By modern measurements, Gilgamesh stood 5.5 metres tall. His massive physical stature, according to Helle, is a symbol of other superlative aspects of his personality.
It is also a source of much conjecture, for the hero king on whom the story is based, Gilgamesh is quoted as being two-thirds god and one-third human.
Our first report on Gilgamesh is that he is "lordly in appearance" (1. 28) and that his body was modeled by Aruru to be "beautiful, handsomest of men, perfect" (1. 49-50). That description, though, isn't just about his outward appearance.
The tale revolves around a legendary hero named Gilgamesh (Bilgames in Sumerian), who was said to be the king of the Sumerian city of Uruk. His father is identified as Lugalbanda, king of Uruk, and his mother is the wise cow goddess Ninsun.
According to the story, Gilgamesh was part god and part man. His mother was Ninsun, a goddess, and his father, Lugalbanda, was the half-god king of Uruk.
It all gets started when Ishtar develops a mammoth crush on Gilgamesh after he and Enkidu return from killing Humbaba. Ishtar isn't shy about making her feelings known: she marches right up to Gilgamesh and asks him to marry her.
Accordingly, Gilgamesh was a demigod who was said to have lived an exceptionally long life (the Sumerian King List records his reign as 126 years) and to be possessed of super-human strength.
The Epic of Gilgamesh originated with the Sumerians, so he would have been one of them. But Sumerian isn't a “race”. They were a group of people who spoke the Sumerian language and lived in what is now Iraq. The name Gilgamesh shows up in the Sumerian king lists, making him semi-historical.
Other Sumerian poems relate Gilgamesh's defeat of the giant Huwawa and the Bull of Heaven, while a fifth, poorly preserved poem relates the account of his death and funeral. In later Babylonian times, these stories were woven into a connected narrative.
Humbaba appears in multiple works of Mesopotamian literature focused on the hero Gilgamesh, in which he invariably acts as his adversary during a quest to obtain cedar wood from a distant forest.
Interesting Facts About the Epic of Gilgamesh
The story was first translated by archeologist George Smith in 1872. Many tablets telling the story of Gilgamesh have been recovered from the famous Assyrian library in the ancient city of Nineveh. Gilgamesh's mother was the goddess Ninsun.
The Gilgamesh referred to in the Epic has an historical correlate in a King Gilgamesh who is mentioned in lists of Sumerian kings, but there is no definitive evidence regarding his life and actions apart from the fragmentary texts that comprise the Epic.
Gilgamesh is a dignified man with golden hair standing up like a blazing flame. His face is described as handsome, and his eyes, crimson like blood, are visibly not those of a human and give off a mysterious radiance that makes people wither.
He is the King of Uruk, a splendid, high-walled city in southern Mesopotamia. His mother was a goddess and his father a mortal. Accordingly, he is a fine specimen of a man, eleven cubits (seventeen feet) tall and four cubits from nipple to nipple.
Gilgamesh attempts to use Shinji as the core of the Holy Grail, but he is killed by Archer after being cornered by Shirou. It is interesting to note that in Unlimited Blade Works, Gilgamesh was depicted as a complete monster, unlike his other appearances in other Fate titles and routes.
The oldest surviving literary work is The Epic of Gilgamesh. It was composed nearly 4,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia (roughly equivalent to where Iraq and eastern Syria are now). No one knows who wrote it, or why, or what readership or audience it was intended for.
Gilgamesh found the secret to eternal life
Tormented, he met Utnapishtim, a simple devout who survived a flood and was granted immortality. He shared him the secret of eternal life with Gilgamesh. Utnapishtim told him that if he could remain awake for the next 6 days, he would be given eternal life.
While Cú Chulainn has the Gáe Bolg that became famous, Gilgamesh possesses a weapon that later became the Gáe Bolg, but was not famous at the time Gilgamesh owned it. The only item contained in the vault that was not passed on to another user than Gilgamesh is Ea, a sword unique to only Gilgamesh.
The gods realize that they have let Gilgamesh become too proud and arrogant and resolve to punish him for killing their servants, Humbaba, and the bull. Because Shamash intercedes for Gilgamesh, the gods decide to punish him by sending an illness to kill Enkidu instead.
Superhuman Strength: Gilgamesh is among the physically strongest of the Eternals. While the limit of Gilgamesh's strength was unknown, he was capable of lifting well in excess of 100 tons.
Another notable character is characterized by strength: the goddess Ishtar. Ishtar's case is especially interesting because as a goddess she is greater than Gilgamesh the human, but as a woman she is lesser than Gilgamesh the man.
The epic describes the relationship between Gilgamesh, the great powerful ruler of Uruk, and Enkidu, a male created by the gods to divert Gilgamesh from wreaking havoc in the world. Gilgamesh and Enkidu become comrades, friends, and probably lovers before Enkidu dies at the hands of the fates.
Beowulf dates to somewhere between 975 to 1025 AD. The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, however, dates to 2150 to 1400 BC.
What we get in The Epic of Gilgamesh is a story older than the Iliad or Odyssey and older still than the earliest surviving texts for the Old Testament. The Epic of Gilgamesh, not Homer nor the Hebrew bible, is the starting-point of 'great' recorded literature.
He fails in his quest for physical immortality, but the gods take mercy on him and allow him to visit his friend Enkidu in the underworld. In the end, like other heroes of ancient mythology, Gilgamesh did achieve immortality through legend and the written word.