Gilgamesh

Read February 2007

Having seen—nay, spent half an hour pondering—the breathtaking reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and its ceremonial processional in the Pergamon museum in Berlin, how could I not want to read the Gilgamesh again?

And what's to review? It has all the epic elements: superhuman characters, great triumph and tragedy, senseless acts of ambition and violence, mystical places, and a sermon for humanity, packaged in terms of some of literature's most memorable characters.