Epics

I’m just about settled into life at home again.  I had a fantastic time in Taos and Albuquerque and will post a few pictures when I have a chance.  I’ve renewed my passion for my book, which is a relief.  I’d started to think that I was going to have to relegate it to a drawer, but my workshop pals helped me to see what I need to do with it, and yesterday I began the work.

As I waited in the Albuquerque airport, I read The Epic of Gilgamesh, another book that I felt I ought to have read already by this point in my life.  I’m a fan of the great epics, and as I read this, perhaps the earliest work of literature, I saw how it had influenced later works.  Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, is unhappy with life as a ruler.  Along comes his slightly wild new best friend, Enkidu, with whom he has great adventures.  When Enkidu dies, though, Gilgamesh is left once more unhappy as he faces mortality in his search for immortality.  Theoretically, Gilgamesh may have been a real king, in which case he has achieved that which he sought, although not through the means he’d hoped. 

I liked the repetition of the narrative as it made me imagine the story being shared orally, and it was exciting to see the flood myth as well as similarities to the much later Odyssey.

Unlike with Lolita, which I also read out of a sense of obligation (to my own education!), I feel good about having read this slim volume.  I’ve filled in a gap in my knowledge of early works, which is just as important to me as checking out more contemporary literature.