At the beginning of The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is portrayed as a harsh and predatory king, the opposite of what a king ought to be. Men and gods make exactly the same complaint:
No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh takes them all, even the children; yet the king should be a shepherd to his people. His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior's daughter nor the wife of the noble.
The gods create Enkidu to curb the arrogance of Gilgamesh but after they have fought and Guilgamesh has shown himself to be stronger, Enkidu acknowledges that this is only fitting since Gilgamesh is the king, raised up above all men and therefore surpassing all men in strength. In this sense, therefore, Gilgamesh is what society demands of a king, a great hero with the strength to protect his people. Despite their initial altercation, Enkidu comes not to destroy the bad king, but to redirect his energies away from preying on his own people.
The Epic of Gilgamesh makes it clear that the king's role is not only, indeed not principally, to stay at home and rule over his people. It is to spread his and their renown far and wide through his exploits on quests. This is why Gilgamesh and Enkidu leave Uruk to fight Humbaba, and the king's counsellors commend their intention as entirely fitting for the king and his companion. In this way, Gilgamesh resembles Odysseus and the other Greek kings who left their kingdoms to seek glory at Troy. The king is, first and foremost, a hero.
Gilgamesh mixes historical and mythological conceptions of kingship. Gilgamesh himself appears on the king lists of Uruk and may reflect a mixture of early Sumerian history with foundation myths of the city.
The Sumerian kings were considered mediators between the human and the divine, greater than ordinary people but less than gods. Gilgamesh thus is portrayed as having partially divine ancestry and being physically stronger and longer lived than ordinary mortals but not immortal or divinely powerful.
In the beginning of the epic, Gilgamesh sees his role as one of absolute power without responsibility, but as the epic progresses, he and the readers realize that the king is in fact responsible not just for enforcing arbitrary laws, but for enforcing ethical norms based on divine justice. The king is the protector of widows, orphans, and the poor and has an important role in religious ritual. While kingship is portrayed as absolute, kings are legitimized by divine authority, as evidenced by behavior pleasing to the gods.
Initially, kingship in Sumerian society is depicted as synonymous with despotism. Gilgamesh is a cruel, sadistic tyrant who rules with a rod of iron, subjecting his people to periodic outbursts of bloodshed and violence. It's no exaggeration to say that Gilgamesh can do whatever he wants whenever he wants, and no mere mortal can stop him.
Yet as a result of his epic adventures, Gilgamesh experiences a profound change both as a king and as a person. After the death of his bosom buddy Enkidu, Gilgamesh is plunged into grief. Desperate to avoid the fate of his late friend, he sets out on a journey to discover the secret of immortality.
He never finds the secret, but he does find out a lot about himself and about how a true king should conduct himself. Enkidu's death has given Gilgamesh a much greater appreciation and respect for human life. He now understands that there's so much more to being a king than just the exercise of brute force; there's also a great deal of wisdom involved. But Gilgamesh only comes to this realization after a long, arduous journey in which he cheats death on a number of occasions. To be a great king, then, means accepting one's mortality.
Like many ancient societies, a Sumerian king is considered to be an extension of the will of the gods. The king has absolutely sovereign power, being able to claim that his bidding is the very bidding of the gods. Since, at the beginning, we can see that the people are lamenting the sorry state of Gilgamesh's rule, we are to understand that he is not being the leader that he should be and that the ideal Sumerian king would be a kind, benevolent ruler. Gilgamesh has the role of protecting and providing for his people. After his many exploits, he returns both humbled and widened, prepared to be a far better king. He could originally only see the divine providence of being king, but now he is aware of the humility and responsibility involved in ruling with his newfound wisdom.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest surviving works of literature in the world and deeply influential. It describes the archetypal "hero's journey," a literary pattern seen time and time again (Joseph Campbell coins the term "the hero with a thousand faces" to highlight this idea). Gilgamesh is a Sumerian king, the ruler of the city of Uruk, modeled on real-life kings like Sargon and Shamshi-Adad.
Like these real kings, Gilgamesh is initially not particularly popular with his people and rules through brute force and intimidation. However, as a result of his experiences and journeys, he is transformed. These experiences include encountering Enkidu, a wild man who eventually accompanies him on adventures but then dies. This leads to Gilgamesh's search for Utnapishtim, the immortal man, and the secrets of everlasting life. These elude Gilgamesh, but he returns to Uruk possessed of greater wisdom and humility, making him a better ruler.
This is why early titles of the epic refer to Gilgamesh as "he who sees deep" or "he who sees the unknown" and why he is viewed as surpassing all the other previous Sumerian kings.
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