What do you think?
Rate this book
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back .
Mass Market Paperback
Published January 1, 1972
35 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
November 22, 2025
While I wouldn’t say this is a super enjoyable or amazing story to read. It is so cool to see how humans and their relationships have not really changed over 4000 years.
January 17, 2024
An ancient epic for all of humanity. The quest for immortality is shared across culture and creed. However, what interested me most about this short story is the flood narrative of Utnapishtim. The parallels with the biblical account of Noah are remarkable. While the Gilgamesh epic is obscure in and of itself, its influence on Mesopotamian culture, and in turn its influence on the creation stories of three of the world’s most influential contemporary religions, shows its relevance for a global audience of 21st century readers.
April 30, 2025
I would say that I didn't like the introduction. Of course I liked the historic parts, and how it talked about the history of the epic, but it seemed like some things didn't make sense. I was struggling to even get through the introduction. On the other hand, I loved the epic itself. Showing the journey of Gilgamesh, honestly I did enjoy it. But that's the most that I liked from the book.
October 13, 2025
I picked up a short book about Babylonia and somehow ended up reading the oldest tragicomedy on earth. What starts as a myth turns into a story about divine office work. The divine bureaucracy gets a complaint ticket from Uruk: user Gilgamesh (v2.3) is overclocked and abusing admin rights, exhausting the citizens, and ignoring rate limits. Shamash handles quality control, Enlil enforces compliance, and together they open a support ticket. The fix: deploy Enkidu, a clay based daemon meant to throttle Gilgamesh’s excesses. But the patch befriends the bug. Together they delete Humbaba.exe, corrupting the resource directory, and crash the balance protocols. To restore order, the gods wipe Enkidu - rollback complete, but the deletion leaves Gilgamesh unstable. He starts probing mortality itself, breaking deeper layers of the system. Balance is declared restored, but the network never really recovers.
But under the humor there’s something deep and ancient - the first story about friendship, death, and guilt toward nature. The Cedar Forest feels like the first environmental crime scene, and Ishtar with her rapid shifts between idealization and rage at rejection, displays a pattern of affective instability, frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, and identity diffusion - traits the DSM would later codify millennia after her myth was told.
What’s strange is how modern it feels. The old stories already knew that people only wake up after loss, that gods can fail at their jobs, and that human life repeats the same pattern: we break something, learn, call it progress, and move on.
But under the humor there’s something deep and ancient - the first story about friendship, death, and guilt toward nature. The Cedar Forest feels like the first environmental crime scene, and Ishtar with her rapid shifts between idealization and rage at rejection, displays a pattern of affective instability, frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, and identity diffusion - traits the DSM would later codify millennia after her myth was told.
What’s strange is how modern it feels. The old stories already knew that people only wake up after loss, that gods can fail at their jobs, and that human life repeats the same pattern: we break something, learn, call it progress, and move on.
October 3, 2024
yes i read this in one day. i literally have to read an outrageous amount for my classes. and enkidu slayed a little too hard….
Read
August 27, 2025the original bromance
October 31, 2024
Who doesn't love a good epic?
April 9, 2025
I’ve been wanting to read the story of Gilgamesh for many years. And I’ve certainly read potted versions of it and was well aware of the connection with Noah’s Ark. But I hadn’t ever gotten around to reading the real story. And, I must admit up front, that I still haven’t done so with this Blinkist Summary of the story. Nevertheless, I have found the Blinkist people, do a pretty good job of abstracting the essential facts and material from the originals. And life is short! So I’m making do with the summary with all the limitations that involves. And the following are some snippets from the Blinkist version which capture the essence of the book for me.
“You can find pieces of this story written in at least three ancient languages: Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian. The version we know best today was written down around 1,200 BCE, but the tale it tells is much older. Early merchants and travellers carried the story far beyond Mesopotamia. They shared it in market squares and royal courts across the ancient world, from Egypt to Turkey, and beyond.......Archaeologists continue to unearth new fragments of the epic, hiding in museum collections or buried in ancient ruins. Some pieces fill in missing scenes, while others show us how the story changed as it travelled from one culture to another.
Our story opens in the great city of Uruk, where Gilgamesh rules as a young king drunk on his own power. Two-thirds god and one-third human, Gilgamesh towers eleven feet tall, with the majestic beauty of a wild bull. His dark locks flow like the grain god's barley, and his muscles ripple like the sun god's bronze......Despite these divine gifts and incredible strength, he uses them to terrorize his people......raping women and forcing young men to wrestle just for his own pleasure.
Meanwhile, the goddess Aruru creates a wild man named Enkidu, formed from clay and blessed with tremendous strength....A trapper discovers Enkidu disrupting his hunting snares.....And the priests send Shamhat, a temple priestess, to help tame him. For six days and seven nights, Shamhat teaches Enkidu about human pleasures and customs. When she finishes, the animals no longer accept Enkidu as one of their own. But he has gained something new: human consciousness and understanding.
He travels to Uruk, where [Emidu and Gilgamesh] meet in an epic wrestling match that shakes the very foundations of the city walls. Neither man has ever met an equal in strength. The fight ends in a draw, and in that moment of mutual respect, the fiercest of rivalries transforms into the deepest of friendships.
Through Enkidu's eyes, Gilgamesh begins to see how he has misused his power. Through Gilgamesh, Enkidu learns the ways of civilization and kingship.....Together, they channel their tremendous energies away from oppressing the city and toward heroic quests that will win them lasting fame.
For six days they travel, until they reach a mountain paradise where sacred cedar trees pierce the clouds. Here dwells Humbaba, a terrifying monster......Despite Enkidu's warnings about angering the gods, Gilgamesh insists on cutting down the sacred cedars to bring glory to Uruk. But this effort brings about a great battle with Humbaba........They behead the guardian and fell the finest cedars to build a great raft.
This act of defiance seals Enkidu's fate. The gods meet in council and decide that one of the friends must die for killing Humbaba and cutting down the sacred trees. They choose Enkidu, striking him with a wasting illness.
Enkidu's death shatters Gilgamesh.
Like anyone having an existential crisis, he abandons rational thought, and becomes obsessed with finding a way to change his fate. He sets out to find Utnapishtim, the one human granted eternal life by the gods.......Gilgamesh's journey takes him beyond the edges of the known world. He passes through the mountains where scorpion-people guard the rising sun. He crosses the Waters of Death to reach Utnapishtim's distant shore. There, the immortal man tells how the gods once sent a great flood to destroy humanity, how he built a massive boat to save the animals, and how the gods granted him eternal life for preserving earth's creatures.
This flood story, written centuries before similar tales appeared in other cultures, ends with a challenge. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that to prove himself worthy of immortality, he must stay awake for six days and seven nights. But Gilgamesh, exhausted from his labours falls asleep. However, the immortal man's wife takes pity on him and urges her husband to share one last secret. Utnapishtim reveals the location of a thorny plant growing at the bottom of the ocean that can restore youth.........Diving deep into the waters with stones tied to his feet, Gilgamesh plucks this precious plant from the ocean floor..... While Gilgamesh bathes in a cool pool, a serpent smells the sweet fragrance of the plant. It slithers up, snatches it, and in eating it sheds its skin and renewing its youth.
It is at this moment that Gilgamesh finally breaks.....Now he must return to Uruk with empty hands, but forever changed......Approaching his city's gates, Gilgamesh sees them with new eyes.....He notices details he'd missed before: the gleaming temples, the thriving gardens, the lively markets.
Back on his throne, Gilgamesh becomes a different kind of king. He no longer seeks glory through force and fear. Instead, he works to strengthen his city's foundations, improve its gardens, and protect its people. He records his journey on clay tablets, not as a boast, but as a lesson for future generations.
When you read about Gilgamesh destroying the environment for glory, you might think about our own challenges with climate change.....Even his friendship with Enkidu resonates with current conversations about accepting those different from ourselves.....You can find traces of Gilgamesh in Homer's Odyssey.......And the flood story appears in religious texts worldwide,
When you struggle with grief, you might find comfort in knowing that people felt the same pain even four thousand years ago. When you wonder about your legacy, you can look to Gilgamesh's realization that true immortality lies in how we touch others' lives.
In sharing these eternal concerns, the Epic of Gilgamesh doesn't just tell us about our past-it helps us understand ourselves and shows us paths toward wisdom that remain as true today as they were four millennia ago”.So what’s my overall take on the book. I liked it. I now feel that I have the gist of the story of Gilgamesh and also a smattering of knowledge about how the lessons in that epic might be applied to us today. Five stars from me.
