Gilgamesh is an ancient Sumerian epic, the oldest literature known. I found myself reading it recently, in the Foster translation, as part of a learning journey. I engaged slightly grudgingly with the text and emerged very moved. I was moved by the narrative itself; the cadences of the translation; the basal messages which are shown, not told, in a sophisticated style; and the evident devotion of generations of scholars to unearthing, deciphering and translating the cuneiform tablets on which this tale was written four millennia ago.