And then I began again.
And then again. And then I tried to listen to an audio book.
Every version was different. Not just the slight difference of word usage which you would expect to vary from translation to translation, much like the modern versions of the English Bible. But the actual content drastically changed no matter where I turned. Sure, in every translation Gilgamesh was the king of Uruk, two parts god and one part man. I'm sure the main plot would stay the same in each translation. But the telling of the story and the style of writing differed from text to text in such a way that they were nearly unrecognizable as the same story.
So I paused, and consulted my Dean of Students- Wikipedia. I learned that there are versions that are direct translations of the original tablets, and these versions are often missing big chunks of content. There are versions that elaborate on the story, and create a longer, more novel-like version of the poem. There are versions written in prose to fill in the missing gaps from the original tablets. And everything in between. There is even a Gilgamesh musical. After reading about the various standard and accepted translations used, I decided to go with the version they recommend on the syllabus that I'm using as a guide (see my previous post: World Literature Survey- Syllabus.)
This is the Nancy K. Sandars translation, which seems to be based off of the original tablets but written in prose: The Epic of Gilgamesh: text
Also, thanks to my guide syllabus, I have located this study guide and discussion questions to go along with my reading: The Epic of Gilgamesh: study guide
I am still searching for an appropriate lecture video or notes to complement this assignment. For now, I'll get to work actually reading the text, now that I've settled on which version to use! It is not too long, so I'm hoping to knock it all out this afternoon, and do my discussion questions and writing assignments tomorrow.
(Gilgamesh the musical...)
Mrs. Victoria Fedden remarked to me that she believes the value in "Gilgamesh" to be more historical than literary. So I replied to her with a few of my comments. I copied them here:
ReplyDeleteI'm halfway through, but have to go to work for a few hours. I'm going to read the other half tonight before bed. It's pretty entertaining.
The most obvious thing that sticks out to me (hardly an original observation) is how universal and unchanged human nature is throughout history. You have lust, greed, fame, friendship, love, power... my favorite part so far is when the goddess Ishtar wants Gilgamesh to marry her, and he's basically like, "Hey, I'll sleep with you. I'll even buy you some nice presents. But you're way too big of a slut for me to make you my wife. Do you need me to name all of your ex boyfriends to you?" hahaha... if that isn't typical American male personified in an ancient Mesopotamian manuscript then I don't know what it is.
I will probably jot down some of my thoughts about human nature in my essay about this reading, but, since that is probably the most obvious thing to write about I'd like to find something different as the main topic for my essay.
My other thought is a compare and contrast essay about Gilgamesh and Jesus Christ, since historically speaking the Epic of Gilgamesh happened around the same time and place as the early Old Testament which greatly shaped what the Jews expected in a Messiah.
...anyway. Off to work.