“You can find pieces of this story written in at least three ancient languages: Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian. The version we know best today was written down around 1,200 BCE, but the tale it tells is much older. Early merchants and travellers carried the story far beyond Mesopotamia. They shared it in market squares and royal courts across the ancient world, from Egypt to Turkey, and beyond.......Archaeologists continue to unearth new fragments of the epic, hiding in museum collections or buried in ancient ruins. Some pieces fill in missing scenes, while others show us how the story changed as it travelled from one culture to another.
Our story opens in the great city of Uruk, where Gilgamesh rules as a young king drunk on his own power. Two-thirds god and one-third human, Gilgamesh towers eleven feet tall, with the majestic beauty of a wild bull. His dark locks flow like the grain god's barley, and his muscles ripple like the sun god's bronze......Despite these divine gifts and incredible strength, he uses them to terrorize his people......raping women and forcing young men to wrestle just for his own pleasure.
Meanwhile, the goddess Aruru creates a wild man named Enkidu, formed from clay and blessed with tremendous strength....A trapper discovers Enkidu disrupting his hunting snares.....And the priests send Shamhat, a temple priestess, to help tame him. For six days and seven nights, Shamhat teaches Enkidu about human pleasures and customs. When she finishes, the animals no longer accept Enkidu as one of their own. But he has gained something new: human consciousness and understanding.
He travels to Uruk, where [Emidu and Gilgamesh] meet in an epic wrestling match that shakes the very foundations of the city walls. Neither man has ever met an equal in strength. The fight ends in a draw, and in that moment of mutual respect, the fiercest of rivalries transforms into the deepest of friendships.
Through Enkidu's eyes, Gilgamesh begins to see how he has misused his power. Through Gilgamesh, Enkidu learns the ways of civilization and kingship.....Together, they channel their tremendous energies away from oppressing the city and toward heroic quests that will win them lasting fame.
For six days they travel, until they reach a mountain paradise where sacred cedar trees pierce the clouds. Here dwells Humbaba, a terrifying monster......Despite Enkidu's warnings about angering the gods, Gilgamesh insists on cutting down the sacred cedars to bring glory to Uruk. But this effort brings about a great battle with Humbaba........They behead the guardian and fell the finest cedars to build a great raft.
This act of defiance seals Enkidu's fate. The gods meet in council and decide that one of the friends must die for killing Humbaba and cutting down the sacred trees. They choose Enkidu, striking him with a wasting illness.
Enkidu's death shatters Gilgamesh.
Like anyone having an existential crisis, he abandons rational thought, and becomes obsessed with finding a way to change his fate. He sets out to find Utnapishtim, the one human granted eternal life by the gods.......Gilgamesh's journey takes him beyond the edges of the known world. He passes through the mountains where scorpion-people guard the rising sun. He crosses the Waters of Death to reach Utnapishtim's distant shore. There, the immortal man tells how the gods once sent a great flood to destroy humanity, how he built a massive boat to save the animals, and how the gods granted him eternal life for preserving earth's creatures.
This flood story, written centuries before similar tales appeared in other cultures, ends with a challenge. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that to prove himself worthy of immortality, he must stay awake for six days and seven nights. But Gilgamesh, exhausted from his labours falls asleep. However, the immortal man's wife takes pity on him and urges her husband to share one last secret. Utnapishtim reveals the location of a thorny plant growing at the bottom of the ocean that can restore youth.........Diving deep into the waters with stones tied to his feet, Gilgamesh plucks this precious plant from the ocean floor..... While Gilgamesh bathes in a cool pool, a serpent smells the sweet fragrance of the plant. It slithers up, snatches it, and in eating it sheds its skin and renewing its youth.
It is at this moment that Gilgamesh finally breaks.....Now he must return to Uruk with empty hands, but forever changed......Approaching his city's gates, Gilgamesh sees them with new eyes.....He notices details he'd missed before: the gleaming temples, the thriving gardens, the lively markets.
Back on his throne, Gilgamesh becomes a different kind of king. He no longer seeks glory through force and fear. Instead, he works to strengthen his city's foundations, improve its gardens, and protect its people. He records his journey on clay tablets, not as a boast, but as a lesson for future generations.
When you read about Gilgamesh destroying the environment for glory, you might think about our own challenges with climate change.....Even his friendship with Enkidu resonates with current conversations about accepting those different from ourselves.....You can find traces of Gilgamesh in Homer's Odyssey.......And the flood story appears in religious texts worldwide,
When you struggle with grief, you might find comfort in knowing that people felt the same pain even four thousand years ago. When you wonder about your legacy, you can look to Gilgamesh's realization that true immortality lies in how we touch others' lives.
