EPIC OF GILGAMESH (2150-1400 BCE, Sumeria)

Gilgamesh, the son of a man and a goddess, is king of the ancient Sumerian citystate of Uruk. Oh, and he's also the strongest and most handsome man in the world.
Must be nice.
Unfortunately, Gilgamesh's assets have gone to his head, and he spends all his time
wearing out the young men of the city with endless athletic contests and sexually
exploiting the young women. When the citizens of Uruk can't take it anymore, they
pray to the gods for help. The god Anu hears them, and commands the goddess
Aruru to create another human who will be a match for Gilgamesh.
Aruru creates Enkidu, an uncivilized wild man, and places him in the woods. There,
Enkidu has several run-ins with a trapper who uses the same watering hole.
Terrified, the trapper goes to Uruk for help. On Gilgamesh's advice, the trapper goes
back to the watering hole with Shamhat, a temple-prostitute. When Enkidu shows
up, Shamhat entices him to have sex with her.
Afterward, Enkidu finds that he can no longer keep up with the animals, but that his
mind has been opened. He starts living with Shamhat, who initiates him into human
life. When she mentions Gilgamesh, Enkidu realizes that he wants a friendand that
he wants to give Gilgamesh a beat-down. (Frenemies!) Oh, what a coincidence
Gilgamesh has been dreaming about getting a new friend, too.
Soon enough, Enkidu goes to Uruk and faces down Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh wins,
natch, but there are no hard feelings, and the two warriors become best buds.
Time passes.
One day, Gilgamesh decides to go to the distant Cedar Forest and kill Humbaba, the
monster who guards it. Because, you know, why not? Against the advice of the
elders of Uruk and Enkidu himself, the two friends set out on their quest. Once they
make it to the Cedar Forest, the sun god Shamash helps them overpower Humbaba,
who starts pleading for mercy. Gilgamesh is about to grant it, but then gives in to
peer pressure from Enkidu, and kills him. (Just say no, you guys.)
The friends cut down the tallest tree in the forest, which Enkidu plans to dedicate to
the god Enlil. They build a raft and sail home down the River Euphrates, taking
Humbaba's head along for the ride. Fun!
At this point, the goddess Ishtar develops a crush on Gilgamesh and asks him to
marry her. Gilgamesh rejects her, pointing out that all of her previous lovers have
come to bad ends. Seriously pissed off, Ishtar borrows the Bull of Heaven from her
dad, Anu, and sends it to earth to punish the friends. But they kill the Bull, and,
when Ishtar appears on the ramparts of Uruk, Enkidu throws one of its legs in her
face.
Not long afterwards, Enkidu dreams that the gods have decided that, for killing
Humbaba, chopping down the cedar, and killing the Bull of Heaven, either he or
Gilgamesh must dieand that Enlil picked Enkidu. In no time, Enkidu falls
mysteriously ill, and dies after much suffering.

