"The Epic of Gilgamesh" English version with introduction by N. K. Sandars

Publisher:London : Penguin Books, 1972.

Edition:Revised edition, incorporating new material.

Copyright Date:©1972

ISBN: 9780140441000 

Characteristics: 127 pages :,map ;,20 cm.

The Epic of Gilgamesh who was the renowned king of Uruk in Mesopotamia, was discovered in 1839 by Austen Henry Layard when he was travelling in Mesopotamia and was delayed by excavations of the Assyrian mounds. He was there for a number of years and the result was a number of Assyrian sculptures and over twenty-five thousand broken tablets from the Palace at Nineveh being returned to the British Museum. These tablets were all written in cuneiform (wedge shaped characters, on clay tablets). The decipherment of the language took many years and was finally aided by the discovery by Henry Rawlinson of the 'Record of Darius' on the rock of Behistun near Kermanshah in Persia, which was written in cuneiform, Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian languages. The epic of Gilgamesh is typically considered to be the earliest existing work of literature.

Unlike many heroes told of in mythology Gilgamesh is was considered by most scholars to be a real person, a King who lived and reigned in Uruk sometime during the first half of the third millennium. The introduction to this book explains in great length the history of the region, of the story itself, it's discovery, translation etc. The introduction itself is 58 pages long which maybe somewhat daunting to your average reader, but it is extremely fascinating as well and takes the reader on a journey that helps to explain the story itself.

The first half of the story gives background information on Gilgamesh himself and a wild being called Enkidu who was created by the gods to oppose Gilgamesh and stop him from oppressing the people of Uruk. Enkidu becomes human after having sex intercourse with a prostitute. He then travels to Uruk and challenges Gilgamesh to a contest of strength, which Gilgamesh wins. The two men then become fast friends (some say lovers), and undertake a journey to kill Humbaba the Terrible the guardian of the sacred forest and then cut down the sacred cedar. After succeeding in this the goddess Ishtar attempts to punish Gilgamesh for refusing her sexually by sending the Bull of Heaven. The Bull is killed by the two men, and the gods decide to kill Enkidu as a punishment for Gilgamesh as they are the best of friends.

The second part of the story details Gilgamesh's distress over Enkidu's death and his quest for eternal life. He doesn't succeed in his quest because death is man's burden. During his travels however he does hear the tale of the great flood.

It is interesting to note that there are many similarities between the epic of Gilgamesh and the Hebrew Bible such as the story of the Garden of Eden, and the flood. In the first case Enkidu is created from the soil just like the mythological Adam, he lives in a worry free world alongside all the animals, he is tempted by a female (who is created from one of his bones), accepts food from the female, then needs to cover his nakedness, and then must leave, etc. As for the flood similarities the flood narrative in the Hebrew Bible is so close to that from Gilgamesh that they can be considered the same and scholars have all agreed that Gilgamesh influenced the mythology of the genesis flood. There are many other similarities as well that I won't bother detailing here.

All told this is a very good story, and I would recommend it to all.