Greetings, literature loving Dharmosets (or whatever)! Earlier this week, the venerable Moonbat wove a history of ancient Mesopotamia, of Sumeria and Akkadia and Babylonia, of kings and tyrants. Today it is my daunting challenge to supplement his essay with a close reading of Gilgamesh, the semi-fictional account of a Sumerian king on a mad quest for immortality.
If you haven’t read Moonbat’s excellent introduction to the history of ancient Sumeria – drop what you’re doing and read it now! Then you’ll be ready to wrestle with the ancient man-god-king before he drags us to the edge of the world in search of eternal life. Along the way we’ll meet goddesses and giants, scorpion-beasts and feral men, and we’ll learn about life before the Great Flood…