The earliest known versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh were composed in Sumerian.
The surviving tradition is complex rather than a single original manuscript. Several Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh circulated during the late third and early second millennia BCE. Later, scribes created longer versions in Akkadian, the language in which the best-known standardized form was preserved.
The poem follows Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu. Its themes include friendship, kingship, grief, mortality, and the search for lasting fame. The flood narrative in the later Akkadian version also has parallels with other ancient Near Eastern traditions.
A common mistake is to answer Akkadian because the most famous “standard” version is Akkadian. Sumerian is correct for the earliest known literary poems, while Akkadian preserves later recensions and translations. Tablets from Mesopotamian sites provide the evidence for both stages of the tradition.