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An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic

Chapter 3: Prefatory Note
By Morris Jastrow
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About This Book

A legendary Mesopotamian epic recounts the deeds of a semi-divine hero whose close companion's death prompts a quest confronting mortality. Episodes include dangerous journeys, battles with supernatural foes, a journey to meet a survivor of a great flood, and counsel that offers pragmatic comfort. The surviving old Babylonian fragments preserve adventures, a seaside woman's advice urging fleeting pleasures, and didactic appendices reflecting temple-school theology. Composed in multiple tablet-sized sections and transmitted through Sumerian and Akkadian versions, the poem weaves themes of friendship, the limits of human striving, ritual care for the dead, and the search for lasting fame and understanding of death.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic

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Title: An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic

Author: Morris Jastrow

Albert Tobias Clay

Release date: July 4, 2006 [eBook #11000]
Most recently updated: October 28, 2024

Language: English

Credits: This eBook was produced by Jeroen Hellingman

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD BABYLONIAN VERSION OF THE GILGAMESH EPIC ***

The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic, by Anonymous, Edited by Morris Jastrow, Translated by Albert T. Clay



This eBook was produced by Jeroen Hellingman.



Yale Oriental Series

Researches

Volume IV

Part III

Published from the fund given to the university in memory of Mary Stevens Hammond

The Yale Tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic

Yale Oriental Series. Researches, Volume IV, 3.


An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic


On the Basis of Recently Discovered Texts

By
Morris Jastrow Jr., Ph.D., LL.D.
Professor of Semitic Languages, University of Pennsylvania
And
Albert T. Clay, Ph.D., LL.D., Litt.D.
Professor of Assyriology and Babylonian Literature, Yale University

Copyright, 1920, by Yale University Press

In Memory of
William Max Müller
(1863–1919)
Whose life was devoted to Egyptological research
which he greatly enriched
by many contributions

Prefatory Note

The Introduction, the Commentary to the two tablets, and the Appendix, are by Professor Jastrow, and for these he assumes the sole responsibility. The text of the Yale tablet is by Professor Clay. The transliteration and the translation of the two tablets represent the joint work of the two authors. In the transliteration of the two tablets, C. E. Keiser’s “System of Accentuation for Sumero-Akkadian signs” (Yale Oriental Researches—VOL. IX, Appendix, New Haven, 1919) has been followed.