How Every Heroic Story Is Really Just Gilgamesh

How Every Heroic Story Is Really Just Gilgamesh | Fate & Fabled

Рет қаралды 67,259

Күн бұрын

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The Mesopotamian myth of Gilgamesh is less of a hero’s journey, and more of an existential crisis. After making a bad reputation for himself, losing his one true love, and botching an epic quest, Gilgamesh is forced to admit that being a hero isn’t everything it's cracked up to be.
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Hosted by Dr. Moiya McTier & Dr. Emily Zarka, FATE & FABLED explores the stories and characters of mythologies from all around the world - why they came to be and how they impact us still today.
Host: Moiya McTier, PhD
Writer: Iseult Gillespie
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Producer: Thomas Fernandes
Editor / Animator: Steven Simone
Illustrator: Sophie Calhoun
Script Editors: Emily Zarka, PhD & Moiya McTier, PhD
Additional Material Written by: Andrew Matthews
Fact Checker: Yvonne McGreevy
Additional Footage: Shutterstock
Music: APM Music
Executive in Charge (PBS): Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming (PBS): John Campbell
Fate & Fabled is produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.
Descriptive Audio & Captions provided by The Described and Captioned Media Program

Пікірлер: 225

@aprilp660 8 ай бұрын

Enkidu got "fridged" and killed off for Gilgamesh's character development 😢

@kingrix 8 ай бұрын

Beat me to it.

@safaiaryu12 8 ай бұрын

On the one hand, lol! On the other hand, oh my god, the trope is THAT old???

@rctecopyright 8 ай бұрын

Enkidu was the ultimate bro

@sergersgerhersh6594 7 ай бұрын

Its ancient...

@RobertoVZucco 6 ай бұрын

The Epic of Gilgamesh is truly the mother of all tropes.

@Lordx718 8 ай бұрын

Don't forget the part where he was summoned to 20th Century Japan to fight for the Holy Grail and the time he traveled thru the Void to steal weapons from pretty boys with spiky hair.

@crowdemon_archives 5 ай бұрын

And sometimes he has a green chicken as a companion.

@HeraclesN-fp1bw 8 ай бұрын

Gilgamesh’s pursuit in immortality while getting the gods angered at his actions reminds me of a certain monkey who does achieve this feat, but still learns a lesson at the end

@KV-wd5gt 5 ай бұрын

Monkey King 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊 Love his story!!!!!!

@QilinsReverseScale 2 ай бұрын

i've always seen the epic of gilgamesh as a coming of age story where a young person would obsess over achieving their own idea of "greatness" or "immortality" but only after gaining and losing it at the same time do they realize their folly and just change for the better.

@more17 8 ай бұрын

It feels like Mesopotamian myths have been getting a lot of love on KZfaq recently. Love it!

@Wolfy39565 8 ай бұрын

thinking the same thing!

@Wolfy39565 8 ай бұрын

Ok. Thank you 😊

@AndrewMcColl 8 ай бұрын

OSP covered Gilgamesh a few weeks back, and this video is a great companion piece for theirs.

@denny414 8 ай бұрын

@@AndrewMcCollalgorithm

@AndrewMcColl 8 ай бұрын

@@denny414 considering the lead time on making these videos, it's more likely coincidence.

@vginsprdsobepr9698 8 ай бұрын

The episode of Tiamat is one of my favorite episodes. It really humanized her and added a depth that was never really explained before.

@JoaoPessoa86 8 ай бұрын

New Gilgamesh content dropped recently after some recent archeological translations... The epic of Gilgamesh is more updated than A Song of Ice and Fire

@safaiaryu12 8 ай бұрын

Damn

@user-hs1xb9tv6e 8 ай бұрын

Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the original bormance. Edit: Also you you didnt mentioned that this bull was sent by Ishtar because Gilgamesh rejected her advancements and she did not took at well.

@jessicajayes8326 8 ай бұрын

🎼Guy love, that's all it is!

@carissstewart3211 8 ай бұрын

Gilgamesh did not reject her because of her sex (recall his practice of prima nocta) but rather because Ishtar was a horrible girlfriend! She turned one into a wolf. On another occasion, she attempted to break into Hell. Upon being captured, she volunteered her boyfriend at the time as her replacement.

@oldcowbb 8 ай бұрын

if it's clay

@DR_REDACTED 8 ай бұрын

@@oldcowbbIts not gay

@miamor2624 4 ай бұрын

@@carissstewart3211To be fair, Dumuzid was the only one who was not grieving her and seemed to be having a great time when she was dead. Ishtar at least did have mercy with everyone else and spared them from taking her place in the Underworld xd

@rayancedrichaddad1197 8 ай бұрын

Like his Quest, the Epic of Gilgamesh is an Immortal Myth. Thanks for telling us his story.

@davidaulds7031 8 ай бұрын

PBS is gutter Democrat talking point trash!

@kingrix 8 ай бұрын

Enkidu was the original "girlfriend in the fridge."

@eliscanfield3913 8 ай бұрын

Gilgamesh was his own worst enemy more often than not, lol. I think the job description for hosting this show must've included "Must have doctorate and be enthusiastic about acting goofy on video." lol. ❤

@nyarparablepsis872 8 ай бұрын

Assyriologist here. It is wonderful that you bring the ancient tales of Mesopotamia to live and a wider audience, thank you for that! However, there's a few mistakes that crept into your script. I hope you don't mind me pointing them out in the interest of providing accurate info to interested folk! The Gilgamesh epic was not written down 5,000 years ago - at that time (3,000 BCE) there are administrative texts and lists, no literary texts anywhere in sight (thus far). The epic that you are talking about in this show was written down in the 1st millennium BCE in the Babylonian language. So a little difference of 2,000 years - a lot of stuff happens in such a span of time 🙃 The idea that Gilgamesh and Enkidu were in a relationship is pretty much accepted in the field, since the epic rejoices in innuendos and word plays that hint at a sexual thing between the two. There are earlier Gilgamesh stories written in Sumerian, but they are a collection of bits and pieces that mostly found their way into the epic - but standing on their own, in different historical and cultural situations and context. The death of Enkidu is very different in the Sumerian version as well :) Known as "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld" if anyone wants to look it up. There's an online resource called ETCSL, Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, where you can read all of the Sumerian stories. Earlier than the Gilgamesh material is that about his dad, Lugalbanda. The oldest literary text mentioning him dates to 2,700 BCE. So that's almost 5,000 years :) He's a kind of clever, shamanic folk hero - unlike his son Gilgamesh who thinks hitting things is always the best approach. As for Tiamat, there is hardly any evidence for her outside of the Babylonian political myth *Enūma eliš*. I think there's like three personal names in the earlier periods. What you said is mostly what is speculated about one possible Sumerian watery creatrix, Namma/u. I know Tiamat is popular these days, so I think she deserves some facts, having been an object of fantasy for a while now 😊

@atheistlinguist542 8 ай бұрын

I'm not sure if it was intended, but if you listen, there's another layer to the gag where the presenter "wonders" who Utnapishtim reminds her of. Two or three times, she says the word "No" immediately followed by "uh" or "um." Taken together, cutting off the final /m/ where needed, these two words actually form the very name she was feigning to be on the tip of her tongue: Noah.

@Dorian_sapiens 8 ай бұрын

Nice, I didn't catch that!

@DenBed 8 ай бұрын

my Boi Enkidu got Fridged... Gilgamesh should've strived to bring Enky back instead of trying to find immortality for himself

@bjornwiklander5738 8 ай бұрын

The version I read had Enkidu acting and living like an animal, and too fierce to fight. Gilgamesh solves this by getting a prostitute to seduce him, which turns him into a "civilized" human, after which they become total bros. Not ideal for a Hollywood adaptation, but more interesting than a fight scene!

@c_oleksii 8 ай бұрын

But it was adapted... In fate/strange fake light novel

@chrisn8349 8 ай бұрын

"This Unnameable Little Broom" by the Brothers Quay is a really interesting adaptation of this version of the Gilgamesh epic.

@mypal1990 8 ай бұрын

Still can't believe this spun to so many variants from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Even modern stories!

