Mês: julho 2017

GEORGE, A. R. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, 1184 p. – ISBN 9780198149224. 

The Babylonian Gilgamesh epic is the acknowledged masterpiece of ancient Mesopotamian literature. Nevertheless it has to be re-edited periodically to take account of the enormous increase in primary sources that occurs every generation. Since the last critical edition of the epic seventy years ago the known fragments of the epic have almost doubled. This book collects all the extant texts in one place again, including twenty-three fragments published for the first time. The author has studied personally every available fragment to produce a definitive edition and translation. Four introductory chapters place the epic in its context and examine the name, person and traditions of Gilgamesh and other characters in the poem. The plates present the cuneiform text of all the extant fragments of the epic. The result is a publication which is a standard academic resource.  Available online.

Este é o texto acadêmico padrão da Epopeia de Gilgámesh.

GEORGE, A. R. The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. Rev. ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2016, 304 p. – ISBN 9780140449198.

Miraculously preserved on clay tablets dating back as much as four thousand years, the poem of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is the world’s oldest epic, predating Homer by many centuries. The story tells of Gilgamesh’s adventures with the wild man Enkidu, and of his arduous journey to the ends of the earth in quest of the Babylonian Noah and the secret of immortality. Alongside its themes of family, friendship and the duties of kings, the Epic of Gilgamesh is, above all, about mankind’s eternal struggle with the fear of death. The Babylonian version has been known for over a century, but linguists are still deciphering new fragments in Akkadian and Sumerian. Andrew George’s gripping translation brilliantly combines these into a fluent narrative and will long rank as the definitive English Gilgamesh.

Andrew R. George (born 1955) is Professor of Babylonian at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK.

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GADOTTI, A. ‘Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld’ and the Sumerian Gilgamesh Cycle. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2014, XV + 357 p. – ISBN 9781614517085.

Providing a new perspective on the Sumerian Gilgamesh stories, Alhena Gadotti argues that a Sumerian Gilgamesh Cycle was developed as early as Ur III, and that Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld was the first, not the last story of this cycle. Prompted by several texts that have come to light since Aaron Shaffer’s 1963 publication of the text, this book offers a new edition and a re-examination of the composition. Alhena Gadotti is Professor at Towson University, Towson, MD, USA.

FOSTER, B. R. Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. 3. ed. Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2005, XX + 1025 p. – ISBN 9781883053765.

Benjamin Foster’s Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature is already a standard among collections of translated texts from ancient Mesopotamia. The third edition of this work is an expansion and revision of the second edition, which has been out of print for some time. The new edition appears as a single-volume paperback instead of the two-volume, hardcover set of its predecessors. Generally speaking, this new edition follows the format of the previous editions. That is, the anthology still offers a general introduction to Akkadian literature, a specific introduction to each of the main time periods of Akkadian literature as delineated by Foster (Archaic, Classical, Mature, and Late), a brief introduction to major text groupings and each individual selection, and a translation of each text, which is followed by a cornucopia of information arranged under the rubrics “Text,” “Editions,” “Literature,” and “Notes to Texts.” As with previous editions, the translations are clear and accurate though not literary, the references to secondary literature are ample, and the introductions to individual texts remain useful for orienting readers in the unfamiliar and often difficult Mesopotamian materials (da resenha de Alan Lenzi, publicada pela RBL em 17/12/2005).

The translator has crammed into this collection at least a substantial sample of the most important literary genres of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians. It includes mythic narratives, epics of heroes and historical kings, Wisdom texts, humorous stories, royal inscriptions, poetry, letters, and more; the harvest of over a century and a half of work in the field, and in museums and collections.

Benjamin R. Foster (born 1945) is Professor of Assyriology at Yale University, USA.

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FLEMING, D. E. ; MILSTEIN, S. J. The Buried Foundation of the Gilgamesh Epic: The Akkadian Huwawa Narrative. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2014, XX + 227 p. – ISBN 9781628370324.

The Buried Foundation of the Gilgamesh Epic is a close study of the Old Babylonian Gilgamesh poems, intending to show that a lost Akkadian narrative about Gilgamesh, focused on the expedition of Gilgamesh and Enkidu against Huwawa, lies between the Old Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, as known from the Penn and Yale tablets, and the Sumerian Gilgamesh and Huwawa poems. Fleming and Milstein propose that the outlines of this lost poem can be detected in the existing Sumerian and Akkadian sources and that the creative adaptation of this work explains certain inconsistencies they observe between the Penn and Yale Gilgamesh tablets, which, like most scholars, they consider a pair copied at the same time by the same person. They bring to their inquiry recently published Old Babylonian sources about Gilgamesh that suggest the confrontation with Huwawa was a separate story in Akkadian as well as Sumerian. They are forthright about the obvious problems with their hypothesis, such as that some or even all the independent Gilgamesh and Huwawa stories may well be later than the Penn and Yale tablets, but they are ready with carefully worked-out answers. Throughout, the authors demonstrate enviable analytic skills, attention to detail, and exceptional acuteness of observation, the result being a rewarding and interesting study for anyone interested in the Akkadian Gilgamesh tradition (da resenha de Foster, Benjamin R. Journal of the American Oriental Society 131, no. 1 (2011): 146-48)
 

Daniel Edward Fleming is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, USA.

Sara J. Milstein is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies at University of British Columbia, Canada.

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