Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Anonymous, Stephen Mitchell (adapter)

[gilda_elise]

Miraculously preserved on clay tablets dating back as much as four thousand years, the poem of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is the world’s oldest epic, predating Homer by many centuries. The story tells of Gilgamesh’s adventures with the wild man Enkidu, and of his arduous journey to the ends of the earth in quest of the Babylonian Noah and the secret of immortality. Alongside its themes of family, friendship and the duties of kings, the Epic of Gilgamesh is, above all, about mankind’s eternal struggle with the fear of death.

The Babylonian version has been known for over a century, but linguists are still deciphering new fragments in Akkadian and Sumerian.

I don’t always read introductions, especially when they’re sixty-four pages long. But I’m glad that I did this time. Actually, it was the story I almost passed on, as the introduction was so comprehensive. It explains motives and repercussions, and the reader learns things that may not be apparent while reading the story.

We learn who Gilgamesh is, what he wishes to be, and who he becomes, which all made me curious enough to decide to read the story, to find out how much was merely the translator’s interpretation, and what was truly part of the saga.

Turns out to be the former. The story may have been the world oldest epic, but it’s certainly not the most interesting. There’s a lot of repetition, but at the same time the story is terribly sparce. Perhaps with more fragments found and deciphered, it’ll be filled in. Until then, the story is no Odyssey.




Mount TBR 2022 Book Links


Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.



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69. Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Anonymous, Stephen Mitchell (adapter)







NOVEMBER- Books in Translation. Read any book that wasn’t originally written in your native language but has since been translated to it.

Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Anonymous, Stephen Mitchell (adapter)