Gilgamesh

I have just finished reading Gilgamesh, the ancient Sumerian epic . It was phenomenal, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was quite short compared to other epic poems, but you keep thinking about it long after you have read it.

Some of the details are exquisite, such as the description of dead people in the underworld, clothed in garments of birds' feathers, eating earth and drinking clay in perpetual darkness.

Also, I enjoyed (in my cynical way) the futility of it all. Although Gilgamesh clearly discovers something about himself on his journey, the scene where a snake devours the plant that would have brought Gilgamesh eternal life is brilliant. It seems as if the whole epic has been building up to Gilgamesh using this magical plant, and then it is gone, and all that is left is the snake's skin, as it is returned to youth instead of Gilgamesh.

This will certainly be added to my bizarre melting pot of ideas that is growing gloopier by the second. And yes, I probably will write an obscure, brooding poem about those earth-eating men of the underworld.

B.