Beginning to End: A Review of Simon Armitage’s New Translation of Gilgamesh

Few are fit for a project as ambitious as translating Gilgamesh, but if anyone is up to the challenge, it is Simon Armitage, a poet, playwright, professor, and expert in making archaic rhymes feel fresh. No stranger to old texts, his previous work includes a 2007 translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, much sold and much admired. Now, Armitage has written an updated version of the world’s most ancient story.

Before Achilles or Odysseus or Aeneas, there was Gilgamesh, king of the Sumerian city-state, Uruk. He ventured through Cedar Forest, past the Scorpion People, searching for purpose and immortality. Authored by many, with even the original Sumerian detailing multiple accounts, the tale arrives to us compounding the various reflections of the same man who, beyond the myths, may or may not have ever existed.

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