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A review by is_book_loring
The Epic of Gilgamesh by Unknown
4.0
In four thousand years, civilizations have risen and fallen, wars fought with different technology, decades of plagues, all sorts of natural disasters and geological back and forth, transformation, empires over empires, the battering ram of religions and ideologies, the dark ages, all the knowledge and the art that, were burned, destroyed, buried, lost; The Epic of Gilgamesh had survived so today one who lived an utterly disparate age could catch a glimpse through a miraculous time travel window or might even saw the preserved physical tablet itself.
‘The meaning of the dream is this. The father of the gods has given you kingship, such is your destiny, everlasting life is not your destiny. Because of this do not be sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed. He has given you power to bind and to loose, to be the darkness and the light of mankind. He has given you unexampled supremacy over the people, victory in battle from which no fugitive returns, in forays and assaults from which there is no going back. But do not abuse this power, deal justly with your servants in the palace, deal justly before Shamash.’
Reading this ancient epic, perhaps almost every element, theme, psychological, social, emotional pattern and motivation of the heroes, the gods, the people could be found as echoes in many mythologies, revered texts, myths, folklores, literatures and stories even in cultures, traditions, belief systems, that one who never read The Epic of Gilgamesh unknowingly knew a part of it; thus it is fascinating to wonder if this stuff of legend was made up? what does that say about us, that at the root of everything, even after eons and the death and birth of so many things, we keep and still telling ourselves the same story and dream, and believe the same questions and desires and fears; or if it wasn't, what does that say, either? that it still lives and permeates deeply into the heart of humanity, perhaps it is why The Epic of Gilgamesh somehow beats the unimaginable odds of surviving extinction.
‘The meaning of the dream is this. The father of the gods has given you kingship, such is your destiny, everlasting life is not your destiny. Because of this do not be sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed. He has given you power to bind and to loose, to be the darkness and the light of mankind. He has given you unexampled supremacy over the people, victory in battle from which no fugitive returns, in forays and assaults from which there is no going back. But do not abuse this power, deal justly with your servants in the palace, deal justly before Shamash.’
Reading this ancient epic, perhaps almost every element, theme, psychological, social, emotional pattern and motivation of the heroes, the gods, the people could be found as echoes in many mythologies, revered texts, myths, folklores, literatures and stories even in cultures, traditions, belief systems, that one who never read The Epic of Gilgamesh unknowingly knew a part of it; thus it is fascinating to wonder if this stuff of legend was made up? what does that say about us, that at the root of everything, even after eons and the death and birth of so many things, we keep and still telling ourselves the same story and dream, and believe the same questions and desires and fears; or if it wasn't, what does that say, either? that it still lives and permeates deeply into the heart of humanity, perhaps it is why The Epic of Gilgamesh somehow beats the unimaginable odds of surviving extinction.