Gilgamesh''s supposed historical reign is believed to lie within the period 2700 BC to 2500 BC, 200-400
years before the earliest known written stories. The discovery of artifacts associated with Agga and Enmebaragesi of Kish, two other kings named in the stories, has lent credibility to the historical existence of Gilgamesh (Dalley 1989: 40-41).<1>
The history of the epic is often divided into three periods: old, middle, and late. Many versions exist from this almost 2,000 year span, but only the old and the late periods have yielded significant enough finds to enable a coherent translation. Therefore, the old Babylonian version, and what is now referred to as the standard edition, are the most frequently utilized texts. However, the standard edition has become the basis of modern translations, and the old version only supplements the standard version when the lacunae - or gaps in the cuneiform tablet - are great.
The earliest Sumerian versions of the epic date from as early as the Third Dynasty of Ur (2150 BC-2000 BCE) (Dalley 1989: 41-42). The earliest Akkadian versions are dated to the early second millennium (Dalley 1989: 45). The "standard" Akkadian version, consisting of twelve tablets, was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni sometime between 1300 BC and 1000 BC and was found in the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh.
The
Epic of Gilgamesh is widely known today. The first modern translation of the epic was in the 1870s by George Smith.<1> More recent translations into English include one undertaken with the assistance of the American novelist John Gardner, and John Maier, published in 1984. In 2001, Benjamin Foster produced a reading in the Norton Critical Edition Series that fills in many of the blanks of the standard edition with previous material. The most definitive standard edition is the carefully edited two volume critical work by Andrew George. This represents the fullest treatment of the standard edition material, and he discusses at length the archaeological state of the material, provides a tablet by tablet exegesis, and furnishes a dual language side by side translation. George''s translation was also published in a general reader edition under the Penguin Classics imprint in 2003. In 2004, Stephen Mitchell released a controversial edition, which is his interpretation of previous scholarly translations into what he calls "a