Editing Gilgamesh (section)

==Later influence==
===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>

===Modern rediscovery===
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| footer            = In 1880, the English [[List of Assyriologists|Assyriologist]] [[George Smith (Assyriologist)|George Smith]] (left) published a translation of Tablet XI of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' (right), containing the Flood myth,{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=1–25}} which attracted immediate scholarly attention and controversy due to its similarity to the [[Genesis flood narrative]].{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=20–28}}
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The Akkadian text of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was first discovered in 1849 AD by the English archaeologist [[Austen Henry Layard]] in the [[Library of Ashurbanipal]] at Nineveh.{{sfn|Mark|2018}}{{sfn|Rybka|2011|pages=257–258}}<ref name="Norton Anthology">{{Cite book|title=The Norton Anthology of World Literature|date=2012|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|edition=3rd|volume=A}}</ref>{{rp|95}} Layard was seeking evidence to confirm the historicity of the events described in the [[Hebrew Bible]], i.e. the Christian [[Old Testament]],{{sfn|Mark|2018}} which was believed to contain the oldest texts in the world.{{sfn|Mark|2018}} Instead, his and later excavations unearthed much older Mesopotamian texts{{sfn|Mark|2018}} and showed that many of the stories in the Old Testament may be derived from earlier myths told throughout the ancient Near East.{{sfn|Mark|2018}} The first translation of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was produced in the early 1870s by [[George Smith (Assyriologist)|George Smith]], a scholar at the [[British Museum]],{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=1–25}}{{sfn|Rybka|2011|page=257}}{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} who published the Flood story from Tablet XI in 1880 under the title ''The Chaldean Account of Genesis''.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=1–25}} Gilgamesh's name was originally misread as ''Izdubar''.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=1–25}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=George |title=Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, Volumes 1–2 |publisher=Society of Biblical Archæology |volume=2 |location=London |pages=213–214 |chapter=The Chaldean Account of the Deluge |year=1872 |author-link=George Smith (assyriologist) |access-date=12 October 2017 |orig-year=3 December 1872 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CEgPAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA213}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jeremias |first=Alfred |url=https://archive.org/details/izdubarnimrodein00jere |title=Izdubar-Nimrod, eine altbabylonische Heldensage |date=1891 |publisher=Leipzig, Teubner |language=de |author-link=Alfred Jeremias |access-date=12 October 2017}}</ref>

Early interest in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was almost exclusively on account of the flood story from Tablet XI.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=23–25}} It attracted enormous public attention and drew widespread scholarly controversy, while the rest of the epic was largely ignored.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=23–25}} Most attention towards the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came from German-speaking countries,{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=28–29}} where controversy raged over the relationship between ''Babel und Bibel'' ("Babylon and Bible").{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=23–25, 28–29}}

In January 1902, the German Assyriologist [[Friedrich Delitzsch]] gave a lecture at the [[Sing-Akademie zu Berlin]] before the [[Kaiser]] and his wife, in which he argued that the Flood story in the Book of Genesis was directly copied from the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=23–25}} Delitzsch's lecture was so controversial that, by September 1903, he had managed to collect thousands of articles and pamphlets criticizing this lecture about the Flood and another about the relationship between the [[Code of Hammurabi]] and the biblical [[Law of Moses]].{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=25}} The Kaiser distanced himself from Delitzsch and his radical views{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=25}} and by the fall of 1904, Delitzsch was reduced to giving his third lecture in [[Cologne]] and [[Frankfurt am Main]] rather than in Berlin.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=25}} The putative relationship between the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and the Hebrew Bible later became a major part of Delitzsch's argument in his 1920–21 book ''{{lang|de|Die große Täuschung}}'' (''The Great Deception'') that the Hebrew Bible was irredeemably "contaminated" by Babylonian influence{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=23–25}} and that only by eliminating the human Old Testament entirely could Christians finally believe in the true, [[Aryan#19th and early 20th century|Aryan]] message of the [[New Testament]].{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=23–25}}

