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Dakota Dodds
Mrs. Blake
History 1100
10-2-15
Document Analysis Essay
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem predating the epics written by Homer by at
least 1500 years. The story is that of Gilgamesh, who is thought to be the fifth king of Uruk. The
story starts out with Gilgamesh being a ruthless ruler doing whatever he pleases to his people, so
cruel that his lust left no virgin to her husband. The gods finally decide to put a stop to his reign,
so they create Endiku, a wild man who lives with the animals. A hunter and trapper who has had
his traps destroyed by Endiku finds a way to turn the forest against him. This is through the use
of a prostitute. After Endiku lays with the woman he is no longer welcome in the forest. When
the king and the wild man meet, they fight with no one man coming out as victor so the decide to
be friends. The two go on many adventures together and, in time, Endiku tames Gilgamesh
putting a stop to many of his ruthless acts. But when Endiku dies ,Gilgamesh is forced to face his
own mortality and so he goes on another journey to seek immortality
The story was written not by one author at one time, but by many authors over a great
span of time. It could have been for different reasons that it was written. One could be that it was
written as an underground document slandering the king, or possibly a document expressing the
god's ultimate power in man's affairs. For the sake of argument, lets say that it was written
purely for entertainment. It would be very hard for the common people to be entertained by the
story. This is due to the reality that the vast majority of the common people were not able to read
or write. It would put the task of spreading the story on the educated people, learning the story
word by word, and then reciting the words to the illiterate.

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The Epic of Gilgamesh was written by the Sumerian people of the Mesopotamian area
over many, many years, adding new poems and stories over time. It was written between the
years 1400 B.C.E and 2150 C.E. in the area of Babylon and Sumeria. It is an epic poem which
means that it is a compilation of events done by a hero that makes up a story usually covering the
hero's entire life. The intended audience is those who seek entertainment mainly the rich for
those are the ones who know how to read. The poem tells you many things about the society that
it was written in. First, it is a violent place where war strikes often. Also, it tells you that the
people are very religious and will do nearly anything to please the gods.
Due to war, weather, and other destroyers of literature we will never know how much text
there really was of the Epic of Gilgamesh it would be a safe assumption that much was lost.
There could have been other stories each having different values rooted into the culture that the
Sumerian people held onto tightly .