea.

Myth and Reality. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.

Lord, Albert B.

The Singer of Tales. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960.

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VI. Archaeology, History, and Material Culture

George, Andrew.

“Gilgamesh.”

The British Museum Essays, 2019.

Van De Mieroop, Marc.

A History of the Ancient Near East. 3rd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016.

Woolley, Leonard.

Ur of the Chaldees. London: Ernest Benn, 1929.

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VII. Modern Interpretive & Philosophical Works

Campbell, Joseph.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949.

Armstrong, Karen.

A Short History of Myth. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2005.

Bottéro, Jean.

Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Whitehead, Alfred North.

Religion in the Making. New York: Macmillan, 1926.

→ Relevant for processual interpretations of myth and memory.

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VIII. Museum & Digital Resources (Illustrations)

• British Museum – Gilgamesh Tablets Collection

• Louvre Museum – Mesopotamian Reliefs and Cylinder Seals

• The Oriental Institute (University of Chicago) – Cuneiform Archives

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Ancient Near East Collection

(Useful for high-resolution images, reliefs, tablets, and seals.)