===Early modern interpretations===
[[File:ISHTAR-EPOS p221 IZDUBAR TAKING LEAVE OF SABITU AND SIDURI IN THE HAPPY HALLS.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Illustration of Izdubar (Gilgamesh) in a scene from the book-length poem ''Ishtar and Izdubar'' (1884) by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton, the first modern literary adaptation of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=20–21}}]]

The first modern literary adaptation of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was ''Ishtar and Izdubar'' (1884) by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton, an American lawyer and businessman.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=20–21}} Hamilton had rudimentary knowledge of Akkadian, which he had learned from [[Archibald Sayce]]'s 1872 ''Assyrian Grammar for Comparative Purposes''.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=21}} Hamilton's book relied heavily on Smith's translation of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'',{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=21}} but also made major changes.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=21}} For instance, Hamilton omitted the famous flood story entirely{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=21}} and instead focused on the romantic relationship between Ishtar and Gilgamesh.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=21}} ''Ishtar and Izdubar'' expanded the original roughly 3,000 lines of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' to roughly 6,000 lines of rhyming couplets grouped into forty-eight [[canto]]s.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=21}} Hamilton significantly altered most of the characters and introduced entirely new episodes not found in the original epic.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=21}} Significantly influenced by [[Edward FitzGerald (poet)|Edward FitzGerald]]'s ''[[Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam]]'' and [[Edwin Arnold]]'s ''[[The Light of Asia]]'',{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=21}} Hamilton's characters dress more like nineteenth-century Turks than ancient Babylonians.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=22–23}} Hamilton also changed the tone of the epic from the "grim realism" and "ironic tragedy" of the original to a "cheery optimism" filled with "the sweet strains of love and harmony".{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=23}}

In his 1904 book ''Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients'', the German Assyriologist [[Alfred Jeremias]] equated Gilgamesh with the king [[Nimrod]] from the [[Book of Genesis]]{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=26}} and argued Gilgamesh's strength must come from his hair, like the hero [[Samson]] in the [[Book of Judges]],{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=26}} and that he must have performed [[Labours of Hercules|Twelve Labors]] like the hero [[Heracles]] in [[Greek mythology]].{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=26}} In his 1906 book ''Das Gilgamesch-Epos in der Weltliteratur'', the Orientalist [[Peter Jensen (Orientalist)|Peter Jensen]] declared that the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' was the source behind nearly all the stories in the Old Testament,{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=26}} arguing that [[Moses]] is "the Gilgamesh of Exodus who saves the children of Israel from precisely the same situation faced by the inhabitants of Erech at the beginning of the Babylonian epic."{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=26}} He then proceeded to argue that [[Abraham]], [[Isaac]], Samson, [[David]], and various other biblical figures are all nothing more than exact copies of Gilgamesh.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=26}} Finally, he declared that even [[Jesus]] is "nothing but an Israelite Gilgamesh. Nothing but an adjunct to Abraham, Moses, and countless other figures in the saga."{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=26}} This ideology became known as [[Panbabylonianism]]{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=26–27}} and was almost immediately rejected by mainstream scholars.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=26–27}} The most stalwart critics of Panbabylonianism were those associated with the emerging ''[[Religionsgeschichtliche Schule]]''.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=27}} [[Hermann Gunkel]] dismissed most of Jensen's purported parallels between Gilgamesh and biblical figures as mere baseless sensationalism.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=27}} He concluded that Jensen and other Assyriologists like him had failed to understand the complexities of Old Testament scholarship{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=26–27}} and had confused scholars with "conspicuous mistakes and remarkable aberrations".{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=26–27}}

