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Fiction » Poetry » Epic Poems

The Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous & Sophus Helle (translator)
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The Epic of Gilgamesh

by Anonymous & Sophus Helle (translator)

Recommendations from our site

“Gilgamesh is a hero in the ancient mould. He’s half-god, enormously strong, a bit randy, a bit dim, and he goes through adventures which embody the human experience writ large. He starts off as the king of a small kingdom, making a nuisance of himself – enforcing droit du seigneur, sleeping with women on their marriage night, pushing other men around, being a bit of an arse. So the gods make a rival to him in strength, a wild man. They fight, realise neither can win, then become best friends and go off on all sorts of adventures. They kill all sorts of ogres and beasts, until the gods think this is getting a bit much and decide Gilgamesh’s friend has to die. It’s then that Gilgamesh realises the truth of mortality. He sees his friend die, and thinks if this heroic human being, the strongest of the strong, can die, that means I’m going to die too. He faces his own mortality, and it’s terrifying. He leaves his kingdom and roams the wilderness, looking desperately for some solution to the problem of mortality.” Read more...

The best books on Immortality

Stephen Cave, Philosopher

Other books by Anonymous and Sophus Helle (translator)

Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Anonymous & Robert van Gulik (translator)

Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee
by Anonymous & Robert van Gulik (translator)

Mahabharata by Anonymous & John D Smith (translator)

Mahabharata
by Anonymous & John D Smith (translator)

A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous

A Woman in Berlin
by Anonymous

The Cloud of Unknowing by Anonymous

The Cloud of Unknowing
by Anonymous

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