Gilagamesh, the oldest known manuscript, tells the story of Gilgamesh, an ancient Sumerian king who unwittingly embarks on a quest for self-discovery. Through a narrative that describes the trials of this selfish and unhappy man, the author demonstrates the fatuity of human nature and the evolution of a healthier outlook on life. The story contains many of the profound and now cliché truths found in later important documents, such as the Bible, and is an amazing tribute to the similarities we have with these ancient ancestors.

The author of Gilgamesh is unknown. The epic is dated back to nearly 3000 B.C., but scholars believe it could have existed much earlier through an oral tradition. Tablets of the epic found throughout Mesopotamia and in parts of Anatolia held only portions of the story and were written in different languages, which suggests that the epic was certainly not composed in...