In sharing these eternal concerns, the Epic of Gilgamesh doesn't just tell us about our past-it helps us understand ourselves and shows us paths toward wisdom that remain as true today as they were four millennia ago”.So what’s my overall take on the book. I liked it. I now feel that I have the gist of the story of Gilgamesh and also a smattering of knowledge about how the lessons in that epic might be applied to us today. Five stars from me.
October 7, 2025
My biggest criticism about this book is the fact that the introduction is too long but other than that, is a quite redable story. is some parts of the story dont have a lot of connection with each other but I belive the epic is incomplete so is hard to review
August 1, 2025
“I will proclaim to the whole world the deeds of Gilgamesh. This was the man to whom all things were known; this was the king who knew the countries of the world. He was wise, he saw mysteries and knew secret things, he brought us a tale of the days before the flood. He went on a long journey, was weary, worn-out with labour, returning he rested, he engraved on a stone the whole story”
The delight of this is the mix of the mythological and epic of the poem; and the Victorian era Indians Jones styling of the discovery of buried cities and treasure of knowledge. Reading this reignited my excitement of all things Sumer and Ur.
It’s explosive from the start. It’s fireworks and stands tall across millennia. There is waaaay more sex in this than you might expect. “She was not ashamed to take him. She made herself naked and welcomed his eagerness; as he lay on her murmuring love she taught him the woman’s art”
I love the way she introduces Enkidu to Gilgamesh. And how their friendship and love is so strong - echoes of the ideals of fraternal love which matches and echoes romantic love
NK Sandars is her own poet - and reminded me lovingly of the university of London and walking through the quads and learning spaces. I love her reflection of Gilgamesh not as prototype, antecedent or parent of Homeric epic, but a creator of the same atmosphere.
“Our world may be infinitely larger, but it still ends in the abyss, the upper and nether waters of our ignorance. For us the same demons lie in wait, the ‘devil in the clock’, and in the end we come back to the place from which we set out, like Gilgamesh who ‘went on a long journey, was weary, worn-out with labour, and returning engraved on a stone the whole story’
“timor mortis conturbat me" (“the fear of death disturbs me")
“A short time back I discovered among the Assyrian tablets in the British Museum an account of the flood”
A fascinating section on diction, and the aims of the oral tradition and poetic aims of the senmetic and Babylonian, make me want to explore this aspect in much more detail.
“Our days are numbered, our occupations are a breath of wind”
The delight of this is the mix of the mythological and epic of the poem; and the Victorian era Indians Jones styling of the discovery of buried cities and treasure of knowledge. Reading this reignited my excitement of all things Sumer and Ur.
It’s explosive from the start. It’s fireworks and stands tall across millennia. There is waaaay more sex in this than you might expect. “She was not ashamed to take him. She made herself naked and welcomed his eagerness; as he lay on her murmuring love she taught him the woman’s art”
I love the way she introduces Enkidu to Gilgamesh. And how their friendship and love is so strong - echoes of the ideals of fraternal love which matches and echoes romantic love
NK Sandars is her own poet - and reminded me lovingly of the university of London and walking through the quads and learning spaces. I love her reflection of Gilgamesh not as prototype, antecedent or parent of Homeric epic, but a creator of the same atmosphere.
“Our world may be infinitely larger, but it still ends in the abyss, the upper and nether waters of our ignorance. For us the same demons lie in wait, the ‘devil in the clock’, and in the end we come back to the place from which we set out, like Gilgamesh who ‘went on a long journey, was weary, worn-out with labour, and returning engraved on a stone the whole story’
“timor mortis conturbat me" (“the fear of death disturbs me")
“A short time back I discovered among the Assyrian tablets in the British Museum an account of the flood”
A fascinating section on diction, and the aims of the oral tradition and poetic aims of the senmetic and Babylonian, make me want to explore this aspect in much more detail.
“Our days are numbered, our occupations are a breath of wind”
June 28, 2025
I did a comparative analysis of two translations of Gilgamesh, one by N.K. Sanders, and one retold by Stephen Mitchell.
This two star review is specifically for the translation by N.K. Sanders. I love the Gilgamesh story overall, 5 stars, classic. The N.K. Sanders version? It sucks.
Reading Sanders' version of Gilgamesh is like watching an airplane version of a movie, except worse, because instead of just cutting out some scenes, it fully twists them to degrade and insult central characters, which in turn completely obscure central themes of the whole book.
