Later storytellers would get their ideas from this ancient text. There are many versions of the story and many authors. The most famous author of the text is Shin-eqi-unninni, who is credited with uniting the tale into one whole piece in 1200 BCE.

The epic begins with king Gilgamesh measuring out the walls of his city, pacing and admiring the walls he’s created. The readers soon find out that Gilgamesh is a brutal king. The people suffer under his heavy hand and his impulsive whims. He fights with the young men and beats them all; he even takes newlywed wives before their husbands can have them. The people begin to petition the gods of Mesopotamian lore and beg them for help. Aruru, the birth goddess who created humans, sees to the problem by creating Enkidu, a wild man who is Gilgamesh’s foil. He is created with a tragic flaw. One, he is uncivilized and savage, two he will die at a set time.

Enkidu lives with animals in the woods and thwarts all of the hunter’s efforts to secure food. One day, a hunter gets fed up with not getting any meat and asks a temple prostitute to seduce Enkidu by stripping in front of him. She agrees. They go out to the forest to find the place Enkidu comes to drink with his animal friends. They wait there for him and when he arrives, the hunter tells the prostitute to unclothe herself. She stands in front of Enkidu and disrobes. She introduces him to the world of human relationships and when it’s over, the animals shun him.

The prostitute entreats him to return to the kingdom of Urk with her, where Gilgamesh rules. He agrees. She teaches him how to eat food and drink milk. It does not take long for Enkidu to hear of Gilgamesh’s atrocities.  Enraged at hearing that the king had taken someone else’s bride to his bed, Enkidu goes out and wrestles with the king until both give up. Instantly they become friends, just as the gods wanted.

Eager to make a name for themselves in the world, the two friends think up an adventure: they will go to the cedar forest of Enlil and kill the demon guardian of the cedar forest Humbaba. Enkidu tries to discourage Gilgamesh from going to the forest to kill the demon, afraid of both Humbaba and Enlil, the god. Gilgamesh is headstrong and refuses to change his mind. Gilgamesh’s mother, the cow-woman Ninsun, also begs her son to stay, but seeing that he will not, she adopts Enkidu into her cult and asks him to watch over her son. The townsmen and elders try to dissuade him from his quest, but when they see that their king will not budge an inch, they beg Enkidu to take good care of him every step of the way. Enkidu agrees. The two men, Enkidu and Gilgamesh set out on their quest, walking many miles. They stop several times, each time Enkidu guards Gilgamesh as he sleeps inside a circle of flour so that he will have dreams from the gods.

Gilgamesh has many dreams showing that he will defeat the demon Humbaba. One dream even hints that the sun god Shamash will come to his aid. The two continue their journey and meet with the giant demon Humbaba. They challenge each other, exchange words, and finally Gilgamesh attacks him. Gilgamesh gets him on the ground and Humbaba begs for his life, entreating Enkidu to appeal to the king’s mercy. Humbaba promises to faithfully serve Gilgamesh. Enkidu warns Gilgamesh not to listen to the demon but to kill it as he first thought to do. Eventually, Gilgamesh kills the demon. Enkidu, still wary of the god Enlil sends an offering of a huge cedar door down the Euphrates River. Enlil does not receive it.

Gilgamesh bathes in the river and relaxes after his victory. The goddess Ishtar sees him and decides she wants him as her newest husband.  She proposes to Gilgamesh, but he refuses her. He knows what she has done to her other husbands and suitors, and he does not want to end up like them. Enraged, she goes back to her father Anu and asks him to unleash the bull of heaven on Gilgamesh. Her father agrees.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu round up all the men and kill the bull of heaven. The gods draw the line here and decide that now Enkidu must die. Enkidu has a warning dream and tells Gilgamesh.  Gilgamesh mourns for him. Soon after, Enkidu dies. Gilgamesh mourns again and holds a great funeral for him.

This event leads Gilgamesh on a quest for immortality. He sets out to find Utanapishtim and his wife, the only two mortals ever given immortality by the gods. He travels to the other end of the world, runs through the tunnel of the sun. Gilgamesh then comes to Ur-shanabi, the ferryman across the Water’s of Death and fights him. He destroys Ur-shanabi’s stones. The stones help Ur-shanabi cross the Waters of Death. The ferryman gives Gilgamesh stilts to cross the Waters. Gilgamesh crosses to reach Untanapishtim. Once there, the immortal man tells Gilgamesh the story of how he received immortality.

Untanapishtim tells the Babylonian version of the flood story: how the god Ea warned him o build a big boat and save himself, his wife, and the animals. The other gods were furious with Ea when they learned that a man had been saved, but Untanapishtim and his wife were granted immortality anyway. Gilgamesh is given a challenge: if he can stay awake for seven days and nights, he can have immortality. Gilgamesh tries and fails. Untanapishtim’s wife, has set out food for each day Gilgamesh stayed asleep. When Gilgamesh awakes and sees the food, he is disheartened. Untanapishtim sends him away with instructions on where to find a special plant that will restore youth. Gilgamesh follows Untanapishtim’s instructions and dives into the ocean for the special plant. He retrieves it, but looses it to a snake when he stops for a bath. The snake sheds its skin, and Gilgamesh laments the loss of his plant. His quest has failed. He returns to the city in Uruk and tells Ur-Shanabi to pace out the length of his walls in the city and admire it. The walls, he decides will be his legacy.