GilgameshJohn Gardner The story of Gilgamesh, an ancient epic poem written on clay tablets in a cuneiform alphabet, is as fascinating and moving as it is crucial to our ability to fathom the time and the place in which it was written. Gardner's version restores the poetry of the text and the lyricism that is lost in the earlier, almost scientific renderings. The principal theme of the poem is a familiar one: man's persistent and hopeless quest for immortality. It tells of the heroic exploits of an ancient ruler of the walled city of Uruk named Gilgamesh. Included in its story is an account of the Flood that predates the Biblical version by centuries. Gilgamesh and his companion, a wild man of the woods named Enkidu, fight monsters and demonic powers in search of honor and lasting fame. When Enkidu is put to death by the vengeful goddess Ishtar, Gilgamesh travels to the underworld to find an answer to his grief and confront the question of mortality. |
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50 NOTES Akkadian ancient animals Anunnaki Apollonian apsû Atra-hasis Babylonian Period Barmaid battle beginning biblical Boatman broken Bull of Heaven cedar forest column Column vi cuneiform curse darkness divine double-hours dream Ea's speech Eanna earth Enkidu Enlil Epic of Gilgamesh episode epithet Ereshkigal fate father Flood story garment Gilgamesh and Enkidu Gilgamesh stories goddess gods heart hero human Humbaba Huwawa Inanna Ishtar journey king late version literature love-priestess Lugalbanda mankind Mesopotamian Middle Babylonian mother motif mountain myth narrative Nergal netherworld Ninazu Ninsun Ninurta NOTES TO TABLET Old Babylonian parallel Old Babylonian version opened passage poem poet Press priestess prostitute pukku sacred marriage Samuel Noah Kramer Scorpion-man seized sequence Shamash shaped his mouth Sheepfold signs Sîn-leqi-unninnī sleep speaks Stalker Sumerian Tablet XII tells temple Tigay tradition translation underworld Urshanabi Utnapishtim version of Gilgamesh waters of death wild wilderness woman words