The oldest story in the world begins with a man who refuses to die
Four thousand years ago, in the city of Uruk, in what is now Iraq, people told the story of a king who was two-thirds god and one-third man. He was too strong, too proud and too restless. The gods grew tired of him. So they made him a rival.
His name was Gilgamesh. His story — written on clay tablets in a script of tiny wedge-shaped marks — is today called the world's oldest surviving example of narrative literature. Long before Homer sang of Troy, long before the Bible was written down, Gilgamesh was already searching for the one thing no king can conquer: death.
And in the Louvre, he may be waiting for you. More than five meters tall. Holding a lion.
The story in five scenes
1. The wild man. To tame Gilgamesh, the gods shape Enkidu from clay — a wild man who runs with the animals. He walks into Uruk, challenges the king, and the two fight until they become the best of friends.
2. The forest of cedars. Together they march to the Cedar Forest and kill its monstrous guardian, Humbaba. It is the first buddy adventure in literature.
3. The Bull of Heaven. The goddess Ishtar offers herself to Gilgamesh. He refuses her — rudely. In fury she sends the Bull of Heaven against Uruk. The two heroes kill it. The gods decide that someone must pay: Enkidu falls ill and dies.
4. The flood. Shattered by grief, Gilgamesh crosses the world to find Utnapishtim, the only man granted eternal life. Utnapishtim tells him how the gods once sent a great flood, and how he built a boat and saved every living thing. When George Smith read this tablet aloud in London in 1872, it caused a sensation: a flood story older than Noah's.
5. The snake. Utnapishtim reveals a secret: a thorny plant at the bottom of the sea that gives back youth. Gilgamesh dives, finds it — and on the way home, while he bathes, a snake steals it and sheds its skin. The king returns to Uruk with empty hands, and with the only answer the story offers: what lasts is what we build and the people we love.
The oldest Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh may date to around 2100 BCE. The best-known version, in twelve tablets, was compiled by a scholar named Sîn-lēqi-unninni and found in 1853 in the library of King Ashurbanipal at Nineveh.
The giant of the Cour Khorsabad
In the Louvre's Richelieu wing, the Cour Khorsabad (Room 229) recreates the gateway of the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II, built in about ten years at the end of the 8th century BCE. Winged bulls with human faces guard the doors. And among them stands a colossal hero, more than five meters tall, who holds a roaring lion against his chest as easily as a cat.
What makes him unforgettable is his face: he looks straight at you. In Assyrian art, figures are almost always shown in profile. This one breaks the rule.
The Louvre calls him Hero mastering a lion, known as “Gilgamesh” — and says honestly that he is only sometimes identified with the king of Uruk. No inscription names him. But stand in front of him and you will understand why, for more than a century, visitors have wanted him to be Gilgamesh.
The stone that speaks: the Code of Hammurabi
A few rooms away, around 1750 BCE, a Babylonian king did something unheard of: he carved the law into stone for everyone to see. The black stele of Hammurabi carries 282 laws in dense cuneiform, beneath a scene of the king standing before Shamash, the god of justice.
Some of the laws, in L. W. King's classic English translation:
Law 196. If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.
Law 197. If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken.
Law 229. If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.
Read our full story of the stele: The Code of Hammurabi at the Louvre.
Cuneiform: the writing that started it all
Gilgamesh and Hammurabi have one thing in common: cuneiform, the first writing system in the world. A scribe pressed a cut reed into wet clay, and each stroke left a small wedge — cuneus in Latin. For three thousand years, kings, merchants, poets and students wrote this way.
The Louvre holds some of its greatest masterpieces:
- The Gudea cylinders, about 2125 BCE: Two clay barrels covered in columns of text that tell how Gudea, ruler of Lagash, dreamed of a temple and built it. They carry the longest known text in the Sumerian language.
- The Stele of the Vultures, about 2460 BCE: Commissioned by Eannatum of Lagash after a war with the neighboring city of Umma. It is the earliest known war monument — complete with soldiers marching in tight ranks.
- The Code of Hammurabi, about 1750 BCE: Law, written for all to see.
How to see it at the Louvre
- Go to the Richelieu wing, ground floor (Level 0), Department of Near Eastern Antiquities.
- Start in the Cour Khorsabad (Room 229) with the winged bulls and the “Gilgamesh” hero. Look for his frontal face — then look at the lion's paws.
- Walk on to the Code of Hammurabi (Room 227). Look up at the relief first, then step close to the writing.
- Finish in the Sumerian galleries with Gudea and the Stele of the Vultures, to see where it all began.
- Give it 30 to 40 minutes. These rooms are calmer than the Mona Lisa's, and far less crowded.
Rooms can close or change for conservation work: check the Louvre's map and collection pages before your visit — Hero mastering a lion — Musée du Louvre.
See it with a storyteller
The Louvre has 35,000 works on display. The difference between walking past a stone and meeting Gilgamesh is the story. On our Louvre tour, a licensed guide-conférencier connects the masterpieces you came for with the rooms that will surprise you most — and Mesopotamia is one of them.
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