4 h 42 minAudiobook3 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a king and a wild man reveal about friendship and the fear of death?
In ancient Mesopotamia, Gilgamesh rules the city of Uruk. Enkidu, a wild man, becomes his close friend. Their bond stands at the heart of this epic poem, where strength meets the fear of death. These Old Babylonian fragments offer a vivid, direct encounter with an early form of the tale.
Morris Jastrow and Albert Tobias Clay bring together evidence chiefly from the Pennsylvania tablet and the Yale tablet. Their study opens a window onto the story before later Babylonian and Assyrian scribes enlarge it. Expect broken clay, ancient words, and a tale taking shape—not the smooth, complete plot of a novel.
What you’ll discover
- A king and his companion Meet Gilgamesh and Enkidu, whose close friendship gives this ancient tale its human heart.
- Strength beside mortal fear Explore a story where a powerful king belongs to a world shadowed by death.
- The story before expansion Discover an earlier form of the epic and see why these fragments matter.
- Two tablets in focus Encounter the Pennsylvania and Yale tablets as central pieces of this early Gilgamesh.
- A world between rivers Enter the Mesopotamian setting between the Tigris and Euphrates, home to the epic's heroes.
Who will love it
For readers curious about the oldest literature, students of ancient history and myth, and anyone who wants to see how a famous story began, with its themes of friendship, ambition and mortality.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Tablets from ancient Mesopotamia
- What the scholars worked with
- The king and his companion
- Why this early version still matters
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Eine altbabylonische Version des Gilgamesch-Epos
by Morris Jastrow; Albert Tobias Clay · 1920
Broken clay tablets reveal Gilgamesh, his wild friend and a king's fear of death in ancient Mesopotamia.
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In short
This book presents the Old Babylonian tablets of the Gilgamesh epic, a story from ancient Mesopotamia about a king, his wild friend and the fear of death. It was prepared by two American scholars, Morris Jastrow and Albert Tobias Clay, in the early twentieth century, and it brings together fragments in the Akkadian language written on clay about four thousand years ago.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Tablets from ancient Mesopotamia
The epic of Gilgamesh comes from Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in what is now Iraq. Its heroes belong to the city of Uruk, whose king Gilgamesh was remembered in tradition as a ruler of great strength.
The Old Babylonian period is the age of an early form of the Akkadian language and of the first clear written versions of the story. Scholars date it to the early second millennium before the common era. Earlier Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh came before it.
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What is the Old Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh epic?
It is an early form of the Gilgamesh story, written in Akkadian on clay tablets about four thousand years ago. It survives in fragments and is older than the later, longer standard version.
Who was Gilgamesh?
Gilgamesh was a king of Uruk, an ancient city in Mesopotamia. In the epic he is a powerful ruler who forms a deep friendship with Enkidu and faces questions about death.
Who wrote the Gilgamesh epic?
The epic has no known single author. It grew from Sumerian poems and was written by Babylonian scribes. Jastrow and Clay were the scholars who edited and translated this set of tablets.
The author
Morris Jastrow
1861–1921 · American orientalist
Morris Jastrow Jr. (1861–1921) was an American orientalist and librarian born in Warsaw. He lived in Philadelphia and worked at the University of Pennsylvania. He wrote The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (1898) and, with Albert T. Clay, An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic (1920).
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