From its beginnings, The Norton Anthology of World Literature has been committed to offering students and teachers as many complete or substantially represented texts as possible. This Shorter Fourth Edition emphasizes the importance of foundational texts as never before by offering new translations of some of the best-known and most-loved works in the history of world literature. The Epic of Gilgamesh stands first in line of these foundational texts, which capture the story of an entire people, telling them where they came from and who they are.