Anime's Greatest Chad: The Epic of Gilgamesh (Fate)
Gilgamesh is known as mankind's first hero.
But his story isnāt limited to just the Fate series. In fact, itās shaped our modern lives more than you could ever imagine.Ā
If youāre here for a historically accurate depiction of the man who tried to conquer death, donāt leave. Iāve worked really hard to make this as accurate as possible.
And if youāre here for the story of the real anime Gigachad, and how he goes from an arrogant dictator to a benevolent king.
Then grab a drink and some snacks, because this, is the tale of the Hero of Heroes.
Before we jump into the Epic of Gilgamesh, itās worth taking a second to understand the roots of this iconic character and his influence on human culture and literature.
Mesopotamia was a region in 3100 BC, now covered by Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. It had its fair share of events, from the reigns of Sumerians and Akkadians to being eventually conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 BC.
But nestled within this timeline is a certain story thatās so profound, so raw, it's been echoing for millennia.
Now I know what youāre thinking.
"I'm here for anime, not a history lesson."
But the thing is, all evidence points to Gilgamesh actually existing 5000 years ago. And his legend is recorded in mankindās oldest poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The epic is thought to have been orally transmitted for generations before it was finally written down on clay tablets in the cuneiform script, which was one of the earliest systems of writing.
To put into context how old that is, it makes him almost 3000 years older than Jesus.Ā
But I wouldnāt take EVERYTHING that follows as being literal. Just know that some of the stuff is actually reported to have happened.
Gilgamesh is known as the King of all Heroes because every single myth that followed, every story, every legend from every culture and every religion in every country, it all borrows inspiration from mankindās first hero.
The strongest examples of this are in the Biblical tale of Noah and the Greek myth of Hercules. And his story greatly influences modern literature too, like The Lord of the Rings and A Game of Thrones.
The story of the Epic of Gilgamesh was discovered on 12 clay tablets found among the ruins of the ancient library of Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
These tablets, inscribed with cuneiform script, are dated to around the 7th century BC but are believed to preserve much older stories that were likely first told orally and later written down.
These ancient tablets provide the most comprehensive version of the epic, but parts of the tale also appear on other scattered fragments found at different ancient sites across the Middle East.
There are actually two versions of Gilgamesh in the Fate series and theyāre technically different people.
Well, theyāre not, but they kind of are.Ā
Weāre in the year 2800 B.C., the Age of the Gods, where divine beings and humans walked the Earth together.
Some Gods were just, while others treated their subjects as slaves.
One day, a greater god called Sefar invaded the Earth, killing many of the Gods.
She was eventually defeated, but the damage was already done, and the rule the gods had over the humans had severely weakened.
In order to preserve their rule, the gods needed a keystone, a Wedge of Heaven that connected the rising humans to the fading gods.
That keystone was Gilgamesh.
Born from the Goddess Ninsun and the Human King Lugalbanda, Gilgamesh was two-thirds God, and one-third human, and ruled over humanity with the mission to observe and adjudicate.
The city Gilgamesh ruled over was called Uruk, situated in present-day Iraq.
Yet, Uruk was far from ordinary.
It stood as a testament to human achievement, its towering walls not just architectural marvels but also echoes of the ambitions of its people.
Conceived under the watchful eye of Gilgamesh, these walls became more than mere defensive structures; they symbolised humanity's victory over nature. This audacious statement reflected Gilgamesh's own beliefs: that he stood above nature itself.
As evidence of its profound legacy, archaeologists pinpoint Uruk as one of humanity's earliest urban epicentres, with roots as deep as 4000 BCE. Its intricate temples, ziggurats, and canal systems all serve as relics of its storied past.
This transcendence over nature, and the very walls that proclaimed it, became the lens through which Gilgamesh viewed himself.
To him, the limitations of divinity and humanity were but mere lines in the sand.
He believed that while no human could rival the gods, the gods themselves could never experience the complexities of human existence.
And since Gilgamesh was both human and God, he perceived himself not just above his subjects, but even the deities that breathed life into him.
