Gilgamesh: The World's First Superhero (& Thereby Hangs a Tale)

Hello everyone –

I’ve been invited to present an original story at this year’s Storytelling Festival, sponsored by the School of Information Sciences, on Saturday, April 15^th at 7:00 PM in Room 126 of the iSchool Building. My tale is entitled “The Lost Years of Gilgamesh: Before the Epic.” Some listmembers may recall that I dressed up as King Gilgamesh for Halloween last fall, and I’ve been working on my story ever since. :)

Here’s an article that I wrote about King Gilgamesh many years ago for the ACES James Scholars, to give you an introduction to this mighty superhero from the days of yesteryear. This is the story about Gilgamesh that most people are familiar with; my own tale of his younger years will reveal how he grew up to become a hero who is still remembered today all over the world.

“Leadership Lessons from Gilgamesh, the World’s First Superhero”

By Rob Chappell, M.A., Assistant to the Honors Dean

Adapted & Expanded from Cursus Honorum VII: 4 (November 2006)

            The Gilgamesh Epic is the oldest extant epic poem in world literature. Based on a series of Sumerian heroic poems from the late third millennium BCE, the epic was compiled in Mesopotamia around 2000 BCE in the Akkadian language. The plot of the epic revolves around the adventures of Gilgamesh, King of the city-state of Uruk, who was a real historical personage (fl. ca. 2650 BCE). The compilers of the epic wove together a cornucopia of heroic tales that had gathered around Gilgamesh into a single action-packed narrative.

            According to legend, Gilgamesh was the son of the human King Lugalbanda and the demigoddess Ninsun. The epic narrative opens with the story of how King Gilgamesh met the wildman Enkidu and describes how the two heroes became steadfast warrior-companions. The poem continues with exciting battle sequences, in which Gilgamesh and Enkidu destroyed the monster Humbaba in the Cedar Forest of Lebanon and slew the Bull of Heaven when it went rampaging through the streets of Uruk.

            The gods were angered by the slaying of the Bull of Heaven, so they afflicted Enkidu with a fatal illness. Gilgamesh was devastated by his warrior-companion’s death and set off on a quest to find the secret of immortality, lest he suffer the same fate as Enkidu. The King of Uruk passed through many perils as he journeyed to Dilmun (an island located far to the east, near the gates of the sunrise), where the sacred garden of the gods lay. There, Gilgamesh met Utnapishtim (the Mesopotamian equivalent of Noah), who along with his wife had been granted immortality after the great Flood.

            Gilgamesh found and then lost the secret of immortality on his way back to Uruk from Dilmun, but he returned to his native city a wiser man. As the epic poet wrote of him:

“He who has seen everything, I will make known to the lands. I will teach about him who experienced all things alike; Anu granted him the totality of knowledge of all. He saw the Secret, discovered the Hidden; he brought information of the time before the Flood. He went on a distant journey, pushing himself to exhaustion, but then was brought to peace. Take and read out from the lapis lazuli tablet how Gilgamesh went through every hardship. He walked through darkness and so glimpsed the light.”

à Gilgamesh Epic (Excerpts)

            What leadership lessons can we learn from Gilgamesh? He had discovered – through finding and loss – that true friendship can change one’s life forever. So leaders need to seek out and share the gift of friendship with the people around them. Gilgamesh had also learned that although death is unavoidable for mortals, we should celebrate life while it lasts and undertake heroic deeds to benefit others. In other words, leaders need to practice servant leadership and grow in greatness by helping other people to solve their problems. Because Gilgamesh exemplified the leadership lessons that he learned on his perilous journeys, he has become a pop culture hero in recent decades, as his story (which was lost for over 2000 years) has now been translated into several modern languages and adapted for the stage.

            Whatever historical truth may lie behind his legend, Gilgamesh is remembered still today because the leadership lessons that he exemplified are timeless truths that appear again and again throughout world literature. Mortality will come to us all, Gilgamesh would say, but while life lasts, let us spend it in service to others through heroic deeds and teaching wisdom by example.

Until next time –

Rob