Gilgamesh is majorly bummed. Finally, he decides to travel beyond the ends of the
earth to speak to Utanapishtim, the one human who has been granted immortality.
An exhausting journey brings Gilgamesh to Mount Mashu, where two scorpionbeings guard the rising of the sun. Allowed to continue, Gilgamesh makes a
harrowing journey to the underside of the world, barely avoiding being burned to a
crisp by the sun.
Upon arrival, he meets Siduri the innkeeper, who directs him to Urshanabi the
ferryman. Despite getting a bad first impression, Urshanabi helps Gilgamesh cross
the Waters of Death. On the other side, Gilgamesh meets Utanapishtim, who tells
him, "Tough luck: humans just can't escape death."
See, long ago, the gods decided to destroy all of humanity with a Flood. But he and
his wife got some advance warning from the god Ea, and built a giant ship, on which
they stored all kinds of living creatures, as well as some craftsmen. When the Flood
was over, the god Enlil granted Utanapishtim and his wife immortality. Utanapishtim
doesn't think Gilgamesh is worthy of such a gift; to prove it, he challenges our hero
to a staying-awake contest.
Gilgamesh fails miserably. (We feel you, Gil. We fail our staying-awake contests
every night.) Utanapishtim tells him to take a hike, and fires Urshanabi for good
measure. After those two sail off, however, Utanapishtim's wife makes her husband
call them back. This time, Utanapishtim tells Gilgamesh about a plant that will
restore the youth of whoever eats it.
Gilgamesh finds the plant on the bottom of the sea and decides to take it home to
Uruk and test it on an old man. (Wisetry it on someone else, first.) At the first rest
stop on the way home, Gilgamesh takes a bath and leaves the flower on the ground.
A snake comes by and eats the flower. D'oh! Unperturbed, Gilgamesh and Urshanabi
keep journeying toward Uruk. When they reach it, Gilgamesh boasts about the city's
architecture,
echoing
the
opening
of
the
poem.
ILIAD (800-1200 BCE, Ancient Greece, Homer)
In the tenth year of the Trojan War, tensions are running high among the Achaians
(a super-ancient name for the Ancient Greeks). First, the priest Chryses comes to
ask their leader, King Agamemnon, to release his daughter, whom Agamemnon was
holding captive. When Agamemnon refuses, the priest prays to the god Apollo to
send a plague against the Achaians.
After nine days of plague, the Achaians assemble again and demand that
Agamemnon give the girl back. Agamemnon eventually agrees, but only if he gets
to take Briseis, the girlfriend of Achilleus, the greatest warrior of the Achaians. Even
though Achilleus gives her up, he becomes so enraged that he refuses to fight any
more. That and he prays to his mother, Thetis, who happens to be a goddess, to pull
some strings with the other gods so that the Achaians will start getting defeated in
battle and realize how much they depend on him.
Achilleus's mom definitely spoils him. She gets Zeus, the king of the gods, to agree
to Achilleus's request. Sure enough, the next day the Trojans make a successful

counterattack, led by Hektor, their greatest warrior. Several days of violent fighting
follow, at the end of which the Trojans have the Achaians pinned against the beach,
and are threatening to burn their ships.
At this point, Achilleus's best friend Patroklos asks for permission to go into battle in
Achilleus's place. Achilleus grants Patroklos's request, and even lets him wear his
armor. Patroklos's gambit is successful when the Trojans see him, they think he
must be Achilleus and become absolutely terrified. The plan goes off the rails,
however, when Hektor kills Patrokloswith the help of the god Apollo and a minor
Trojan warrior named Euphorbos. Hektor then takes the armor off Patroklos's body.
When Achilleus learns of the death of his friend, he experiences terrible grief and
swears revenge. He sends his mother, Thetis, to get a new suit of armor made
especially for him by the fire-god, Hephaistos. The next day, Achilleus rejoins the
battle and kills many Trojans, including Hektor in a one-on-one battle.
But Achilleus isn't satisfied. For the next few days, he continually abuses Hektor's
body in gruesome ways, even after Patroklos has received a proper funeral. The
gods don't like this, and send a message down to Achilleus telling him to give up the
body. When the Trojan King PriamHektor's fathercomes unarmed, by night, to
ask for his son's body, Achilleus agrees. The two men eat together and experience a
moment of shared humanity. Achilleus grants the Trojans a grace period to perform
their funeral rituals. The poem ends with the funeral of Hektorthough we know
that soon Achilleus will die and Troy will be captured.

ODYSSEY (800-1200 BCE, Ancient Greece, Homer)