In English-speaking countries, the prevailing scholarly interpretation during the early twentieth century was one originally proposed by [[Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet]],{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=28}} which held that Gilgamesh is a "solar hero", whose actions represent the movements of the sun,{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=28}} and that the twelve tablets of his epic represent the twelve signs of the [[Babylonian zodiac]].{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=28}} The Austrian psychoanalyst [[Sigmund Freud]], drawing on the theories of [[James George Frazer]] and Paul Ehrenreich, interpreted Gilgamesh and Eabani (the earlier misreading for ''Enkidu'') as representing "man" and "crude sensuality" respectively.<ref>Freud, Sigmund, William McGuire, Ralph Manheim, R. F. C. Hull, Alan McGlashan, and C. G. Jung. [https://books.google.com/books?id=A_JpNZfZXyYC&q=Gilgamesch+und+Eabani+freudThe&pg=PA199 Freud-Jung Letters: The Correspondence between Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung]. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1994, at 199.</ref>{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=29}} He compared them to other brother-figures in world mythology,{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=29}} remarking, "One is always weaker than the other and dies sooner. In Gilgamesh this ages-old motif of the unequal pair of brothers served to represent the relationship between a man and his [[libido]]."{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=29}} He also saw Enkidu as representing the [[placenta]], the "weaker twin" who dies shortly after birth.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=29–30}} Freud's friend and pupil [[Carl Jung]] frequently discusses Gilgamesh in his early work ''Symbole der Wandlung'' (1911–1912).{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=30}} He, for instance, cites Ishtar's sexual attraction to Gilgamesh as an example of the mother's [[incest]]uous desire for her son,{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=30}} Humbaba as an example of an oppressive father-figure whom Gilgamesh must overcome,{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=30}} and Gilgamesh himself as an example of a man who forgets his dependence on [[Unconscious mind|the unconscious]] and is punished by the "gods", who represent it.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=30}}

===Modern interpretations and cultural significance===
{{main|Gilgamesh in the arts and popular culture}}
[[File:Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. CL3400.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|Existential [[angst]] during the [[aftermath of World War II]] significantly contributed to Gilgamesh's rise in popularity in the middle of the twentieth century.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} For instance, the German novelist [[Hermann Kasack]] used Enkidu's vision of the Underworld from the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' as a metaphor for the [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|bombed-out city of Hamburg]] (pictured above) in his 1947 novel {{lang|de|[[Die Stadt hinter dem Strom]]}}.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}}]]

In the years following [[World War II]], Gilgamesh, formerly an obscure figure known only by a few scholars, gradually became increasingly popular with modern audiences.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|page=xii}}{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} The ''Epic of Gilgamesh''{{'}}s existential themes made it particularly appealing to German authors in the years following the war.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} In his 1947 [[Existentialism|existentialist]] novel {{lang|de|[[Die Stadt hinter dem Strom]]}}, the German novelist [[Hermann Kasack]] adapted elements of the epic into a metaphor for the [[Aftermath of World War II#Germany|aftermath of the destruction of World War II in Germany]],{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} portraying the bombed-out city of [[Hamburg]] as resembling the frightening Underworld seen by Enkidu in his dream.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} In [[Hans Henny Jahnn]]'s [[magnum opus]] ''River Without Shores'' (1949–1950), the middle section of the trilogy centers around a composer whose twenty-year-long homoerotic relationship with a friend mirrors that of Gilgamesh with Enkidu{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} and whose masterpiece turns out to be a symphony about Gilgamesh.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}}

''The Quest of Gilgamesh'', a 1953 radio play by [[D. G. Bridson|Douglas Geoffrey Bridson]], helped popularize the epic in Britain.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} In the [[United States]], [[Charles Olson]] praised the epic in his poems and essays{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} and [[Gregory Corso]] believed that it contained ancient virtues capable of curing what he viewed as modern moral degeneracy.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} The 1966 postfigurative novel {{lang|de|Gilgamesch}} by Guido Bachmann became a classic of German "[[Gay literature|queer literature]]"{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} and set a decades-long international literary trend of portraying Gilgamesh and Enkidu as homosexual lovers.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} This trend proved so popular that the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' itself is included in ''The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature'' (1998) as a major early work of that genre.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} In the 1970s and 1980s, [[Feminist literary criticism|feminist literary critics]] analyzed the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' as showing evidence for a transition from the [[Matriarchy#By chronology|original matriarchy of all humanity]] to modern [[patriarchy]].{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} As the [[Green politics|Green Movement]] expanded in Europe, Gilgamesh's story began [[Ecocriticism|to be seen through an environmentalist lens]],{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} with Enkidu's death symbolizing man's separation from nature.{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}}

