Mesopotamia: Who's Gilgamesh?
In the ancient Mesopotamia, libraries were extant in temples and villages during the Babylonian Empire. There's an old Sumerian proverb that says: he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn". Who's who? Men and women had to learn to read and write. This involves knowledge of the extinct Sumerian language with a complicated and extensive syllabary. Many Babylonian literary works are still studied today. I'd like to study it myself! One of the most famous Babylonian works is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Who's this guy? He has twelve books on his own. Each division contains the story of a single adventure in the career of Gilgamesh. The whole story is a composite product, although some stories have too much fiction to be accepted as historical facts. What is known about Gilgamesh is that he was a historical king of the Sumerian city - Uruk, a major hero in the ancient mythology and an Akkadian writer. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, he writes a...