In the perhaps five thousand years since Gilgamesh was set down, history has witnessed transformation upon transformation of how we eat and shelter, how we live and communicate, how we medicate and procreate, and yet we immediately recognize ourselves in the unfolding narrative. Gilgamesh and his brother-in-arms Enkidu set out on a quest that would test their courage, their morality, and ultimately their sense of who they were—a Neolithic Thelma and Louise. Late in the journey, as Gilgamesh hovers over the lifeless Enkidu, he laments in wrenching but all too familiar terms: “He covered, like a
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