From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
Epic of Gilgamesh
is an
epic poem
from ancient
Mesopotamia
. It is one of the earliest works of literary
fiction
known.
The most complete version that exists today was preserved on twelve clay tablets in the library collection of the 7th century
BC
Assyrian
king
Ashurbanipal
.
A series of
Sumerian
legends
and poems about the mythological hero-king
Gilgamesh
were probably gathered into a longer
Akkadian
poem
some time before the 7th century BC.
The essential story is about the relationship between Gilgamesh, a king who has become distracted and disheartened by his rule, and a friend, Enkidu, who is half-wild and who undertakes dangerous quests with Gilgamesh. Much of the epic focuses on Gilgamesh's thoughts of loss following Enkidu's death. It is often credited as being one of the first literary works with emphasis on
immortality
.
The epic is widely read in translation, and the hero, Gilgamesh, has become an icon of popular culture.
Gilgamesh
was the fifth
king
of
Uruk
, an
ancient
city
of
Sumer
. His supposed historical reign is believed to lie within the period 2700 to 2500 BC, 200?400 years before the earliest known written stories. His father was the third king, Lugalbanda.
The
Epic of Gilgamesh
was about him.
- George, Andrew R. (2003).
The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts
. England: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
0-19-814922-0
.
- George, Andrew R (1999).
The Epic of Gilgamesh
. Penguin Books.
ISBN
0-14-044919-1
.
- Foster, Benjamin R (2001).
The Epic of Gilgamesh
. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
ISBN
0-393-97516-9
.
- Kovacs, Maureen Gallery (1985).
The Epic of Gilgamesh
. Stanford University Press: Stanford, California.
ISBN
0-8047-1711-7
.
Glossary, Appendices, Appendix (Chapter XII=Tablet XII). A line-by-line translation (Chapters I-XI).
- Jackson, Danny (1997).
The Epic of Gilgamesh
. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers.
ISBN
0-86516-352-9
.
- Mason, Herbert (1970).
Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative
. Boston: Mariner Books.
ISBN
978-0-618-27564-9
.
- Mitchell, Stephen (2004).
Gilgamesh: A New English Version
. New York: Free Press.
ISBN
0-7432-6164-X
.
- Sandars, N. K. (2006).
The Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin Epics)
.
ISBN
0-14-102628-6
- re-print of the Penguin Classic translation (in prose) by N. K. Sandars 1960 (
ISBN
0-14-044100-X
) without the introduction.
- Parpola, Simo; Mikko Luuko; Kalle Fabritius (1997).
The Standard Babylonian, Epic of Gilgamesh
. The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.
ISBN
951-45-7760-4
.
(Volume 1) in the original Akkadian cuneiform and transliteration; commentary and glossary are in English
- Ferry, David (1993).
Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
ISBN
0374523835
.
- Damrosch, David (2007)
The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh
. Henry Holt and Co,
ISBN
0-8050-8029-5
- Jacobsen, Thorkild (1976)
The Treasures of Darkness, A History of Mesopotamian Religion
, New Haven: Yale University Press,
ISBN
0-300-01844-4
- West, Martin (1997)
The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth
, New York: Clarendon Press,
ISBN
0-19-815042-3
- Translations for several legends of Gilgamesh in the
Sumerian
language can be found in Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Fluckiger-Hawker, E, Robson, E., and Zolyomi, G.,
The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
(
http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/
Archived
2008-12-10 at the
Wayback Machine
), Oxford 1998-.
- Babylonian (Akkadian) texts:
ETCSL
- The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic, by Anonymous, Edited by Morris Jastrow, Translated by Albert T. Clay
- Epic of Gilgamesh
, summary by M. McGoodwin
- Gilgamesh
Archived
2005-12-30 at the
Wayback Machine
by Richard Hooker (wsu.edu)
- The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Spiritual Biography
(theosophy-nw.org)
- Tablets
- Flood