Gilgamesh

File: gilgamesh.webm (3MB, 640x360px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 640x360px

Indeed the broest of tiers

File: gill.jpg (27KB, 297x402px) Image search: [Google]

27KB, 297x402px

Also

>When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping. As for you, Gilgamesh,
>fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be
>fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace;
>for this is the task of mankind.

Carpe diem before it was a thing.

>not building giant-ass walls around your city

If you haven't done this, you've wasted your life.

File: 1490080206910m.jpg (197KB, 811x1024px) Image search: [Google]

197KB, 811x1024px

>>2560022
The epic was reworked many times over through oral tradition before it was finally put to paper, or rather to tablet. Saw an interesting lecture explaining how the original gilgamesh was more brutish, how the enkidu/wild man angle belonged to a different tale, how humwawa was actually tricked unfairly and cruelly rather than fought, etc. The epic we know was written around 1300BC, at a period where the babylonian kassites had developed a far more refined and delicate culture and thus it was a tale tailored for a different audience. The original story was meant to have crafted in the 2400-2300BC era before akkad even gave mesopotamia a stable wider state. It was the era of first and second and third dynasties of lagash/kish/uruk/umma/etc. Literally the sumerian equivalent of the chink warring state period. There just wasn't that level of delicacy or appreciation for wit at the time.

Also from what I've read about cuneiform, sumerian was still very much evolving and they only recently put in their determinatives to distinguish one homophone from another on paper (tablet), and they were still trying to define themselves apart from akkadians & elamites who stole their pictogram system. Simply put, whatever the original tale was it was crafted at a time where the language itself was work in project. Oh and yeah I forget, they spoke akkadian in 1300BC so they literally had to translate the original on top, so some degree of adaptation had to have occured (even if only marginal).

I'm not trying to shit on your thread or gilgamesh btw, the exact same thing happened to homeric poetry. The troad war was in 1200-110OBC and phoenician alphabet only got converted to greek around 725BC. Also obvious athenian pandering/retouches among other things. Old epics are never quite that old, but the core story still gets to us somehow, at least there is this to feel grateful about.

>>2560022
>Fall of Babylon was dark ages before middle ages.
No, that was the bronze age collapse.

>>2560080
Eat, drink and be merry before it was a thing. You can totally see the sentiment of Ecclesiastes in that passage, and mankind has been grappling with nihilism for a long time it would seem.

>>2560159
Also the dark age of the bronze age was felt significantly less in mesopotamia and egypt respectively. As opposed to the greeks who got absolutely btfo. Usually the regions with the highest levels of literacy were the ones who end the transition to iron age better as a rule a thumb.

N.B. That doesnt mean they forcibly did well, or as good, once said transition is complete. I just know some autist is gonna come around and say "but muh iron deposits in egypt and babylon".

Not only that but it has important life messeages like living your life to the fullest and how every man is mortal no matter how divine and great they are
Fuck man, babylon was great

>>2560172
BEC was the best thing to ever happen to Mesopotamia, the fact Greece and other maritime nations got raped so hard ensured Mesopotamian nations had no challenge for almost the next millennium or so, pretty much until Alexander.

Sounds like something unsophisticated MENA savages would write.

>>2560144
Of course. It was a living art, work in progress. It's still that for us now, when new tablets are found with new verses. The good thing is it wasn't some shitty fan art like most of the old testament. The guys that put it all together did it with style creating a great digressive epic.

>>2560202
(you)

File: Epic.jpg (108KB, 530x800px) Image search: [Google]

108KB, 530x800px

>>2560144

>you know realise that no civilization has ever made something as culturally important as the epic of gilgamesh

>>2560180
Read the thread before you post.
But agree.

File: 1489071898356m.jpg (43KB, 1024x683px) Image search: [Google]

43KB, 1024x683px

>>2560208
Oh for sure, sometimes when I see the shit we call entertainment on tv, I think of those old epics liks gilgamesh, the iliad or the mahabharata...and it hits me right in the feels

>>2560022
Gilgamesh and Enkidu and Uruk

Todays prose needs more repetition.

>When he had gone one league the darkness became thick around him, for there was no light, he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. After two leagues the darkness was thick and there was no light, he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. After three leagues the darkness was thick, and there was no light, he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. After four leagues the darkness was thick and there was no light, he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. At the end of five leagues the darkness was thick and there was no light, he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. At the end of six leagues the darkness was thick and there was no light, he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. When he had gone seven leagues the darkness was thick and there was no light, he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. When he had gone eight leagues Gilgamesh gave a great cry, for the darkness was thick and he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. After nine leagues he felt the north wind on his face, but the darkness was thick and there was no light, he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. After ten leagues the end was near. After eleven leagues the dawn light appeared. At the end of twelve leagues the sun streamed out.

>>2560059
What's this from?

>humour
If i wanted humor, I'd have asked about your ancestors

>>2561767
Then what are you doing here?

>>2561853
Studying for my thesis

>>2561988
It's not about humour, is it?