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The Forum: The Epic of Gilgamesh: A quest for immortality

The Gilgamesh Dream Tablet returned to Iraq

24/11/2022 GMT

The Epic of Gilgamesh: A quest for immortality

BBC World Service - The Forum, The Epic of Gilgamesh: A quest for immortality

One of the oldest works of literature can speak to us even today

Buried under rubble for thousands of years, the Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of an ancient king and his quest for eternal life.

Unearthed from the ruins of ancient cities in modern-day Iraq, the reconstruction of the epic from fragments of clay tablets has been a labour of love for scholars of ancient Mesopotamia. This painstaking work has brought to life a sophisticated story of adventure, heroism and friendship, as well as a reflection on the human condition.

Today, experts are uncovering additional fragments of cuneiform script and using artificial intelligence to decipher the text and fill in the gaps of this and other stories. Professor Anmar Fadhil from the University of Baghdad tells the programme about the latest discoveries.

Bridget Kendall is joined by Andrew George, Emeritus Professor of Babylonian at SOAS at the University of London and author of an acclaimed English translation of the epic; Professor Enrique Jiménez, chair of Ancient Near Eastern Literature at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany who has published widely on Babylonian literature of the first millennium BC; and Dr Louise Pryke, Honorary Associate in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney in Australia who is the author of Gilgamesh, a guide to the epic which was published in 2019.

Producer: Fiona Clampin for the BBC World Service

(Photo: The Gilgamesh Dream Tablet. Credit: Wisam Zeyad Mohammed/Anadolu Agency/Getty Image)

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