Years after the end of the Trojan War, the Greek hero Odysseus still hasn't come
home to Ithaka. Most people figure he's dead. But we don't: Homer lets us know
right away that Odysseus is being held as a (willing) sex captive on the island of the
goddess Kalypso. Oh, and sea god Poseidon is ticked off at Odysseus, and sees no
reason to let him get home.
Back in Ithaka, Odysseus's wife Penelope is getting swarmed by a horde of
unwanted suitors. Odysseus and Penelope's son, Telemachos, now a typically moody
teenager, gets a visit from the goddess Athene (who was always chummy with
Odysseus). She tells him to go looking for news of his missing father, so he heads to
Pylos to visit King Nestor. Nestor takes him in, gives him a dinnerand then tells
him to go see King Menelaos in Sparta. Once again, he does as he's told.
In Sparta, Telemachos learns from Menelaos that Odysseus is alive andwell, being
held captive on Kalypso's island. Menelaos also tells Telemachos about how his bro,
King Agamemnon, was murdered when he got home from Troy by his unfaithful wife,
Klytaimestra, and her lover, Aigisthos. It's cool, though: Agamemnon's son Orestes
killed the murderers. This fun story raises the question of whether Odysseus will be
killed when he gets home, and, if so, whether Telemachos will step up to avenge his
father's death. Meanwhile, back in Ithaka, Penelope's suitors plot to ambush and kill
Telemachos when he returns home. Oh, the tension!

Up on Mount Olympos, where the gods all hang out, the goddess Athene asks her
father, Zeus, the King of the gods, to have mercy on Odysseus and force Kalpyso to
release him. Zeus says whatevs, and in no time, Odysseus sails off on a makeshift
raft. Unfortunately, Poseidon whips up some storms, and instead of getting home,
Odysseus washes ashore in the land of the Phaiakians. Fortunately, Athene makes
the resident princess, Nausikaa, develop a crush on him. Nausikaa takes him home
to meet her parents, the King and Queen of Phaiakia. In return for their hospitality,
Odysseus tells them (and us) everything that's happened to him since the end of
the Trojan War, which is this:
Odysseus left Troy with a ship of his Ithakan men. At their first stop, they plundered
the locals' stuff. Several storm-tossed days later, they landed on the island of the
Lotus-eaters. A few guys ate the lotus flower (i.e. every drug your parents have ever
warned you about), forgot their homes and families, and had to be taken back to
the ship by force.
Next, Odysseus and his men came to the land of the giant one-eyed Cyclopes. They
stumbled into a Cyclops cave, and the resident Cyclops (Polyphemos) sealed the
entrance to the cave with a huge boulder and ate a few of the Ithakans. Not cool.
Odysseus did some of his patented trickery and managed to blind the monster; the
next morning, he and his men escaped by riding under the bellies of Polyphemos's
flock of sheep. (Here's a picture of his escape.)
But as Odysseus was sailing away with his men, his ego got the better of him. He
taunted the Cyclops, telling him his real name. Turns out, Polyphemos was the son
of Poseidon, the god of the sea. Oops. Guess this is why Poseidon hates our hero so
much.
Next, Odysseus and his men came to the island of Aiolos, god of the wind. He
helped Odysseus out by putting all the windsexcept for the westbound breeze
they neededinto a nice little bag. Unfortunately, Odysseus didn't tell his men
what's in the bag. On the way home, they opened it up, thinking it was full of
treasure. Big mistake. All the winds jumped out and ran riot, thus driving them to
the island of sorceress Circe, who turned many of the men into pigs.
With the help of the gods, Odysseus got his men turned back into humans and had
sex with Circe. For a year. Finally, one of his men said, "Can we get going already?,"
and Odysseus said, "OK." Waitfirst they had to go the Underworld and get advice
from the prophet Teiresias. (Just don't ask Apple Maps for directions.)
At the Underworld, Teiresias prophesied that Odysseus would make it home, but not
without difficulty. Odysseus spoke to several other famous dead people (like his war
buddies Achilleus and Agamemnon). He also met the ghost of his mother, Antikleia,
who had died of grief over her son's prolonged absence. Then, after a quick pit stop
back at Circe's island for more directions (who says men don't ask for directions?),
Odysseus and his men sailed on for a series of adventures:
(1) When they passed by the Sirens, monstrous women with beautiful voices who
try to lure sailors to their deaths, Odysseus made his men plug their ears and tie

