Theodore Ziolkowski is Class of 1900 Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He is the author of many books, including Clio the Romantic Muse: Historicizing the Faculties in Germany and Hesitant Heroes: Private Inhibition, Cultural Crisis, both from Cornell.

• IntroductionThe Story * The Text * The Rediscovery * The Early Translations1. The Initial Reception (1884–1935)The First Literarization * Babel and Bible * The German Connection * The Spread of the Epic2. Representative Beginnings (1941–1958)Modes of Modernization * Four Poets in English * Four German Initiatives * A Major German Thematization * The First Musical Settings3. The Popularization of Gilgamesh (1959–1978)Poetic Adaptations * The First Fictionalization * The Gay Gilgamesh * Gilgamesh and the Philosophers * A Comic Interlude * Three American Fictional Exuberances * The Operatic Gilgamesh4. The Contemporization of Gilgamesh (1979–1999)New Contexts * Gilgamesh Psychoanalyzed * Gilgamesh Deconstructed * Gilgamesh Historicized * Gilgamesh Drums for the Greens * Gilgamesh Postfigured * Gilgamesh Personalized * Gilgamesh Hispanicized * Gilgameshiana * Gilgamesh at Millennium's End5. Gilgamesh in the Twenty-First Century (2000–2009)Poetic Versions in English and French * A New Focus * Gilgamesh as Ritual Drama * Two Fictional Re-Visions * The Politicization of GilgameshConclusionChronologyNotesIndex

This book represents a fascinating foray—written by a scholar known for his scrupulous research, clarity of expression, subtlety and wit—into the relatively new field of reception history. It offers us a complex history of the reception of the Gilgamesh cycle, rather than an analysis of the constitutive role played by an ancient epic in the emerging modern world.- Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr. (Journal of the American Academy of Religion) Ziolkowski brings together an extraordinary assemblage of creative endeavors—literary, musical and artistic—all bound in some way to the ancient poem recovered by Assyriology.... Gilgamesh's emergence into the company of what are now identified as the 'great books' is fully explained by the reception history that Ziolkowski describes.- Andrew R. George (Reviews in History) Ziolkowski's treatment [of the reception of the epic of Gilgamesh] is immensely thorough and supported by rich documentation. He sees the story of Gilgamesh as 'a finely tuned seismograph whose reception registers to a significant degree many of the major intellectual upheavals of the past century.' Highly recommended.(Choice)

Theodore Ziolkowski is Class of 1900 Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He is the author of many books, including Clio the Romantic Muse: Historicizing the Faculties in Germany and Hesitant Heroes: Private Inhibition, Cultural Crisis, both from Cornell.

• IntroductionThe Story * The Text * The Rediscovery * The Early Translations1. The Initial Reception (1884–1935)The First Literarization * Babel and Bible * The German Connection * The Spread of the Epic2. Representative Beginnings (1941–1958)Modes of Modernization * Four Poets in English * Four German Initiatives * A Major German Thematization * The First Musical Settings3. The Popularization of Gilgamesh (1959–1978)Poetic Adaptations * The First Fictionalization * The Gay Gilgamesh * Gilgamesh and the Philosophers * A Comic Interlude * Three American Fictional Exuberances * The Operatic Gilgamesh4. The Contemporization of Gilgamesh (1979–1999)New Contexts * Gilgamesh Psychoanalyzed * Gilgamesh Deconstructed * Gilgamesh Historicized * Gilgamesh Drums for the Greens * Gilgamesh Postfigured * Gilgamesh Personalized * Gilgamesh Hispanicized * Gilgameshiana * Gilgamesh at Millennium's End5. Gilgamesh in the Twenty-First Century (2000–2009)Poetic Versions in English and French * A New Focus * Gilgamesh as Ritual Drama * Two Fictional Re-Visions * The Politicization of GilgameshConclusionChronologyNotesIndex

This book represents a fascinating foray—written by a scholar known for his scrupulous research, clarity of expression, subtlety and wit—into the relatively new field of reception history. It offers us a complex history of the reception of the Gilgamesh cycle, rather than an analysis of the constitutive role played by an ancient epic in the emerging modern world.- Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr. (Journal of the American Academy of Religion) Ziolkowski brings together an extraordinary assemblage of creative endeavors—literary, musical and artistic—all bound in some way to the ancient poem recovered by Assyriology.... Gilgamesh's emergence into the company of what are now identified as the 'great books' is fully explained by the reception history that Ziolkowski describes.- Andrew R. George (Reviews in History) Ziolkowski's treatment [of the reception of the epic of Gilgamesh] is immensely thorough and supported by rich documentation. He sees the story of Gilgamesh as 'a finely tuned seismograph whose reception registers to a significant degree many of the major intellectual upheavals of the past century.' Highly recommended.(Choice)

Theodore Ziolkowski is Class of 1900 Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He is the author of many books, including Clio the Romantic Muse: Historicizing the Faculties in Germany and Hesitant Heroes: Private Inhibition, Cultural Crisis, both from Cornell.

• IntroductionThe Story * The Text * The Rediscovery * The Early Translations1. The Initial Reception (1884–1935)The First Literarization * Babel and Bible * The German Connection * The Spread of the Epic2. Representative Beginnings (1941–1958)Modes of Modernization * Four Poets in English * Four German Initiatives * A Major German Thematization * The First Musical Settings3. The Popularization of Gilgamesh (1959–1978)Poetic Adaptations * The First Fictionalization * The Gay Gilgamesh * Gilgamesh and the Philosophers * A Comic Interlude * Three American Fictional Exuberances * The Operatic Gilgamesh4. The Contemporization of Gilgamesh (1979–1999)New Contexts * Gilgamesh Psychoanalyzed * Gilgamesh Deconstructed * Gilgamesh Historicized * Gilgamesh Drums for the Greens * Gilgamesh Postfigured * Gilgamesh Personalized * Gilgamesh Hispanicized * Gilgameshiana * Gilgamesh at Millennium's End5. Gilgamesh in the Twenty-First Century (2000–2009)Poetic Versions in English and French * A New Focus * Gilgamesh as Ritual Drama * Two Fictional Re-Visions * The Politicization of GilgameshConclusionChronologyNotesIndex

This book represents a fascinating foray—written by a scholar known for his scrupulous research, clarity of expression, subtlety and wit—into the relatively new field of reception history. It offers us a complex history of the reception of the Gilgamesh cycle, rather than an analysis of the constitutive role played by an ancient epic in the emerging modern world.- Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr. (Journal of the American Academy of Religion) Ziolkowski brings together an extraordinary assemblage of creative endeavors—literary, musical and artistic—all bound in some way to the ancient poem recovered by Assyriology.... Gilgamesh's emergence into the company of what are now identified as the 'great books' is fully explained by the reception history that Ziolkowski describes.- Andrew R. George (Reviews in History) Ziolkowski's treatment [of the reception of the epic of Gilgamesh] is immensely thorough and supported by rich documentation. He sees the story of Gilgamesh as 'a finely tuned seismograph whose reception registers to a significant degree many of the major intellectual upheavals of the past century.' Highly recommended.(Choice)