Epic Poetry

"O Gilgamesh, where are you wandering? The life that you seek you never will find: when the gods created mankind, death they dispensed to mankind, life they kept for themselves. But you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full, enjoy yourself always by day and by night! Make merry each day, dance and play day and night! Let your clothes be clean, let your head be washed, may you bathe in water! Gaze on the child who holds your hand, let your wife enjoy your repeated embrace! For such is the destiny [of mortal men]."

"Enkidu opened his mouth, saying to Gilgamesh: "where you've set your mind begin the journey, let your heart have no fear, keep your eyes on me!""

"Who is there, my friend, can climb to the sky? Only the gods dwell forever in sunlight. As for man, his days are numbered, whatever he may do, it is but wind."

"What should I do and where should I go? A thief has taken hold of my flesh! For there in my bed-chamber Death does abide, and wherever I turn, there too will be Death."

"The seventh day when it came, I brought out a dove, I let it loose: off went the dove but then it returned, there was no place to land, so back it came to me. I brought out a swallow, I let it loose: off went the swallow but then it returned, there was no place to land, so back it came to me. I brought out a raven, I let it loose: off went the raven, it saw the waters receding, finding food, bowing and bobbing, it did not come back to me. I brought out an offering, to the four winds made sacrifice, incense I placed on the peak of the mountain."

"Even the gods took fright at the Deluge, they left and went up to the heaven of Anu, lying like dogs curled up in the open. The goddess cried out like a woman in childbirth, Belet-ili wailed, whose voice is so sweet: The olden times have turned to clay, because I spoke evil in the gods' assembly. How could I speak evil in the gods' assembly, and declare a war to destroy my people? It is I who give birth, these people are mine! And now, like fish, they fill the ocean!" The Anunnaki gods were weeping with her, wet-faced with sorrow, they were weeping..."

"Ever do we build our households, ever do we make our nests, ever do brothers divide their inheritance, ever do feuds arise in the land.Ever the river has risen and brought us the flood, the mayfly floating on the water. On the face of the sun its countenance gazes, then all of a sudden nothing is there!"

"The destiny was fulfilled which the father of the gods, Enlil of the mountain, had decreed for Gilgamesh: "In nether-earth the darkness will show him a light: of mankind, all that are known, none will leave a monument for generations to come to compare with his. The heroes, the wise men, like the new moon have their waxing and waning. Men will say, 'Who has ever ruled with might and with power like him?' As in the dark month, the month of shadows, so without him there is no light. O Gilgamesh, this was the meaning of your dream. You were given the kingship, such was your destiny, everlasting life was not your destiny. Because of this do not be sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed; he has given you power to bind and to loose, to be the darkness and the light of mankind. He has given unexampled supremacy over the people, victory in battle from which no fugitive returns, in forays and assaults from which there is no going back. But do not abuse this power, deal justly with your servants in the palace, deal justly before the face of the Sun."

"Father, give me, please, the Bull of Heaven, so in his dwelling I may slay Gilgamesh! If you do not give me the Bull of Heaven, I shall smash the gates of the Netherworld, right down to its dwelling, to the world below I shall grant manumission, I shall bring up the dead to consume the living, I shall make the dead outnumber the living."

"The day grew still, darkness came forth, there was a flash of lightning, fire broke out.The flames flared up, death rained down. ... and the flashes of fire went out, where it had fallen turned into cinders."

"He carved on a stone stela all of his toils, and built the wall of Uruk-Haven, the wall of the sacred Eanna Temple, the holy sanctuary."

"Read out the travails of Gilgamesh, all that he went through!"

"He who saw the deep, the country's foundation, ... He came a far road, was weary, found peace, And set all his labours on a tablet of stone."

"...this discovery is evidently destined to excite a lively controversy. For the present the orthodox people are in great delight, and are very much prepossessed by the corroboration which it affords to Biblical history. It is possible, however, as has been pointed out, that the Chaldean inscription, if genuine, may be regarded as a confirmation of the statement that there are various traditions of the deluge apart from the Biblical one, which is perhaps legendary like the rest."

"To the extent that Gilgamesh does not achieve the desired immortality, the history also seems to deal with the importance of enjoying life. It is as if to say: that is man's life."

