Hi Dr Reames ! Would Alexander have known the stories of Gilgamesh and Enkidu ?
What an interesting question. I'd say he probably didn't, at least when growing up.
BUT after the Battle of Gaugamela, when he was hanging out in Babylon, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he didn't ask the scribes to show him the libraries and read to him from various texts. (Of course he'd need someone to read them--and translate them--as he couldn't read cuneiform or understand Akkadian.)
We know he was told about the Library of Ashurbanipal when he passed by the remains of Nineveh on the way to Gaugamela. He toured the canals and dikes there, or remains of them. Seeing the ruins of Ashurbanipal's library gave him the idea for the Library of Alexandria, although of course, he never lived to see it even begun, and some have argued it was really Ptolemy's idea, not ATG's. Yet Alexander was such a book boy, it wouldn't surprise me if he entertained the idea then and perhaps talked about it to his Friends.
We also know he visited the Esagila (Temple of Marduk) and Etemenanki ("Tower of Babel" = ziggurat), as he donated a ton of money to have the Etemenanki repaired (Arrian attributes the damage to Xerxes, but it's most likely just regular decay). Btw, they didn't do anything and when he got back in 334, he was really pissed and had the whole thing torn down in order to properly rebuild it...but he died first. No, it never was rebuilt. The Seleucids built a new capital entirely, so Babylon ceased being a major center.
Anyway, while he was in Egypt, Alexander visited temples and talked to priests about Egyptian philosophy, and he did the same in India later. if we're not told directly that he heard about the legend of Gilgamesh while in Babylon, I really can't imagine he didn’t. It's exactly the sort of thing he'd be interested in.