His self-awareness was, in many ways, his crowning achievement.
Gilgamesh grew to become a cruel, arrogant, and oppressive tyrant who subjugated his people to forced labour and sexual abuse.
And just to be clear, Iām downplaying that a lot because even I donāt want to talk about some of the disgusting things he is historically reported to have done.
And it makes me wonder how he ever became a Heroic Spirit in the first place.
Naturally, the gods didnāt want this, but they couldnāt exactly do anything about it because, well, Gilgamesh just wouldnāt submit to them.
So instead, the King of Godās Anu, and the Goddess of Creation Aruru, created a monster out of clay called Enkidu, to punish the arrogant king.
You see, Enkidu didnāt have a soul, and so couldnāt make rational decisions.
So the gods sent a divine harlot to sleep with him. (And Iām not even joking.)Ā
After this, Enkidu takes human form, and his final appearance is very similar to the girl he slept with. And thatās why he has such a feminine form.
(Itās definitely not because having more hot girls leads to more sales)
Before we dive into what happened between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, letās talk about Gilgameshās powers, or more specifically, Archer Gilgameshās powers.
In Fate, heroic spirits have Noble Phantasms, which are special weapons or abilities that embody the legend of that hero. For example, King Arthurās Noble Phantasm, or rather, Artoriaās Noble Phantasm (Again, because more hot girls = more sales), is Excalibur, the sword of promised victory.
Gilgamesh has a lot of Noble Phantasms, and I mean, A LOT. It would take me a decade to cover them all, but Iāll talk about a few.
The first is his ability Sha Naqba Imuru, or Clairvoyance, which lets him see into the future and see the truth of anything he looks at.
So in a fight, he knows exactly who his opponent is, what their abilities are, and how best to defeat them. Or if heās playing chess, then he knows the correct move every time.
This ability is pretty OP but the thing is, Gilgamesh barely uses it.
Because heās an arrogant prick.
He believes himself to be so powerful, that he doesnāt even need it most of the time.
And uhmā¦ heās kinda right...
Especially when you learn about his next Noble Phantasm.
During his time as ruler of Uruk, Gilgamesh amassed every single weapon on Earth and stored them all in his treasury.
And I genuinely mean, every single weapon.
And the Gate of Babylon allows him to choose whichever weapon he wants, whenever he wants, wherever he wants.Ā
But thatās not how Gilgamesh uses it...
Every single weapon is fired out at a speed of Mach 10, and he has so many, that he could go his entire life firing them away without having to use a single one twice.
What makes this ability even more OP, is that these weapons arenāt just ordinary weapons. Every single one of them is a Noble Phantasm in itself. Artoriaās Excalibur, Lancerās Gae Bolg, Herculesā Nine Lives, Gilgamesh has all of these weapons in his treasury.
But how is that possible if these heroes came AFTER Gilgamesh?
Well. Thatās because theyāre prototypes.Ā
I mentioned earlier that almost every legend told today is in some way inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh. And in the same way, every weapon used today has a design that is somehow based on those in his treasury.
He owns every weapon that existed and owns every weapon that is yet to exist.
And donāt get me wrong.
While theyāre technically prototypes, it is said that if you compare the original weapon to Gilgameshās prototype, the original will look like a fake, thatās how well-made the prototype is.
Not only that, but in a fight, the prototype will beat the original every time.
Now that doesnāt mean that if Gilgamesh were to use Excalibur and fight Artoria in a 1 on 1 swordfight that he would win.
And thatās because heās a jack of all trades but master of none.
Gilgamesh is a brilliant swordsman. But these other heroic spirits have spent their entire lives mastering a single weapon, and thus can use them to their full potential, which Gilgamesh cannot.
That being said. Gilgamesh DOES have one weapon that only he can use, one so powerful that it defies reality itself. Buuuuut Iāll talk about that later.
Enkidu eventually confronts Gilgamesh outside of the Temple of Uruk, stating that he needed to be punished for disobeying the gods.
