Gilgamesh

At its core, this is a surprisingly solid story about a man having to come to terms with his own mortality after seeing his "friend" die. ("Friend" gets to be in quotes, because, come on, there's no way this isn't a homoerotic tale.)

I'm not sure how much the specific translation made a difference (I read the version by Sophus Helle), but I thought it was incredibly readable for a work of poetry that was painstakingly impressed into clay 4000+ years ago.

Mostly I enjoyed seeing the earliest known story and language patterns that are so clearly mirrored in later works. Gilgamesh contains elements similar to the fall of Adam and to the Flood that are later described in the Book of Genesis, and the relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is strikingly similar to the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus in The Iliad.

It frequently features the long-enduring literary technique of repetitious lines and phrases for increased emphasis. And you've got to love the massively dramatic nature of its heroes, similar to all the major stories in Greek and Roman mythology.

I loved that Gilgamesh spends like four pages specifying why he is not interested in Ishtar's advances, but then the whole epic closes out with just a quick page-and-a-half or so description of his big plans for immortality comically going to shit.

Book author: Anonymous