"He who saw everything" is the opening line from the first of the twelve fragmented tablets which provide our source material for the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Babylonian epic. With gods, ghosts, heroes, lovers, high adventure and rich cosmic symbolism, the epic presents the modern reader with many of their own cultural origins. Robert Temple's verse evokes both the dignity and the peculiar innocence of the epic and is accompanied by an introduction and notes which clarify the text's complex symbolism and describes the discovery of fragments which demonstrate that the play was originally performed on stage. Robert Temple is the author of six books including "The Sirius Mystery".