Gilgamesh Among Us

Author : Theodore Ziolkowski
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801463416
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gilgamesh among Us written by Theodore Ziolkowski and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-12-15 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world's oldest work of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh recounts the adventures of the semimythical Sumerian king of Uruk and his ultimately futile quest for immortality after the death of his friend and companion, Enkidu, a wildman sent by the gods. Gilgamesh was deified by the Sumerians around 2500 BCE, and his tale as we know it today was codified in cuneiform tablets around 1750 BCE and continued to influence ancient cultures—whether in specific incidents like a world-consuming flood or in its quest structure—into Roman times. The epic was, however, largely forgotten, until the cuneiform tablets were rediscovered in 1872 in the British Museum's collection of recently unearthed Mesopotamian artifacts. In the decades that followed its translation into modern languages, the Epic of Gilgamesh has become a point of reference throughout Western culture. In Gilgamesh among Us, Theodore Ziolkowski explores the surprising legacy of the poem and its hero, as well as the epic’s continuing influence in modern letters and arts. This influence extends from Carl Gustav Jung and Rainer Maria Rilke's early embrace of the epic's significance—"Gilgamesh is tremendous!" Rilke wrote to his publisher's wife after reading it—to its appropriation since World War II in contexts as disparate as operas and paintings, the poetry of Charles Olson and Louis Zukofsky, novels by John Gardner and Philip Roth, and episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Xena: Warrior Princess. Ziolkowski sees fascination with Gilgamesh as a reflection of eternal spiritual values—love, friendship, courage, and the fear and acceptance of death. Noted writers, musicians, and artists from Sweden to Spain, from the United States to Australia, have adapted the story in ways that meet the social and artistic trends of the times. The spirit of this capacious hero has absorbed the losses felt in the immediate postwar period and been infused with the excitement and optimism of movements for gay rights, feminism, and environmental consciousness. Gilgamesh is at once a seismograph of shifts in Western history and culture and a testament to the verities and values of the ancient epic.

Author : Michael Schmidt
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691196990
Total Pages : 186 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gilgamesh written by Michael Schmidt and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflections on a lost poem and its rediscovery by contemporary poets Gilgamesh is the most ancient long poem known to exist. It is also the newest classic in the canon of world literature. Lost for centuries to the sands of the Middle East but found again in the 1850s, it tells the story of a great king, his heroism, and his eventual defeat. It is a story of monsters, gods, and cataclysms, and of intimate friendship and love. Acclaimed literary historian Michael Schmidt provides a unique meditation on the rediscovery of Gilgamesh and its profound influence on poets today. Schmidt describes how the poem is a work in progress even now, an undertaking that has drawn on the talents and obsessions of an unlikely cast of characters, from archaeologists and museum curators to tomb raiders and jihadis. Fragments of the poem, incised on clay tablets, were scattered across a huge expanse of desert when it was recovered in the nineteenth century. The poem had to be reassembled, its languages deciphered. The discovery of a pre-Noah flood story was front-page news on both sides of the Atlantic, and the poem's allure only continues to grow as additional cuneiform tablets come to light. Its translation, interpretation, and integration are ongoing. In this illuminating book, Schmidt discusses the special fascination Gilgamesh holds for contemporary poets, arguing that part of its appeal is its captivating otherness. He reflects on the work of leading poets such as Charles Olson, Louis Zukofsky, and Yusef Komunyakaa, whose own encounters with the poem are revelatory, and he reads its many translations and editions to bring it vividly to life for readers.

Author : Sophus Helle
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300262590
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gilgamesh written by Sophus Helle and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A poem for the ages, freshly and accessibly translated by an international rising star, bringing together scholarly precision and poetic grace Gilgamesh is a Babylonian epic from three thousand years ago, which tells of King Gilgamesh’s deep love for the wild man Enkidu and his pursuit of immortality when Enkidu dies. It is a story about love between men, loss and grief, the confrontation with death, the destruction of nature, insomnia and restlessness, finding peace in one’s community, the voice of women, the folly of gods, heroes, and monsters—and more. Millennia after its composition, Gilgamesh continues to speak to us in myriad ways. Translating directly from the Akkadian, Sophus Helle offers a literary translation that reproduces the original epic’s poetic effects, including its succinct clarity and enchanting cadence. An introduction and five accompanying essays unpack the history and main themes of the epic, guiding readers to a deeper appreciation of this ancient masterpiece.

Author : Alexander Heidel
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226323985
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels written by Alexander Heidel and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1949 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cuneiform records made some three thousand years ago are the basis for this essay on the ideas of death and the afterlife and the story of the flood which were current among the ancient peoples of the Tigro-Euphrates Valley. With the same careful scholarship shown in his previous volume, The Babylonian Genesis, Heidel interprets the famous Gilgamesh Epic and other related Babylonian and Assyrian documents. He compares them with corresponding portions of the Old Testament in order to determine the inherent historical relationship of Hebrew and Mesopotamian ideas.

Author : R. Campbell Thompson
Publisher : Legare Street Press
ISBN 13 : 9781015427921
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Epic of Gilgamish written by R. Campbell Thompson and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2022-10-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 9780140449198
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Epic of Gilgamesh written by and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2003-04-29 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Andrew George's "masterly new translation" (The Times) of the world's first truly great work of literature A Penguin Classic Miraculously preserved on clay tablets dating back as much as four thousand years, the poem of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is the world’s oldest epic, predating Homer by many centuries. The story tells of Gilgamesh’s adventures with the wild man Enkidu, and of his arduous journey to the ends of the earth in quest of the Babylonian Noah and the secret of immortality. Alongside its themes of family, friendship and the duties of kings, the Epic of Gilgamesh is, above all, about mankind’s eternal struggle with the fear of death. The Babylonian version has been known for over a century, but linguists are still deciphering new fragments in Akkadian and Sumerian. Andrew George’s gripping translation brilliantly combines these into a fluent narrative and will long rank as the definitive English Gilgamesh. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author : Stephen Mitchell
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1439104743
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gilgamesh written by Stephen Mitchell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gilgamesh is considered one of the masterpieces of world literature, and although previously there have been competent scholarly translations of it, until now there has not been a version that is a superlative literary text in its own right. Acclaimed translator Stephen Mitchell's lithe, muscular rendering allows us to enter an ancient masterpiece as if for the first time, to see how startlingly beautiful, intelligent, and alive it is. His insightful introduction provides a historical, spiritual, and cultural context for this ancient epic, showing that Gilgamesh is more potent and fascinating than ever. Gilgamesh dates from as early as 1700 BCE -- a thousand years before the Iliad. Lost for almost two millennia, the eleven clay tablets on which the epic was inscribed were discovered in 1853 in the ruins of Nineveh, and the text was not deciphered and fully translated until the end of the century. When the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke first read Gilgamesh in 1916, he was awestruck. "Gilgamesh is stupendous," he wrote. "I consider it to be among the greatest things that can happen to a person." The epic is the story of literature's first hero -- the king of Uruk in what is present-day Iraq -- and his journey of self-discovery. Along the way, Gilgamesh discovers that friendship can bring peace to a whole city, that a preemptive attack on a monster can have dire consequences, and that wisdom can be found only when the quest for it is abandoned. In giving voice to grief and the fear of death -- perhaps more powerfully than any book written after it -- in portraying love and vulnerability and the ego's hopeless striving for immortality, the epic has become a personal testimony for millions of readers in dozens of languages.

Author : Ryan Moorhen
Publisher : DTTV PUBLICATIONS
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 48 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Epic of Gilgamesh: Beyond the Narrative written by Ryan Moorhen and published by DTTV PUBLICATIONS. This book was released on 2021-02-12 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 4,000 years ago in what's today the nation of Iraq, people were working on versions of this poem about the greatest hero the world had ever seen-- King Gilgamesh of Uruk. One-third man, two-thirds god, tyrant, traveller, and tragic figure. He, who continues to speak to us to this day reflecting eternal values of love and friendship, courage, fear, and acceptance of death. In this volume you will learn about this work of world literature, although many of you are probably already familiar with it, a new verse has been recently discovered and fresh insight prevails.

Author : Jenny Lewis
Publisher : Carcanet Press Ltd
ISBN 13 : 1784106151
Total Pages : 90 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gilgamesh Retold written by Jenny Lewis and published by Carcanet Press Ltd. This book was released on 2018-10-25 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jenny Lewis relocates Gilgamesh to its earlier, oral roots in a Sumerian society where men and women were more equal, the reigning deity of Gilgamesh's city, Uruk, was female (Inanna), only women were allowed to brew beer and keep taverns and women had their own language – emesal. With this shift of emphasis, Lewis captures the powerful allure of the world's oldest poem and gives it a fresh dynamic while creating a fastpaced narrative for a new generation of readers.

Author : John Gardner
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307760820
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gilgamesh written by John Gardner and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-09-28 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Gilgamesh, an ancient epic poem written on clay tablets in a cuneiform alphabet, is as fascinating and moving as it is crucial to our ability to fathom the time and the place in which it was written. Gardner's version restores the poetry of the text and the lyricism that is lost in the earlier, almost scientific renderings. The principal theme of the poem is a familiar one: man's persistent and hopeless quest for immortality. It tells of the heroic exploits of an ancient ruler of the walled city of Uruk named Gilgamesh. Included in its story is an account of the Flood that predates the Biblical version by centuries. Gilgamesh and his companion, a wild man of the woods named Enkidu, fight monsters and demonic powers in search of honor and lasting fame. When Enkidu is put to death by the vengeful goddess Ishtar, Gilgamesh travels to the underworld to find an answer to his grief and confront the question of mortality.