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Enkidu

The Wild Man

majorattestedc. 2100–1200 BCE (Epic of Gilgamesh)Mesopotamian religion

The wild man, shaped from clay on the steppe by the gods as a counterweight to Gilgamesh. Tamed out of the animal world by a woman, seven days and seven nights, he lost the herds and gained a friend — the one human bond the king of Uruk ever met as an equal. His death is the hinge of the epic: the moment grief turns into the fear of death, and the fear of death into the journey.

Light83
Wisdom80
Grace75
Influence70
✦Signature powerThe UnknownA power not yet set down in the record.
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Its universe

The mythic order Enkidu belongs to, who comes before and after in the story of this world.

Voices & connections

Figures bound to Enkidu, family and rivals within the myth, and the thinkers and writers who shaped how we know them.

Epic of Gilgameshappears inGilgameshally of

Read the story

Illustrated chapters where Enkidu appears. Start reading in a click.

Illustrated storyGilgamesh, Who Saw the DeepThe oldest epic on earth: a tyrant king is given a wild man for a friend, loses him to the one enemy no king can fight, and walks off the edge of the world to un-learn death. The Flood survivor tells him the truth, a snake steals the consolation prize, and he comes home to the wall of Uruk with empty hands and the story itself — which turned out to be the immortality.Begin reading →Illustrated storyThe Descent of InannaThe oldest descent story ever written, four thousand years old: Inanna, Queen of Heaven, turns her ear to the Great Below and walks through the seven gates of the dead. At each gate a garment of her power is stripped away, until she stands naked before her sister Ereshkigal — and is hung on a hook. Her rescue costs a head for a head, and her eye falls on the consort who did not mourn her.Begin reading →