Culture of the Near East :: Ancient World Culture

From the Near East comes the Old Babylonian account of the bread and butter and death of GILGAMESH. There was a real Gilgamesh, a king who control some 2700 years before Christ lived and the Romans consolidated their vast empire. The theatrical role and the exploits of this king were preserved in the make of stories that circulated for many a(prenominal) years afterwards the kings death. Some of these tales -- more than 600 years after Gilgameshs rule -- were collected by a story teller and were put down in the contrive of an epic poem. This poem is what we know today as The Epic of Gilgamesh.Who knows how many versions The Epic of Gilgamesh went through before consolidation in its written form? Who knows how many translations the stories underwent before their reworking in the Babylonian language? Who knows how many split of the story might have offended or misrepresented the eponymous king? Who knows how many story-tellers made more (or little) of Mashu, the mountainous g ateway to the different world, as they kept their audiences spellbound with fantastical details of this greatest of merciful adventures -- the struggle to find (and retain) eternal life?What is known is no less intriguing. How curious is the parallel between the story of Utnapishtim and the Hebrew account of Noah. How symbolical is the description of Enkidu, the prototypical natural man, as he sheds his animalistic behaviors in preference for the pleasures of human society. How extraordinary is the description of the snake, whose stealing of the essence of immortality from Gilgamesh results in the snakes rebirth each time it sheds its skin.Of course the Hebrew iteration of the torrent story is not coincidence. For a time, the HEBREWS lived in SUMER, home to Abrahams flock. Nomadic people, they unexpended the fertile river valleys and headed for CANAAN and later EGYPT, taking with them ancient accounts of floods and righteous people whose obedience and wisdom helped them to surv ive the consuming waters.