Gilgamesh

'A powerful translation' The Telegraph
'As narrative verse, this Gilgamesh entrances and enthrals.' Independent
'Stephen Mitchell's Gilgamesh is a wonderful version' Harold Bloom

Discover the foundational work of world literature - the world's oldest epic poem, vividly translated by Stephen Mitchell.

Gilgamesh is a born leader, the king of Uruk. But he is arrogant. To control Gilgamesh, the Gods create Enkidu, a wild man, his equal in strength and courage. They are destined to come to conflict - and yet together they could rid the world of evil, and Gilgamesh may finally discover the one secret the Gods have kept from humanity: the gift of eternal life.

Written in the second millennium B.C. the Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the most important surviving works of ancient literature, a thousand years older than Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. A core influence on religion, culture and the heroic tradition, it is essential reading to understand the birth of ancient civilisations.