The Epic of Gilgamish: A Fragment in Old-Babylonian Cuneiform

About this book

The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest great poem in the world, tells of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk in southern Iraq, and his friend Enkidu. This book is a scholarly edition of one clay tablet from the Old Babylonian period, about four thousand years old, acquired by the University of Pennsylvania Museum. It tells how Gilgamesh dreams of a coming companion, how the wild man Enkidu, who lived among the animals, is brought to the shepherds' camp, learns to eat bread and drink beer and becomes human, and how he comes to Uruk, blocks the king's way and wrestles with him, until the two become friends.

Context and significance

Stephen Langdon (1876–1937), an Oxford Assyriologist, published the tablet in 1917 with an introduction, a transliteration of the cuneiform and a translation; some of his early readings were later corrected by other scholars. The better-known later version of the epic, found at Nineveh, includes the story of the flood that Genesis also tells in the King James Version of the Bible. For the literature of Mesopotamia's neighbour, read Egyptian Literature.

About the author