Response?Gilgamesh

Description
Order?Description:Each?student?will?also?post?two?or?more?50+?word?responses?to?other?students??posts?or?to
other?students??responses?(trying?to?actually?get?discussion?going).?
!!!?Responses:?must?clearly?and?respectfully?address?what?the?student?wrote.?This?may?include?further
development?of?the?ideas,?opposing?views?supported?with?evidence,?questions?for?further?discussion,?etc.?This
may?not?SIMPLY?be,??Good?point??or??I?agree??(Though?praise?is?good,?add?content,?too).?It?MUST?contain
explanation.??Good?point?most?people?overlook?…??Thou?shalt?not?address?the?quality?of?the?student?s?writing
(my?job).?
Thou?shalt?be?respectful?of?the?course?material,?instructor,?and?classmates.Posts?are?to?be?in?Standard?English,
but?responses?may?be?less?formal?(but?don?t?go?overboard?with?that!).?
Students?who?actively?engage?in?real?discussion/conversation?(back?and?forth,?showing?progress?and
engagement)?shall?receive?higher?grades.

BY STEPHEN MITCHELL
POETRY
Parables and Portraits
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The Frog Prince
Meetings with the Archangel
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Loving What Is: Four Questions that Can Change Your Life (with
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The Gospel According to Jesus
TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS
Gilgamesh
Bhagavad Gita
Real Power: Business Lessons from the Tao Te Ching (with James
A. Autry)
Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon: Selected Poems of Pablo
Neruda
Genesis
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Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer
Maria Rilke
A Book of Psalms
The Selected Poetry of Dan Pagis
Tao Te Ching
The Book of Job
The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai (with Chana Bloch)
The Sonnets to Orpheus
The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke
EDITED BY STEPHEN MITCHELL
The Essence of Wisdom: Words from the Masters to Illuminate the
Spiritual Path
Bestiary: An Anthology of Poems about Animals
Song of Myself
Into the Garden: A Wedding Anthology (with Robert Hass)
The Enlightened Mind: An Anthology of Sacred Prose
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Dropping Ashes on the Buddha:
The Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn
FOR CHILDREN
The Wishing Bone and Other Poems (illustrated by Tom Pohrt)
The Nightingale, by Hans Christian Andersen (illustrated by
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Jesus: What He Really Said and Did
The Creation (illustrated by Ori Sherman)
BOOKS ON TAPE
Gilgamesh
Loving What Is
Bhagavad Gita
Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon
The Frog Prince
Meetings with the Archangel
Bestiary
Genesis
Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus
The Gospel According to Jesus
The Enlightened Mind
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The Enlightened Heart
Letters to a Young Poet
Parables and Portraits
Tao Te Ching
The Book of Job
Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke
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GILGAMESH
STEPHEN MITCHELL
ATRIA BOOKS
New York London Toronto Sydney New Dehli
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ATRIA PAPERBACK
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Copyright ? 2004 by Stephen Mitchell
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gilgamesh. English.
Gilgamesh / a new English version [by] Stephen Mitchell.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Epic poetry, Assyro-Babylonian-Translations into English. I. Mitchell, Stephen,
1943-II. Title.
PJ3771.5.G5E5 2004
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892′.1?dc22
2004050072
ISBN-13:978-0-7432-6164-7
ISBN-13:978-1-4391-047-4-3
ISBN-10: 0-7432-6164-X
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ABOUT THIS VERSION
GILGAMESH
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GLOSSARY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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INTRODUCTION
THE OLDEST STORY IN THE WORLD
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In Iraq, when the dust blows, stopping men and tanks, it brings
with it memories of an ancient world, much older than Islam or
Christianity. Western civilization originated from that place
between the Tigris and the Euphrates, where Hammurabi created
his legal code and where Gilgamesh was written-the oldest story
in the world, a thousand years older than the Iliad or the Bible. Its
hero was a historical king who reigned in the Mesopotamian city
of Uruk in about 2750 BCE. In the epic, he has an intimate friend,
Enkidu, a naked wild man who has been civilized through the
erotic arts of a temple priestess. With him Gilgamesh battles
monsters, and when Enkidu dies, he is inconsolable. He sets out
on a desperate journey to find the one man who can tell him how
to escape death.
Part of the fascination of Gilgamesh is that, like any great work of
literature, it has much to tell us about ourselves. In giving voice to
grief and the fear of death, perhaps more powerfully than any
book written after it, in portraying love and vulnerability and the
quest for wisdom, it has become a personal testimony for millions
of readers in dozens of languages. But it also has a particular
relevance in today?s world, with its polarized fundamentalisms,
each side fervently believing in its own righteousness, each on a
crusade, or jihad, against what it perceives as an evil enemy. The
hero of this epic is an antihero, a superman (a superpower, one
might say) who doesn?t know the difference between strength and
arrogance. By preemptively attacking a monster, he brings on
himself a disaster that can only be overcome by an agonizing
journey, a quest that results in wisdom by proving its own futility.
