Publisher's series: Penguin 60s Classics Miraculously preserved in clay tablets, the famous Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, from which this extract is taken, dates from the third millennium BC and is the finest surviving epic poem before Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. Both moral and god, Gilgamesh is superior to all men in looks and strength. He finds a companion in Enkidu and a firm friendship ensues. Enkidu's fate is sealed when their adventures incur the wrath of the gods and Gilgamesh is left to contemplate the inevitability of death. A stirring chronicle of heroic adventure and friendship.