The Epic of Gilgamesh, the truly ancient of ancient stories, is vitally important to civilization for several reasons. First, it’s a really good story talking about the meaning of life, much like Job is to the Bible. Second, it provides a window into early civilization with the view that humans have always been, well, relatively human. It’s a timeless classic. Finally, it’s a religious work from a non-Roman, non-Hebrew, and non-Greek source. It illustrates the religious nature of humanity, for better or for worse. That’s why I have deeply loved this story for the past two decades.
Robert Watson’s poetic paraphrase seeks to retell this story, especially to students who may be required to read it in school. In author notes, it seems focused on the homeschool community. Exposing students to primary source material in an engaging way is a noble goal that I amply applaud.
However, this work seems to fall short in its philosophy. The introduction lacks a clear rationale of why a new version of this tale is needed. Many good translations already exist, some in more archaic, scholarly forms and others using more modern language. This is not an unknown story that was newly found. I’m concerned that this book is just a whitewashed rehashing of the story. It recasts one character from being a “prostitute” (its traditional form) to being a “priestess” with the only scholarly justification of citing one book, outside of the mainstream. As scholars of the Ancient Near East and of the Hebrew Bible understand, temple prostitutes were far more prevalent than priestesses. Further, its graphic illustrations show seemingly white people instead of those with Middle Eastern (Semitic) skin tones. I appreciate abstracting stories from a race-conscious format, but do we really need more reappropriated stories told from a Caucasian perspective?
Further, Watson’s book is a paraphrase – that is a rewording of an English translation. Watson does not know any ancient language that this tale was originally recorded in. There is nothing wrong with paraphrases, but a paraphrase should be reworded to reach a broader audience who presumably use more modern forms of language. A paraphrase can be seen, for example, with versions of the Christian Bible like The Living Bible. However, here, Watson uses “thee” and “thou” instead of the abundantly common “you.” Reading this book feels like it would have been a cutting-edge paraphrase a century or two ago. Modernity is not its goal; perhaps sheltering is.
For those reasons, I take issue with the concept of this book. It could hit its targeted audience with a little more polish. Watson’s life work focuses on Christian homeschool education. Nothing wrong with that, but that audience can be a bit insular and monolithic – read, not diverse – compared to the broader English-speaking world. Exposure to the wisdom of life’s diversity is a big part of education. For readers interested in reading a truly modern retelling of this superb tale, check out Stephen Miller’s Gilgamesh: A New English Version.
The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Poetic Version
By Robert W. Watson
Illustrated by Mateoscopio
Copyright (c) 2023
Gatekeeper Press
ISBN13 9781662939679
Page Count: 115
Genre: History, Poetry
www.amazon.com