Gilgamesh: Immortal Power, Very Mortal Consequences

Five thousand years before Batman brooded, before Achilles sulked, before Hercules punched a god in the mouth, there was Epic of Gilgamesh - the original badass origin story. Gilgamesh starts as a tyrant king with godlike strength, a legendary temper, and absolutely zero chill, until the gods drop another unstoppable force into his life: Enkidu. What follows is a saga of monster-slaying, divine beef, catastrophic hubris, and one of the earliest -and most brutal - lessons ever recorded about friendship, loss, and mortality. Host Ben Thompson is joined by mythologist and storyteller Dr. John Bucher, Executive Director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, to break down how Gilgamesh isn’t just the first epic hero - but the blueprint for every action movie, superhero arc, and hero’s journey that followed. It’s a story about conquering everything… except death - and why that realization still hits just as hard 5,000 years later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices