Endnote 1 – Gilgamesh

An excellent and up-to-date translation of the epic in its various Akkadian versions, as well as of the Sumerian tales of Gilgamesh, is presented by Andrew George, The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1999). I have drawn all translations from this work.

A number of previously published essays have recently been collected in Gilgamesh: A Reader, ed. John Maier (Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1997). Of the general literature on Gilgamesh, I would especially recommend Thorkild Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1976), pp. 193–219, and “The Gilgamesh Epic: Romantic and Tragic Vision,” in Tzvi Abusch, John Huehnergard and Piotr Steinkeller, eds., Lingering Over Words: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Literature in Honor of William L. Moran, Harvard Semitic Studies 37 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), pp. 231–249; Geoffrey S. Kirk, Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Other Cultures (London: Univ. of California Press, 1973), pp. 132–152; William L. Moran, “The Gilgamesh Epic: A Masterpiece from Ancient Mesopotamia,” in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, vol. 4, ed. Jack M. Sasson, John Baines, Gary Beckman and Karen Rubinson (New York: Scribner, 1995), pp. 2327–2336; and Jeffrey H. Tigay, The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1982). I have written on aspects of the epic in Abusch, “Ishtar’s Proposal and Gilgamesh’s Refusal: An Interpretation of the Gilgamesh Epic, Tablet 6, Lines 1–79,” History of Religions 26 (1986), pp. 143–187; “Gilgamesh’s Request and Siduri’s Denial, Part 1: The Meaning of the Dialogue and Its Implications for the History of the Epic,” in The Tablet and the Scroll: Near Eastern Studies in Honor of William W. Hallo, ed. Mark E. Cohen, Daniel C. Snell and David B. Weisberg (Bethesda: CDL Press, 1993), pp. 1–14; and “Gilgamesh’s Request and Siduri’s Denial, Part 2: An Analysis and Interpretation of an Old Babylonian Fragment About Mourning and Celebration,” The Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 22 (1993), pp. 3–17.