The theme of the unburied hero
has been topical in antiquity since the twelfth table of Gilgamesh.
Homer picks it up again after the Iliad in the person of Elpenor (Odyssey X,552ff), Vergil in Aeneis 5,883ff (Palinurus).
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Tag: Non-burial of the hero
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(2) Assyria’s downfall:
In the year 705 BC the Cimmerians defeated and killed
the Assyrian king Sargon II in a battle that probably took place similar to the defeat of the Roman commander Varus in 9 AD at today’s Kalkriese.
Sargon remained unburied on the battlefield, in Assyria the twelfth tablet of the Gilgamesh epic was created thereupon, one discussed violently its topic, the fate of the unburied dead warrior.