by amanda.girard
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient Mesopotamian poem, considered the oldest known substantial work of literature. The standard Babylonian version, compiled by the scribe Sin-leqi-unninni was written around the 12th century BCE, consists of 12 tablets. This derived fiction is non-Western, in that it does not treat the text as a detached "ur-text" of world literature, as claimed by Euro-American classical studies, instead, it re-anchors the epic back in its Mesopotamian-Iraqi matrix, critiques the colonial epistemology that severed ancient from modern Iraq, and writes the text through comparative frameworks drawn from the Global South. The epic is laid out tablet by tablet.
| # | Title | Words |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tablet I — The Clay and the Crown | 0 |
| 2 | Tablet II — The Rivalry of Flesh | — |
| 3 | Tablet III — The Blessing of the Road | — |
| 4 | Tablet IV — The Five Visions of the Night Road | — |
| 5 | Tablet V — The Green Chamber of Humbaba | — |
| 6 | Tablet VI — The Descent of Ishtar | — |
| 7 | Tablet VII — The Wound That Has No Scar | — |
| 8 | Tablet VIII — The Sorrow of Morning | — |
| 9 | Tablet IX — The Quest Beyond the Veil | — |
| 10 | Tablet X — The Tavern at the End of the Sea | — |
| 11 | Tablet XI — The Flood, the Sleep, and the Serpent's Wisdom | — |
| 12 | Tablet XII — The Spirit at the Threshold | — |
| 13 | Guide to the Gods and Mythology of Uruk | — |
| 14 | I. The Scepter of Enmerkar | — |
| 15 | II. Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave | — |
| 16 | III. The Descent of Inanna | — |
| 17 | VI. Adapa: The Bread and the Water | — |
| 18 | VII. Etana: The Eagle and the Void | — |
| 19 | V. The Anzu Bird: The Theft of Order | — |
| 20 | "The Womb of the Clay, the Lap of the Goddess": Female Sexuality in the Uruk Literary Cycle | — |
| 21 | The Epic of Gilgamesh - An Analysis | — |
| 22 | Male Sexuality in the Epic of Gilgamesh: Ancient Context, Historical Scholarship, and Modern Reading | — |
| 23 | The Sacred Songs of Inanna and Dumuzi | — |
| 24 | The Natron Pool | — |
| 25 | The Tavern of the Seven Reeds | — |
| 26 | The Chamber of Carnelian | — |
| 27 | The House of the Exorcist at Assur: The Offering of Shamhat | — |
| 28 | Shamhat and the Poet | — |
| 29 | The Tribute of Kisik-Adda: A Gatehouse Farce from Uruk | — |
| 30 | The Hieros Gamos of Kisik-Adda: Or, How the Wrong Woman Plowed the Sacred Field | — |
| 31 | The Ballad of Kisik-Adda: A Purple Tale from the Underbelly of Uruk | — |
| 32 | The Seven Gates of Kisik-Adda: A Sojourn in the House of Anu | — |
| 33 | VIII. The House of the Exorcist | — |
| 34 | IX. The Lion's Teeth | — |
| 35 | X. The Inner Chamber: Where the Goddess Eats | — |
| 36 | XI. The Wedding Feast of Tabni-Ishtar | — |
| 37 | XII. The Rope and the Purple Thread | — |
| 38 | XIII. The Liver's Warning | — |
| 39 | XIV. The Accounting of Namtar | — |
