How The Iliad drew on The Epic of Gilgamesh
A documented line of influence: Homer demonstrably engaged Anonymous’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Anonymous · c. 1200 BCE
Ancient EastThe influenced
The Iliad
Homer · c. 750 BCE
Ancient GreeceRelevance
5/10
On The Iliad’s page
- Achilles' grief has a Bronze Age ancestor — Gilgamesh mourning Enkidu
- M.L. West traces the bones of the Iliad's second half back to Gilgamesh: the slain companion's ghost, the divine mother who pleads, the hero who must learn to die
- You don't need it to read Homer, but it reframes the rage as something far older — a story that traveled, West argues, through bilingual singers out of the Near East
On The Epic of Gilgamesh’s page
- The oldest version of the story Achilles will tell: a hero undone by a friend's death
- M.L. West maps the parallels scene for scene — Enkidu's ghost rises to Gilgamesh as Patroclus' will to Achilles; the goddess-mother who intervenes is the same role Thetis plays
- The arc West calls the dead-friend / railing-at-mortality / hard-won acceptance structure is here first, carried west (he and Burkert argue) by bilingual Syro-Anatolian bards