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But the men of Uruk muttered in their houses, 'Gilgamesh sounds the tocsin for his amusement, his arrogance has no bounds by day or night.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, trans. by N.K. Sandars, Penguin Classics, London, 1971 (1964), p.60.
PLACE: Uruk, city of Mesopotamia, valley of Euphrates.
TIME: 3rd Millennium B.C.
CIRCUMSTANCE: To show tke ruler's wilfulness and arrogance, the narrator suggests he sounds alarms without reason. - Gilgamesh is listed as the fifth king after the Deluge, the ones previous to his being gods who reigned for hundreds of years, and those after being mortals. Gilgamesh, being part god and part man, reigned 126 years and is thought to be the earliest heroic-tragic figure known. The Gilgamesh epic predates Homer by about 1500 years.
They broke the doorposts and the walls shook, they snorted like bulls locked together. (p. 67)
Like a raging wild bull he snuffed the ground; ... (p. 75)
The Epic of Gilgamesh, trans. by N.K. Sandars, Penguin Classics, London, 1971 (1964), p. 67 and 75.
PLACE: Uruk, city of Mesopotamia, valley of Euphrates.
TIME: 3rd Millennium B.C.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Bulls fighting are often used to describe the sound of combat. In this case a fight between Gilgamesh and Enkidu (p. 67) and Gilgamesh preparing to attack (p. 75)
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