Gilgamesh is a topic that Graham Hancock revisits quite often. Together with the flood myth, something the author also wrote about in an astronomical allegory context, posted here on this blog in another blogpost.
He recently posted speculating on links between the Sayburc relief and the epic of Gilgamesh. These are fair comments, but mainly because of Gilgamesh equating with the sun and the summer solstice.
He is holding a lion and a snake in above image, this is intentional, its Hydra and Leo. The double lion motif is used for any character in ancient history that has a zodiac connotation, such as Medusa on the Corfu temple of which the author also wrote. Its used for solar (and moon) linked constellations passing on the ecliptic. Even old clay tablets of Shamash depict him between two lion banners as noted by the author in his sphinx paper. (https://www.academia.edu/130008653/On_the_dating_and_meaning_of_the_great_Egyptian_Sphinx)
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The epic of Gilgamesh is,also an astronomical allegory
One of these clues is the defeating of the bull of heaven, which is clearly Taurus. Just as explained in the article the lost zodiac figures,mythology stories or the 12 labours of Hercules have a zodiac reference, like the 12 apostles and 4 evangelist, there are reasons to believe that the story of Gilgamesh is equally so, based on the constellations and turning sky.
Gilgamesh is often depicted as standing between lions and this iconography is for example also seen at Sayburc, which gave Graham Hancock the idea that the story of Gilgamesh is “much older”. The author has to disagree here and state that the dating of Sayburc relief is just not in line with the known iconography in the region and thus its not Gilgamesh what is “older”, its the sayburc relief which is younger. In the end it’s a story of the sun passing through the year , the symbolism of between the lions from the aker symbol, how Shamash/Utu stands between lion banners.
The double mountain a recurring theme in ancient history in the Aker symbol and in relations to shamash/Utu the sun god. The author also wrote on its own interpretation of the Sayburc relief, in a seperate article with an own hypothesis on it a few years back, challenging its dating in favour of it being younger to match the iconography of the period in the region, not older as Graham Hancock suggested in an attempt to find his “lost civilization”.
But after digging in deep into Gilgamesh and placing it on the zodiac, it likely deliberately encodes a deeper underlying message and be more than just an ancient story to track the stars moving over the seasons.
At the very least this article shows that it does link to the zodiac with links to syncretism of Enlil/Enki and later Zeus/Poseidon from an origin of the constellations Bootes/Aquarius.
Tales of Gilgamesh’s legendary exploits are narrated in five surviving Sumerian poems. The earliest of these is likely “Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld”,[12] in which Gilgamesh comes to the aid of the goddess Inanna and drives away the creatures infesting her huluppu tree. She gives him two unknown objects, a mikku and a pikku, which he loses. After Enkidu‘s death, his shade tells Gilgamesh about the bleak conditions in the Underworld. The poem Gilgamesh and Aga describes Gilgamesh’s revolt against his overlord Aga of Kish. Other Sumerian poems relate Gilgamesh’s defeat of the giant Huwawa and the Bull of Heaven, while a fifth, poorly preserved poem relates the account of his death and funeral.
Seal impression of “Mesannepada, king of Kish“, excavated in the Royal Cemetery at Ur (U. 13607), dated circa 2600 BC.[15][16] The seal shows Gilgamesh and the mythical bull between two lions, one of the lions biting him in the shoulder. On each side of this group appears Enkidu and a hunter-hero, with a long beard and a Kish-style headdress, armed with a dagger. Under the text, four runners with beard and long hair form a human swastika. They are armed with daggers and catch each other’s foot.[16]
DR. L. LEGRAIN – UR EXCAVATIONS ARCHAIC SEAL-IMPRESSIONS Published in 1936, with no copyright
The “human swastka” is of interest here. The swastika has never been understood much, but is allways depicted im historical iconography where a turning sky reference is present. This is how the author eventualy found Potnia Theron as the “eastern fish” of Pisces. Even Medusa on the temple of Corfu “stands between lions” Its the image of the mistress and master of the animals, which the author not only links to the male and female, sun and moon, but also to halves of the zodiac, the underworld, from around gemini/aquarius to Leo and the heaven or upperworld, from leo to aquarius/gemini which where in line with the spring summer season and the autum/winter season of the zodiac. The underworld with Hades/Nergal was merely the part of the zodiac where Ophiucus/Scorpio etc “lived” together with the kneeler constellation medusa. Medusa, was first a virgin and only after raped by poseidon (aquarius) turned into Medusa. Its a cicular zodiax story of turning skies.