In the story, there's a priestess of Inanna named Samhat, and part of the duties of priestesses during this era in history revolved around sexual pleasure. This was a completely different society with completely different moral judgements and ideas, and sex was seen as something related to religion and the gods, something that took place in temples through rituals at times, something that reflected civilization, etc. Samhat is sent to civilize the wild man Enkidu through "sexual arts" and it is a pretty vital part of his story and whole character trajectory.
In Sanders' version, Samhat isn't even given a name. Sanders just says, basically, "yeah they sent some prostitute out and they, well, you know, anyway" - cutting her whole role from the story and insulting her (historically inaccurately too) in the process.
Sometimes you get translations that are dry because they're very academic and faithful to the source text, even when it sounds stilted in modern English. Those are at least respectable. Sanders' translation is dry AND outright disrespectful to the source text and the culture it comes from. The introduction is also terribly written as well.
Avoid the Sanders translation, please.
This two star review is specifically for the translation by N.K. Sanders. I love the Gilgamesh story overall, 5 stars, classic. The N.K. Sanders version? It sucks.
Reading Sanders' version of Gilgamesh is like watching an airplane version of a movie, except worse, because instead of just cutting out some scenes, it fully twists them to degrade and insult central characters, which in turn completely obscure central themes of the whole book.
In the story, there's a priestess of Inanna named Samhat, and part of the duties of priestesses during this era in history revolved around sexual pleasure. This was a completely different society with completely different moral judgements and ideas, and sex was seen as something related to religion and the gods, something that took place in temples through rituals at times, something that reflected civilization, etc. Samhat is sent to civilize the wild man Enkidu through "sexual arts" and it is a pretty vital part of his story and whole character trajectory.
In Sanders' version, Samhat isn't even given a name. Sanders just says, basically, "yeah they sent some prostitute out and they, well, you know, anyway" - cutting her whole role from the story and insulting her (historically inaccurately too) in the process.
Sometimes you get translations that are dry because they're very academic and faithful to the source text, even when it sounds stilted in modern English. Those are at least respectable. Sanders' translation is dry AND outright disrespectful to the source text and the culture it comes from. The introduction is also terribly written as well.
Avoid the Sanders translation, please.
February 27, 2025
“Oh father Utnapishtim, I wish to question you concernng the living and the dead, how shall I find the life for which I am searching?'
"There is no permanence"
"You were given the kingship, such was your destiny, everlasting life was not your destiny. Because of this do not be sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed; he has given you power to bind and to loose, to be the darkness and the light of mankind."
While Gilgamesh may feel that he has gained "nothing" in terms of his original goal, he actually gains everything in terms of personal growth.
If he had succeeded and didn't loose the plant to the snake in the last moment, he would have remained the same person who set out on the quest. But such loss and grief in life transformed him, shaping him to become a wise ruler who began to see that his true legacy lies not in immortality, but in his impact on the city of Urak. If he had simply returned with the plant and gained eternal youth, his character arc would have remained incomplete. Now, he must confront the essentials, ask deeper questions, and realize that living a meaningful life—rather than simply prolonging it—is the real achievement.
Turning away from seeking immortality, his contributions to his city and people left an immortal legacy.
"There is no permanence"
"You were given the kingship, such was your destiny, everlasting life was not your destiny. Because of this do not be sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed; he has given you power to bind and to loose, to be the darkness and the light of mankind."
While Gilgamesh may feel that he has gained "nothing" in terms of his original goal, he actually gains everything in terms of personal growth.
If he had succeeded and didn't loose the plant to the snake in the last moment, he would have remained the same person who set out on the quest. But such loss and grief in life transformed him, shaping him to become a wise ruler who began to see that his true legacy lies not in immortality, but in his impact on the city of Urak. If he had simply returned with the plant and gained eternal youth, his character arc would have remained incomplete. Now, he must confront the essentials, ask deeper questions, and realize that living a meaningful life—rather than simply prolonging it—is the real achievement.
Turning away from seeking immortality, his contributions to his city and people left an immortal legacy.
Read
April 2, 2025While detailing the tale of Gilgamesh and his journey with Enkidu, Sanders offers readers the evolution of transcription. Throughout the 20th to 21st century, new fragments of The Epic of Gilgamesh were discovered, further uncovering the texts and refining the already transcribed text into fullness.
