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The review refers to the Penguin Classics edition titled ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’. The title is compact, about 125 pages, but accurately informative. The Epic poem is broadly narrated in prose. This English version with a lucid and accessible translation, and an introduction by N.K. Sandars is quite suitable for comprehending the gist of the work. The edition also offers practical tools like a glossary of names and a map of the ancient Orient. ‘The work of synthesis has been accomplished with a remarkable degree of tact and imagination,’ writes The Times Literary Supplement, a literary review platform. The spine of the book is divided into two broad parts: One is the ‘Long Introduction’ of 59 pages, followed by the text of ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’.
The ‘Long Introduction’ is divided into multiple parts. It begins with the primitive history of the Epic and the discovery of the tablets on which the Epic is written. The tablets pertain to the heroic age of excavation in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1839, a young Englishman, Austin Henry Layard, set off with a friend on an overland journey to Ceylon, but in Mesopotamia, he was delayed by a reconnaissance of Assyrian mounds. The delay of weeks was stretched to years, but it was at a time when Nineveh and Nimrud (cities in Iraq) were excavated. It was from these excavations that Layard brought back to the British Museum a great part of the collection of Assyrian sculptures, along with thousands of broken tablets from the palace of Nineveh. When Layard began excavating at Nineveh, he hoped to find inscriptions, but in reality, what he found was a buried library and a lost literature.
The book gives a historical and literary perspective of the Epic. It recounts the protagonists of the Epic. It describes the principal Gods of the Epic in bits and tells the story.
The second part of the book opens with the introduction of Gilgamesh in Uruk. It is followed by the entry of Enkidu, their journey to the forest, followed by the appearance of brash and proud Ishtar (the goddess of fertility, love, sex, and beauty). Ishtar is enraged when Gilgamesh rejects her marriage proposal. This is followed by the death of Enkidu. Thereafter, Gilgamesh goes in search of everlasting life. He learns about the profound truth from Utnapishtim, who isthe king of Shuruppak, an ancient city in Mesopotamia. He learns from him that “Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands.” The message is clear: immortality is beyond human reach. The narration then goes on to tell the story of the flood myth. ‘For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts. When the seventh day dawned, the storm from the south subsided, the sea grew calm, the flood was stilled; I looked at the face of the world and there was silence, all mankind was turned to clay.’ The message was: Death is inevitable. The narration further describes the return of Gilgamesh, and equally moving are the verses that conclude the epic, climaxing with Gilgamesh’s death.
“The king has laid himself down and will not rise again,
The Lord of Kullab will not rise again,
He overcame evil; he will not come again,
Though he was strong of arm, he will not rise again”.
These lines express the splendour of the work. It leaves the reader with a sense of decisiveness and reflects on the frailty of life. Though translated into prose, the text retains a sense of grandeur and weight. The language, while sometimes lacking the fluidity of modern English, conveys the heft and rhythm of an ancient oral tradition. Certain passages are especially striking, such as the description of the flood.
The Epic of Gilgamesh remains not only a foundational work of Mesopotamian literature. It is also one of humanity’s earliest explorations of universal themes, such as friendship, the inevitability of death, and the search for meaning in the face of mortality. This Penguin Classics edition, with Sandars’ insightful introduction and careful translation, makes the epic accessible to modern readers without losing its ancient depth.
Written & posted by Kamlesh Tripathi
Author, Poet, & Columnist
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https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com
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