The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation - Softcover

Anonymous

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140447210 ISBN 13: 9780140447217

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2000

Synopsis

Originally the work of an anonymous Babylonian poet who lived more than 3,700 years ago, The Epic of Gilgamesh tells of the heroic exploits of the ruler of the walled city of Uruk. Not content with the immortality conveyed by the renown of his great deeds, Gilgamesh journeys to the ends of the earth and beyond in his search for eternal life, encountering the wise man Uta-napishti, who relates the story of a great flood that swept the earth. This episode and several others in the epic anticipate stories in the Bible and in Homer, to the great interest of biblical and classical scholars. Told with intense feeling and imagination, this masterful tale of love and friendship, duty and death, is more than an object of scholarly concern; it is a vital rendering of universal themes that resonate across the ages and is considered the world's first truly great work of literature.

About this title

Review:

This edition provides a prose rendering of The Epic of Gilgamesh, the cycle of poems preserved on clay tablets surviving from ancient Mesopotamia of the third mi llennium B.C. One of the best and most important pieces of epic poetry from human history, predating even Homer's Iliad by roughly 1,500 years, the Gilgamesh epic tells of the various adventures of that hero-king, including his quest for immortality, and an account of a great flood similar in many details to the Old Testament's story of Noah. The translator also provides an interesting and useful introduction explaining much about the historical context of the poem and the archeological discovery of th e tablets.

About the Author:

Andrew George is Reader in Assyriology at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies and Honorary Lecturer at the university's Institute of Archaeology. He has published extensively on Babylonian literature and religion.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0140447210
• ISBN 13: 9780140447217
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 288