The Iranian Plateau, birthplace of the original epic of Gilgamesh

During the long period of prehistoric times, the literature of every society was gradually shaped by myths, customs and practices of different groups of people who had come together in one geographical area. When such ethnic groups, with their unique religious beliefs, rituals and myths, were unified under a single political and religious system, their cultural practices often persisted in the new system. Furthermore, as time went by, the mutual interaction between each system at times led to intellectual and complicated (theological, ideological, literary) syntheses. The Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from Mesopotamia, is among the earliest surviving works of literature. However, it seems that the geographical framework of the adventures of Gilgamesh and the description of landscapes are more characteristics of the area surrounding the Caspian Sea and Mount Damavand rather than Mesopotamia. This article explores a number of themes and motifs in The Epic of Gilgamesh and the medieval Persian Romance, Vis and Rāmin, to locate the archetypal Mesopotamian hero in the myths of the early inhabitants of the Iranian plateau; that is, in the beliefs and the myths of the ancient Elamites who had populated the Iranian Plateau well before the Medes and the Persians.