Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction
The oldest book in the world is not a bound book. It is a long poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, written some 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, in modern-day Iraq. Its hero, Gilgamesh, is the tyrannical king of the city of Uruk. The text calls him, rather confusingly, "two-thirds divine and one-third human."
As punishment for his cruelty, the mother goddess creates Enkidu, a wild man sent to fight him and humble him. But a dream warns the king that Enkidu will become his friend. A sacred prostitute, Shamhat, tames him in seven days and nights. The two men fight, then become inseparable, and possibly lovers. Their friendship leads to adventure, then to grief, then to the quest for immortality.
The rest is in the Sophia app.The remaining parts, the open-book quiz and the full glossary. Free to start; Premium unlocks everything.
- 2Clay tablets 4,000 years old
- 3A real king turned myth
- 4Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven
- 5The quest for immortality
Open-book quiz8 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary7 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.
