Western Canon #2: Gilgamesh
The Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest known written story in the world. Unlike other ancient writings, the Bible or the works of Homer, it did not enter the wider western literary consciousness until relatively recently. Its tablets were unearthed in 1853 in the ruins of Nineveh, nearby the modern Iraqi city of Mosul, and it was not deciphered for several more decades.
The excitement at that point was over the tablet containing a story very much like the Noah and the Flood one from the Hebrew Bible. Since this was a separate culture, the flood episode was taken as independent confirmation of a biblical event.
Over the years, more and more tablets were unearthed, filling in the gaps in the story. In 1916, the poet Rainer Mairia Rilke wrote of Gilgamesh: “I have immersed myself in it, and in these truly gigantic fragments I have experienced measures and forms that belong with the supreme works that the conjuring Word has ever produced.”
The edition of Gilgamesh I read was translated and turned into poetry by Stephen Mitchell, who famously translated Rilke into English. In his introduction, Mitchell finds parallels between the ancient epic and the current US invasion of Iraq, especially in the episode where King Gilgamesh decides to go off to a foreign land and slay a monster for no real reason other than his own glory, goading his doubtful friend Enkidu to come along, asking “Why dear friend, do you speak like a coward?”
Gilgamesh is one of my favorite ancient myths. Its story: there is a king named Gilgamesh, who, though magnificent is unruly. His people appeal to the goddess Aruru to make him treat them better. Aruru makes a man out of clay–a dark double of Gilgamesh named Enkidu. Enkidu is wild, living with the animals and scaring the farmers, until the priestess Shamhat makes love with him for seven straight days. After this he tries to return to the animals but they run from him. He hears of the great king Gilgamesh and goes to his city to challenge him. When they meet Gilgamesh and Enkidu battle, but then become friends. They go off to kill the monster Humbaba, who guards the Cedar Forest. Though they kill Humbaba (with assistance from a god) the monster curses Enkidu. Enkidu falls ill and dies, leaving Gilgamesh in anguish. He begins to fear death and desires immortality. He goes off to find Utnapishtim, the one human whom the gods have granted eternal life, to hear his secret. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of the great flood. Gilgamesh hears that a bush growing in the waters of the Great Deep will make him immortal. He dives down and pulls it up, and starts traveling back home. He sets the bush down to take a bath in a lake and a snake carries it away.