Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh, written in Akkadian, is one of the world's oldest literary works and is thought to have been an important influence on Homer. The epic was found written on clay tablets in the palace library in Assyria's capital city, Nineveh. Gilgamesh had ruled at Uruk in Mesopotamia during the first half of the third milennium BC. The Epic tells the story of a great king and warrior. Gilgamesh defeated Engidu who then became his friend. They set forth together against Humbaba the guardian of a cedar forest. The passage quoted by Gothein, in the opening section of Chapter 2 of her History of Garden Art, draws attention to the earliest description of a sacred wood in which 'The ways are straight, and the path is wrought fair. They see the cedar mount, the dwellings of gods, the sanctuary of the Irnini.' She sees it as 'a kind of starting-point, for the park of history'.