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History glossary

Epic of Gilgamesh

an ancient Mesopotamian poem about King Gilgamesh of Uruk, friendship, fame, death, and the search for meaning.

Category
Literature
Region
Mesopotamia
Date range
stories from the third millennium BCE; standard version first millennium BCE

What it means

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest surviving works of literature. Written in cuneiform and preserved in several versions, it tells stories about Gilgamesh, a legendary king of Uruk, and shows how Mesopotamians thought about kingship, friendship, mortality, and the gods.

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