Gilgamesh was the historical 5th king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk and a superhuman hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology, who is the protagonist of the 'Epic of Gilgamesh', the earliest surviving epic poem written in Akkadian during the late second millennium BCE. Among the diverse sources of the Gilgamesh story, most notable are the Old Babylonian version, compiled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni in the 18th century BCE, and the standard Akkadian version that dates between 13th and 10th centuries BCE. There are also five earlier Sumerian poems, which existed independent of the epic narrative. The story of Gilgamesh's failure to achieve immortality despite undertaking adventurous quests has been the basis for several later epic poems, including Homer's epic poems, 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey'. However, the epic gained much attention following its rediscovery in the recent times due to its detailed description of the 'Great Flood', which closely matches the biblical account of the same event, but is a much older text.