Questions tagged [akkadian-language]
Questions about works of literature originally written in Akkadian, an extinct Semitic language from ancient Mesopotamia.
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Why did the king lend Gimil-Ninurta his chariot?
In "The Poor Man of Nippur," Gimil-Ninurta seeks the first part of his revenge upon the mayor of Nippur, who has insulted and mistreated him, by borrowing a chariot and the clothing of a ...
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Does the Epic of Gilgamesh have a continuous cultural history?
Over 4000 years ago, the Epic of Gilgamesh was first told and written down on clay tablets.
Today, as far as I understand, the story is known from the discovery of those tablets in recent centuries.
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Why is it notable that the "monkey tablet" has monkeys?
My literature professor has been very insistent on the importance of having an updated translation which incorporates recently-discovered (well, recent on the scale of Gilgamesh discoveries) sections ...
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Do the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh really contain the same rare proverb about the strength of a triple-stranded rope?
According to the Wikipedia article The Epic of Gilgamesh,
Several scholars suggest direct borrowing of Siduri's advice by the author of Ecclesiastes.[41]
A rare proverb about the strength of a triple-...
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What features distinguish the hymnic-epic style from Standard Babylonian?
In the general introduction to Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature (third edition, CDL Press, 2005)
Benjamin R. Foster discusses the "Akkadian literary languages":
The Babylonians ...
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Who is Gugalanna?
In this question I originally used the name Gugalanna for the Heaven-Bull slain by Gilgamesh and Enkidu, following Wikipedia. After a query in comments, I edited the question since the name Gugalanna ...
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What percentage of clay tablets found in Mesopotamia contain literature?
Most of the major cuneiform tablet discoveries date from the 1840s and later. Cuneiform was used to write several languages, including Sumerian (a language isolate according to the current state of ...
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What is the content of the “monkey tablet” of the Gilgamesh epic?
In an answer to an older question about the Flood in Gilgamesh, Denkof Zwemmen quotes the recent translation (2019) by Stanley Lombardo. The translation's publisher describes this translation as ...
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Why did the gods send the flood in The Epic of Gilgamesh?
A previous question asks about the comparative timescale of the flood story that appears in the Book of Genesis and the one that appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh. An interesting apparent difference is ...
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What does it mean that Gilgamesh "took" the people of Uruk?
From The Epic of Gilgamesh, modernised Muss-Arnolt translation:
None with weapon might challenge him as rival. His men stand at attention, longing for his orders; but the old men of Uruk grouse ...
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How can Gilgamesh be one-third man and two-thirds god?
In The Epic of Gilgamesh, it says that the gods made Gilgamesh to be two-thirds god and one-third man:
Two thirds god they made him; one third man they made him.
-- modernised Muss-Arnolt ...
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Why did the gods decide that Enkidu must die?
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, a major turning point is the death of Enkidu as a punishment from the gods after he and Gilgamesh slew both Humbaba and the Heaven-Bull. From the modernised Muss-Arnolt ...
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Is there really a single "Old Babylonian version" of the Epic of Gilgamesh?
From the Wikipedia article about the Epic of Gilgamesh:
From the diverse sources found, two main versions of the epic have been partially reconstructed: the standard Akkadian version, or He who saw ...
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What is the 'full' version of The Epic of Gilgamesh?
I looked at a PDF of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and it was very pretty. Then, I decided that I wanted to purchase the physical copy of the book. While the version that I read online, which I thought was ...
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Which flood story was first: Genesis or The Epic of Gilgamesh?
I have heard that The Epic of Gilgamesh may predate the stories of Noah told in Abrahamic works. Is there any evidence to support which story came first?
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