Gilgamesh's Snake and Other Poems: Bilingual Edition (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780815610717)

The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the greatest surviving work of early Mesopotamian literature. According to legend, Gilgamesh built the city walls of Uruk, modern-day Iraq, to protect his people from external threats. Although the epic records events from more than four thousand years ago, those events echo many of the social and cultural concerns of Iraq today.

In this luminous bilingual collection of poems, Ghareeb Iskander offers a personal response to the epic. Iskander's modern-day Gilgamesh is a nameless Iraqi citizen who witnessed the fall of the dictatorship, who exists in a constant state of threat, and who dreams, not about eternity, but simply about life. While Gilgamesh was searching for the elixir of life, Iskander's hero is searching for consolation.

Author: Ghareeb Iskander
ISBN-10: 0815610718
ISBN-13: 9780815610717
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/18/2016
Pages: 112
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.31lbs
Size: 8.68h x 5.45w x 0.28d

Review Citation(s):
Shelf Awareness 04/26/2016