The Epic of Gilgamish: A Fragment of the Gilgamish Legend in Old-Babylonian Cuneiform
The Epic of Gilgamish: A Fragment of the Gilgamish Legend in Old-Babylonian Cuneiform
The oldest story humanity has ever told. Surviving on clay tablets for four millennia, the Epic of Gilgamesh predates Homer by a full millennium, preserving the voice of a civilization that rose and fell before Rome was a whisper. Here is Gilgamesh, two-thirds divine, king of Uruk, who struts across the earth like a bull with no one to curb his horn. Then comes Enkidu, the wild man born of clay and the breath of the gods, and everything changes. Their friendship burns through the epic like a fever, but the gods are jealous, and death comes for Enkidu. What follows is Gilgamesh's desperate pilgrimage to the ends of the earth, seeking Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah, who alone holds the secret of eternal life. He does not find it. What he finds is something more honest: the terrible, clarifying truth that all men must die, and that this knowledge is what makes life precious. This is not a comfort. It is a reckoning.
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“Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to? You will never find that life for which you are looking. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping. As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man.””
— Stephen Langdon
“Hold my hand in yours, and we will not fear what hands like ours can do.””
— Stephen Langdon
“As for man, his days are numbered, whatever he might do, it is but wind.””
— Stephen Langdon
“Strange things have been spoken, why does your heart speak strangely? The dream was marvellous but the terror was great; we must treasure the dream whatever the terror.””
— Stephen Langdon
“How can I keep silent? How can I stay quiet?My friend, whom I loved, has turned to clay,my friend Enkidu, whom I loved has turned to clay.Shall I not be like him, and also lie down,never to rise again, through all eternity?””
— Stephen Langdon
“Gilgamesh was called a god and a man; Enkidu was an animal and a man. It is the story of their becoming human together.””
— Stephen Langdon
“How long does a building stand before it falls?How long does a contract last? How long will brothersshare the inheritance before they quarrel?How long does hatred, for that matter, last?Time after time the river has risen and flooded.The insect leaves the cocoon to live but a minute.How long is the eye able to look at the sun?From the very beginning nothing at all has lasted.See how the dead and the sleeping resemble each other.Seen together, they are the image of death.The simple man and the ruler resemble each other.The face of the one will darken like that of the other.””
— Stephen Langdon
“The dream was marvellous but the terror was great; we must treasure the dream whatever the terror; for the dream has shown that misery comes at last to the healthy man, the end of his life is sorrow.””
— Stephen Langdon
“There is the house whose people sit in darkness; dust is their food and clay is their meat. They are clothed like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness. I entered the house of dust and I saw the kings of the earth, their crowns put away for ever...””
— Stephen Langdon
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Langdon, Stephen. The Epic of Gilgamish: A Fragment of the Gilgamish Legend in Old-Babylonian Cuneiform. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-epic-of-gilgamish-a-fragment-of-the-gilgamish-legend-in-old-babylonian-cunei-6c569536-0c7c-4d20-b662-1ae59e9f2991.Langdon, S. (n.d.). The Epic of Gilgamish: A Fragment of the Gilgamish Legend in Old-Babylonian Cuneiform. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-epic-of-gilgamish-a-fragment-of-the-gilgamish-legend-in-old-babylonian-cunei-6c569536-0c7c-4d20-b662-1ae59e9f2991Langdon, Stephen. The Epic of Gilgamish: A Fragment of the Gilgamish Legend in Old-Babylonian Cuneiform. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-epic-of-gilgamish-a-fragment-of-the-gilgamish-legend-in-old-babylonian-cunei-6c569536-0c7c-4d20-b662-1ae59e9f2991.
