An Inherited Epic of Gilgamesh: A poetic memoir dedicated to James McAuley

By Graeme Hetherington

In this, his seventh book of poetry, written over a period of more than forty years, Graeme Hetherington explores how his friendship with James McAuley has parallels with that of Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the ancient Mesopotamian epic. As in the original, it is a warts and all treatment, with human behaviour in relationship to loss and the inevita

• Language: English
• Publisher: Debbie Lee
• Release date: Jan 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781760416720

Book preview

An Inherited Epic of Gilgamesh

An Inherited Epic of Gilgamesh

A poetic memoir dedicated to James McAuley

Graeme Hetherington

Ginninderra Press

An Inherited Epic of Gilgamesh: A poetic memoir dedicated to James McAuley

ISBN 978 1 76041 672 0

Copyright © text Graeme Hetherington 2019

Cover image (courtesy of John Elliott Classics Museum, University of Tasmania): Neo-Assyrian cylinder seal, composition material, c. 850–600 BC (modern impression); the seal bears a scene of contest between two bird-like creatures, one apparently with a human head

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All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for permission should be sent to the publisher at the address below.

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First published 2019 by

Ginninderra Press

PO Box 3461 Port Adelaide 5015

www.ginninderrapress.com.au

Contents

An Inherited Epic of Gilgamesh

Thanks

Quotations introducing the eleven sections are from N.K. Sandar’s translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh, Penguin Classics, 1972, and can be found as follows: section 1, p. 61; 2, p. 67; 3, p. 67; 4, p. 71; 5, p. 87; 6, p. 89; 7, p. 96; 8, p. l01; 9, p. 97; 10, p. 114; 11, p. 117.

An Inherited Epic of Gilgamesh

Prologue

He was wise, he saw mysteries and knew secret things…

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‘The mad, bad, dangerous to know,

He’ll use you up then spit you out’

From jealous folk, I’d counter with

The Karamazov clan in one,

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Faust, Mann’s holy sinner Grigorss

Who sloughed off shame beneath a rock,

Emerging honey-sweet and mild,

The Dioskouroi, star and shade

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In interchanging roles, such was

The range his tightrope stretched across.

Enigmatic, I’d concede, doomed

To fall apart from paradox,

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And yet he didn’t, bearing all

Courageously within. Good friend

To me as was Uruk’s god-king

To Enkidu delivered by

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Royal courtesans from Hell’s Gates’ beasts

For civilising at his five

Year-long crab-shadowed final feast,

He was as poet, editor,

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Musician, literary hoaxer, sage,

Both multi-talented and lone,

All said and done, Christ-crosser of

The great Australian emptiness.

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Lapsed Protestant turned communist,

Then Catholic, pro-Vietnam war,

DLP, arch-conservative,

Administrator, ASIO

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Grey Eminence, or spook, and all

In honour of