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Title: The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian by Andrew George, Gilgamesh ISBN: 0-14-044919-1 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent
Comment: You wouldn't think a 4000-year old story about a dead king would be that interesting or exciting, but actually, I enjoyed this book. The story is the archetypal heroic epic, and has been useful for learning about everything from ancient Mesopotamian beliefs and customs to tracking changes in the traditional scribal curriculum in ancient Akkadia and Sumeria.
Speaking of people getting excited, the translater, Andrew George, says a dignified and emminent 19th-century British archaeologist ran naked through his lab when he realized he was the first person in perhaps 2000 years to read an original copy of the story of Noah, once thought to be part of the Epic of Gilgamesh (we now know this isn't true).
George also makes the interesting claim that the text is the oldest written text accessible to a modern reader without special archaeological or scholarly knowledge. I found this was borne out by the actual reading, as Gilgamesh's actions and motivations are very easy to understand--he is concerned with fundamental issues of life and death--honor, loyalty, friendship, fear, loss, happiness, and so on.
I also enjoyed some of the historical details George provides in the introduction. By 1800 BC, during the time of Hammurabi, Sumerian, which had once been the dominant language in the more advanced, urban south, had died out, leaving only Akkadian, which had been more prevalent in the more rural north. Up till that time, most citizens in the area were accustomed to speaking both languages in their day-to-day affairs. Sumerian still retained the prestige of the scholarly and historical language, however, and in the written scribal curriculum.
We actually have clay tablets that go back as far as 2600 BC, according to George, but he points out that these texts are very difficult to translate and understand. It's thought that this is because the language was still making the transition to a full written language, and that this process was incomplete at that time, an interesting theory.
An interesting character George discusses is the ancient King Shulgi, who lived around 2000 BC. Shulgi prided himself on both his educational and cultural accomplishments, as well as his athletic and physical prowess, bragging about about his excellence as a student in the scribal schools and as the patron and creator of important public libraries. Shulgi is reminiscent of Gilgamesh and perhaps the king consciously modeled himself after the legendary hero of the famous epic.
Anyway, the introduction and epic made for more interesting reading than I had imagined.
Rating: 4
Summary: Beautiful and readable translation.
Comment: So many translations are either painful transliterations, coming from someone who knows the language better than his mother tongue; or they arwe car-crash renderings into a stale "academica-eese." Andrew George manages to avoid the Scylla and Charybdis in this translation. I hope more people with the "gift of tongues" can add some honey like Seamus Heany did in his beautiful rendfering of Beowulf a few years of god. These stories are beautiful, and we need to transpose that beauty in to English.
I love the format of this book. It has the standard text of Gilgamesh, but has copies of all the alternate texts and readings, so you are getting the full whammie with the book. George also included maps, "dramatis personae," helpful chronologies, a glossary of the oddf names you read in the story, adn a publication history. His essay on "from tablet to stone" is helpul in expalining all the lacunae and the gaps in the poem.
I love the illustrations which seve as a sweet spice to the text you are reading. You can actually picture Gilgamesh moving in the ancient Babylonian realm, going forth conquoring and to conquor.
This book is designed for college level reading, and it more than delivers with all of the goodies. You rarely see a book this good, that hits all of the targets in tyhe right way. I hope that other ancient texts get a similar five star treatment.
Rating: 4
Summary: worth reading
Comment: A very interesting story of the flood that predates the Bible. The Bible's version of the flood most likely came from a older source, the Sumarian version of the flood came first.
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Title: Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others (Oxford World's Classics) by Stephanie Dalley, C. J. Fordyce ISBN: 0192835890 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Epic of Gilgamesh (Norton Critical Editions) by Benjamin R. Foster, Douglas Frayne, Gary M. Beckman ISBN: 0393975169 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: December, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Theogony, Works and Days by Hesiod, M. L. West ISBN: 0192839411 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 1999 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. by Samuel Noah Kramer ISBN: 0812210476 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine "Firsts" in Recorded History by Samuel Noah Kramer, Hiroshi Tanaka ISBN: 0812212762 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: December, 1989 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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