The Epic of Gilgamesh (Pls Crit)

This article is largely based on "The Epic of Gilgamesh" by N K Sandars published in the Penguin Classic series in London.
If you ever wanted an original of this Epic then Amazon.com would not be the place to go to. One reason would be the fact that the story was written on about 90 000 clay tablets found all over the Middle East.

This first novel ever written and surely the world's first bestseller, tells about the mind boggling adventures of King Gilgamesh of Uruk. The events painted on such a broad canvas and with such broad strokes that any Indiana Jones movie is automatically downscaled to the class of easily forgettable cartoon adventures.

To understand the story's magnificence, it must be borne in mind that it was written 1 500 years before the next epic was viz, Homer's Iliad.
In addition, the elements of the story throb with historical incidents rarely described in other known sources.

Let's begin with the Sumerians and the City States of Ur, Uruk, Kis and Lagash. These highly civilized people lived in Mesopotamia ( present day Iraq ) on the fertile plains between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. This was a low rainfall region but the Sumerians were very inventive people and irrigated their farms by means of a network of irrigation ditches.
They had an advanced language and were one of the first people to develop a written language. By making impressions in clay tablets with wedges, they were able to record the buying and selling of merchandise, the laws of the country and, of course, works of literature like the Epic.

Where did they so suddenly come from? In my humble opinion, they were part of the great civilization that existed as long ago as 7 500 BC in two great cities lying at the bottom of the ocean in the Bay of Kambay. When massive and devastating shifts of tectonic plates took place, these people moved East to form the Indus Valley civilisation and North to settle there and become known as the Sumerians.

What happened to this brilliant nation? Again in my humble opinion, after most destructive deluge of incredible proportions, they tried to resume their previous life style but when that was found to be impossible, decided once again, to migrate.
This time, they moved West. Traveling across land and sometimes sailing in their beautifully shaped boats, they invaded and conquered the land of the lower Nile. This theory is supported by the facts that after the known date of the Great Flood, the Sumerians suddenly disappeared and some time later, Egypt crowned its first Pharaoh and a period of unprecedented prosperity and remarkable development took place.
Haven't we always thought that the royal families of Egypt, the so-called Pharaoic line, were different to the common Egyptian. Didn't some design and order pyramids to be built and other toile to build them? Didn't the royal family go to extreme lengths to preserve the precious bloodline? Was this bloodline perhaps Sumerian and therefore irreplaceable? Perhaps in these questions lie the answers.

Here is the gist of the Epic in brief.
Gilgamesh is the son of a man and a goddess. He is superbly strong and devastatingly handsome. He loves with gay abandon but has a wild uncontrolled nature and sows destruction wherever he goes. In fact, he is known as the destroyer of Uruk, his home city.
He became such a menace, that the people of Uruk asked the gods to change his nature.
The gods responded by devising a plan to neutralise Gilgamesh. Their solution was as brilliant as it was simple. They decided to create another man. One who was the equal of Gilgamesh in every way. This man, at first, lived among wild animals in the mountains. He was spoken of in awe and Gilgamesh soon heard of this wild man named Enkidu.

Gilgamesh hatched a plot so cunning that countless stories written during the millennia that followed and right up to the present day James Bond movies, have used the idea over and over again.
He sent the most beautiful young woman, a lady of easy virtue, to meet with the wild man in the mountains and do her best to tame him. Their meeting in the wilderness could be subject of a memorable movie.
She succeeds in "taming" him to some extent and brings him back to Uruk with her. Soon Gilgamesh and Enkidu met and they have a wrestling match fit to be watched by the gods but it ends amicably. Then to the consternation of the gods, became very close friends.

When Enkidu dies, his friend, now deeply concerned by the fragility of life, goes to the Garden of the Gods where he is asked to undergo a test. He is told that if he succeeds he will be given the secret that he is seeking so desperately. Unfortunately he fails and is advised to return to Uruk and live the life of an ordinary mortal.

He sets forth on the journey home but being Gilgamesh, he experiences one dramatic event after the other. He is even another chance to learn the secret of immortality.

What is important about this epic poem are the details given about a whole series of possibly true events that relate to that rather historically obscure period between Noah and Abraham.

For example, there is a very graphic description of the Great Flood. Archaeologists have found definitive evidence of this large scale disaster.
Here are some of the passages from Sandar's book. The similarity between these words and those of the Bible are very striking.

"The god Ea warned me in a dream "O man of Shurrupak, tear down your house and build a boat...' "
"These are the measurements of the barque as you should build her..."
"In the first light of dawn, my household gathered around me. On the fifth day I laid the keel and the ribs..."

"I loaded into her all I had of gold and of living things, my family, my kin, the beasts of the field both wild and tame."
"There was silence, all mankind was turned to clay. The surface of the sea stretched as flat as a roof top...I looked for land in vain..."
"I loosed a dove and let her go. She flew away but returned."

"I loosed a raven, she saw that the waters had retreated,she ate....she di not come back."

The first novel ever written, the first epic poem and the first bestseller is a wonderful read and is packed with fascinating information. The poetic style is of a high standard with good rhythmic beats, touches of irony, many puns and a few similes here and there. All this and the light touch of humour, makes the Epic a book to remember and even cherish.