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The epic of Gilgamesh

Benjamin Read Foster

256 pages

An immersive, scholarly journey into the world's oldest surviving epic, blending ancient poetry with rigorous modern analysis.

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What it feels like

Reading this Norton Critical Edition feels like stepping into the deepest roots of human storytelling. The experience is steady and contemplative, anchoring the reader in the mythic atmosphere of ancient Mesopotamia. You are guided not just by the rhythmic, ancient verses of the hero-king's quest for eternal life, but by the scholarly apparatus that surrounds it, including interpretive essays, glossaries, and historical context. The prose shifts between the sweeping, superhuman scale of epic poetry and the precise, analytical tone of academic criticism. It is a comprehensive, reverent exploration of mortality and heroism that will deeply satisfy readers who want to study the foundational texts of world literature from every possible angle.

Mood
  • ancient
  • epic
  • contemplative
Tone
  • scholarly
  • reverent
  • mythic
  • analytical
Pace
steady
Themes
the quest for immortality · heroic exploits · ancient literary traditions · the origins of storytelling
The writing
A blend of ancient, rhythmic epic poetry translated into English, accompanied by rigorous, analytical academic prose.
The arc
Moves from the awe of superhuman exploits to the profound, existential contemplation of mortality and eternal life.
Who it's for
Readers fascinated by the ancient world, the roots of human storytelling, and comprehensive scholarly editions of foundational myths.
Content notes
  • mortality

About the book

"The Epic of Gilgamesh is the world's oldest epic masterpiece. More than a thousand years before Homer or the Bible, Mesopotamian poets sang of the hero-king Gilgamesh, who sought to crown his superhuman exploits by finding eternal life. This Norton Critical Edition presents translations by Benjamin R. Foster, Douglas Frayne, and Gary Beckman of the entire Gilgamesh narrative tradition, with some texts now in English for the first time. In addition to the eleven tablets of the great Akkadian epic, written about 1700 B.C.E., the book includes seven Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh, written before 2000 B.C.E., as well as the later Hittite version and other related sources, among them a Babylonian parody of the epic." ""Criticism" provides interpretive essays by William Moran, Thorkild Jacobsen, and Riykah Harris and concludes with a modern poetic response to the Gilgamesh epic by Hillary Major." "A Glossary of Proper Names and a Selected Bibliography are also included."--BOOK JACKET.

Description from Open Library.

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