But Gilgamesh isnāt one to let anyone talk down on him.
So he engages Enkidu in a battle that lasts days on end.
And this was pretty new to Gil. It was the first time he ever came across someone equal in strength to him, which forced him to use his Gate of Babylon.
Gilgamesh was furious that someone had caused him to waste his weapons, he was humiliated.
But eventually, he stopped caring, and he even started to enjoy himself after finally finding someone worthy to be in his presence.
This battle lasted so long and was so fearsome that Gil exhausted every single weapon in his treasury, but by this point, Enkidu was severely weakened and Gilgamesh had won.
But instead of finishing him off, Gilgamesh extended a hand to him.
He saw Enkidu as an equal, and Enkidu ended up becoming Gilās first friend, his only friend.
One day, Gilgamesh set his sights upon defeating the Beast of the Godās, Humbaba.
But the thing is, the Godās hadnāt told him to do this, and he wasnāt doing it for the sake of his people either, because, wellā¦ he didnāt care about them.
Gilgamesh simply saw Humbaba as something that needed to be removed from the Earth in order to see out his mission.
Gilgamesh had always disobeyed the Godās so that he could be far removed from them, and he wanted his people to hate him so that he could be far removed from them, because that was the only way he could be truly neutral, because that was the mission for which he was born.
In this sense, you could argue that the reason that Gilgamesh was such an abhorrent dictator, was because he didnāt want to get close to his subjects, so that he could remain impartial.
(I donāt know how much truth there is to that and it could simply be a result of the story being altered as it was passed from generation to generation.)
Either way, seeing Gilgameshās resolve, Enkidu pledges his loyalty to him, and the two go on numerous adventures together, which ends with Gilgamesh becoming the wealthiest and most powerful king on Earth.
He amassed so much power that even the gods had no choice but to acknowledge it. One Goddess in particular, Ishtar, the Goddess of Fertility, asked Gilgamesh to marry her.
Marrying a Goddess was actually one of Gilgameshās duties as it would see the continued reign of the gods over the humans, but Gilgamesh said no.
Enraged, Ishtar went to her father Anu, and asked him to unleash the Divine Beast Gugalanna on Uruk.
This divine beast devastated the lands for 7 years before Gilgamesh and Enkidu were finally able to defeat it. But this came at a price.
Ishtar asked the gods to sentence Gilgamesh and Enkidu to their deaths. While the Gods agreed, they couldnāt do anything to Gil, but they could to Enkidu, because he was their direct creation.Ā
Enkiduās clay body weakened and weakened until it would eventually return to the very Earth from which it had come.
Gilgamesh stayed by his friend's side until the very end.
While this event is not shown directly shown in the anime, it is mentioned in the original Sumerian poem from three thousand years ago, translated as follows:
āIt saddens me. It saddens me, Gil. Who would understand you after I die? Who else would march by your side? My friendā¦ when I think you will live on all alone henceforth, I canāt help but shed tears. But donāt be saddened. For I am but another of your treasures.ā - Enkidu
Itās honestly a rather heartbreaking end to their friendship.
One would have thought that the arrogant and prideful King of Heroes would have had a rather stoic response. But history says otherwise:
"You do have worth. You alone have this worth. I hereby declare: In all this world, only one shall be my friend. Thus---not for all eternity shall his worth ever change."Ā - Gilgamesh
And with this, Enkidu returned to the Earth, leaving nothing behind but Gilgamesh's thunderous cry.
And for those of you who have watched Fate Zero, youāll know that Gilgamesh kept this promise, even thousands and thousands of years later.
After Enkiduās death, Gilgamesh realised something.
As he was one-third human, he too would one day die.
If this were to happen, he would not be able to fulfil his dream of watching over humanity until the end of time, and it also meant he would not be able to carry out his purpose as the Wedge of Heaven.
And thus, for the first time in his existence, the king of heroes felt fear.
And this brings us to the core of the ancient Sumerian poem.