The author has established in a previous article on the floodmyth in the zodiac that this story “appears in the sky” Enki, Enlil and the boat are present as Aquarius, Bootes and Argos Navis, including the crow that was send first, Corvus, and Columba, the dove also present in the story of Jason and the argonauts “to go in front of the boat” in the story of the symplegades. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symplegades).
One who has studied would have learned that the floodmyth of Noah is merely passed down from other characters in history. Characters such as Ziusudra and many others.
Ziusudra is one of several mythic characters who are protagonists of Near Eastern flood myths, including Atrahasis, Utnapishtim, and the biblical Noah. Although each story displays its own distinctive features, many key story elements are common to two, three, or all four versions.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziusudra
Now why does the matter?
Because the story of Gilgamesh, is like the story of the Minotaur and Medusa and many other stories, a circular zodiac story, the characters also have zodiac references and are, according to the author based on recurring constellations of importance. Given different names but in essence the same “main players”. This concept is called syncretism.
Previous researchers have noted the labyrinth like face of Humbaba and made connections to the story of the minotaur in the labyrinth.
The author is of the opinion that Like Zeus and Poseidon where syncretised from Enli and Enki, which are Bootes and Aquarius respectively, that the characters predating this version where Gilgamesh and Enki-du.
The author “had no proof” for the this hypothesis, until the iconography of Gilgamesh and Enki-du started to make sense.
The author could quickly suspect a link between Enki and Enki-Du based on name and earlier concluded it was aquarius (and Poseidon).
The most logical zodiac equivalent for Enki-du is what later becomes Enki, Or aquarius. There are more reasons to believe this is true as Enkidu was civilized by the temple prostitute Shamhat. Aquarius also had a temple “experience” with a priestess who he raped and then turned into Medusa. But trying to decipher the Epic of Gilgamesh in constellation equivalents is definitely not as easy. However there are definitely clues its all zodiac related.
If one looks under Enki one sees the goat Capricorn and the bird is the old swallow constellation.
The goat Capricorn next to him.
Thus. This started to link Enkidu more and more to Enki as ‘the goatman’. Aquarius is ‘opposite of leo’.
From that same seal, Bootes, Gilgamesh, is “opposite of Capricorn.
However it was still not hundred percent conclusive. Then the author found an archeological find of the Dilmun civilization of Bahrain, currently in their national museum.
It depicts Gilgamesh next to Enki almost identical to the earlier Gilgamesh and Enki-du image giving credit to the authors hypothesis that Enki and Enki-du are “the same”. Syncretized. It also gives credit to Enlil “being Gilgamesh”.
Gilgamesh is Bootes
Now for Gilgamesh himself, there would likely be two candidates. One is the orion constellation and the other one is Bootes, Both are solar related one to spring the other to summer. The “penis figure”, God min, fertility ,or saint Shiva. Orion has a lion skin on his arm, whilst Gilgamesh is at times depicted with a lion cub on his arm.
Evidence Gilgamesh is “Bootes”
The celestial pair of gods such as Aquarius and Zeus, Enki and Enlil and…. Enkidu and Gilgamesh. Let’s take a closer look at Gilgamesh iconography and see if it can be deciphered assuming that the image holds the clues just as it did for Enki Enkidu as Aquarius.
He is holding a lion
But the real clue was in understanding what he holds in his right arm. A snake. This is a vital clue together with the lion.
