The Epic of Gilgamesh
Ratings111
Average rating3.5
una historia muy salvaje como aquellos tiempos pero q no tiene desperdicio!
para haberse escrito hace 4000 años esto está muy bien. efectivamente, es épico e incluso desgarrador. mucha repetición como era d costumbre en esa época. la comprensión lectora mimagino q no se había inventado...
pero de iwal forma cumple su cometido y es un archivo esencial d cómo hemos creado historias dsd q existimos
When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping. As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The oldest poems ever preserved and they were with homosexual undertones. The story is somewhat engaging and better than the bible, mentioning the bible because there are some similar things like the flood and procreation themes. It is very fascinating to see such an early work of philosophy/religion/folklore/fantasy. I just started to put the history of literature into a weak retrospective and I am very excited to know more and read more ancient works.
Really interesting as a historical item but hard to review as a book. Accessibly written with plenty of historical context in my edition. Much shorter and gayer than expected.
Since I do not have it in me to read the same text 3 different times (sorry) I've decided to take the liberty of “marking as read” after going through the standard text. Maybe I'll read the additional poems later.
This edition is long but it's definitely worth it for the glossary, maps and time charts of Ancient Orient if you're into that. Regardless, the epic itself is short enough to read in one go if you have some time to spare and entertaining enough to keep you engaged. It's a great story!
Other than that, I don't really feel entitled to judge recovered poems by the same standards you would apply to any other epic work....but I feel like Andrew George's translation also played a role in how it read? You gotta hand it to him. This man took great pains to stay faithful to the original work (indicating all lacunae and ellipses etc.) but it made for a less fluent read. While I can appreciate having a good foundation, at times it became tasking; especially considering I'm not an academic!
Recommended by the Harvard Class,”“Masterpieces of World Literature”. Read it in one sitting. Loved it!
Omg I love that the first recorded novel is a queer love story in the end huhuhu. Gilgamesh rejected the goddess of love Ishtar, who then kills his lover as a punishment. Then, Gilgamesh goes to search for the recipe to immortality to revive his lover. But it's not possible at the end. But at the moment, Gilgamesh is so fucked up. and Enkidu was just created to fight and stop Gilgamesh from rapping every bride in the city. Such a mess.
Read and reviewed: 2022-05-22
Excellent annotations in this version, and finally reading this helped dispel my assumption that we didn't invent complexly layered literature until later in history.