The Epic of Gilgamesh - The World’s Oldest Epic Poem tr by William Muss-Arnolt - Ed by Jason Colavito.pdf

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THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
The World’s Oldest Epic Poem
Translated by
WILLIAM MUSS-ARNOLT
Edited by
JASON COLAVITO
JasonColavito.com Books
2012
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Contents
Preface
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Introduction
Tablet I
Tablet II
Tablet III
Tablet IV
Tablet V
Tablet VI
Tablets VII and VIII
Tablet IX
Tablet X
Tablet XI
Tablet XII
Sources
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Preface
One of the most cited sources for ancient astronaut theorists, the
Epic of
Gilgamesh began as a series of unconnected Sumerian stories around 2150 BCE
before being combined into the oldest written epic by Akkadian scholars around
1900 BCE. The version we have today was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni around
1300-1000 BCE. The rediscovery of the epic by George Smith in the 1870s was a
sensation. Originally, Smith thought the story concerned the biblical hero
Nimrod, though this was later proved wrong. Instead, the epic tells the story of a
demigod, Gilgamesh, who ventures with his companions (originally 50, like the
Argonauts, but later just one) to the ends of the earth to slay monsters. The epic
also contains the earliest known account of the Great Flood, a touchstone for all
alternative archaeologists.
The Epic of Gilgamesh does not exist in a single complete copy. As such,
modern translations typically must draw on multiple sources to produce a mostly
coherent narrative, filling in the gaps in broken tablets. As far as I am aware, this
version of the
Epic of Gilgamesh,
translated by William Muss-Arnolt in 1901
from the Neo-Assyrian tablets found in the Library of Ashurbanipal is the only
(fairly) accurate public domain translation of the epic. A previous translation, by
Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton in 1884, was highly poetic and attempted to fill in the
gaps in tablets through a pastiche of unrelated Near Eastern texts and
guesswork, leaving the resulting text highly inaccurate. I have supplemented the
1901 text with additional material found on two Babylonian tablets known as the
Pennsylvania and Yale tablets, translated in 1920 by Morris Jastrow, Jr. and
Albert T. Clay. These tablets fill in significant gaps in the Epic as it was known in
1901. Modern translations have filled in some additional details from later
findings.
For this eBook edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh, I have standardized the use
of names by changing references to major characters to current usage. Thus,
Eabani has been standardized to Enkidu, Uchuat to Shamhat, etc. In the
supplementary material, I have adapted the Babylonian names to reflect the
usage in the Assyrian version of the epic to avoid confusion. Thus the
Babylonian Gish is standardized as Gilgamesh, Huwawa as Humbaba, etc.
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The Epic of Gilgamesh
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