@Rhomega 8 ай бұрын

Leading to one of the most memorable scenes in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Gilgamesh and Enkidu at Uruk.

@Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache 8 ай бұрын

I’d say Gilgamesh with his big personality really stole the show, but can you really steal something when everything in this world already belongs to you? Ah, human history’s biggest bully.

@6Maitreya6 Ай бұрын

Yeah a better chance against the lion than him(he has regeneration+can crush human bones) A true bully to the peoples and nation

@fraterzigmund 8 ай бұрын

I named my kitty Gilgamesh! He was walking around the shelter like he owned the place so the name was fitting. Turns out he's a big scaredy cat 😂 but also a big cuddly sweetheart

@mysticusfreeze 8 ай бұрын

i feel like saying the epic of gilgamesh is quite possbly the oldest known story ever told is a bit wrong, While it for sure is the oldest writing we have oral histories from people such as the indigenous australians that have been kept the same over thousands of years that surpass gilgamesh

@komugemon8010 8 ай бұрын

Gilgamesh and Enkidu fought each other to a draw and became best friends based on mutual respect for each other's strength? The Epic of Gilgamesh is the original Shonen Anime!

@safaiaryu12 8 ай бұрын

Honestly, I was thinking it, too...

@pluspiping 6 ай бұрын

Plus the obligatory "do you think they have explored each other's bodies, yknow, outside of fighting" thing (that seems to be pretty canon, even?)

@TheMageOfVoid 8 ай бұрын

Oldest story? What about his Father Lugalbanda? I though we found tablets about some of his stories dating back further than the epic of Gilgamesh.

@elizabethdavis1696 8 ай бұрын

Please consider doing a video on the mythology, superstitions, and stereotypes of redheads!!!!!

@surrog 8 ай бұрын

Yet another episode of the epic of Moiya & Emily documenting fable stuff, awesome as usual :)

@pumirya 8 ай бұрын

Thanks for another video. I always look forward to learning from them.

@Sudo_Nimh 8 ай бұрын

You left my favorite part out, about how Enkidu learned to be a human instead of an animal! 🤭

@Grim_Beard 8 ай бұрын

01:52 Yeah, they're, err... 'wrestling'. Definitely. 😉

@mathieuleader8601 8 ай бұрын

I always liked how the American Dad Christmas special where Santa Claus seeks crystals forged from the body of the dead giant Harumba from the Epic of Gilgamesh so he can bring about the end of the world and quit being Kris Kringle.

@grahamrichardson9620 8 ай бұрын

Gilgamesh and Enkidu at Uruk. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

@GaasubaMeskhenet 8 ай бұрын

Darmok and Jalad on the ocean

@likebot. 8 ай бұрын

Shaka when the walls fell. Oops, wrong thread.

@hypocriticalcritic6915 8 ай бұрын

SO EXCITED FOR YOUR PROJECT

@liamwhittaker2853 8 ай бұрын

Brilliant episode! ❤

@richard-mtl 8 ай бұрын

I loved this, well done!

@ADEpoch 8 ай бұрын

I loved this guys! I’ve read the epic and found it was quite reminiscent of another book we all know… But still struggled to catch the entire plot. So thanks. This was enjoyable.

@Sienrel 8 ай бұрын

Gilgamesh and Enkidu were roommates

@evelynlamoy8483 8 ай бұрын

this is kind of a wild claim, but I have a theory that Gilgamesh may have inspired the story of Cú Chulainn. Similar tropes here and there throughout their stories. I'm still trying to hammer out the details, but I think it may have spread at the same time the babylonian astrology star-charts started to be spread around the ancient world. Most likely after development of the more compact 12 zodiac system, but perhaps earlier durring the 18 sign phase. Either way, while the story would have fallen out in many other places, I think the verbal storytelling, and cultural fascination with otherworlds, and cattle raiding kept the story relevant to the celts until it crystalized, and eventually was discarded for a version re-written about properly celtic heroes. Or maybe they just randomly have similar tropes and thats why they seem so similar that one may have lead to the other.

