Epic of Gilgamesh

John Harris
  • 4.6 (61)
  • BOOKS
Epic of Gilgamesh

An Annotated Prose Rendition Based upon the Original Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Hittite Tablets With Supplementary Sumerian Texts and Selected Sumerian Proverbs *** You may purchase a copy from Amazon.com Here! ***

  1. 07/21/2011

    Introduction to the Text

    A brief introduction to the Epic: its origin and significance to our lives. *** Image is of the famed eleventh tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the tale of the Flood is related. Now housed in the British Museum, it was found in the pillaged remains of the royal library of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (reigned 669-631 BC) in his palace at Nineveh.

    19 min

  2. 07/21/2011

    Prologue

    Preamble to the adventures, introducing Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, and alluding to the goddess Ishtar whose presence is preeminent among all divinity in this tale, and in whose temple are kept the tablets which are to be read to tell this tale. *** Image is an Akkadian representation of Gilgamesh in his prime. Music excerpt is “Ur” from the album The Forest by David Byrne

    6 min

  3. 07/21/2011

    Adventure of Enkidu

    The Adventure of Enkidu continues tablet I of the Epic and finishes on tablet II. It is supplemented by Bablyonian material where the Akkadian text is damaged. Gilgamesh is a young king of Uruk, arrogant, and overbearing. He so abuses his authority by the mistreatment of his people, even his own warriors and peers, even taking their brides in sexual intercourse, that he is feared and despised, even while admired. The people pray for a champion to deliver them, another strong man who can best him. The creator Aruru places Enkidu (the "wild man") on earth for this purpose. He is eventually tamed and comes to Uruk to challenge Gilgamesh. This is the tale of that encounter. *** The image is an Akkadian frieze representing Enkidu drinking at a waterhole in the wilderness like a beast. Music excerpt is “Ur” from the album The Forest by David Byrne

    23 min

  4. 07/21/2011

    Adventure of Forests of Cedar (Part 1)

    The text of this episode is much damaged in both the Akkadian and the Babylonian series; rather than indicating the frequent gaps and ambiguities, the text is reconstructed from the best sources, including the more ancient Sumerian. Much is conjectural, and is given some poetic license. The Sumerian, rather than the Akkadian, contains more details, and so the temper of the story reflects its more “archaic” tone. *** Image is a classic Sumerian representation of Gilgamesh wrestling a lion to his death.
 Music excerpt is 
“Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis” from the album, Vaughan Williams: Symphonic Works

    19 min

  5. 07/21/2011

    Adventure of Forests of Cedar (Part 2)

    The conclusion of the adventure, the confron-tation with Humbaba. *** The image is a Sumerian clay model of the face of Humbaba, said to be the image of coiled intestines.
 Music excerpt is 
“Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis” from the album, Vaughan Williams: Symphonic Works

    32 min

  6. 07/21/2011

    Adventure of the Halub Tree

    This is the heavily damaged twelfth tablet in the Gilgamesh Epic found in the royal library of Ninevah. It’s content is disconcerting to scholars as the final chapter to the Epic, because so ranked it would seemingly resurrect Enkidu from the dead for a gratuitous and incoherent conclusion; an end to the Epic with Tablet 11, where Gilgamesh returns to Uruk after his wanderings, seems much more fitting and so nicely closes with an epilogic passage that poetically parallels the prologue in Tablet 1. But this adventure is a traditional Sumerian tale of Gilgamesh and was appended by the Ninevah compiler for some importance, perhaps as further elucidation of the central theme of death, or rather, the meaning of life in the midst of death. I find its color and its archaic lore mysterious and so include it where other renditions omit it. I have rendered it perhaps more poetically and liberally than my other renditions here, so as to evoke its strangeness. We should remember that in traditional oral story telling, tales concatenate “spiritually” related matter, even if they are otherwise illogical. Relation, rather than logic, rules the story. Still, in deference to modern narrative sensibilities, I have opted to place the tale among the series of adventures that precede the death of Enkidu and the final wanderings of Gilgamesh. *** Music excerpt is 
“Fra Angelico” by 20th century composer, Alan Hovnhaness; the album is Hovhaness: Symphony Etchmiadzin

    17 min

  7. 07/21/2011

    Adventure of Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird

    Lugalbanda, the ostensible father of Gilgamesh, whose statue stood in his bedroom, which he reverentially anointed with butter, and to which he addressed his private thoughts, appeared in important Sumerian legends that told how he had become King of Uruk and other exploits. These are tales in one sense historical, as he is named in the ancient Sumerian List of Kings. On the other hand, magical portions of narrative and the setting of them should make him a figure of myth, of primordial time, of time even at the creation of the world. Lugalbanda is said to have lived and reigned for 1200 years, and so defies mere mortal aspect. *** Music excerpt is “Tamarack Pines” by George Winston from his album, Forest.

    39 min

  8. 07/21/2011

    5,000 Year Old Proverbs

    This is my favorite Sumerian artifact. A so-called “devotional statue,” it dates to 2600 B.C., representing what scholars believe is a married couple. This statue was found buried beneath the floor of a shrine at Nippur in Iraq and measures at little more than 4 inches high. The couple originally had feet, and the figures have eyes made of shell and lapis lazuli set in bitumen, a natural cement-like substance. *** Music excerpt is the song “Glad” by David Byrne from his album, Grown Backwards.

    19 min
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About

An Annotated Prose Rendition Based upon the Original Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Hittite Tablets With Supplementary Sumerian Texts and Selected Sumerian Proverbs *** You may purchase a copy from Amazon.com Here! ***

Information

  • Creator
    John Harris
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © John Harris, 2001
  • Show Website
    Epic of Gilgamesh

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