Miraculously preserved on clay tablets dating back four thousand years, the poem of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is the world's oldest epic. The story tells of Gilgamesh's adventures with the wild man Enkidu. This text is translated by Andrew George.

The definitive translation of the world's oldest known epic, now revised in a second edition (2020) and updated with newly discovered material. The definitive translation of the world's oldest known epic, now revised in a second edition (2020) and updated with newly discovered material. Miraculously preserved on clay tablets dating back as far as four thousand years, the poem of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, predates 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. This new edition of Andrew George's translation has been extensively revised to include recently discovered fragments and new sources.

Details

ISBN13: 9780140449198
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 304
Edition:
Publication Date: 02 Jan 2020
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 21.2(H)x12.9(L)x1.9(W)232
Weight (gm): 232

Author Biography

Andrew George is Professor of Babylonian at SOAS (the School of Oriential and African Studies), part of the University of London. His research has taken him many times to Iraq to visit Babylon and other ancient sites, and to museums in Baghdad, Europe and North America to read the original clay tablets on which the scribes of ancient Iraq wrote.

Reviews

A masterly verse translation * The Times *
Andrew George has skillfully bridged the chasm between a scholarly re-edition and a popular work * London Review of Books *