Book Review: “L’Epopea di Gilgames”

By N.K.Sandars

Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, part God and part man. His stories are probably the oldest example of a literary hero, preceding the deeds described by Homer in the Odyssey by over a thousand years. Yet there are many similarities of this Sumerian hero, with even some biblical passages, first of all that of the Flood. Gilgamesh ends his journey as a defeated hero but enriched by the countless events he has faced. Equally fascinating is the archaeological discovery of the Sumerian tablets on which the narrative cycle is engraved.