Gilgamesh in the Book of Giants (1)

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The name of Gilgamesh occurs in the fragments of the Book of Giants in Qumran, as g]lgmyš (QG9 12), and glgmys (4QEnGib). The identification of the Mesopotamian epic hero as a giant offspring of the heavenly Watchers is entirely appropriate in light of the ancient tradition that Gilgamesh was the son of a divine being and a human. According to the Sumerian King List, his father was a lillû-demon (112-113), elsewhere Gilgamesh is called the son of the goddess Ninsun and Lugalbanda, king of Uruk. In the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh he is characterized as “two-thirds of him is god, one-third of him is human” (tablet 1). In this respect, Gilgamesh is equal to post-diluvian apkallus. In a fragmentary Hittite recension of the introduction to the epic the stupendous physical size of the hero is emphasized: “his stature … in he[ight] was eleven cubits; his chest was nine … wide; his … (part of body) was three … long.” The appearance of Gilgamesh as a character in the Book of Giants suggests that one or more Aramaic versions of the Gilgamesh epic may have circulated among literate circles in the ancient Near East.

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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