000			02384cam a2200289Ka 4500
040			_aNOG _beng _cNOG _dBAKER _dEUF _dYDXCP _dBTCTA _dOQP _dCPE _dCO3 _dXY4 _dOCLCQ _dRIU _dOCLCQ _dBDX _dSJE _dHNW _dOHM
082			_a892.1
100			_aMitchell, Stephen.
245	1	0	_aGilgamesh : _ba new English version / _cStephen Mitchell.
250			_a1st Free Press pbk. ed.
260			_aNew York : _bFree Press, _c2006.
300			_a290 p. ;
520			_aGilgamesh is considered one of the masterpieces of world literature, and although previously there have been competent scholarly translations of it, until now there has not been a version that is a superlative literary text in its own right. Acclaimed translator Stephen Mitchell's lithe, muscular rendering allows us to enter an ancient masterpiece as if for the first time, to see how startlingly beautiful, intelligent, and alive it is. His insightful introduction provides a historical, spiritual, and cultural context for this ancient epic, showing that Gilgamesh is more potent and fascinating than ever. Gilgamesh dates from as early as 1700 BCE -- a thousand years before the Iliad. Lost for almost two millennia, the eleven clay tablets on which the epic was inscribed were discovered in 1853 in the ruins of Nineveh, and the text was not deciphered and fully translated until the end of the century. The epic is the story of literature's first hero -- the king of Uruk in what is present-day Iraq -- and his journey of self-discovery. Along the way, Gilgamesh discovers that friendship can bring peace to a whole city, that a preemptive attack on a monster can have dire consequences, and that wisdom can be found only when the quest for it is abandoned. In giving voice to grief and the fear of death -- perhaps more powerfully than any book written after it -- in portraying love and vulnerability and the ego's hopeless striving for immortality, the epic has become a personal testimony for millions of readers in dozens of languages.
650		0	_aEpic poetry, Assyro-Babylonian
650		0	_aGilgamesh (Legendary character)
650		0	_aFolklore
650		0	_aKings and rulers
650		0	_aGiants
650		0	_aFellowship
650		0	_aMale friendship
650		0	_aImmortality
650		0	_aGrief in men
650		0	_aAdventure stories.
650		0	_aFear of death
700	1		_aMitchell, Stephen,
942			_cBK
999			_c7101 _d7101