— Anonymous
The part that I had to think the most is to give my own definition of what do I think a great work is. After some reflection I think, in my opinion, that a great work is one that survives time, connects to people and places around the globe and not just one geographic place, and is complete. So, my key words on this definition will be, timeless, universal and complete. I think Epic of Gilgamesh, has a greatness to it and deserves attention. I will explain why I like it so much. Epic of Gilgamesh is 4000 years old, perhaps even more if we count the time that it was transmitted orally, before the cuneiform language was invented. This piece of work is great, is timeless, and it has crossed the borders of Mesopotamia becoming universal. One reason why I like it so much, perhaps less related to literature but I think worth mentioning is more of historic point of view. In my entire adult life for the past two decades when we speak of that part of the world, we only hear about the present catastrophic situation surrounded by negativity. So, is worth to bring up sometimes works like Epic of Gilgamesh to remind the world that once there was a great civilization there, with infrastructure and art.
Another reason why I like the work so much is because it can be put in context with religious stories told in the Holy books. In a way in my opinion, works like this make the Holy Books seem more human, and less divine, because some stories sound familiar. (The topic of death and eternal life, mountains, the forests, the water, the way Enkidu was crated, heroes vs monsters like David vs Goliath, etc.). I enjoy finding that correlation, works like this give us the context of the reality that civilization had in that period of time.
However, without wanting to undermine the greatness of this book and its value to us, I think is missing one element, it’s not complete, there is missing pieces and room for speculation in some translations. A mistranslated text can be misinterpreted or taken out of context. Works by the ancient Greeks like Homer for example in my opinion are more sophisticated, with a colorful symbolic in it. Of course, I understand that these works came a thousand years later, but I think they relate more to now day readers, also by being completer and translated more efficiently.
My conclusion is that Epic of Gilgamesh is a great work, but its greatness relies exclusively on its historic importance and being one of the oldest poems ever but not in its quality per sè.