Despite starring the same characters (Gilgamesh and Enkidu), different versions have circulated, with a division in the period it was written down by scholars. Some versions entail the domineering and vigorous victory Gilgamesh secures over Humbaba, while others detail the cunning and strategic victory secured by Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The difference in what seems to be the same text is a wondrous example for showing that knowledge does not stagnate, only growing at the hands of predecessors.
If you wish to not only read about The Epic of Gilgamesh but also about various scholars' efforts made in restoration, this book authored by N.K. Sanders is an excellent place to start.
Despite starring the same characters (Gilgamesh and Enkidu), different versions have circulated, with a division in the period it was written down by scholars. Some versions entail the domineering and vigorous victory Gilgamesh secures over Humbaba, while others detail the cunning and strategic victory secured by Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The difference in what seems to be the same text is a wondrous example for showing that knowledge does not stagnate, only growing at the hands of predecessors.
If you wish to not only read about The Epic of Gilgamesh but also about various scholars' efforts made in restoration, this book authored by N.K. Sanders is an excellent place to start.
April 1, 2025
While visiting my brother, he brought this out for my sister and I to read. I have read it before, but many moons ago. I appreciated Sanders’s thorough and insightful introduction (which is as long as the epic itself). I love the simplicity of the epic and the friendship at the heart of it. I also love how the human experience remains the same many centuries later. It’s why I read - as a constant reminder that we are all connected through a common fabric of life: of love, loss, joy, friendship, laughter and tears, tragedy and ecstasy.
April 20, 2025
All in all, I seriously enjoyed this book. This version, as published by Penguin Classics, spends the first half of what's included explaining the discovery of the story, as well as the historical context of it. The second half is the story itself. As a history guy, I thoroughly enjoyed the foreword, but the story itself is a little lacking compared to the hype. The story isn't complex, but the presentation is the highlight. Very fun to read, would recommend if you've got an afternoon of free time.
April 30, 2025
An interesting read. Despite being the oldest story known to mankind, it is so to speak a tale as old as time. Arrogant man goes on an adventure with his best friend and learns a few lessons along the way amidst tragedy and torment. More than half of this edition is filled with the introduction and information on the history of this epic. It is really helpful in understanding the meaning and importance behind this short story.
December 13, 2024
This is not a review of The Epic of Gilgamesh, this is a review of N.K Sandar’s 50+ page foreword. Absolute gibberish. Sentences that make no grammatical sense. I felt like I was having a stroke. I was looking forward to getting the background on the story and ended up resorting to Wikipedia. This is one of the most non-reader friendly forewords I’ve ever attempted to read.
February 14, 2025
Rereading this years later, I am amazed at the depths of human experience captured in such an old text — showing that as long as we have had the tool of language, we have been able to plunge into that most marvelous mystery of subjectivity.
August 22, 2025
It’s a world classic. I don’t think there is a lot of people falling over themselves regarding the beauty of the prose or the compelling nature of the story. Both leave much to be desired. That said, it’s short and should be read due to its foundational status an early work of literature.
September 3, 2025
It feels weird to review Gilgamesh, in the same way it feels weird to review the Bible--this should be required reading for all humans. With that said, I feel that Sanders' translation leaves something to be desired, and a more current translation is probably better.
October 16, 2025
Really interesting read! So impressive that the book has lasted over 4000+ years and is such an interesting snap shot into ancient myths. It handles themes of friendship, grief, and morality really well. Definitely worth reading if you have a few hours to kill.
August 20, 2023
I really enjoyed this book and was amazed at some of the parallels to the Old Testament. An easy translation to understand and follow.
November 3, 2023
Enjoyed the author’s introduction in this. It really aided in my understanding of Gilgamesh.
November 4, 2023
This was a fun read. I like N.K. Sanders Translation, it's easy to follow.
January 16, 2024
i forgot a lot in 2 years... needed a enkidu x gilgamesh steamy sex scene
June 8, 2024
It’s awesome to get to read such an old story! Plus I love the story of Gilgamesh and all he goes through!
October 1, 2024
It was a nice reading. Turkish translation was fine.
November 12, 2024
Surprisingly relatable for being 4ooo years old.
December 30, 2024
A classic, read it for a class but enjoyed it, you cannot tell me those two weren’t a least a little gay for each other.
April 12, 2025
I appreciated the sorrow and its connections to ancient legends. This translation was quite good and made for a quick read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews