Editing Gilgamesh (section)

===In antiquity===
[[File:Guido Reni - Polyphemus - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The episode involving [[Odysseus]]'s confrontation with [[Polyphemus]] in the ''[[Odyssey]]'', shown in this seventeenth-century painting by [[Guido Reni]], bears similarities to Gilgamesh and Enkidu's battle with Humbaba in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''.{{sfn|Anderson|2000|pages=127–128}}]]
[[File:Indus valley civilization "Gilgamesh" seal (2500-1500 BC).jpg|thumb|[[Indus valley civilization]] seal, with the [[Master of Animals]] motif of a man fighting two lions or tigers (2500–1500 BC), similar to the Sumerian "Gilgamesh" motif, an indicator of [[Indus-Mesopotamia relations]].<ref name="GLP">{{Cite book |last=Possehl |first=Gregory L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XVgeAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA146 |title=The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective |date=2002 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |isbn=978-0759116429 |page=146 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kosambi |first=Damodar Dharmanand |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fTvQiXVFB0gC&pg=PR64 |title=An Introduction to the Study of Indian History |date=1975 |publisher=Popular Prakashan |isbn=978-8171540389 |page=64 |language=en}}</ref>]]
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' exerted substantial influence on the ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]'', the Homeric epic poems written in [[ancient Greek]] during the eighth century BC.{{sfn|West|1997|pages=334–402}}{{sfn|Anderson|2000|pages=127–128}}{{sfn|Burkert|2005|pages=297–301}}{{sfn|Powell|2012|pages=338–339}} According to classics scholar [[Barry B. Powell]], early Greeks were probably exposed to and influenced by Mesopotamian oral traditions through their extensive connections to the civilizations of the ancient Near East.{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=338}} German classicist [[Walter Burkert]] observes that the scene in Tablet VI of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' in which Gilgamesh rejects Ishtar's advances and she complains before her mother [[Antu (goddess)|Antu]], but is mildly rebuked by her father [[Anu]], is directly paralleled in Book V of the ''Iliad''.{{sfn|Burkert|2005|pages=299–300}} In this scene, [[Aphrodite]], the Greek analogue of Ishtar, is wounded by the hero [[Diomedes]] and flees to [[Mount Olympus]], where she cries to her mother [[Dione (mythology)|Dione]] and is mildly rebuked by her father [[Zeus]].{{sfn|Burkert|2005|pages=299–300}}

Powell observes that the opening lines of the ''Odyssey'' seem to echo the opening lines of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', both praising and pitying their heroes.{{sfn|Powell|2012|page=339}} The storyline of the ''Odyssey'' likewise bears many similarities to the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''.{{sfn|Anderson|2000|page=127}}{{sfn|Burkert|2005|pages=299–301}} Both Gilgamesh and Odysseus encounter a woman who can turn men into animals: Ishtar (for Gilgamesh) and [[Circe]] (for Odysseus).{{sfn|Anderson|2000|page=127}} Odysseus blinds the giant [[Cyclopes|cyclops]] [[Polyphemus]],{{sfn|Anderson|2000|pages=127–128}} while Gilgamesh slays of Humbaba.{{sfn|Anderson|2000|pages=127–128}} Both heroes visit the Underworld{{sfn|Anderson|2000|page=127}} and both find themselves unhappy while living in an otherworldly paradise in the company of a seductive sorceress: Siduri (for Gilgamesh) and [[Calypso (mythology)|Calypso]] (for Odysseus).{{sfn|Anderson|2000|page=127}} Finally, both have a missed opportunity for immortality, Gilgamesh when he loses the plant, and Odysseus when he leaves Calypso's island.{{sfn|Anderson|2000|page=127}}

In the [[Qumran]] scroll the ''[[Book of Giants]]'' ({{circa}} 100 BC) the names of Gilgamesh and [[Humbaba]] appear as two of the [[antediluvian]] giants,{{sfn|George|2003b|page=60}}{{sfn|Burkert|2005|page=295}} rendered (in consonantal form) as ''glgmš'' and ''ḩwbbyš''. This same text was later used in the Middle East by the [[Manichaeism|Manichaean sects]], and the Arabic form ''Gilgamish''/''Jiljamish'' survives as the name of a demon according to the Egyptian [[cleric]] [[Al-Suyuti]] ({{circa}} 1500).{{sfn|George|2003b|page=60}}

The story of Gilgamesh's birth is not recorded in any extant Sumerian or Akkadian text,{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=91}} but a version of it is described in ''[[De Natura Animalium]]'' (''On the Nature of Animals'') 12.21, a [[commonplace book]] written in [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] around 200 AD by the Hellenized Roman orator [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burkert |first=Walter |title=The Orientalizing Revolution |date=1992 |at=p. 33, note 32 |author-link=Walter Burkert}}</ref>{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=91}} According to Aelian, an [[oracle]] told King Seuechoros ({{lang|grc|Σευεχορος}}) of the Babylonians that his grandson Gilgamos would overthrow him.{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=91}} To prevent this, Seuechoros kept his only daughter under close guard at the [[Acropolis]] of Babylon,{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=91}} but she became pregnant nonetheless.{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=91}} Fearing the king's wrath, the guards hurled the infant off the top of a tall tower.{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=91}} An eagle rescued the boy in mid-flight and set him down in a distant orchard.{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=91}} The caretaker found the boy and raised him, naming him ''Gilgamos'' ({{lang|grc|Γίλγαμος}}).{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=91}} Eventually, Gilgamos returned to Babylon and overthrew his grandfather, proclaiming himself king.{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=91}} This birth narrative is in the same tradition as other Near Eastern birth legends,{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=91}} such as those of [[Birth legend of Sargon|Sargon]], [[Moses#Biblical narrative|Moses]], and [[Cyrus the Great#Early life|Cyrus]].{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|page=91}} The Syriac writer [[Theodore Bar Konai]] ({{circa}} AD 600) also mentions a king ''Gligmos'', ''Gmigmos'' or ''Gamigos'' as the last of a line of twelve kings contemporaneous with the patriarchs from Peleg to Abraham.{{sfn|George|2003b|page=61}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tigay |title=The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic |page=252}}</ref>