Gilgamesh The Hero

A major publishing event - two of the UK's outstanding prize-winning artists working together for the first timeThe legend of Gilgamesh is the oldest written story, pre-dating both The Bible and The Iliad. An epic story about a quest for immortality, it also includes a legend of the Flood that is remarkably similar to the story of Noah.* Geraldine McCaughrean has won every major prize for children's literature in this country, including the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Award, the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, and, most recently, The Blue Peter Best Book to Keep Forever Award.* David Parkins is a highly acclaimed artist, and has been shortlisted for the Kurt Maschler and Smarties awards. He received many critical accolades for God's Story with Jan Mark

Toward the end of the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh King, Gilgamesh laments the untimely death of his comrade Enkidu, 'my friend whom I loved dearly'. This book examines the stories' sexual and homoerotic language and suggests that its ambiguity provides fresh ways of understanding ideas of gender and sexuality in the ancient Near East.

A Jungian psychoanalytical interpretation of the Gilgamesh Epic.

Gilgamesh focuses on the eponymous hero of the world’s oldest epic and his legendary adventures. However, it also goes further and examines the significance of the story’s Ancient Near Eastern context, and what it tells us about notions of kingship, animality, and the natures of mortality and immortality. In this volume, Louise M. Pryke provides a unique perspective to consider many foundational aspects of Mesopotamian life, such as the significance of love and family, the conceptualisation of life and death, and the role of religious observance. The final chapter assesses the powerful influence of Gilgamesh on later works of ancient literature, from the Hebrew Bible, to the Odyssey, to The Tales of the Arabian Nights, and his reception through to the modern era. Gilgamesh is an invaluable tool for anyone seeking to understand this fascinating figure, and more broadly, the relevance of Near Eastern myth in the classical world and beyond.

This is one of the oldest stories in the world, and it's about things that still matter to us today: friendship, fame, courage, happiness. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are friends -- best friends. Together they can work wonders, fight monsters, brave earthquakes, travel the world! But waiting in the dark is the one enemy they can never overcome. Retold by award-winning author Geraldine McCaughrean, and illustrated with great power by David Parkins, Gilgamesh the Hero is a story that will linger in the imagination long after the book has been put down.

Long ago, in a time of magic, there lived a mighty king whose name was Gilgamesh. He ruled a great city, and he was the noblest and strongest of men. Everyone bowed down to him; no fighter could match him. Surely he had everything he could want. But Gilgamesh was restless, and bored.

Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu are the only heroes to have survived from the ancient literature of Babylon, immortalized in this epic poem that dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. Together they journey to the Spring of Youth, defeat the Bull of Heaven and slay the monster Humbaba. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh's grief and fear of death are such that they lead him to undertake a quest for eternal life. A timeless tale of morality, tragedy and pure adventure, The Epic of Gilgamesh is a landmark literary exploration of man's search for immortality.

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