GREENFIELD — "The Epic of Gilgamesh," one of the world’s oldest tales, begins by describing the protagonist as “He who saw the source / Who knew all of the land / He who saw the secrets, and revealed the hidden things.” This opening in Sebastian Lockwood’s version of the poem, an ancient Sumerian tale, could also describe Lockwood himself. A Greenfield resident since 2001, Lockwood, 74, makes it his mission to enthrall people with that story and others, including Homer’s "The Odyssey.
" Through the retellings, he reveals and discovers secrets in the stories, from structure to symbolic patterns. “I'm just fascinated by the fact that I can entrance an audience for an hour and a half ..
. telling 'Gilgamesh,' a 4,500-year-old story,” he said. Call to adventure Lockwood’s own story spans many years and several countries.
He grew up in Toronto, and lived there until age 7, when the family moved to Belgium after his father got a job there. His mother died of breast cancer, and he was then sent to boarding schools in England and later Canada. “Basically, at the age of 15, I dropped out because it wasn't working, and I hated school,” he said.
“And then I just took off on my own, and I was living in Toronto in that sort of great hippie moment.” He moved to Woodstock, N.Y.
, where he worked on the construction crew building the Empire State Plaza in Albany. “Rockefeller was the governor of New York and ..
. decided that he was going to build a piece of construct.
