Choose a language

Gilgamesh, king of UrukEpic composed c. 2nd millennium BCE

The dreams of Gilgamesh

The oldest great work of literature is full of dreams: of a star falling from heaven, of a friend on the way, and of death.

DraftAn editor has not reviewed this page yet.

The dream

Retold in our own words from the sources below, not quoted.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the restless king of Uruk dreams that a rock like a star from the sky falls beside him, too heavy for him to lift, and that the people gather round it. He dreams again of an axe that draws him as a wife would. His mother, the goddess Ninsun, explains: a strong companion is coming, whom he will love.

The companion is the wild man Enkidu. Later, on their journey to the Cedar Forest, Gilgamesh has a series of terrifying dreams, and each time Enkidu turns them into good omens. Near the end of his life, Enkidu dreams of the underworld, a house of dust where the dead sit in darkness.

Where the story comes from

The epic survives on clay tablets in Akkadian, with the best-known version from the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (7th century BCE) and older Babylonian versions. Its roots go back to Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh, a king of Uruk who may have lived in the early third millennium BCE.

The tablets are damaged in places, so modern translations, such as Andrew George's, mark gaps and reconstructions.

How it has been read

Classic texts

In Mesopotamia dreams were messages from the gods, and interpreting them was a serious skill. The epic shows the practice from inside: a dream reported, a trusted person reading it, and the reading shaping what happens next. It is among the earliest written examples of dream interpretation.

Research

Gilgamesh's dreams before the Cedar Forest are classic threat dreams, coming right before danger. Threat simulation theory reads such dreams as rehearsal for what we fear, which is roughly how Enkidu uses them: to steady his friend.

Questions for your own dreams

  1. Have you ever dreamed of someone before you met them, or of a friendship to come?
  2. Who is the person you tell your frightening dreams to?
  3. What does a dream of death or loss change about how you treat the people you love?

Symbols in this dream

Had a dream that stayed with you?

Tell us your dream

Sources

Every reading on this page comes from these works. Page references have not all been checked yet; those still waiting are marked.

  1. Andrew George (1999). The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation. London: Penguin.

    cited, not reproduced

    • Cited at: Tablets I, IV and VII (reference not yet checked)
    • Cited at: introduction and Tablets I and IV (reference not yet checked)

  2. Antti Revonsuo (2000). The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23(6): 877-901.

    cited, not reproducedcontested theory

    • Cited at: threat simulation (reference not yet checked)

    Threat simulation theory: dreams as rehearsal for danger. Influential but contested; presented as one theory among several.