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Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s . . . Gilgamesh?

(ARA) — Do you know where the archetype of the superhero originally appeared? If you said Superman, you’re probably a fan of modern-day comics rather than ancient history — and you’d be wrong.

The first written account of a superhero appears almost 4,800 years ago—predating Homer, Vergil, and even the Bible—in the figure of Gilgamesh, the ruler of Uruk, who is said to have actually existed and ruled for 126 years.

One theory holds that many ancient gods—Zeus/Jupiter, Athena/Minerva, Venus/Aphrodite—were originally historical persons. After their deaths they were given heroic attributes: divine parentage, miraculous childhood survival, a journey to a faraway land, a descent to the underworld, miracles, philanthropy, intimacy with the divine, and eventual deification. Gilgamesh is the earliest such god-hero or “superhero.” A modern superhero, by contrast, is fictional but endowed with similar mythical powers.

In line with pop culture’s habit of recycling the past, most superheroes draw directly from ancient myth. Superhuman strength, flying ability, invulnerability—these mirror the traits of Hercules, Pegasus, Hermes, and other Greek and Roman figures. Gilgamesh, whose father was mortal and mother divine, possessed all the hallmarks: great physical strength, semi-divinity, extraordinary beauty, and power.

A new translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh has caught the attention of scholars for its modern, lyrical, accessible rendition. And the epic’s significance extends far beyond the first superhero narrative: it predates the Bible by 2,000 years with its account of a great flood; it anticipates Odysseus’ meditation on immortality; and it contains early forms of the Adam and Eve story—the serpent that causes the loss of immortality and the idea of a regained paradise.

This new translation from Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers features a verse rendering by poet Danny P. Jackson, woodcuts by artist Thom Kapheim, and authentication by Assyriologist Robert D. Biggs of The Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago.

Originally written in cuneiform, the poem was inscribed on 12 clay tablets discovered in the 1850s in the library of King Assurbanipal in modern-day Iraq. Some tablets are fragmentary due to a Persian invasion in 612 B.C., but remarkably, the author’s name—Sin-leqe-unninni—survives.

Another remarkable “first” is the epic’s treatment of universal themes: mortality and immortality, friendship, sorrow, the tension between nature and civilization, and human pride. These themes echo across literary history—and even in today’s comic books. Perhaps Gilgamesh would have looked at home in red tights and a cape.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is available at Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores, and directly from Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers at (847) 526-4344 or www.bolchazy.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content, www.ARAcontent.com, e-mail: info@ARAcontent.com