This article is a list of characters appearing in the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian epic poem. Its standard version was most likely compiled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni in the Kassite period. Older versions are already known from the Old Babylonian period. Hittite and Hurrian adaptations have been discovered too. However, modern translations and adaptations generally depend on the standard Babylonian edition attributed to Sîn-lēqi-unninni.
Main characters Name Image Overview Gilgamesh Gilgamesh (originally Bilgames) is the protagonist of the epic. He is described as two thirds god and one third man and as the king of Uruk. Despite possessing traits associated with positive portrayals of rulers in Mesopotamian tradition, including beauty and martial prowess, in the initial section of the story he is a tyrannical ruler who terrorizes the inhabitants of Uruk. He is eventually confronted on their behalf of Enkidu. The two become close friends and possibly lovers. According to Andrew R. George, evidence for the latter interpretation is present both the epic itself and in the earlier poem Death of Gilgamesh. After introducing Enkidu to his mother, Ninsun, Gilgamesh decides to embark on an expedition to the cedar forest to acquire valuable wood. He defeats its guardian Humbaba, and later also triumphs over the Bull of Heaven, sent to Uruk by Ishtar. Enkidu dies in the aftermath of these events, and Gilgamesh prepares a funeral for him. These events make him realize his own mortality, and he embarks on a quest to find Utnapishtim. He travels underneath the mountain of sunrise, Mashu, and with the guidance of Siduri eventually crosses the cosmic ocean separating Utnapishtim's domain from earth. However, after being tested by him he realizes that he has no hope of becoming immortal. He is offered a chance to obtain a plant which would rejuvenate him as a reward for his deeds, but it is ultimately stolen from him by a snake. He eventually returns to Uruk, where he possibly accepts that while his quest did not bring him immortality, he will be renowned due to constructing the city's walls. A real king named Gilgamesh likely did rule over Uruk at some point, but Gilgamesh as a protagonist of the epic was a fictional character whose deeds did not reflect historical reality. As a minor deity and legendary hero Gilgamesh is first attested in sources from the Early Dynastic period (middle of the third millennium BCE), including an entry in a god list from Fara and accounts of offerings made to him in Lagash. He appears in numerous god lists, including the Weidner god list and An = Anum. However, there is no evidence he was worshiped past the Old Babylonian period with the exception of a Middle Babylonian reference to rituals in his honor held in Abu, the fifth month of the Babylonian calendar. Additionally, little, if any evidence for any veneration of him in Uruk is available. After cuneiform ceased to be used, echoes of traditions pertaining to Gilgamesh survived in later Greek, Jewish, Arabic, Syriac and Manichaean sources, though in some of them, for example in the Book of Giants, he is portrayed as a malevolent supernatural being rather than a legendary ruler. Enkidu Enkidu is portrayed as a wild man created by the goddess Aruru from clay to act as a foil to Gilgamesh. He spends his early life in the wilderness, among animals. He is eventually discovered by a hunter, who after consulting his father and the king of his city, Gilgamesh, brings the prostitute Shamhat to the forest to seduce him. She subsequently takes Enkidu first to a camp of shepherds, where he learns to act like a human and fulfills the role of a night watchman, and eventually to Uruk. In the city he confronts Gilgamesh on behalf of his subjects, but after wrestling the two become friends. He later accompanies Gilgamesh on his expedition to the cedar forest and assists him in the battle against the Bull of Heaven. However, as punishment for the deaths of these two beings death is then decreed for him by Enlil. After receiving visions of his fate and the underworld he finally dies twelve days later. Enkidu's name can be translated as "lord of the pleasant place" and was originally used as an ordinary given name, as attested for example in an Early Dynastic name list from Shuruppak. While in a few texts predating the Epic of Gilgamesh it is preceded by the so-called "divine determinative", it was usually written without it. Enkidu's origin story did not originate in earlier narratives about Gilgamesh, in which he is an ordinary man, and might have been adapted from another, unrelated source. An additional difference between the earlier sources and the epic is that in some of the former Enkidu is only portrayed as Gilgamesh's servant, rather than as his friend and companion. The term used to describe his relation to Gilgamesh is ibru (Sumerian kuli), which indicates an "informal relation bordering on equality". Regardless of the differences, Enkidu was consistently portrayed as a source of wise advice. In the epic he also acts as a dream interpreter, which is unusual, as elsewhere in Mesopotamian literature this task is typically performed by a woman close to the protagonist of a given work, for example Geshtinanna in myths about Dumuzi. Attestations of Enkidu outside the epic and its forerunners are very rare, though he does occur in an Old Babylonian incantation meant to help a baby fall asleep, which recounts his youth in the wilderness, and possibly also in the god list An = Anum (though in this case the restoration of his name is uncertain).
Other major characters Characters in this section are arranged in order of appearance in the Standard Babylonian version of the epic.