Epic Of Gilgamesh Quotes

“If the Epic of Gilgamesh carries a teaching, it is that the other makes our existence possible.”
― Alberto Manguel, La cité des mots: CBC Massey Lectures

“Since at the very start of the [Epic of Gilgamesh], the purpose of the encounter of the wild man with the civilized king was to restore justice to the city, the poem has, after all, a happy ending.”
― Alberto Manguel, La cité des mots: CBC Massey Lectures

“What the poet tells us is that, after the ordeals and adventures, after the revelation and the loss, the king must do two things: preserve the splendor of his city and tell his own story. Both tasks are complementary: both speak of the intimate connection between building a city of walls and building a story of words, and both require, in order to be accomplished, the existence of the other.”
― Alberto Manguel, La cité des mots: CBC Massey Lectures

“The identity of the city, because of the laws that define it, depends on some sort of banning or exclusion. The individual identity required the reverse: a constant effort of inclusion, a story reminding Gilgamesh that, in order to know who one is, we need two.”
― Alberto Manguel, La cité des mots: CBC Massey Lectures