The Literal Oldest Story Ever is Justifiably Legendary
I felt sort of like a goofy bitch typing “by Stephen Mitchell” because “Gilgamesh,” or “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” as it’s most often referred to as, is a story that sees its history begin in literally the first civilization ever, in ancient Mesopotamia. Yeah, “Gilgamesh” is a story that’s clocking in at being a cool 4,000 (that’s FOUR THOUSAND) years old. That’s even a thousand years before some blind dude named Homer started rambling about Troy and cyclopes, and the worst commute home from work ever. ((I had to actually look up the plural for “cyclops,” something I doubt many humans have ever had to do.) When you’re lapping “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad” and The Bible by a millennium, that’s some impressive stuff.
All that to say, Stephen Mitchell is just the latest dude to give a solid and concise translation of the epic a whirl, and his version is seen as the relatively definitive one these days. That’s some pretty high praise, considering that if you look up some of the OG scrawlings and writings that eventually come together to make “Gilgamesh,” they’re mostly just verses chiseled into stones and rocks that folks found in the Arabian desert 200 years ago. So to cobble all of those, as well as a buttload of other translations and interpretations from the last few centuries, into one definitive volume is impressive stuff.
And “Gilgamesh” itself, as a story, is pretty impressive stuff too, and I’m immediately going to mock myself here and say that “pretty impressive” seems like an insanely miniscule way of highlighting the quality of a story that’s persisted in history and mythology and religion for 4,000 years. It’s the story of the eponymous demigod who “Surpasses All Other Kings” in his strength and might, so much so that, of course, he defies his gods. From there, the Epic is essentially divided into two parts, the first of which where the gods build Gilgamesh a homie named Enkidu to basically settle the demigod down with a dose of good friendship, and the second where, shaken by a traumatic death, Gilgamesh embarks on an odyssey to find eternal life. His friendship with Enkidu, which includes slaying monsters, Bulls of Heaven, and further spurning of the gods, as well as the subsequent aforementioned odyssey, where Gilgamesh travels through the earth while being pursued by the sun, crosses an uncrossable ocean, and hears a tale of a great deluge from an immortal man, is chock-full of the kind of gonzo and breathtaking imagery that makes epics so alluring and readable. I tore through “Gilgamesh” in less than a week, it was legitimately hard to put down. Which, again, is crazy for a story from the OG civilization.
Now I used the word “odyssey” a few times intentionally, because Gilgamesh, the story and character, are actually said to have influenced Homer’s own epic. That’s right, “The Odyssey” is “Epic of Gilgamesh” fanfiction. Crazy shit.
There are also epics following Alexander the Great, where he seeks the Fountain of Youth, that are also said to have been directly inspired by “Gilgamesh.” And you might have noted that I talked about a “great deluge” earlier too. Das right, “Gilgamesh” directly influenced stories in The Bible too, including another scene in the epic’s second half that sees Gilgamesh discover a garden of the gods, ie their Garden of Eden.
As I mentioned, “Gilgamesh” is a pretty short read, just shy of 200 pages, and is criminally under-read when it comes to the popularity of its counterparts, like Greek mythology and The Bible. And on top of that, it’s just a great story. Check it out, I implore you.