Gilgamesh, wanting to beat death, set out on a journey to find the only treasure that he didnāt have in his vaultāthe Herb of Immortality.
Well, itās in the name so figure it out for yourselves.
Gilgamesh wandered the Earth for several decades in search of this herb, and eventually, stumbles upon a wise sage in the underworld that guides him in the right direction.
Sure enough, Gil finds the herb and is absolutely euphoric, because he has just beaten death, and all thatās left for him to do, is return to Uruk, and see over his people until the end of time.
Before beginning his journey back home, Gil decides to wash off in a nearby spring, where he first places the herb on the ground. However, as fate would have it, a serpent stumbles upon the bathing Gilgamesh, and after seeing the herb, it eats it.
And a little fun fact. Itās thought that the Sumerians and many of the cultures that followed, believed that snakes have the ability to shed their skin because this serpent ate the herb of immortality, giving snakes the ability to be reborn.
Much like the biblical tale of Adam, Eve, and the serpent, this story serves as a stark reminder of life's impermanence and the inevitable reality of death.
By losing the herb, Gilgamesh confronts the bitter truth: immortality remains beyond human grasp.
After realising what happened, youād think Gilgamesh would be upset, or that he would be outraged, but, he wasnāt.
He realised that death was unavoidable and that by dying, he wasnāt abandoning his duty, he was completing it, because it was the most human thing he could do.
He realised that you didnāt die because you were human, but you were human because you died.Ā
And with his Sha Naqba Imuru, Gilgamesh was able to see into the future, and what he saw was exactly what he loved about the humans in the first place.
He saw the continued growth of the human race, the way their knowledge developed, and the way they used their resources to reach for the stars and beyond.
With this new outlook, Gilgamesh returned to Uruk as a changed man.
While Archer Gilgamesh was an arrogant tyrant that did disgusting things, Caster Gilgamesh was kind, generous, and benevolent.
He loved his people so much that he actually gave away all the swords in his treasury.Ā
You see, these two versions of Gilgamesh are still the same person. Itās just that Archer Gilgamesh is the version of Gilgamesh we see before Enkiduās death, and Caster Gilgamesh is the one we see after the death of his friend.
And yes, technically, Caster Gilgamesh is weaker than Archer Gilgamesh, and the biggest reason for that is the fact that he gave away so many of his weapons, weakening his Gate of Babylon.
But Caster Gilgamesh also had a noble phantasm that Archer Gilgamesh didnāt, Melammu Dingir, or Kingās Signal Cannon.Ā
If youāve ever seen the movie Three Hundred, itās a lot like that. But except for arrows, heās firing every weapon he has at his disposal.
As I mentioned, Caster Gilgamesh was much more generous than Archer Gilgamesh, and he gave away his treasures for them to be used in cannons, should the city of Uruk need protection.
As such, this Noble Phantasm is classed as an Anti-Army ability, firing every weapon mankind had in one go.
But if you think thatās powerful, thereās one more noble phantasm I havenāt yet mentioned. But this one didnāt belong to Caster Gilgamesh, it belonged to Archer Gilgamesh.Ā
Imagine a weapon so mighty that it not only holds power beyond comprehension but also taps into the very essence of our universe's creation.Ā
Enter Ea, the sword of rupture.
But is it even correct to call it a sword?
Ea is the pinnacle of Noble Phantasms and is the strongest weapon in Gilgameshās treasury and it is unique to only him.
You might think it kind of looks like a sword, but it actually isnāt. It was designed before the concept of a āswordā even existed and so, itās in its own class.
To even summon Ea, Gilgamesh first has to unlock the depths of his treasury with a key that only he possesses, and after that, we see the mere act of obtaining Ea disrupts reality itself.
Designed intricately, each section of Ea represents the Heavenās, the Earth, and the Underworld, with the sections rotating in opposite directions, echoing the universeās vast expanse.
Gilgamesh claims that the sword "knows the truth" of the world where it once existed, and by using its power, it is able to bestow its knowledge upon others.
