Epic of Gilgamesh: An Annotated Prose Rendition Based upon the Original Akkadian, Babylonian, Hittite and Sumerian Tablets with Supplementary Text . (Classics of Literature Retold)

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest literature in the world. The original text dates to the 3rd century before the Christian era in the lands of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq/Iran) and the successive civilizations of Sumerian, Akkadians, Hittites, and Babylonians, spanning three thousand years.

The Epic is famed for its original tale of the Flood as also told in the book of Genesis of the Bible. It is seminal for the tale of man’s search for meaning of “life in the midst of death”.

Supplementary text includes: a collation of Sumerian proverbs, sayings and parables of daily life; tablets of Gilgamesh’s death, and some concerning his father Lugalbanda.

Annotations and supplementary text detail and explicate the customs and various gods of these peoples.

From Prologue (Tablet I):
I shall tell the world about the man who found out all things, he who experienced everything, he who searched everywhere, and gained complete wisdom. He found out what was secret and uncovered what was hidden. He brought back the tale of times before the Flood. He journeyed far and wide, until weary and at last resigned. All these deeds are witnessed on the monuments of stone that he himself engraved....
Approach the temple Eanna, the home of Ishtar, which none can build more beautifully, dazzling with its mosaic walls of many colors.
Pass between the jeweled lions at her high doorway. Inside the temple now. Look for the copper cabinet. Undo its bronze lock. Draw open the doors to show the secret tablets, tablets of sky-blue lapis lazuli and read: this is the story of Gilgamesh who suffered so much.
He was a better king than all the others of his day, a warrior, powerful—a raging wild bull. He was a hero to the people of his city, Uruk. He marched at the front of them as their leader, or stood behind as their protector, a brother to all men, a net for them all. The flood-waves that overwhelm the walls could not overwhelm him.
Son of Lugalbanda, one-time leader of Uruk, and son of Ninsun, the goddess, goddess of the Wild Cow, cow of the lofty sky: he is Gilgamesh, splendid and strong. He was the one who opened up the passes through the mountains when we were afraid to go there. He was the one who dug the canals across the plains even to the mountains. He crossed the ocean as far as the sunrise. He found the edge of the world, seeking an undying life, and reached the place beyond the world where lives Ut-napishtim, the man who does not die, he who restored the shrines and temples after the Flood ruined the cities.
Who can say "I am king," but Gilgamesh? No one can compare to him. Two-thirds divine, and one-third mortal.