[[File:Gilagmesh.jpg|thumb|right|A modern [[Statue of Gilgamesh, University of Sydney|statue of Gilgamesh]] stands at the [[University of Sydney]].{{sfn|Stone|2012}}]]

[[Theodore Ziolkowski]], a scholar of modern literature, states, that "unlike most other figures from myth, literature, and history, Gilgamesh has established himself as an autonomous entity or simply a name, often independent of the epic context in which he originally became known. (As analogous examples one might think, for instance, of the [[Minotaur]] or [[Frankenstein's monster]].)"{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2012|pages=xii–xiii}} The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' has been translated into many major world languages{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|page=254}} and has become a staple of American [[world literature]] classes.{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|pages=254–255}} Many contemporary authors and novelists have drawn inspiration from it, including an American [[avant-garde]] theater collective called "The Gilgamesh Group"{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|page=255}} and [[Joan London (Australian author)|Joan London]] in her novel ''[[Gilgamesh (novel)|Gilgamesh]]'' (2001).{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|page=255}}{{sfn|Ziolkowski|2011}} ''[[The Great American Novel (Roth)|The Great American Novel]]'' (1973) by [[Philip Roth]] features a character named "Gil Gamesh",{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|page=255}} who is the star [[pitcher]] of a fictional 1930s [[baseball]] team called the "Patriot League".{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|page=255}}

Starting in the late twentieth century, the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' began to be read again in Iraq.{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|page=254}} [[Saddam Hussein]], the former [[President of Iraq]], had a lifelong fascination with Gilgamesh.{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|pages=254–257}} [[Saddam Hussein's novels|Saddam's first novel]] ''[[Zabibah and the King]]'' (2000) is an allegory for the [[Gulf War]] set in ancient Assyria that blends elements of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and the ''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]''.{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|page=257}} Like Gilgamesh, the king at the beginning of the novel is a brutal tyrant who misuses his power and oppresses his people,{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|pages=259–260}} but, through the aid of a commoner woman named Zabibah, he grows into a more just ruler.{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|page=260}} When the United States tried to pressure Saddam to step down in February 2003, Saddam gave a speech to a group of his generals posing the idea in a positive light by comparing himself to the epic hero.{{sfn|Damrosch|2006|page=254}}

Scholars like [[Susan Ackerman (biblical scholar)|Susan Ackerman]] and [[Wayne R. Dynes]] have noted that the language used to describe Gilgamesh's relationship with Enkidu seems to have homoerotic implications.{{sfn|Ackerman|2005|page=82}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Haggerty |first1=George |title=Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures |date=2013 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-135-58513-6 |page=929 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pez9AQAAQBAJ&pg=PT929 |access-date=19 March 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Dynes |first1=Wayne R. |author-link1=Wayne R. Dynes |title=Encyclopedia of Homosexuality |volume=I |date=2016 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=479 |isbn=978-1317368151 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YrXOCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA479 |access-date=19 March 2020}}</ref> Ackerman notes that, when Gilgamesh veils Enkidu's body, Enkidu is compared to a "bride".{{sfn|Ackerman|2005|page=82}} Ackerman states, "that Gilgamesh, according to both versions, will love Enkidu 'like a wife' may further imply sexual intercourse."{{sfn|Ackerman|2005|page=82}}

In 2000, a [[Statue of Gilgamesh, University of Sydney|modern statue of Gilgamesh]] by the [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] sculptor Lewis Batros was unveiled at the [[University of Sydney]] in [[Australia]].{{sfn|Stone|2012}}

The Australian psychedelic rock band [[King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard]] recorded a song titled "Gilgamesh" as the fifth track of their October 2023 album ''[[The Silver Cord (King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard album)|The Silver Cord]]'', with references to the epic in the song's lyrics.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gilgamesh, by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard |url=https://kinggizzard.bandcamp.com/track/gilgamesh |access-date=2023-11-13 |website=King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard |language=en}}</ref>