The weapon holds memories of a time even before the planet existed, a time when life, as we understand it, couldn't have survived. The memory of our universe's raw, primordial form, a chaotic blend of scorching heat and biting cold, of molten lava and dense gas, long before life as we know it began.
This primordial memory is embedded deep within our very DNA, a distant echo from eons past, now faded from our tales and consciousness.
Yet, to those who gaze upon the sword, this deep-seated, almost forgotten knowledge comes rushing back.
To Gilgamesh, Ea is more than just a weapon.
He treats it like a person. He talks to it, respects it, and unleashes its might only against those he deems truly worthy.
This isn't just any weapon; it's a creation from even before our planet's dawn, crafted by an unknown God and was once used to split the Heavens and Earth.
It is classed as an anti-universe noble phantasm with power unlike any other and its ability is called āEnuma Elishā, and to use the ability, Gilgamesh first recites an incantation, which is as follows:
āI will tell you of the beginning. Heaven and Earth split, nothingness congratulated creation, my Sword of Rupture cleaved the world!"
"Mortar of the stars, heaven's hell is the eve of creation's celebration. Now you shall die and be silent..."
This is actually another Babylonian tale from thousands of years ago titled āThe Story of Creationā, buuuuuuuut I'll cover that another time.
I know that Iāve been describing Ea as a āweaponā, but it isnāt that at all. In fact, that barely scratches the surface of its true nature.
It's not an exaggeration when I say that Enuma Elish has the power to tear the universe apart. Yet, even such an unparalleled force had its moment of surprise.
(There is one recorded instance of it being stopped, something which shocked even Gilgamesh, but thatās a story for another time...)Ā
Gilgamesh is only seen using this ability on two occasions, once against Rider and another against Tiamat, a primordial deity that almost destroyed the world and was so powerful, that even Gilgamesh couldnāt defeat her. Or rather, Caster Gilgamesh couldnāt. Because like I said before, Archer Gilgamesh is on an entirely different level.
We see Gilgamesh use Eaās full strength against Enkidu, not in their first battle, but rather, when they met again thousands of years later in Fate Strange/Fake.
Here, the world itself is sucked into the void created by the sword, and it begins tearing apart. But Enkidu has his own version of Enuma Elish and thus was able to hold the World together.
The battle is described as follows by those that observed it:
"I felt as if the World was born seven times, and destroyed seven times." - The Sacred Prostitute.
This meeting here is honestly, beautiful. And I know thatās a weird way to describe what is essentially a war to the death between mages, but thatās all I can say about it.
We know how much Gilgamesh values Ea. He is disgusted by the thought of someone unworthy even laying their eyes on it. And itās so rare that we ever see him even using it.
But when he realises that his opponent is his first and only friend, he pulls out Ea with zero hesitation. [Say it with slight laughter]
In fact, this is the happiest we ever see Gilgamesh. He spends the entire battle laughing his heart out, and we see Enkidu, with a hand to his ears, admiring the sound of his friend's laughter as if it were a song.Ā
Itās a tragedy that Gilgamesh will never be able to see Enkidu again. But thatās life. As sad as it is to admit, we all have people we care about that will be gone from our lives forever.
Itās no wonder that Gilgameshās greatest treasure wasnāt any of his riches, any of his weapons, the holy grail, or even Ea.
It was his friendship with Enkidu.
And with that, Iāve covered a fraction of The Epic of Gilgamesh. It took a lot of work and thereās a lot I couldnāt talk cover. Iāll probably make another post dedicated to Ea and another on Enkidu, but Iāll warn you, be prepared to cry.
psst... if you liked this essay, check out the full video essay on my youtube channel!
And I don't normally add this, but if I can be a teenie bit selfish on this one occasion:
Please check out the video (if you'd so graciously lend me a few minutes of your time) because it's by far the hardest I've ever worked on a video and I wholly believe the end result is really good. You can always leave a dislike and tell me how to improve if you don't like it lol
