Hey! It’s me again. Today I will talk a bit about the Famous Akkadian Epic poem of Gilgamesh, of the Ancient Near East, by which I mean, the standard version, ‘He Who Saw the Deep.’ This will be a two parter, but with part 2 coming next week, for continuity. All translations quoted are by Andrew George.

This is essentially a chronologically continuous epic poem, consisting of 11 tablets. Gilgamesh we think was an ancient king of the city Uruk, who was later deified, worshipped, and had lots of stories and poems told about him. This standard version is one of them, originally recorded in cuneiform on tablets, its published translations can be found online and in bookstores.

The significance of this text, id not only that it is an ancient literary artefact, from 1700BC, three thousand seven hundred years ago, but I’ts also an excellent piece of literature itself, comparable to Homer’s epics that are more well-known to the western world. Reading it myself, I find it vivid, moving, and familiarly human. It’s difficult to grasp the concept of ancient Sumerians, who lived thousands of years ago before. But through poetry I feel as if a door has been opened, and their voice has reached me past the erosion of time. Their times was much simpler, trees, bulls, flour, wars and hunger, such were the commonly occurring words. And there is a sense of primitiveness and rawness to it, keeps the reader mindful of the unfamiliarity of their world. An example of this would be, at the beginning of the story, Gilgamesh wishes to tame the wild man Enkidu to be his helper, so he sends Shamhat the Harlot to seduce him, and after Shamhat had ‘coupled’ with him, his herd no longer accepted him. The explicit is presented straightforwardly, bare. There is a candid attitude to human nature, which part of the reason why the story is so real.

Nonetheless the plot of the story goes thus: Enkidu goes to the city of Uruk, becomes a friend to the ruler Gilgamesh. They go on heroic journeys, slaying enemies and legendary creatures such as Humbaba who dwells in the Cedar forest, the Bull of Heaven sent by goddess Ishtar and so on using their strength and wit. However, the gods are not satisfied by their killing, and destines for one of the two heroes to die. When Enkidu suffers a wound, he understands that the person would be him, knowing Gilgamesh is the child of goddess Ninsun, and two thirds god, and therefore this is logical. At this point in the poetry, the anonymous poet vividly portrays Enkidu’s moving longing to continue living, and thus his fear of death as Enkidu curses Shamhat the prostitute that led him away from the wild, “his tears flowing under the rays of the sun.” the poet writes.

 Continuing next week, thank you very much for listening.