The oldest known piece of literature on the planet is the epic tale of Gilgamesh, king of the Mesopotamian city-state of Uruk. The story was a staple of middle-eastern storytelling for well over a thousand years. However, after the destruction of Assyrian city of Nineveh in the 600’s BC, key manuscripts were lost and the tale faded from memory. When the story was rediscovered in the late 1870’s, by an unlikely assistant curator in the British Museum, it resumed its place among the great works of world literature. But the rediscovery came with questions. Was anything in this epic tale based in fact? Could the Epic of Gilgamesh actually be used to substantiate history as revealed in the Old Testament? Tune-in and find out how naked translators, civilizing sex workers, and Will Farrell all play a role in the story.

Works Cited

Bengio, Ofra. “Saddam Husayn’s Novel of Fear.” Middle East Forum, Middle East Forum, www.meforum.org/125/saddam-husayns-novel-of-fear.

Dalley, Stephanie. Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Damrosch, David. The Buried Book: the Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh. H. Holt, 2010.

Katz, Dina. Gilgamesh and Akka. STYX Publications, 1993.

Kramer, S. N. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character. U. Of Chicago P., 1963.Schmidt, Michael. Gilgamesh: the Life of a Poem. Princeton University Press, 2019.