thumb|left|upright=1.3|Existential angst during the aftermath of World War II significantly contributed to Gilgamesh's rise in popularity in the middle of the twentieth century. For instance, the German novelist Hermann Kasack used Enkidu's vision of the Underworld from the Epic of Gilgamesh as a metaphor for the bombed-out city of Hamburg (pictured above) in his 1947 novel .
thumb|left|upright=13|Existential angst during the aftermath of World War II significantly contributed to Gilgamesh's rise in popularity in the middle of the twentieth century. For instance the German novelist Hermann Kasack used Enkidu's vision of the Underworld from the Epic of Gilgamesh as a metaphor for the bombed-out city of Hamburg (pictured above) in his 1947 novel .