Why Did Sin-leqe-uninni's Compile the Gilgamesh Epic?

신-레케-우닌니의 "길가메쉬 서사시" 편집의도

  • Published : 2005.06.30

Abstract

The Epic of Gilgamesh drew heavily upon Mesopotamian literary tradition. Sin-leqe-uninni, the editor of Standard Version of the Epic of Gilgamesh in 13th century B.C.E. adopted the Old Babylonian version as well as older Sumerian tales about Gilgamesh. He also was very successful by extensive use of materials and literary forms originally unrelated to Gilgamesh. The epic opens with a standard type of hymnic-epic prologue. This study lens a measure of vindication to the theoretical approach by which Morris Jastrow recognized the diversity of the sources, which underlies the epic and succeeded in identifying some of them. Thanks to the ample documentation available for the literary development of the epic, we can trace the steps which its author and editors took with the result that the epic inspires fears and aspirations for more than three thousand years.

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