him to the mast so he could listen to the song without chasing after it. He became
the only man to hear the Sirens' song and survive.
(2) Next, they met two horrible monsters (curiously, also female) named Skylla and
Charybdis. As predicted by Circe, Skylla (who has six heads) ate six Ithakans; the
rest barely escaped Charybdis (a giant vortex who sucks up the sea and vomits it
back out again).
(3) Next, they landed on the island of Helios, the sun god, where his very special
cattle were kept. Despite having been warned by Teiresias and Circe not to eat the
cattle, Odysseus's men couldn't control their hunger. Bad call. Not long afterward,
everyone died in a stormexcept for Odysseus.
(4) But he was in for his own bad luck: winding up on Kalypso's island to be held
prisoner for seven yearsbefore getting free to shipwreck with the Phaiakians,
where he's telling this story.
And that's it for Odysseus's story to the Phaiakians. They're so moved by his
suffering that they load him up with treasure and ferry him back to Ithaka.
(Unfortunately, in return for their trouble, the god Poseidon turns them and their
ship into stone.) But the fun isn't over yethe still has all those pesky suitors to
deal with.
Once Odysseus gets home, Athene disguises him as a beggar so he can scope out
the situation. Odysseus then recruits the assistance of the swineherd, Eumaios, who
puts him up for the night while Athene flies to Sparta to retrieve Telemachos. When
Telemachos gets back, Odysseus reveals himself to his son and then heads to the
palace, still disguised as a beggar. Without revealing his true identity, he tries to
convince Penelope that Odysseus is on his way home and susses out which of his
servants are still loyal to the household and which have joined the suitors.
By now, Penelope decides to take action: she'll marry the winner of a content of
physical prowess. The challenge? String Odysseus's old bow and shoot it through
the heads of twelve axes. You can guess the rest: everyone tries and fails, until the
beggar (Odysseus in disguise) steps up. He succeeds, drops the disguise, and, with
the help of Telemachos, several loyal servants, and Athene's protection, kills all the
suitors in a massive and bloody slaughter. Odysseus reunites with his wife, and
everything is back to normalexcept that he's just killed all the young noblemen of
Ithaka and their parents are furious.
The next morning, Odysseus leaves the palace, reunites with his father Laertes, and
lays low while the angry moms and dads start looking for vengeance. Just when it
looks like more violence is on the way, Athene appears and asks why we can't all
get along. This sounds like a great idea to everyone, and peace is restored in Ithaka
BEOWULF (8th -11th century England)
King Hrothgar, the ruler of the Danes, is troubled by the rampages of a demon
named Grendel. Every night, Grendel attacks King Hrothgar's wealthy mead-hall,
Heorot, killing Danish warriors and sometimes even eating them.

