I thought it would be a good idea to brush on my (non-existent) knowledge of epics. I cannot rate the Epic of Gilgamesh because I only listened to it as it was among the first piece of literature known to man and I was curios. Plus it was short. I am reading the Literature Book, an excellent history of the art of the written word and this was the first entry. The first category is called heroes and legends and covers titles from 3000 BCE to 1300 CE. I am planning to read some of the books mentio...

**2021 UPDATE This text's antiquity prevents me from saying anything critical about the writing, except as regards the translation of same and how it reads. The Norton Critical Edition I reviewed below wasn't, erm, easy on the eyes shall we say. This Contra Mundum translation is HUGELY superior and vastly more fun to read.BkC2) THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH: Not sorry I read it, but what a slog.The Book Report: Evil King Gilgamesh is hatefully cruel to the citizens of Uruk, his kingdom. The gods, hearin...

Here's the first book in the world, written around let’s say 2000 BC in Uruk, which is now Iraq, so when I set out to read all of the books in order a while back this was the first one I read. So it's nice that it's very good.It’s about this king, Gilgamesh, who’s a dick. He’s a terrible king, a total tyrant. His best buddy Enkidu, on the other hand, is your archetypical noble savage guy, an innocent wild man. Enkidu gets civilized via the traditional method of having a sex priestess fuck him fo...

I've now read this dingdang poem at least four times. Though I read it in both high school and my sophomore year of college, the textbook versions I was dealing with must have been pretty darn tamed down, as I do not recall any overt references to sexual organs or Prima Nocta. Yeah, I definitely don't recall any sexysexy lines like "Open the hymen, perform the marriage act!" Maybe I was just phoning in the whole learning thing back then, or maybe the years since I stepped away from academia have...

”The one who saw the abyss I will make the land know;Of him who knew all, let me tell the whole story...in the same way...Is there a king like him anywhere?Who like Gilgamesh can boast, ‘I am the king!’From the day of his birth Gilgamesh was called by name.” An exorcist priest named Sin-Leqi-Unninni is famous for being the scribe who recorded the best preserved version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. He lived in Mesopotamia between 1300-11oo BC. His name translates roughly as The Moon God is One Wh...

"لأنه ليس من قدر الإنسان أن يحيا إلى الأبد ولكن لإنجازاته أن تخلد اسمه للأجيال اللاحقة""As for human beings, their days are numbered, and only their achievements that could establish their name to the latter generations." The oldest discovered "truly literature" epic ever in history, the immortal outstanding Odyssey of Iraq. Gilgamesh, the two-thirds god, symbol of Sumerian myth. Origin of all stories and tales, which the old ancient civilizations quoted Source of myths and superstitionYou woul...

It is an old storyBut one that can still be toldAbout a man who lovedAnd lost a friend to deathAnd learned he lacked the powerTo bring him back to life.It is the story of GilgameshAnd his friend Enkidu.— Gilgamesh: A Verse NarrativeThe Epic of Gilgamesh is the world’s oldest work of literature, dating back at least to 2,000 B.C. It is the story of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, who becomes best friends with Enkidu. They travel to the Cedar Forest and kill a monster named Humbaba, and soon thereaft...

Why is it that I should feel a pit in my stomach when I think of the Library of Alexandria wreathed in fire? Cotton's Library, too, when we nearly lost Beowulf and The Pearl. Who knows what we did lose? A copy of an unknown work of Archimedes was found to have been scraped clean, cut in half, and made into a Bible. To think: a unique book of knowledge--one that outlined Calculus 1800 years before its time--was turned into a copy of the most common book in the world.As a young man, Tolkien once g...

This review is of the translation by Stephen Mitchell.Imagine, if you will, that the original Treasure Island could only be read by a handful of select scholars who had dedicated years to studying it; the Muppet Treasure Island was slightly more accessible, but still esoteric. Then someone came along and re-wrote the original story, basing it off people's interpretations of the Muppet version. How far removed from the original would that final story be, do you think?Anyway, let's talk about Step...

Great adventure! Fun to read, especially knowing this is perhaps the oldest written literature. The latter parts had Biblical parallels, and other familiar myths are to be found. It's nice to think that a majority of mythology may be after all inspired by this book (I'm not sure tho, and am in no place to comment.) Considering this is one of the first books in history, the Epic of Gilgamesh is surprisingly good.

It was heart-warming to hold a paperback version of an epic that was inscribed on clay slabs over 4000 years ago. But mid way through the book, I thought Gilgamesh had all the essential elements of a contemporary novel – special status of the lead characters, adventure, a partner in crime, sex, violence, lengthy imagery of landscapes, fight offs… (view spoiler)[The protagonist, King Gilgamesh of Uruk was a demigod and a serial rapist who subjected his people to forced labour. He found his match

the epic of humanity looking for immortality. who is not part of this journey. Gilgamesh is one of us in all. great epic. i read it again and again

This epic mythological tale was a surprisingly fun read overall and a powerful portrait of the power of male friendship and grief at its loss. Written about 1,700BC, it stars a king of the ancient Mesopotamian king of Uruk living around 2,700BC who is arrogant and unjust to his people. For example, every new bride is his for the bedding before the bridegroom has his joy. The people pray to the gods for relief from his tyranny, and in answer a temple prostitute is sent into the wilds to bring bac...

Shūtur eli sharrī = The Epic of Gilgamesh, Anonymous, N.K. Sandars (Translator)The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about 'Bilgamesh' (Sumerian for 'Gilgamesh'), king of Uruk. These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic. The first surviving version of this combined epic, known as the "Old Babylonian" version, dates to the 18th century BC and is titled after its incipit, Shūtur eli sharrī ("Surpassing All Other Kings"). Only a few

5.0 stars. I thought this story was AMAZING. However, before I go any further I do want to point out that this review is solely for the version I read which was “Gilgamesh: A New English Version” by Stephen Mitchell. I say this because for a story written over 4000 years ago (approximately 2100 BC) about a King who lived over 4700 years ago (approximately 2750 BC) and was written in cuneiform in an extinct language (Akkadian), I imagine that the particular translation one reads may have a profou...

He Who Saw The Deep: A Hymn to Survival The Gilgamesh epic is one of the great masterpieces of world literature. One of the early translations so inspired the poet Rainer Maria Rilke in 1916 that he became almost intoxicated with pleasure and wonder, and repeated the story to all he met. 'Gilgamesh,' he declared, 'is stupendous!' For him the epic was first and foremost 'das Epos der Todesfurcht', the epic about the fear of death.This universal theme does indeed tie together the various strand

3 ⭐’The Epic of Gilgamesh’ OR ’A Mesopotamian Bromance’ is an incomplete and fragmentary tale of a King’s tyranny, an unrivalled friendship, the wrath of the Gods and one man’s search for immortality. It is at times hilarious in its absurdity and unexpectedly cavalier in its retelling of events. With elements of the story dating back as far as 2000 BC, I am awed by its historical significance but a lack of any real profundity and heavy verbatim repetition made this a middle-of-the-road experienc...

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest known writing in Old English.This is masterfully written and a joy to read. I recommend it to all.

“I will reveal to you a mystery, I will tell you a secret of the gods.” There is something very humbling about reading stories written more than 4,000 years ago. One of the most fascinating things about The Epic of Gilgamesh is how you can easily see the influence it has had on Homer and Judeo-Christian-Islamic mythology. And I get chills just thinking about how this narrative reaches across the millennia and takes us inside the minds of people who lived so long ago.This is one of those case