The Epic of Gilgamish (Illustrated): Complete Illuminated Edition — Ebook

A king who is two-thirds god goes searching for life without end, and his story is painted here across 100 two-page openings.

• 100 original paintings, one across every two-page opening

• The text of R. Campbell Thompson's 1928 translation, The Epic of Gilgamish, in twelve tablets

• Verses set into each painting in dark brown ink on the open pale ground

• Made to be read in landscape mode, so each painting opens across two pages

• Full colour throughout

This is an illuminated edition of The Epic of Gilgamesh, not a text with a few pictures added. Every two-page opening is a painting, and the verses are set into the painting itself, so the words and the image share one page. It is a newly designed, fully illustrated edition, not a reprint of the plain text.

About the paintings

The paintings are pale and sun-bleached, like old stone and desert light. Blue glazed brick and gold ornament mark the gates of Erech (Uruk). You will see the walls and streets of Erech, Enkidu among the wild beasts, the courtesan, the Bull of Heaven fought in the streets of Erech, Gilgamesh and Enkidu going to the cedar forest through a gate, Siduri the wine-maker by the sea, and Urshanabi the boatman with his boat on the waters.

The illustrations in this edition were created with AI image tools under the illustrator's direction; the text is R. Campbell Thompson's 1928 translation, edited as a reading edition.

The book

Gilgamesh is two-thirds god and one-third man, king of Uruk. When his people cry out, the gods answer with Enkidu, a wild man shaped from clay. Together the two face the monster of the cedar forest. Then Enkidu dies, and Gilgamesh goes searching for life without end, crossing the waters of death.

The Standard Babylonian version is traditionally attributed to Sîn-lēqi-unninni, and the stories behind it are older still. The translation is by R. Campbell Thompson (1928). The paintings are by Alexander Gabriel ZoderoT.

One king's search for life without end, painted in pale stone and desert light.

Ancient Mythology · Volume II