Hrothgar was a great warrior in his time, but now he's an old king and can't seem to
protect his people. Fortunately, a young Geat warrior named Beowulf travels to
Heorot Hall from his own lands overseas to lend a helping handliterally.
After explaining that he owes Hrothgar a favor because Hrothgar helped out his
father, Beowulf offers to fight Grendel himself. King Hrothgar gratefully accepts his
offer. The next time Grendel attacks Heorot Hall, Beowulf is waiting for him.
Choosing to fight Grendel in hand-to-hand combat, Beowulf wrestles the demon into
submission and eventually tears off his arm at the shoulder. Mortally wounded,
Grendel flees into the wilderness and dies. Beowulf, Hrothgar, and their followers
throw a wild party to celebrate. Hrothgar also gives Beowulf many presents and
treasures to reward him for his heroic defeat of the demon.
Unfortunately, Grendel has an overprotective mother who decides to avenge her
son. While all the warriors are sleeping off the party, she attacks Heorot Hall. But
when the warriors wake up, she panics and flees back to her lair, a cave underneath
a nearby lake.
Beowulf, his Geatish warriors, and some of Hrothgar's Danish warriors track her
there. Beowulf dives into the lake and finds the cave, where he takes on Grendel's
mother in another one-on-one battle. Seizing a nearby sword from Grendel's
mother's stash of treasure, he slays her, even though her poisonous demon blood
melts the blade. When Beowulf returns to the surface, carrying the sword hilt and
Grendel's severed head, the Danish warriors have given him up for dead, but his
own Geatish followers are still waiting patiently. When everyone sees that Beowulf
has survived this second challenge, there's even more partying and gift-giving.
Finally, the Geats take their leave of the Danes; Beowulf says goodbye to King
Hrothgar and sails back to Geatland, where he is a lord in the court of King Hygelac.
Eventually, Hygelac and all his relatives are killed in different blood-feuds, and
Beowulf becomes the King of the Geats. Beowulf reigns as king for fifty years,
protecting the Geats from all the other tribes around them, especially the Swedes.
He is an honorable and heroic warrior-king, rewarding his loyal thanes (warrior lords)
and taking care of his people.
But one day, Beowulf finally meets his match: a dragon, woken by a thief stealing a
goblet, begins attacking the Geats, burning villages and slaughtering people.
Beowulf takes a group of eleven trusty warriors, plus the thief who knows where the
dragon's lair is, to the barrow for a final showdown with the monster. When they see
the dragon, all but one of the warriors flee in terror. Only one man, Wiglaf, remains
at Beowulf's side. With Wiglaf's help and encouragement, Beowulf is able to defeat
the dragon, but he is mortally wounded in the process.
After Beowulf's death, the Geats build an enormous funeral pyre for him, heaped
with treasures. Once the pyre has burned down, they spend ten days building an
enormous barrow (a large mound of earth filled with treasure) as a monument to
their lost king.
BIAG Ni LAM-ANG (17th century Ilocano epic, Pedro Bukaneg)

Don Juan and his wife Namongan lived in Nalbuan, now part of La Union in the
northern part of the Philippines. They had a son named Lam-ang. Before Lam-ang
was born, Don Juan went to the mountains in order to punish a group of their Igorot
enemies. While he was away, his son Lam-ang was born. It took four people to help
Namongan give birth. As soon as the baby boy popped out, he spoke and asked that
he be given the name Lam-ang. He also chose his godparents and asked where his
father was.
After nine months of waiting for his father to return, Lam-ang decided he would go
look for him. Namongan thought Lam-ang was up to the challenge but she was sad
to let him go. During his exhausting journey, he decided to rest for awhile. He fell
asleep and had a dream about his father's head being stuck on a pole by the Igorot.
Lam-ang was furious when he learned what had happened to his father. He rushed
to their village and killed them all, except for one whom he let go so that he could
tell other people about Lam-ang's greatness.
Upon returning to Nalbuan in triumph, he was bathed by women in the Amburayan
river. All the fish died because of the dirt and odor from Lam-ang's body.
There was a young woman named Ines Kannoyan whom Lam-ang wanted to woo.
She lived in Calanutian and he brought along his white rooster and gray dog to visit
her. On the way, Lam-ang met his enemy Sumarang, another suitor of Ines whom he
fought and readily defeated.
Lam-ang found the house of Ines surrounded by many suitors all of whom were
trying to catch her attention. He had his rooster crow, which caused a nearby house
to fall. This made Ines look out. He had his dog bark and in an instant the fallen
house rose up again. The girl's parents witnessed this and called for him. The
rooster expressed the love of Lam-ang. The parents agreed to a marriage with their
daughter if Lam-ang would give them a dowry valued at double their wealth. Lamang had no problem fulfilling this condition and he and Ines were married.
It was a tradition to have a newly married man swim in the river for the rarang fish.
Unfortunately, Lam-ang dove straight into the mouth of the water monster
Berkakan. Ines had Marcos get his bones, which she covered with a piece of cloth.
His rooster crowed and his dog barked and slowly the bones started to move. Back
alive, Lam-ang and his wife lived happily ever after with his white rooster and gray
dog.
HINILAWOD
Hinilawod is the oldest and longest epic poem in Panay. It is usually sung for a
period of three weeks at intervals of two hours at night. It contains, in its complete
form, some eighteen stories. Each story represents three generations.
In the eastern part of what is known as the Philippines, there lived a beautiful
goddess named Alunsina, goddess of the eastern sea. Alunsina fell in love with an
ordinary mortal named Paubari and she married him though she knew that marriage
between heavenly persons and ordinary mortals was frowned upon.

