Title: The Epic of Gilgamesh
Author: unknown. Introduced and translated by Andrew George. Blocked with a design by Francis Mosley.
Publisher: The Folio Society, 2009
Condition: Hardcover, decorative cloth. New and sealed. 248 pages. 7 colour illustrations. Book size: 10” x 6¾”.
This is the most complete general edition available, presenting the standard Akkadian version alongside later Babylonian and Sumerian texts.
The oldest poem in world literature!
The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the world’s earliest known works of narrative poetry and one of the most powerful epics ever written. It tells of the great Babylonian king Gilgamesh, part god and part man, who lives alone until the gods create the wild man Enkidu as his companion. The friends go on great quests, but in doing so they incur the wrath of the gods. When they punish Gilgamesh by slaying his friend, he is driven by grief and despair to seek the secret of immortality. The longevity of this 4,000-year-old poem is testament to its insight into humanity. As Andrew George says, ‘It is at once an adventure story, a critique of tyranny, a study of friendship, a meditation on death and, above all, an examination of one man’s emotional and spiritual development. For Gilgamesh is each one of us, his story an example of every human being’s path from youth to age.’
‘Who is there can rival his kingly standing,
and say like Gilgamesh, “It is I am the king”?
Gilgamesh was his name from the day he was born,
two-thirds of him god and one-third human.’
‘Gilgamesh is stupendous!’
RAINER MARIA RILKE