| An Old Babylonian Version Of The Gilgamesh Epic Contributor(s): , Morris Jastrow, Jr. (Author), Clay, Albert Tobias (Author) |
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ISBN: ISBN-13: 9798730215061 Publisher: Independently Published OUR PRICE: $6.29 Product Type: Paperback Published: March 2021 * Not available - Not in print at this time * |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | Epic |
| Physical Information: 0.19" H x 5.51" W x 8.5" (0.25 lbs) 80 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Until, however, further fragments shall have turned up, it would be hazardous to institute a comparison between the Sumerian and the Akkadian versions. All that can be said for the present is that there is every reason to believe in the existence of a literary form of the Epic in Sumerian which presumably antedated the Akkadian recension, just as we have a Sumerian form of Ishtar's descent into the nether world, and Sumerian versions of creation myths, as also of the Deluge tale.16 It does not follow, however, that the Akkadian versions of the Gilgamesh Epic are translations of the Sumerian, any more than that the Akkadian creation myths are translations of a Sumerian original. Indeed, in the case of the creation myths, the striking difference between the Sumerian and Akkadian views of creation17 points to the independent production of creation stories on the part of the Semitic settlers of the Euphrates Valley, though no doubt these were worked out in part under Sumerian literary influences. The same is probably true of Deluge tales, which would be given a distinctly Akkadian coloring in being reproduced and steadily elaborated by the Babylonian literati attached to the temples. The presumption is, therefore, in favor of an independent literary origin for the Semitic versions of the Gilgamesh Epic, though naturally with a duplication of the episodes, or at least of some of them, in the Sumerian narrative. Nor does the existence of a Sumerian form of the Epic necessarily prove that it originated with the Sumerians in their earliest home before they came to the Euphrates Valley. |