Believe it or not - I set down The Histories and picked up a new book! This is only the third time this has happened. I pretty much never drop books once I start them, so this is huge for me. I've started reading Gilgamesh, which is an awesome book! It's a Babylonain epic about a king of Uruk named none other than Gilgamesh (below). He was a 2/3 divine, all-gifted, arrogant tyrant, and when the people of the city pray to the gods, they create Enkidu who was as equally supreme as Gigamesh to try to put balance to the city. So they rumble and Gilgamesh wins, but they immediately become friends and set off on many quests together to defeat monsters from the Netherworlds and whatnot. Well eventually Gilgamesh offends Ishtar, the love goddess, when he rejects her advances, and so she talks to her papa who is the chief of the gods, Anu, and gets his to put a fissure through Uruk that swallows up Enkidu. Gilgamesh who is thrown into sharp reality of death pursues Utnapishtim (heard the name before?) to try to learn the secrets of immortality from him, but is killed in the journey.
It's a great story. I'm really happy about the choice though. The Histories had gotten stale, and so I needed something more exciting. I've only read summaries of the story until now, and so I finally get to read the script! That's pretty exciting for me! =)
Oh, and did you get the connection with Utnapishtim? He was the Babylonian Noah! The Gilgamesh texts is actually what also told the Mesopotamian flood story. Utnapishtim was given the gift of everlasting life by the gods. Coincidentally, that's what Gilgamesh desires, and so he goes in search of the man.
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OOOPS! I just realized! In the "Floods" post, I mixed up the Sumerian and Babylonian myths! I am so sorry! Atrahasis was Sumerian and Utnapishtim was Babylonian! Gilgamesh I knew was Babylonian, and something didn't click, and so I double checked. Then I realized I switched them! So sorry about that!
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