Gilgamesh by Sherwin Long

Acrylic painting 

16"x 20" canvas

A character from ancient mythology that was a descendant of a God. I painted this as a part of a series of legendary characters that impacted society but we don't hear much about. Gilgamesh is the central character in the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from Mesopotamia that is considered the world's first truly great work of literature. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about 'Bilgamesh' (Sumerian for Gilgamesh). In the epic his father was Lugalbanda and his mother was Ninsun (whom some call Rimat Ninsun), a goddess. In Mesopotamian mythology, Gilgamesh is a demigod of superhuman strength who built the city walls of Uruk to defend his people from external threats, and travelled to meet the sage Utnapishtim, who had survived the Great Deluge. He is usually described as two-thirds god and one third man.