Urshanabi, also known as Sursunabu, was a figure in Mesopotamian mythology. His name is considered unusual and difficult to interpret, and consists of a prefix common in Sumerian names and a cuneiform numeral which could be read as both ⅔ or 40. Most likely it was an artificial scholarly construction. He is known from the Old Babylonian and Standard Babylonian versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as from its Hittite adaptation. He is described as a boatman in the service of the flood hero Utnapishtim, and is responsible for taking Gilgamesh to Utnapishtim's domain. In the Standard Babylonian version, he also subsequently travels with him back to Uruk. It has additionally been proposed that he might have been viewed as a survivor of the great flood, and that he acted as a ferryman of the dead comparable to Ḫumuṭ-tabal or Greek Charon.
Urshanabi, also known as Sursunabu, was a figure in Mesopotamian mythology. His name is considered unusual and difficult to interpret, and consists of...
Urshanabi the ferryman, who will help him cross the sea to Utnapishtim. Gilgamesh, out of spontaneous rage, destroys the stone charms that Urshanabi keeps...
king seen ferrying Dante and Virgil across the Styx in Inferno (Dante) Urshanabi – Ferryman from Mesopotamian mythology "Charon | Myth & Symbols". Encyclopædia...
Urshanabi, who crosses the river in a boat. Themes of this story are repeated later in the Epic of Gilgamesh where the ferryman is called Urshanabi....
the waters. When Gilgamesh persists in his quest, she directs him to Urshanabi, the ferryman of the gods, who takes Gilgamesh across the sea to Utnapishtim...
distant "Waters of Death," and suggests Gilgamesh should seek the help of Urshanabi, Utnapishtim's boatman, whose boat takes him to his destination. However...
impossible for the latter to be the case in the context of the epic. Urshanabi Sursunabu Urshanabi is a boatman serving Utnapishtim. In the end of the composition...
burying the dead. Allusions are made to the scenes of Enkidu's ghost, and Urshanabi's ferry over the Hubur, in the Epic of Gilgamesh: "dead people are also...
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