@c_oleksii 8 ай бұрын

A hero's journey is a hero's journey no matter how you put it. The book titled "the hero with the thousand faces" describes it really good

@bnthern 8 ай бұрын

wonderful presentation - thx

@cwildeman 8 ай бұрын

Ha, I *just* watched the Darmok episode of TNG a couple days ago, so this is very timely. Great video, as always.

@thenbibisaysss Ай бұрын

So good!

@robertmcauslan6191 8 ай бұрын

is enkidu the original fridge woman?

@Caterfree10 8 ай бұрын

Ah, Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The world’s first BL.

@Druklet 8 ай бұрын

Love the video, but now I'm going to have 'The Mesopotamians' by They Might Be Giants stuck in my head all day!

@robbabcock_ 8 ай бұрын

Terrific episode! The story of Gilgamesh & Enkidu is one of the great tales of history.😎

@kutter_ttl6786 8 ай бұрын

So, how many people had their first introduction to the Epic of Gilgamesh through Star Trek TNG?

@likebot. 8 ай бұрын

LOL. Not me. My mom, a former nun, introduced me to it. The trope of Noah's Ark (Utnapishtim) is in the epic.

@miseentrope 8 ай бұрын

Not me. I went to university, have $30000 in student loan debt, and/but I do understand all the ST allusions. 😜

@Sardarkhan69 8 ай бұрын

Great & Informative ! 🙏

@brixterartanoliveros5338 8 ай бұрын

It ain't gay if it's clay.

@arcturionblade1077 8 ай бұрын

"Enough expository banter! Now we fight like men! And ladies! And ladies who dress like men! For Gilgamesh...IT IS MORPHING TIME!!" - Gilgamesh FFV

@crowdemon_archives 5 ай бұрын

*insert a really long IYOOOO~! here*

@karlmark9967 8 ай бұрын

I just hope you guys would go for Susano-o's story next as I'm confused by his story. Or if you can also go for Filipino mythologies and monsters would be great too

@Jakman01 8 ай бұрын

Yessss I love this series!!! Can’t wait for Tiamat!

@cannibalbananas 7 ай бұрын

I took a college class where we got to read parts of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Dante's Divine Comedy. I really liked that class.

@thedragondemands5186 8 ай бұрын

You know, in some translations it says the gods gave Gilgamesh seven “auras” as his reward

@jessicalynn2565 8 ай бұрын

GIRUGAMESH!

@Caterfree10 8 ай бұрын

Ah, a person of culture!

@josephzowghi4313 8 ай бұрын

Have you done an episode on the Shahnameh yet? Or one of the stories in it?

@BigVVitchEnergy 8 ай бұрын

I love the pantheon plan!

@Pottery4Life 8 ай бұрын

Thank you.

@murkyseb 8 ай бұрын

I like hearing really old stories

@sarahleonard7309 4 ай бұрын

If I remember a documentary I watched once correctly (so, big grain of salt here), the reason there were enough copies of fragments of this story that so many of them survived to the modern day is that scribes being taught how to write used this story as their practice material because they knew it from memory.

@ifgeneral 8 ай бұрын

7:34 Sorry but the image shown here is not Tiamat but Anzû the eagle-liked monster

@Googledeservestodie 8 ай бұрын

One day I'll be able to read the name Gilgamesh correctly instead of like the sakura con 2009 commercial, but today is not that day.

@datafoxy 8 ай бұрын

My gosh, the first fridging and bury your gays!

@lasloapollo4312 8 ай бұрын

I see the civ 6 inspiration for the Gilgamesh model😂😂😂

@juanjuri6127 8 ай бұрын

maybe the real treasure was the friends we lost along the way

@hua_tetsu_cat 4 ай бұрын

Anime really helps with these mythological characters to be remembered profoundly

@ruaoneill9050 8 ай бұрын

Damn! Enkidu was the original victim of fridging!

@GaasubaMeskhenet 8 ай бұрын

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra

@jesusenriquez1236 6 ай бұрын

2:28 - 2:33 Where is this from? I would like to know is it from a movie or music video from India?

@katiem.3109 8 ай бұрын

To be fair to Enkidu, the great bull of Heaven WAS ravaging Uruk with a giant flood when he slayed him. The killing of Humbaba was definitely unjustified, though. Thanks for covering this epic! We read it in in my advanced world lit class in highschool (the N K sanders translation) and it's still one of my all time favorite stories. I highly recommend reading the original epic, it's so beautifully written and moving.

