Gilgamesh is two thirds god, one third man, king of Uruk. He beleaguers his people by forcing himself on all the new brides and besting all the young men at sporting challenges. The people ask the gods for help. The gods create Enkidu, a kind of Animal Man who at first has no interest in human affairs. He has to be seduced by a Prostitute, Shamhat.
After making love to her for a week he gains humanity but loses some of his wildness. The animals of the forest now fear him. He can no longer stay in the forest.
Gilgamesh experiences dreams that foretell the arrival of a beloved new companion.
Enkidu is incensed when he hears about Gilgamesh’s treatment of young brides. He blocks gilgamesh. They fight. He does not defeat Gilgamesh but the two immediately become great friends.
Gilgamesh wants to seek glory by slaying Humbaba, a leonine giant who guards the Cedar Forest, the realm of the gods.
On the way to the forest Gilgamesh experiences terrible nightmares about the upcoming battle but Enkidu interprets them all as good omens.
On the outskirts of the forest Enkidu loses his nerve and turns back. Gilgamesh attacks him. Humbaba hears their fighting and comes out of the forest to discover the source of the noise.
They fight Humbaba and eventually defeat him. Humbaba begs for his life. Gilgamesh cannot decide if he wants to kill Humbaba but Enkidu encourages Gilgamesh. In the instant before his head is struck off his soulders, Humbaba curses Enkidu.
The goddess Ishtar wishes to marry Gilgamesh but he rejects her offer on the grounds that her lovers always come to dismal ends.
In retribution for this slight she sends Gugalanna (Taurus) to kill Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
They slay Gugalanna and begin to butcher it. Enkidu throws the haunches of the bull at Ishtar and threatens to do the same to her if he ever catches her. That night, Enkidu dreams that Ishtar has persuaded the gods to kill him for his impiety. He becomes despondent and dies from an unspecified malady over the course of the next 12 days.
As Gilgamesh mourns the death of his friend he determines to learn the secret of eternal life. Utnapishtim, one of the survivors of the great flood, has been granted eternal life by the gods. Gilgamesh sets out to find Utnapishtim. He crosses a mountain where he kills a pride of lions. He reaches a tunnel guarded by two scorpion-men who let him pass when they discover that he is part-god. The tunnel leads him to the garden of the gods, where jewels grow on trees.
Gilgamesh encounters some stone giants whom he destroys.
He asks Urshanabi, a ferryman, to take him to Utnapishtim but Urshanabi reveals that Gilgamesh has just destroyed the only creatures that can cross the Waters of Death which are deadly to the touch. Now Gilgamesh must cut down hundreds of trees and build a boat. He does this and crosses the sea.
Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of the great flood. The god Enlil decides to destroy humanity with a flood but the god Ea wishes to save Utnapishtim. He is instructed to build a boat and take his family and all animals onto the boat. The deluge comes and after a week the flood subsides. Enlil is furious that there are survivors but Ea persuades him that the flood was an excessive punishment. A penitent Enlil grants Utnapishtim and his wife eternal life.
Utnapishtim points out that his immortality was a special dispensation for a unique circumstance. He challenges Gilgamesh to remain awake for a week. Gilgamesh fails and when he wakes, Utnapishtim says “You wish to overcome death and yet you cannot even overcome sleep”.
However, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh of an underwater plant that has the power to restore youth. Gilgamesh binds rocks to his feet and walks along the bottom of the sea.
He retrieves the plant but it is later stolen by a serpent. Gilgamesh admits defeat and returns to Uruk.
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