Gilgamesh .... Enkidu ... a story over 4,700 years old .... on the wireless today

The Epic of Gilgamesh caught my imagination decades ago but I was too lazy to read the story for myself, and instead just relied on what I was told.

Hero mastering a lion.  713–706 BCE 

And what a story it is.  

According to my Wikipedia it originates in ancient Mesopotamia and is the world's oldest surviving example of narrative literature.*

It features a not very nice chap who rules the Kingdom of Uruk and behaves thoroughly badly, so the Gods create Enkidu who is a wild man and very strong who fights Gilgamesh. 

But the two become pals and go off on a series of adventures defeating Humbaba, guardian of the Cedar Forest, and the Bull of Heaven. 

Killing the Bull of Heaven does upset one of the Gods and in turn the gods decide to kill Enkidu. 

Gilgamesh is distraught and then carries on with more adventures in pursuit of the secret of eternal life, which he finds and then losses.

And just to add something more on his journey to find that secret of eternal life he happens on Utnapishtim who with his wife is the sole survivor of a Flood caused by one of the Gods which predates Noah's Flood.

So that is it in two hundred and fifteen words the Epic of Gilgamesh missing out heaps of people and some very nasty bits.

But alternatively you can listen to "the BBC dramatisation of UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage's new verse translation capturing the timeless and immersive power of the world's oldest poem The Epic of Gilgamesh".**

I did and it was excellent and well worth tuning into Radio 4 using the link and follow Enkidu, and Gilgamesh culminating with his single quest for immortality that leads him to the very edge of the world

"NARRATOR ..... Paterson Joseph

GILGAMESH ..... Sacha Dhawan

ENKIDU/ HE-SCORPION ...... Ciarán Owens

SHAMHAT/ISHTAR ..... Leila Farzad

HUMBABA/UR_SHANABI/HUNTER ..... Kadiff Kirwan

UTA-NAPISTI/HUNTER'S FATHER ..... Raad Rawi

NINSUN / WIFE OF UTA-NAPISHTI ..... Souad Faress

SHIDURI/TOWNSWOMAN ..... Debbie Korley

Terracotta wall panel depicting Enkidu, Circa 1763 BCE

A new verse translation by Simon Armitage.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

Director: Nadia Molinari

Composer: Erland Cooper

Sound Designer: Sharon Hughes

Production Co-ordinator: Pippa Day

Technical Producers: Keith Graham, Sam Dickinson.

A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 4

Programme Website"

Pictures; Hero mastering a lion. Relief from the façade of the throne room, Palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad (Dur Sharrukin), 713–706 BCE, Louvre Museum, Source/Photographer Jastrow (2006) "I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so:I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law" and a Terracotta wall panel depicting Enkidu, Department of Oriental Antiquities, Richelieu, ground floor, room 4, Source/Photographer Author Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg)"I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:w:en:Creative Commons attribution share alike This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.You are free:to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work

*Epic of Gilgamesh, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

*Gilgamesh, BBC Rhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgameshadio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0032h64