This ancient Mesopotamian epic is thought to be 4000 years old and may rightly be called the Odyssey of ancient Iraq. It has been placed by literary experts in the ranks of the world’s greatest literature. Tablets of the text, some of which date back to the Seventh Century BC, were found among the remains of the library of Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian king. This important new translation is presented in verse form so as to remain faithful to the original. Despite the fact that some parts of the Epic are still incomplete or obscured, the text contains an account of a great flood, probably the precursor of the Flood story in the Bible, while the stories of Gilgamesh and his fighting partner Enkidu deal with the eternal themes of life, death, the afterlife and immortality, and the more immediate concerns of friendship, love, loss, grief and hope.
This important new translation is presented in verse form so as to remain faithful to the original. It is accompanied by twelve illustrations by the Iraqi artist Rakan Dabdoub.