"The Epic of Gilgamesh is not just the world’s oldest poem. It is a classic, in the sense that it remained central to the literature and thought of a whole series of cultures across the Near East over millennia. We can account for its significance in several ways. Some of its themes are universal. We still agonize that even the greatest human life is limited in span; we mourn and rage against the loss of our loved ones; and like Gilgamesh we still want to know about our origins and the meaning of things. One title for the epic was He Who Saw the Deep. Gilgamesh goes on a quest for meaning. His failure to find acceptable answers is our failure, too. His fortitude in the face of that failure is true heroism."

"The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the earliest examples of what is sometimes termed a “Mirror of Princes,” a book that illustrates the conduct of both bad and good rulers, and makes clear the difference between them."

"Skilled to retire, and in retiring draw Hearts after them tangled in amorous nets."

"My heart hath been a store-house long of things And sayings laid up, portending strange events."

"Behold the kings of the Earth how they oppress Thy chosen, to what highth thir pow'r unjust They have exalted, and behind them cast All fear of thee, arise and vindicate Thy Glory, free thy people from thir yoke"

"And the great Thisbite who on fiery wheels Rode up to Heaven, yet once again to come."

"Most men admire Virtue who follow not her lore."

"That fellowship in pain divides not smart, Nor lightens aught each mans peculiar load."

"Envy they say excites me, thus to gain Companions of my misery and wo."

"Victory and triumph to the Son of God Now entring his great duel, not of arms, But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles. The Father knows the Son; therefore secure Ventures his filial Vertue, though untri'd, Against whate're may tempt, whate're seduce, Allure, or terrifie, or undermine. Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell, And devilish machinations come to nought."

"His coming, is sent Harbinger, who all Invites, and in the Consecrated stream Pretends to wash off sin"

"[...] tell of deeds Above Heroic, though in secret done, And unrecorded left through many an Age, Worthy t' have not remain'd so long unsung."

"I who e're while the happy Garden sung, By one mans disobedience lost, now sing Recover'd Paradise to all mankind, By one mans firm obedience fully tri'd Through all temptation, and the Tempter foil'd In all his wiles, defeated and repuls't, And Eden rais'd in the wast Wilderness."

"For therein stands the office of a King, His Honour, Vertue, Merit and chief Praise, That for the Publick all this weight he bears. Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules Passions, Desires, and Fears, is more a King;"

"On the fate of the Paradise Regained the voice of the public, which on a question of poetic excellence cannot for any long time be erroneous, has irrevocably decided. Not to object to the impropriety of the title, which would certainly be more consistent with a work on the death and the resurrection of our blessed Lord, the extreme narrowness of the plan of the poem, the small proportion of it which is assigned to action and the large part which is given to disputations and didactic dialogue, its paucity of characters and of poetic imagery, and, lastly, its general deficiency in the charm of numbers must for ever preclude it from any extended range of popularity. It may be liked and applauded by those who are resolute to like and are hardy to applaud: but to the great body of the readers of poetry, let the critics amuse themselves with their exertions as they please, it will always be "caviare." It is embellished however with several exquisite passages, and it certainly shows in some of its finer parts, the still existing author of the Paradise Lost."

"Till morning fair Came forth with pilgrim steps in amice gray."

"As children gath'ring pebbles on the shore. Or if I would delight my private hours With music or with poem, where so soon As in our native language can I find That solace?"

"Who reads Incessantly, and to his reading brings not A spirit and judgment equal or superior, (And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?) Uncertain and unsettled still remains, Deep versed in books, and shallow in himself."

"The first and wisest of them all professed To know this only, that he nothing knew."

"Socrates... Whom well inspired the oracle pronounced Wisest of men."

"Thence to the famous orators repair, Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmin'd over Greece, To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne."

"The olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long."

"Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence."

"The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day. Be famous, then, By wisdom; as thy empire must extend, So let extend thy mind o'er all the world In knowledge; all things in it comprehend."

"The first of all Commandments, Thou shalt worship The Lord thy God, and only him shalt serve;"

"Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreath'd."

"Syene, and where the shadow both way falls, Meroe, Nilotic isle."

"Elephants endors'd with towers."

"They err who count it glorious to subdue By Conquest far and wide, to over-run Large Countries, and in field great Battels win,"

"Of whom to be disprais'd were no small praise."

"For what is glory but the blaze of fame."

"Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd."

"Beauty stands In the admiration only of weak minds Led captive."

": … [L]et all things be left behind Which hitherto have stormed upon me, full of doom!"

": Him I love who craves the impossible."