The Epic of Gilgamesh

CJacobo

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The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of western literatures first recorded works dating to around the 17th century bce!

The story is presented as an epic poem (a long narrative poem focusing on a hero's deeds) and despite its format and age, is a compleling tale of a king (Gilgamesh) who stuggles to find balance between man and nature, good and evil, right and wrong.

The Epic is not long and I have provided some links below that will help you if you are interested in reading this masterpiece (which I hope you will be).

If you do read it, or listen to it, try to look past the oddities of it's format and presentation, and just try to see the story, learn the lessons, and enjoy the epic.

LINKS:

A brief introduction to The Epic of Gilgamesh

The text (there are multiple chapters/tablets so make sure to click through)

The audiobook
 

MacAllister

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I remember reading The Epic of Gilgamesh years ago as an undergrad, and being kind of stunned by how much the tale informs heroic epics, ever since -- including various Biblical stories. It's hard to consider the very concept of "hero" without going back to Gilgamesh.
 

CJacobo

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I remember reading The Epic of Gilgamesh years ago as an undergrad, and being kind of stunned by how much the tale informs heroic epics, ever since -- including various Biblical stories. It's hard to consider the very concept of "hero" without going back to Gilgamesh.

Well said MacAllister! For example anyone that knows the story of Noah and the ark already knows a little bit of Gilgamesh.

It also stuns me the amount of environmental awareness that is apparent in the text. Some of the "modern" ideas we think are unique to us today, may actually have been more prevalent with these ancient people.
 

RichardGarfinkle

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Gilgamesh is also a lesson on the limitations of heroism and power and the confrontation of humanity with mortality. The heroic failure and the tragic loss make it a story as fitting modern sensibilities as it did ancient ones.
 

KellyAssauer

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Although the very idea of Gilgamesh being one of the world's 'oldest known' stories drew my curiosity, what fascinates me even more, is how the current available text became compiled.

According to the forward in my copy, bits and pieces of the tale had been gathered from various European and Northern Africa historical and archaeological sites. Once these fragments in various different languages and cultures were translated and compared, it became obvious that chunks of the story were completely missing. (some still are) Try as they might, researchers would not find extant text to fill these holes - until diplomatic forays into China were established.

So now... not only does the text predate any other great flood accounts, introduces heroes, establishes the epic poem form long before Homer, the text also goes from being identified as 'one of the oldest stories in the world' to 'one of the world's oldest' stories.

If that's the case... then one might say that modern story writing began here. How can I not read that? =)

It's before gate-keepers, before hidden agendas, before advertising messages... it's the aspirations of humans when strings of cave grunts first evolved into sentences...
 
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Calla Lily

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I used Gilgamesh to prove to my teenage sons that epic poetry can be the polar opposite of dry and boring.

I might have murmured "I told you so" when they came back to me looking like this: :eek:.

:D
 

Ergodic Mage

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I remember reading somewhere (no references at this time of night) that it could also be considered the oldest political commentary.
 

KellyAssauer

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I remember reading somewhere (no references at this time of night) that it could also be considered the oldest political commentary.

It does pre-date some rather profane tomb graffiti depicting Pharaoh Hatshepsut in 1506 BC. ;)
 

Filigree

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The great-but-largely-now-unknown fantasy writer John Myers Myers used part of the Gilgamesh epic in his novel SILVERLOCK, resulting in some of the loveliest and most searing moments I've ever read in fantasy. There's a 'hero escapes from hell' scene that still makes me laugh and cry at the same time.

As a writer and book artist/bookbinder, I find it particularly amazing that thousands of years and many technological developments later, we're back to tablet and stylus. A friend of mine even has a cuneiform app for his Samsung Note.
 

KellyAssauer

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I look at all the cute little icons for phone 'apps' and the like...
and they all remind me of mesoamerican pictograms...

Are we going backwards?
 

RJLeahy

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Ok, way off subject here, but since we all seem to be interested in ancient cultures, has anyone else been as fascinated as me about the diggings at Gobekli Tepe?
 

KellyAssauer

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Ok, way off subject here, but since we all seem to be interested in ancient cultures, has anyone else been as fascinated as me about the diggings at Gobekli Tepe?

Gobekli Tepe all by itself fascinates me,
predating the Sumerians.

I don't think it's off topic at all to explore the human beginnings of story, poetry, or the heroic tale. =)