S1E42: Why Britain's Prime Minister & Germany's Emperor Were Riled Up About An Ancient Middle East Story

The story of the Flood told before the Bible! Gilgamesh caused an uproar in Europe.

Translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh in 1872 riled up Christian Europe - embroiling Prime Minister Gladstone and Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Gilgamesh, which was written in cuneiform, is an ancient story that was told and taught in Mesopotamia for 3,000 years. But it was lost to history for more than 2,000 years until 1854.

It's an ancient tale of gods and kingly adventure that weaves through topics familiar to our modern psyches and sensibilities - leadership, violence, quest for mortality, love, homosexuality, environment and religion. It's a wonder why a movie or a Netflix series hasn't been produced about Gilgamesh! 🚩About my guest:

Dr. Sophus Helle is a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University. He is a prolific author with major works in history on subjects as diverse as Babylonian epics, climate change and medieval philosophy.

He is author of Gilgamesh, a book about an ancient Mesopotamian epic.

🚩Other episodes about anicent Middle East:

▶️Peace & diplomacy in ancient times

▶️Ancient climate change and religion ▶️No religious war in ancient Middle East ▶️How polytheism gave way to monotheism in Middle East ⁠

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🎶Music attributions:

1. Opening and closing music of the program:

Santur: Peyman Heydarian playing on the Santur some Iranian music. Recorded with a Sony PCM-D50 at the School of Oriental and African Studies of London on April 7th 2011.

Music available on at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://freesound.org/people/xserra/sounds/125654/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0 DEED)