When the marriage was discovered, Maklium-sa-twan, god of the plains and
valleys, became angry. He vowed to make life miserable for the unfortunate couple.
Together with other gods who felt insulted by the marriage, Maklium-sa-twan sent
down raging storms and floods to the kingdom, of Paubari and Alunsina.
Fortunately, Suklang Malayon, the guardian of happy homes, had warned the couple
beforehand. Heeding the warning, the two fled to the top of the Madyaas Mountains
and stayed there until the gods had spent their wrath.
With the deluge over, the couple descended to the plains to live in peace and raise
a family. Eventually, Alunsina gave birth to triplets. These three children grew up to
become giants, all endowed with superhuman strength which they used for helping
their parents and the people in outlying villages.
With their coming of age, Labaw Donggon, the eldest of the three, asked his
parents, Respected Father, O, my Beloved Mother, I ask your permission to go and
seek a loving and industrious woman who will give me sons and daughters and who
will serve you in your old age.
Go, my son, replied the two. Bring back a woman who will be a source of
happiness for all.
But bringing back the woman of his dreams was no easy task. To win his first wife,
he had to vanquish Manalutad, a monster. For his second wife, he had to kill a
hydra-headed giant named Sikay Padalogdog. And for his last love, Labaw Donggon
had to fight Saragnayan, the lord of darkness. For many moons they grappled with
each other until Labaw Donggon was overpowered. He was thrown into prison and
there, he languished for many years until one of his children fought the lord of
darkness and killed him.
When Alunsinas second son, Humadapnon, heard of the maltreatment suffered by
his brother, he set out to punish the people of the lord of darkness. He brought with
him his trusted warrior Buyong Matang-ayon. Along the way, they met a sorceress
named Pinganun-Pinungganum. The Sorceress had the taken the form of a woman
so beautiful that in no time, Humadapnin was bewitched. Fortunately, Buyong
Matang-ayon succeeded in breaking her spell and the two were able to escape.
Upon reaching the kingdom of Umban Pinaumbaw, they found their way blocked by
a huge boulder. Because of this huge rock the people in the kingdom could not
move about freely. The two friends tried to go around the boulder but it seemed that
the rock grew wider with every step. They tried to climb it, but it seemed to grow
higher with their every step. Seeing that the boulder could not be overcome by
ordinary effort, Humadapnon put on his magic cape. Without much ado, he was able
to lift the rock and put it out of the way. For thus great feat, he was awarded the
hand of the princess.
Meanwhile, Alunsinas third son, Dumalapdap, set out to win the hand of the
beautiful Lubay-Lubyok Hanginin si Mahuyok---- the goddess of the evening breeze.
After several minor adventures, he finally reached the palace where she lived. But
this place was guarded by ferocious monsters.

The first was Balanakon, a two-headed monster. With the aid of a friendly dwende,
Dumalapdap overcame this first foe. Hardly had he rested from this battle when a
bat-like monster named Ayutang came hurtling down at him. No matter how he
tried, Dumlapdap could not pierce the monster with his sword for its body was
covered with thick scales. Finally, he inflicted a wound on the monsters armpit, the
only vulnerable part of the monsters body.
Mortally wounded, Ayutang began growling in pain and gasping for breath. The
earth beneath him quaked as he trashed about in agony. Suddenly, the earth split
into two and swallowed up the hapless monster. The rocks in the area sank into the
newly-formed sea but their surfaces stuck out and became the island of Panay.
With his hard-earned victory, Dumalapdap returned home accompanied by the
beauteous goddess of the evening breeze. Meanwhile, the newly-formed land was
apportioned among the brothers. Labaw Donggon was made the ruler of Irong-Irong
(Iloilo); Humadapnon, the king of Hantique (Antique); and Dumalapdap, the lord of
the Aklan region. Thereafter, Alunsina and Paubari went to live in peace atop the
Madyaas Mountains.