Excerpt from The World's Heritage of Epical, Heroic and Romantic Literature, Vol. 1 of 2

This volume deals with the greatest epics in the world's literature, and the period of time covered embraces roughly 4000 years. A beginning is made with the epic of Gilgamesh, which takes us back to the "dawn" of literature, and even to the "dawn" of civilization, for the Babylonian Homer, Sinliqi-unnini, utilized floating traditions regarding a tribal hero that were already of hoary antiquity in his own day. This poet is believed to have lived in the Hammurabi Age, during which Abraham set out on his wanderings in quest of "fresh woods and pastures new." His metrical narrative has epical unity, and something of "the grand manner" that, as Matthew Arnold insisted, distinguishes the epical from the ballad style of narrative. It bears "the magic stamp of a master, " it is plain, natural, and spirited, and, withal, "sustainedly noble". As the wrath of Achilles is the central theme of the Iliads so is the doom of Gilgamesh the central theme of the Babylonian epic. Both heroes were probably historical characters, but they had "won their way to the mythical, " as Thucydides put it in another connection, before they were exalted as heroes of all ages

By bards who died content on pleasant sward,
Leaving great verse unto a little clan.

Like Achilles, Gilgamesh was associated with one of the great race movements in ancient times. In Sin-liqi-unnini's hands he became the symbol of his Age and of his people. From a shadowy figure resembling the legendary Nimrod, the "mighty hunter, " the hero was also transformed into a real personality, and one who continues to make a universal appeal.

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