@katiem.3109 8 ай бұрын

Also, just to evidence how much of an impact this epic has had I recently looked up Gilgamesh/Enkidu on AO3 just for kicks because the idea of someone writing fanfiction of an ancient epic is kinda amusing, but to my surprise there were over 300 Gilgamesh/Enkidu fics on AO3, some based on the original epic, others based on various adaptations of the original stories and characters. Think about it, these characters were created nearly 5,000 years ago, and to this day people are still inspired enough by their story to keep writing about them. That's kind of amazing.

@safaiaryu12 8 ай бұрын

@@katiem.3109That is INCREDIBLE. But also incredibly lovely, that this story is still getting fanfic 3,000 years on! Also, totally agree on reading the original epic. I'll note that Stephen Mitchell has a translation, too... with the caveat that Mitchell takes a lot of liberties with his "translations" (I'm not actually sure he's translating anything), BUT his writing is very beautiful. Anyway, I'm going to look up NK Sanders! I love comparing translations.

@ghosthost100 8 ай бұрын

Love the story of Gilgamesh, please do the Monkey King, from China.

@Alric66 8 ай бұрын

So Enkidu was the first instance of "Fridging"?

@jankay8569 8 ай бұрын

That was epic

@Thromash 8 ай бұрын

2:00 can't believe they cut the epic battle from the video during editing.

@sgxthach 8 ай бұрын

To be fair, Ishtar/Innana basically sent the Bull of Heaven to attack Gilgamesh for his "bros before hoes" stance so I dunno he may have been justified in that one.

@luzarely6393 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for the RRR refrence. I honestly thought I was going crazy for the comparison!

@MWhaleK 8 ай бұрын

I like Fintan mac Bóchra, a shapeshifting immortal from Irish myth.

@safaiaryu12 8 ай бұрын

I freaking love The Epic of Gilgamesh, but I do have a strange love for epics in general. Also, it delights me how often ancient epics are gaaaayyyy

@bornnaked2928 8 ай бұрын

I dont recall there being so many, Im tempted to say random, memes in the other videos, maybe because I didnt get half of them. Gronk is not well known outside of the US, and not who I would think of when Im hearing about Enkidu 🤔 I wasnt aware that the details around why Enkidu dies was known, I had only heard versions were that part was missing.

@Caterfree10 8 ай бұрын

Kronk is a Disney character from The Emperor’s New Groove.

@bornnaked2928 8 ай бұрын

@@Caterfree10 Ahh 🤔But, is that whos face is shown when the name is mentioned, I thought it was the NFL player Rob Gronkowski? (I didnt double check)

@FireCat14 7 ай бұрын

Did not expect the RRR cameo!

@Jayjay-qe6um 8 ай бұрын

"Truly oh Gilgamish he is born in the fields like thee. The mountains have reared him"

@spacepope69 8 ай бұрын

You forgot(?) to mention that the Bull of Heaven was sent to punish Gilgamesh by Ishtar because of what he said about her.

@ianblake815 8 ай бұрын

Gilgamesh is my boy!

@DR_REDACTED 8 ай бұрын

I have read all of the original texts and can say this. It is so well written many new stories don't come close. (considering when and how they were writen)

@hozbotmer9787 8 ай бұрын

😂😂😂 like Gronk. Love it!!!

@flourishojemen8939 8 ай бұрын

I wonder if the 'No...ah' was intentional 😂

@ericthompson3982 8 ай бұрын

Utanapishti the Distant is Gilgamesh's real teacher.

@samwill7259 8 ай бұрын

Gilgamesh also got recontextualized into our modern pop mythology, he was even on the Avengers!

@lauracorum9775 7 ай бұрын

So basically every tumblr ship is just a retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh is what I’m hearing. Dean and Castiel Loki and Mobius Merlin and Arthur John and Sherlock Will Graham and Hannibal (but in a dark, twisted, reverse hero’s journey way) Steve and Bucky Kirk and Spock Kara Danvers and Lena The list goes on…