The tale of Gilgamesh was told for thousands of years. In the 1800's.

[henslee]

in Mosul, Iraq, British archeologists found the cuniform tablets, scribed in 700 BC by the world's oldest known author we can name, Shin-eqi-unninni. These twelve stone tablets are in the Akkadian language and were found in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria 669-633 B.C. The library was destroyed by the Persians in 612 B.C., and all the tablets are damaged. It wasn't for another 50 or so years after the discovery of the tablets were they fully translated.

Here's a link to a nice online version of the story of Gilgamesh.

http://gilgamesh.psnc.pl/wstep.html

[prodigal_green]

1. Cool.

Thanks for the link. And here I thought he was the nemesis of the smurfs.

[henslee]

2. hey you...... feeling any bettter about the future of the free world?

on edit--- I do not know smerf culture beyond mama and papa. Is thre really a character named Gilgamesh?

[prodigal_green]

3. I'm going to have to ask you to stop

using the words "future" and "free" in the same sentence sir.

[henslee]

4. Gotcha. But don't you feel like something's in the air right now? I have

not been paying that much attention to the boards lately, but something about today felt great. I think the election fraud "b story" -- the Ukraine fiasco somehow makes it all resonate. I really do.

[azoth]

8. Seriously? If you're asking, the evil smurf chaser is named Gargamel.

[prodigal_green]

14. I was kidding

just a little freeper humor there to lighten up the day.

[aquart]

5. More like it was lost for thousands of years.

We don't know how long it was told.

And once it was found, then there was the fun of deciphering and learning the language.

Sumerian had a word, libis. It meant core, heart, courage, anger, family. We get the word liberal from it.

[henslee]

9. But it was told in piecemeal, orally while it was lost and even before

it was ever written down.

[Mike Nelson]

6. I have this story in a book...

...I liked & readers should note the story of "the Flood" way pre-dates the Bible's/Noah's flood story. Interesting images & look into ancient life.

[dreamcollector]

7. Which translation is this from?

"Gilgamesh, whither rovest thou?
The life thou seekest thou shalt not find."

[henslee]

10. I have no idea, just liked the graphics at this sight. The transaltion I

was checking out was a pretty recent book availble at Barnes and Noble. Just sort of getting warmed up on this stuff. Not too knowledgeable.

[yellowdogintexas]

11. Some scholars theorize that the Hebrews picked up this legend

during the Babylonian captivity. When they returned to Jerusalem, they decided they needed to start recording their history in case the elders who knew the oral history were all wiped out at once.

Easy for much of the Ancient Near Eastern mythology to merge into the OT texts at that point. By the time the history was recorded, the Hebrews had been in Egypt for a LONG time, tromped around in the desert for two generations, invaded and probably intermarried with the Canaanite desert tribes and been hauled off to Babylon.

Not to mention the Sumerian invasions, Assyrians, etc.

[Malikshah]

12. Gilgamesh always gets some of my students in a tizzy

The whole story with Utnapishtim, the Flood, the "secret of immortality" issue with the plant, which is then stolen by a serpent....

Ah, cultural syncretism--what a joy to academics and the bane of every flat-earther out there. ;)

[Dorian Gray]

13. I taught this

(or sections of this) in a World Lit class I taught to my senior students in Hong Kong. Good stories, which parallel the bible to some extent.