What is the name of the ancient Mesopotamian epic featuring the hero Gilgamesh?

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the ancient Mesopotamian epic featuring the hero Gilgamesh.

The poem follows Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu. Their friendship, adventures, grief, and search for meaning form the central narrative. The surviving standard version is written in Akkadian cuneiform and is associated with the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh.

Its flood story is one of the best-known episodes. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh how he survived a divinely ordered flood in a boat, a story that resembles—but is not identical to—later flood traditions. The poem also explores mortality rather than giving Gilgamesh a simple promise of eternal life.

Fragments of the epic come from several sites and periods, including Old Babylonian sources. The work is therefore a long literary tradition, not a single manuscript written at one moment.