A. Sutherland – AncientPages.com – Enmerkar is a mythological, semi-historical character, from Sumerian legends. He represents the first dynasty (3500 – 2750 BC), including great Mesopotamian heroes, including Meskiaggasher (his father), Lugalbanda, Dumuzi, and Gilgamesh.
In the Sumerian King List, Enmerkar appears as the second king of the First Dynasty of Uruk. His father was Meskiaggasher (Mesh-ki-ang-gasher), the son of the god Utu (the twin of the goddess Inanna, the Queen of Heaven), later worshipped as Shamash, the Mesopotamian Sun god associated with justice, truth, and morality. Utu, on the other hand, was Enmerkar’s grandfather.
King List adds that Enmerkar brought the official kingship with him from the city of E-ana after his father Meskiaggasher, son of Utu, had “entered the sea and disappeared.” Enmerkar founded Uruk, the largest settlement in southern Mesopotamia around 4500 BC, and was said to have reigned for “420 years” (some versions even propose “900 years”).
In “Sumerian Mythology,” Samuel Noah Kramer writes that one (unpublished) tablet that was found in Nippur says that “hero Enmerkar ruled in the city of Erech sometime during the fourth millennium BC.”
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