Bootes is close to Leo. Then the author realized what was in his other hand. If you zoom in you see it’s head. It’s a snake. No these are not random animals or “in the area” this is all zodiac symbolism. Just as the water fishes bird and goat links to Aquarius this specific symbolism is Hydra and Leo. The only male character in the area is Bootes. Bootes is also the plowdriver or guardian of the bear. The pole constellation, The chariot (and Zeus, Jaweh, god, Santa etc) but he is also, Gilgamesh based on his linking iconography of this character.
This makes Gilgamesh unmistakably Bootes, as next to Leo and Hydra. This star identification hypothesis of the Gilgamesh myth has never been proposed by anyone before.
its is Bootes that was the main god constellation. The later Zeus and Jaweh on his mountain Manalus, the same mountain, “the ark (ARGo) stranded”
It is noteworty that both Bootes and Orion are depicted with hunting dogs and they could be the same figure “later in the story” much like how a comic book works in frames.
This is not ‘confirmation bias’. The author shows with numerous answers why his hypothesis all matches up in never before argued context.
Gilgamesh and Enki-du are opposites of wild Vs civilized man
They fight two main characters. Humbaba and the bull of heaven. These are again zodiac opposites. The other two corners of the zodiac, namely Taurus, the obvious “bull of heaven”, and “the kneeler constellation” which the author assigns as the demon Humbaba, that later became Medusa.
The author suspected Humbaba relates to the kneeler constellation due to its iconography, demon like reference and Taurus bull of heaven opposite.
Medusa, identified as the Kneeler constellation (not Hercules) by the author,
was present as constellation in older stories but had various other names, mainly a lion faced female but also other “demons” Such as Lamashtu. The temple of Corfu makes a striking pose similarity to them.
Humbaba’s labyrinth like face has been proposed before to be related to “a version of the minotaur” story, which the author also identified as a circular zodiac story in another article.
The author wrote on the min-o-taur before as related to the orion constellation and taurus and theseus defeating it with Ariadne.
All such stories the characters are contellations and as the sky turns they defeat the monster, much like the hero vs sea monster Cetus and Andromeda, or Appollo vs Python (Which appeared in many variants in history, such as zeus jaweh vs tiamat/typhon etc).
So, it was logical to go look for the characters of the epic of Gilgamesh, in the zodiac, based on their attributes or appearances in known archeological finds.
That said, the story might have original characters in history in the form of kings or human counterparts, but a global flood is less likely than an annual returning river flood of the euphrates or nile, which was then, encoded in the stars.
Now that the story is clearly mapped to the zodiac, there could be deeper lessons to be learned from the Zodiac and specifically the Gilgamesh story. Maybe it’s not only just seasonal and maybe Hamlets mill or the Yuga cycles have merit as encoded wisdom of life on earth.
Life is depicted as a circle. A continuous cosmic dance between heaven and hel, clearly marked in opposites of a civilised, plowing man who works the land and fertility of Orion populating the earth, then a wild man falling into sin, who lets his beastial nature prevail and wage wars, famines and diseases , from where the world sinks into the underworld, only to be destroyed and be “born” again to start another cycle of man, sending him back to the caves from cities.
Having mapped Gilgamesh to the zodiac story two things come to mind. Einstein’s quote, the fall of civilization and civilized man and the famous mouse experiment where a population of mice was monitored, Universe 25, by John B. Calhoun.
The story of Gilgamesh in a circular zodiac story or the zodiac as a whole, encoded this exact message displayed in that experiment.
Like the biblical flood story of man falling into sin and being destroyed “by god”, the epic of Gilgamesh encodes a similar story, by it’s placement of characters as zodiacal opposites. Civilized Vs wild man.
This opposing story of civilised Vs uncivilised got broken, bastardised into figures such as Enlil and Enki, then Poseidon and Zeus and finally Aquarius or the wild man being phased out, leaving 1 god sending a flood and saving man, a faint echo of the original story. Or, even worse, turned into a racist black man Vs white man from St Nicolas and Krampus to st. Nicholas and black Pete.
