Gilgamesh

King of Uruk

Gilgamesh, hero-king of Uruk in the world's oldest surviving epic, was said to be two-thirds divine and built the city's mighty walls. After befriending the wild man Enkidu, the two slew the forest guardian Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven; but when Enkidu died, grief sent Gilgamesh wandering to the ends of the earth in search of immortality. He learned the secret of an undying plant only to lose it to a serpent, returning home to accept that his legacy would be the city he built.