Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, regarded as the oldest surviving work of narrative literature. Its roots lie in five Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, composed around 2100 BC, which were later combined into a single Akkadian epic; the fullest surviving text is the Standard Babylonian version, compiled by the scribe Sin-leqi-unninni sometime between the thirteenth and tenth centuries BC. The poem follows Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu through a series of trials, and after Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh's grief-driven search for immortality and his meeting with the flood survivor Utnapishtim, whose story parallels the biblical flood narrative. It is known as a foundational work of world literature, exploring mortality, friendship and the limits of human power, and it influenced later heroic literature including the Homeric epics.