1 hr 4 min
79: The World's Oldest Story: Epic of Gilgamesh Made You Think
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- Society & Culture
“Humans are born, they live, then they die, this is the order that the gods have decreed. But until the end comes, enjoy your life, spend it in happiness, not despair. Savor your food, make each of your days a delight, bathe and anoint yourself, wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean, let music and dancing fill your house, love the child who holds you by the hand, and give your wife pleasure in your embrace. That is the best way for a man to live.”
Welcome back to another episode of Made You Think! In this episode, Nat, Neil, and Adil begin their Great Books Project starting with the oldest book on their list, Epic of Gilgamesh. This piece has been regarded as one of the oldest written stories to exist. It follows the story of Gilgamesh, who is two-thirds god and one-third man, as he searches for the secret of immortality following the death of a loved one.
We cover a wide range of topics including:
How written stories have been passed down through centuries Parallels between Gilgamesh and other religious texts
An assortment of theories such as the flood myth and the Black Sea hypothesis Should you interpret ancient texts literally? Why not all science is necessarily good science And much more. Please enjoy, and make sure to follow Nat, Neil, and Adil on Twitter and share your thoughts on the episode.
Links from the Episode:
Mentioned in the show:
The Ancients (7:02) The Library of Alexandria (7:59) Sumerian Kings list (10:17) Images of the tablets (23:11) Flood myth (35:35) Black Sea Hypothesis (34:51) Letting children choose their diets (41:32) Masa Chips (42:11) Definition of Europe in early- to mid-antiquity (52:43) Nat's essay - Church of Science (55:04) Remote Viewing (57:22) Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (59:16) Princeton ESP lab must have foreseen its end (59:24) Sleep paralysis (1:00:40) Books Mentioned:
Theogeny (1:13) Works and Days (1:17) (Nat's Book Notes) The Iliad (1:19) (Nat's Book Notes) Tao Te Ching (1:29) The Egyptian Book of the Dead (6:41) The Three-Body Problem (8:09) (Nat's Book Notes) The Hero with a Thousand Faces (12:22) (Nat's Book Notes) The Power of Myth (12:23) (Book Episode) (Nat's Book Notes) The Denial of Death (14:24) (Book Episode) (Nat’s Book Notes) Socrates (21:52) (Nat's Book Notes) Magna Carta (26:02) The Prince (26:08) First Bite (39:32) People Mentioned:
Confucius (1:33) Plato (21:50) Aquinas (26:15) Dante (26:16)
Show Topics:
0:05 We start the Great Book Series off with with The Epic of Gilgamesh. From order of oldest to most recent, we will be reading this list of books and creating new episodes every 3 weeks until the list is complete. Follow along, and read the books with us as we go!
5:34 This book is estimated to date back to as far as 2100 BC. With how old the writing is, it's fascinating to think about how much of the story has changed along the way from the original text. The way a culture recorded its information determines how we think about it today. In the time and location of Gilgamesh, everything was rich in clay so they used clay tablets to record everything.
8:58 With stories that are orally passed down, it's similar to a game of telephone where details get changed along the way. This leads to different areas of the world telling the same story in very different ways.
11:49 There are several themes to the story, and many of these themes and stories are told throughout history. They’re not new by any means. One of the main themes talked about in this part of the episode is immortality.
14:50 At the opening of the story, Gilgamesh is portrayed as almost villain-like. As the story goes on, he ends up redeeming himself on the journey to find immortality. In this book, even the superhuman are very humanized, and they still fall into impulses and desires that all of humanity faces.
17:48 For the stories that stand the test of time, why did they last among the potentially thousands of stories that didn'
“Humans are born, they live, then they die, this is the order that the gods have decreed. But until the end comes, enjoy your life, spend it in happiness, not despair. Savor your food, make each of your days a delight, bathe and anoint yourself, wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean, let music and dancing fill your house, love the child who holds you by the hand, and give your wife pleasure in your embrace. That is the best way for a man to live.”
Welcome back to another episode of Made You Think! In this episode, Nat, Neil, and Adil begin their Great Books Project starting with the oldest book on their list, Epic of Gilgamesh. This piece has been regarded as one of the oldest written stories to exist. It follows the story of Gilgamesh, who is two-thirds god and one-third man, as he searches for the secret of immortality following the death of a loved one.
We cover a wide range of topics including:
How written stories have been passed down through centuries Parallels between Gilgamesh and other religious texts
An assortment of theories such as the flood myth and the Black Sea hypothesis Should you interpret ancient texts literally? Why not all science is necessarily good science And much more. Please enjoy, and make sure to follow Nat, Neil, and Adil on Twitter and share your thoughts on the episode.
Links from the Episode:
Mentioned in the show:
The Ancients (7:02) The Library of Alexandria (7:59) Sumerian Kings list (10:17) Images of the tablets (23:11) Flood myth (35:35) Black Sea Hypothesis (34:51) Letting children choose their diets (41:32) Masa Chips (42:11) Definition of Europe in early- to mid-antiquity (52:43) Nat's essay - Church of Science (55:04) Remote Viewing (57:22) Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (59:16) Princeton ESP lab must have foreseen its end (59:24) Sleep paralysis (1:00:40) Books Mentioned:
Theogeny (1:13) Works and Days (1:17) (Nat's Book Notes) The Iliad (1:19) (Nat's Book Notes) Tao Te Ching (1:29) The Egyptian Book of the Dead (6:41) The Three-Body Problem (8:09) (Nat's Book Notes) The Hero with a Thousand Faces (12:22) (Nat's Book Notes) The Power of Myth (12:23) (Book Episode) (Nat's Book Notes) The Denial of Death (14:24) (Book Episode) (Nat’s Book Notes) Socrates (21:52) (Nat's Book Notes) Magna Carta (26:02) The Prince (26:08) First Bite (39:32) People Mentioned:
Confucius (1:33) Plato (21:50) Aquinas (26:15) Dante (26:16)
Show Topics:
0:05 We start the Great Book Series off with with The Epic of Gilgamesh. From order of oldest to most recent, we will be reading this list of books and creating new episodes every 3 weeks until the list is complete. Follow along, and read the books with us as we go!
5:34 This book is estimated to date back to as far as 2100 BC. With how old the writing is, it's fascinating to think about how much of the story has changed along the way from the original text. The way a culture recorded its information determines how we think about it today. In the time and location of Gilgamesh, everything was rich in clay so they used clay tablets to record everything.
8:58 With stories that are orally passed down, it's similar to a game of telephone where details get changed along the way. This leads to different areas of the world telling the same story in very different ways.
11:49 There are several themes to the story, and many of these themes and stories are told throughout history. They’re not new by any means. One of the main themes talked about in this part of the episode is immortality.
14:50 At the opening of the story, Gilgamesh is portrayed as almost villain-like. As the story goes on, he ends up redeeming himself on the journey to find immortality. In this book, even the superhuman are very humanized, and they still fall into impulses and desires that all of humanity faces.
17:48 For the stories that stand the test of time, why did they last among the potentially thousands of stories that didn'
1 hr 4 min