![]() ![]() The tablets, twelve in number, belonged originally to the famous library of King Ashurbanipal (668-626 B.C.), as the colophons to the several tablets clearly state. ![]() INTRODUCTORY.-The chief fragments of the Nimrod epic were discovered in 1854 by Hormuzd Rassam in the ruins of Nineveh. For the original versions of these texts, please consult the sources listed at bottom. Thus the Babylonian Gish is standardized as Gilgamesh, Huwawa as Humbaba, etc. In the supplementary material, I have adapted the Babylonian names to reflect the usage in the Assyrian version of the epic to avoid confusion. Thus, Eabani has been standardized to Enkidu, Uchuat to Shamhat, etc. Modern translations have filled in some additional details from later findings.įor this online edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh, I have standardized the use of names by changing references to major characters to current usage. These tablets fill in significant gaps in the Epic as it was known in 1901. I have supplemented the 1901 text with additional material found on two Babylonian tablets known as the Pennsylvania and Yale tablets, translated in 1920 by Morris Jastrow, Jr. A previous translation, by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton in 1884, was highly poetic and attempted to fill in the gaps in tablets through a pastiche of unrelated Near Eastern texts and guesswork, leaving the resulting text highly inaccurate. As far as I am aware, this version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by William Muss-Arnolt in 1901 from the Neo-Assyrian tablets found in the Library of Ashurbanipal is the only (fairly) accurate public domain translation of the epic. ![]() As such, modern translations typically must draw on multiple sources to produce a mostly coherent narrative, filling in the gaps in broken tablets. The Epic of Gilgamesh does not exist in a single complete copy. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |