The epic of Gilgamesh, the king who tried to conquer death - Soraya Field Fiorio

In 1849, in the ancient city of Nineveh in northern Iraq, archaeologists sifted through dusty remains, hoping to find records to prove that Bible stories were true. What they found instead was one of the oldest libraries in the world. Inscribed on crumbling clay tablets was a 4,000-year-old story so riveting the first person to translate it started stripping from excitement.

Called the Epic of Gilgamesh, the story starts with Gilgamesh, king of the city of Uruk, crashing every wedding and sleeping with the bride before she has a chance to sleep with her husband. To tame Gilgamesh, the goddess Aruru created a rival called Enkidu. Enkidu lived beyond the walls of the city, where chaos reigned and wild animals, invaders, and evil spirits prowled. After a priestess of the goddess Ishtar seduced Enkidu, the wild animals beyond the wall rejected him, and he ventured into the city.

There, he encountered Gilgamesh up to his usual tricks. Enkidu stepped in to stop him. Almost perfectly matched, the two men wrestled all through the city streets until Gilgamesh won the fight by a hair. Afterwards, they were inseparable. With his new friend, Gilgamesh turned his attention from the brides of Uruk to proving his strength in combat.

They set out to slay Humbaba, a creature with a thousand faces who guarded the trees of the Forest of Cedar. They tracked Humbaba and ambushed him. Cornered, he begged for his life, then cursed them as Gilgamesh dealt the final blow. Back home in Uruk, the goddess Ishtar took a romantic interest in Gilgamesh. Knowing she tended to lose interest and curse her former flames, Gilgamesh refused her advances.

So Ishtar unleashed the Bull of Heaven on Uruk to destroy crops and kill people. When Gilgamesh and Enkidu slayed the creature defending the city, the gods killed Enkidu. He entered the House of Dust, the shadowy Mesopotamian underworld where the spirits of the dead knelt eternally on the ground, eating dirt and drinking stone. Grieving for Enkidu and terrified of meeting this fate himself, Gilgamesh set off beyond the cosmic mountains to seek immortality.

He passed scorpion people and groves of gemstone trees, travelled beneath the mountains, and outran the rising sun, until he finally came to the end of the world, where he found a bar. The bartender was a goddess named Shiduri, who urged Gilgamesh to give up his quest. She told him all mortals must die, but until death comes, he should enjoy his life. But Gilgamesh refused to give up.

Reluctantly, Shiduri gave him directions to cross the Waters of Death and meet the immortal man Utanapishti. The gods had granted Utanapishti immortality following a great flood, during which he built a boat, loaded two of every animal onto it, and landed on a mountain peak. Utanapishti also encouraged Gilgamesh to accept that death comes for everyone. But Gilgamesh still would not budge.

So Utanapishti told him that if he could conquer sleep, the gods might grant him immortality. Gilgamesh intended to stay awake for seven days but fell asleep immediately. Utanapishti then told him about a magical plant that grew at the bottom of the ocean and granted eternal youth. Though Gilgamesh successfully retrieved the plant, a snake stole it on his way home.

But when Gilgamesh laid eyes on his beautiful city again, he made peace with his mortality and vowed to spend his lifetime doing great deeds. He wrote his story on a lapis lazuli tablet and buried it under the city walls for future generations to find and learn from. The tablets uncovered in Nineveh were part of the library of the Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal. Though the story is mythical, Gilgamesh was probably a real king of Uruk. Versions of his tale date to 2000 BCE and perhaps even longer ago, and still echo through literature today.