A Summary Paraphrase of The Epic of Gilgamesh as translated by N.K. Sandars (Penguin Classics, 1960)

Prologue
Gilgamesh knew all things and traveled throughout the world and when he returned from a long journey was worn-out. He was created by the gods, including Shamash the sun, with a perfect body. They made him 2/3 god and 1/3 man. In Uruk he built the temple for Anu, god of the firmament, and Ishtar goddess of love—the outer wall with a cornice that shines with the brilliance of copper—there is a foundation terrace of masonry of burnt brick.

Coming of Enkidu
Enkidu was created by Aruru as a counter or twin to Gilgamesh. He begins in an animal-like and uncivilized state, eating grass with the gazelle, and he freed animals from hunters’ traps and filled in the pit traps. At the hunter’s request Gilgamesh gives him a harlot to seduce Enkidu, which causes him to grow weak because “for wisdom was in him, and the thoughts of a man were in his heart.” The harlot convinces Enkidu to return with her to Uruk and Gilgamesh, evoking a longing in Enkidu for a comrade who would understand him. He declares he will challenge Gilgamesh and claims he is the strongest. Gilgamesh relates two dreams to his mother. In the first Gilgamesh is surrounded by young heroes and walking under the stars when a meteor falls; with the help of the people of Uruk, Gilgamesh carries it to his mother who pronounces it is his brother. In the second dream he finds an ax to which he is drawn and loves like a woman—this too his mother tells him prophesizes his comrade/companion. Gilgamesh prepares to marry the Queen of love but on his way to the marriage house, Enkidu blocks his way, they fight, Gilgamesh wins, Enkidu concedes Gilgamesh’s greater strength and then the two embrace, sealing their friendship.

The Forest Journey
Gilgamesh has a dream that Enkidu interprets as a prophecy of mortality that Gilgamesh should accept and deal justly with his people. Gilgamesh responds that therefore he must establish his fame by killing Humbaba, protector of the Land of Cedars. LZ conflates speeches Gilgamesh addresses to both Enkidu and Shamash in which he declares his intention, that the man of the city dies in despair, that when he looks over his wall he sees floating corpses which will also be his fate, so he desires to go into the Land of Humbaba and if he dies there he will do so without rancor. They go into the forest until they reach the Land of Humbaba and begin cutting down the cedars, Humbaba eventually offers to become Gilgamesh’s servant and build him a palace if he will spare him, but Enkidu warns him that the evil must be killed, and they go ahead and do so and cut down and uproot the forest.

Ishtar and Gilgamesh, and the Death of Enkidu
Ishtar, attracted by Gilgamesh’s beauty, asks him to marry and make love to her, offering him fabulous wealth and power. Gilgamesh rejects her offer, asking what can he possibly give her in return and recounting a long list of mortal lovers Ishtar has taken up only to cast them off: Tammuz for whom Ishtar decreed annual mourning, “the many-colored roller” whose wing she broke and who now cries “kappi, kappi, my wing, my wing” in the grove, the lion for whom she dug 7 pits, the stallion who now suffers from the whip and spur and muddies the water before he can drink, and Ishullanu the gardener of Anu who on rejecting her was turned into a blind mole in the earth (Gilgamesh catalogs a few more examples as well). Enraged, Ishtar requests from her father Anu the Bull of Heaven to ravage the earth; it threatens Enkidu who calls on Gilgamesh who kills the bull. That night Enkidu has a dream in which the gods at the instigation of Enlil judge he must die for the death of the Bull of Heaven and of Humbaba. Enkidu falls sick and curses the trapper and the harlot who lured him out of his original savage state, but Shamash speaks to him saying that the harlot was the one who brought him together with Gilgamesh, who will remember him when he is dead and wander in the desert in mourning. Enkidu is then calmed and accepts his fate; he recounts another dream to Gilgamesh of a journey to the underworld of the dead, and then ten days later he dies. Gilgamesh covers his friend with a veil like that of a bride; first raging then mourning for seven days until the worms begin to feed on the body, Gilgamesh finally allows him to be buried. Gilgamesh commands that a statue of his friend be made with the breast of lapis lazuli and the body of gold. As an offering to the Sun, Gilgamesh sets out a hardwood table with a carnelian bowl filled with honey and another bowl of lapis lazuli filled with butter.

The Search for Everlasting Life
Gilgamesh wanders through wilderness and over plains declaring: how can I rest with despair in my heart since what my brother is now I shall be—I will find Utnapishtim, called Faraway, who is the only mortal who has been granted immortality by the gods. Gilgamesh passes through the gate of the mountains; traveling through 12 leagues of darkness he finally comes out on the other side into the garden of the gods or the sun with bushes bearing gems and carnelian fruit, yet he still is mortal, eating flesh and wearing animal skins. By the seacoast he finds Siduri, the goddess of wine, covered with a veil, who attempts to bar the gate to him, but he threatens to break it down. Gilgamesh explains his quest and Siduri advises him to accept his mortality and the joys and satisfactions that life offers, and when he insists on crossing the ocean to find Utnapishtim, she points out that only the sun crosses the ocean and no mortal can do so. However, in the wood is Utnapishtim’s ferryman, Urshanabi who might be able to help, but if not Gilgamesh must return. Gilgamesh responds angrily and damages Urshanabi’s boat; when the latter questions Gilgamesh about his journey and points out what he has done, Gilgamesh says Urshanabi should not be angry since he is immortal. Gilgamesh cuts poles for the boat, since the sail is destroyed, and after a journey of three days that seems like a month and 15 days, they arrive at Dilmum, where the sun rises and where Utnapishtim lives. The latter asks what has happened to the boat’s tackle and sail, why are the sacred stones destroyed, why is Urshanabi not sailing the boat and who is this man with sunken cheeks and wearing the skins of beasts? Asked his purpose, Gilgamesh recounts his hardships and says he wishes to question Utnapishtim about the living and the dead and how to find eternal life. Utnapishtim tells him there is no permanence, contracts are not for all time—“only the nymph of the dragon-fly who sheds her larva and sees the sun in his glory” (107)—and the date of our death is hidden. Gilgamesh points out that although Utnapishtim looks just like him, yet he has immortality so what is his secret?

The Story of the Flood
Utnapishtim retells the story of the flood, of which he was forewarned by Enlil, allowing him to build a great boat and therefore save his family, craftsmen and animals. Enlil then gave him and his wife immortality to live “in the distance at the mouth of rivers” (113).

The Return
Utnapishtim says he will test Gilgamesh’s readily for immortality by requiring him to stay awake for six days and seven nights, which Gilgamesh does not come close to achieving. Ordering Urshanabi to take Gilgamesh back, Utnapishtim at the last moment reveals a secret that there is plant that grows under water that restores youth. Gilgamesh obtains some of the planet, which he calls “The Old Men Are Young Again” (116) and plans to take it home to share it with the old men, but on his way back while bathing in a pool, a serpent snatches the sacred plant. Gilgamesh returns to Uruk empty-handed.

The Death of Gilgamesh
In fulfillment of destiny Gilgamesh finally dies and is buried with honor.