The saints boat, or ark, Argos, his horse Pegasus, it all made sense. The goatman Krampus even. It’s a modern version, syncretism of Enkidu and Gilgamesh, zodiac in origin, where Enkidu is the “bad” one, depicted as in a racist way as a blackman, black Pete in the Netherlands, with excuse it’s sooth from chimney.
Enkidu, The “wild uncivilised man”, depicted as a black man.
The fall and rise of man
This article aimed to show the story of Gilgamesh is based on the zodiac and it tells a story, not just any story but a profound story. Because it’s layed out on a circle, one of cyclical time and has the rise and fall of mankind encoded into it. It goes further than seasonal depictions. It oposes civilized man versus uncivilised wildman.
It is noteworty that it was Enlil, not Enki who aimed to destroy mankind with a flood and Enki(du)/Aquarius the god of wisdom which warned mankind was there “the good one”. This website fittingly holds it’s trident as god of knowledge. But the original story is different. It’s not about black or white. Wild vs civilised in that sense.
It’s not a god, but time itself that destroys man and later mankind as a whole, regardless of skin colour, due to growing overpopulation, resource limitations and decaying morals, as can be seen in the mouse experiment. It’s the war, famine, disease and pestilence part that takes over after growth of civilization. It’s the decay of moral compass. It’s the saint “turning into the wildman’ taking children because “they were bad”. Mankind itself got rotten.
Then “the underworld” part of the zodiac, wipes the earth clean, only be reborn in a new cycle of fertility and mankind.
So to looking for a point of collapse of civilization, (or golden age), it might or might not have been attributed to a specific time or “at the age of Leo” which was merely summer solstice. Its maybe not a set point in time, maybe it was. It’s hard to tell if it does stick to a fixed time pattern like our seasons.
It’s a gradual increase to civilization from cavemen, combined with an increase in population that ultimately leads to moral decline, resource fights, war, destruction, famine and disease, which is the downward cycle. Much like a wave pattern.
Like winter, it kills almost everything of. Resets the earth and mankind, only to start again, much like the mayas talk about the previous suns or cycles.
The wheels are turning and nothing seems to be able to stop this cyclical nature of man. But such laid out opposites, was without a doubt encoded as opposites in the epic of Gilgamesh laid against time in a zodiac circle. Enki and Enlil, or Orion and Ophiucius are concepts of cycles of man.
Perhaps there might have been surviving sages from a previous cycle, teaching the survivors, even though the 7 sages were encoded in the stars as the Pleiades. Them having “survived the deluge” might mean they survived the cyclical period of war, famine, pestilence and disease that wiped out the previous population of earth. But their actions of “civilization” merely started a new cycle of population and ultimate destruction.
The story of Adam and Eve relates to simple spring and summer being eden and eve eating from the apple, the sun, time, or tree of knowledge and get expelled by the snake, hydra. It’s underlying story is that of moral decline. Mankind eventually descending into sin and meeting it’s destruction only to be reborn and start over again.
- Rebirth, Saints, Agriculture abundance, Harmony, Nature (Pleiades) 10 commandments, tablets of destiny. Fertility, Orion.
- Agriculture (Bootes)
- Civilization increase population, kill animals, meat eating , Wild man, Moral decline, Knowledge, disharmony (Aquarius) , disconnected from each other and nature.
- Destruction, resource wars, pestilence, although this has occured it was god being upset with Ophiucius for healing and reducing souls.
Rise and collapse of civilizations is a natural thing, occuring many times in history with both civilized and uncivilised groups of man living next to each other. If it wasn’t to simply talk about seasonal occurrences, maybe it was depicting the cyclical nature of civilizations from wildman to saint and back, maybe it’s a bigger cyclical story related to a larger cycle. Such is speculation. What is clear though is that the story of epic of Gilgamesh was encoded in our stars, like many mythology stories and religions or versions of the story, with different names to the “characters” that came after it. There is a golden thread of syncretism that directly relates Jaweh to Gilgamesh in history and Enkidu to Poseidon and black pete.
