Gilgamesh
By Jeff Barcham
()
About this ebook
This book presents a new version (in verse) of the ancient Sumerian and Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. It tells the history of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk (a city called Warka in modern Iraq) who is believed to have lived in the 28th century BC.
Gilgamesh starts the story as a brilliant but brash monarch, having inherited the throne from his father (Lugalbanda) at a young age, with no rivals. When an equally powerful rival emerges, in a wild man named Enkidu, Gilgamesh realises that he needs to perform heroic feats to make his name.
In so doing, Gilgamesh and Enkidu offend the gods and the people of Uruk, and learns the value of diplomacy and subterfuge.
When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh is grief-stricken, renounces his throne, and embarks on a journey to discover the secret of immortality. There he finds Utanapishtim, the Sumerian equivalent of Noah, who survived the great flood and was granted immortality by the gods.
The Gilgamesh story represents the first great literary consideration of human mortality. The work centres around themes that still resonate today: impetuousness, ambition, maturity, retribution, renunciation, quest. And, of course, the consequences of failure. Gilgamesh is unique in that it deals equally with these themes, and not just the heroic derring-do of a mythic king. Gilgamesh may be mythically powerful, but he is also tragically, and wonderfully, human.
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Gilgamesh - Jeff Barcham
Gilgamesh
Jeff Barcham
Gilgamesh
Smashworks Edition
December 2011
The image on page one is the head of a Portal Guardian from Nimroud.
Jeff Barcham asserts the following moral rights: to be identified as the author of this work; not to have this work altered in a prejudicial way; and not to have authorship falsely attributed. All rights are reserved under Australian, International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Copyright Jeff Barcham 2011
ISBN 978-0-646-55776-2
A catalogue record for the print version of this book is held at the National Library of Australia
Smashworks Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashworks.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of Contents
Preface
Cast
Tablet 1 - Dedication to The Coming of Enkidu
Tablet 2 - At the Waterhole to Friends
Tablet 3 - The Council to Brothers
Tablet 4 - Dreamscape
Tablet 5 - The Battle of the Trees to Rain Fell In the Mountains
Tablet 6 - The Charms of Ishtar to Dance of the Bull of Heaven
Tablet 7 - The Sentence to Curses
Tablet 8 - Enkidu in the Underworld to The River
Tablet 9 - Wanderings to Passage at Night
Tablet 10 - The Tavern by the Ocean to Before the Flood
Tablet 11 - Afloat to The Sammu
Afterword
PREFACE
This book presents a new version (in verse) of the ancient Sumerian and Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. It tells the history of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk (a city called Warka in modern Iraq) who is believed to have lived in the 28th century BC.
Gilgamesh starts the story as a brilliant but brash monarch, having inherited the throne from his father (Lugalbanda) at a young age, with no rivals. When an equally powerful rival emerges, in a wild man named Enkidu, Gilgamesh realises that he needs to perform heroic feats to make his name. In so doing, Gilgamesh and Enkidu offend the gods and the people of Uruk, and learns the value of diplomacy and subterfuge.
When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh is grief-stricken, renounces his throne, and embarks on a journey to discover the secret of immortality. There he finds Utanapishtim, the Sumerian equivalent of Noah, who survived the great flood and was granted immortality by the gods.
A list of the characters in the story is presented below, along with a short historical note at the end of the text.
CAST
Gil / Gilgamesh - King of Uruk
Enkidu - Gilgamesh’s friend and comrade
Ninsun - Gilgamesh’s mother
Shamhat - One of Ishtar’s sacred prostitutes
Humbaba - Guardian of the sacred cedar forest
Inanna - High Priestess of Ishtar
Shiduri - Barmaid at the end of the world
Urshanabi - Ferryman of Utanapishtim
Utanapishtim - Immortal survivor of the Great Flood
Ishtar - Principal goddess of Uruk
Enlil - One of the leading trinity of gods, war god (cult centre: Nippur)
Anu - Another of the leading trinity of gods, father of Ishtar
Ea - Wisest of the leading trinity of gods
Aruru - The mother goddess
Shamash - The Sun god, rising in influence (cult centre: Larsa)
Ereshkigal - Queen of the underworld (sister of Ishtar)
Tablet 1
Dedication
Welcome, traveller.
Feast upon the sight of Uruk.
Climb atop its wall
That winds Uruk like a skein of flax.
Walk upon the girdle
Of the capital of the world!
Marvel at its masonry,
Double thickness, glazed in local kilns.
What architect could rival it?
Did not the Seven Sages themselves
Draw the plans?
Now can you finally see Uruk?
Sheepfold of its people.
Guardian of fruit groves,
Of great quarries.
God-bastion, birthplace of Ishtar.
Adoptive home of Shamash.
What other city is like it?
Once you are sated with all this,
Seek out the Cornerstone.
Within it a chest of Cedar.
Within the chest tablets that tell,
To those with eyes and understanding,
The journey of Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh it was who built the walls.
Who pieced back together
The temples and rites of the Gods,
Lost since the Flood.
He who cut roads from sheer rock,
Dug wells in the wilderness!
Gilgamesh who led armies to victory.
A battering ram to his enemies,
Strong shield-arm to his men.
The mightiest in the land.
The most beautiful that ever was.
The same Gilgamesh who travelled
Across the world, and over all seas.
Journeyed through pain and despair,
Loss and ignorance.
He alone who braved the deep,
Returned a King!
King Gil
Gil was born to be King,
His father dead before Gil
Could walk unaided, let alone rule.
At the funeral, the Widow/Queen Ninsun
Raised him up to all Uruk.
He wore the child-sized purple cloak
Of a child-sized monarch.
Gil squinted through the sun’s glare,
Stoic and dry eyed amidst the misery.
The people made up for his lack of tears.
How they cheered him!
How they grew to love him as he grew!
Always big for his age,
Faster, noisier, stronger than his playmates.
Stronger soon than the Palace men
Who raised him.
He was the child of the city.
Which door was ever barred to him?
Who would refuse him food or a bed?
Who upbraid him for broken pottery,
Or playmates’ arms,
When the wrestling went too far.
His face ever smiling.
The world a vast nursery.
Those his age were smitten with him:
He seemed born to lead,