The epic has an extraordinarily sophisticated moral intelligence.
In its emphasis on balance and in its refusal to side with either
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hero or monster, it leads us to question our dangerous certainties
about good and evil.
I began this version of Gilgamesh because I had never been
convinced by the language of any translation of it that I?d read. I
wanted to find a genuine voice for the poem: words that were lithe
and muscular enough to match the power of the story. If I have
succeeded, readers will discover that, rather than standing before
an antiquity in a glass case, they have entered a literary
masterpiece that is as startlingly alive today as it was three and a
half millennia ago.
ORIGINS
Gilgamesh is a work that in the intensity of its imagination stands
beside the great stories of Homer and the Bible. Yet for two
thousand years, all traces of it were lost. The baked clay tablets on
which it was inscribed in cuneiform characters lay buried in the
rubble of cities across the ancient Near East, waiting for people
from another world to read them. It wasn?t until 1850 that the first
fragments were discovered among the ruins of Nineveh, and the
text wasn?t deciphered and translated for several decades
afterward. The great poet Rainer Maria Rilke may have been the
first reader discerning enough to recognize its true literary stature.
?Gilgamesh is stupendous!? he wrote at the end of 1916. ?I ?
consider it to be among the greatest things that can happen to a
person.? ?I have immersed myself in [it], and in these truly
gigantic fragments I have experienced measures and forms that
belong with the supreme works that the conjuring Word has ever
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produced.? In Rilke?s consciousness, Gilgamesh, like a
magnificent Aladdin?s palace that has instantly materialized out of
nowhere, makes its first appearance as a masterpiece of world
literature.
The story of its discovery and decipherment is itself as fabulous
as a tale from The Thousand and One Nights. A young English
traveler named Austen Henry Layard, who was passing through
the Middle East on his way to Ceylon, heard that there were
antiquities buried in the mounds of what is now the city of Mosul,
halted his journey, and began excavations in 1844. These mounds
turned out to contain the ruined palaces of Nineveh, the ancient
capital of Assyria, including what was left of the library of the last
great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal (668-627 BCE). ?In
amazement? Layard and his assistant Hormuzd Rassam ?found
room after room lined with carved stone bas-reliefs of demons
and deities, scenes of battle, royal hunts and ceremonies;
doorways flanked by enormous winged bulls and lions; and,
inside some of the chambers, tens of thousands of clay tablets
inscribed with the curious, and then undeciphered, cuneiform
(?wedge-shaped?) script.? Over twenty-five thousand of these
tablets were shipped back to the British Museum.
When cuneiform was officially deciphered in 1857, scholars
discovered that the tablets were written in Akkadian, an ancient
Semitic language cognate with Hebrew and Arabic. Fifteen years
went by before anyone noticed the tablets on which Gilgamesh
was inscribed. Then, in 1872, a young British Museum curator
named George Smith realized that one of the fragments told the
story of a Babylonian Noah, who survived a great flood sent by
the gods. ?On looking down the third column,
? Smith wrote,
?my
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eye caught the statement that the ship rested on the mountains of
Nizir, followed by the account of the sending forth of the dove,
and its finding no resting-place and returning. I saw at once that I
had here discovered a portion at least of the Chaldean account of
the Deluge.? To a Victorian this was a spectacular discovery,
because it seemed to be independent corroboration of the
historicity of the biblical Flood (Victorians believed that the
Genesis story was much older than it is). When Smith saw these
lines, according to a later account, he said,
??I am the first man to
read that after more than two thousand years of oblivion!? Setting
the tablet on the table,
? the account continues,
?he jumped up and
rushed about the room in a great state of excitement, and, to the
astonishment of those present, began to undress himself.? We
aren?t told if he took off just his coat or if he continued to strip
down further. I like to imagine him in his euphoria going all the
way and running stark naked, like Enkidu, among the astonished
black-clad Victorian scholars.
Smith?s announcement, made on December 3, 1872 to the newly
formed Society of Biblical Archaeology, that he had discovered
an account of the Flood on one of the Assyrian tablets caused a
major stir, and soon more fragments of Gilgamesh were unearthed
at Nineveh and in the ruins of other ancient cities. His translation
of the fragments that had been discovered up to then was
published in 1876. Though to a modern reader it seems quaint and
almost surrealistic in its many mistaken guesses, and is often
fragmentary to the point of incoherence, it was an important
pioneering effort.
Today, more than a century and a quarter later, many more
fragments have surfaced, the language is much better understood,
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and scholars can trace the history of the text with some degree of
confidence. Briefly, here is the consensus.
Legends about Gilgamesh probably began to arise shortly after
the death of the historical king. The earliest texts that have
survived, which date from about 2100 BCE, are five separate and
independent poems in Sumerian, entitled ?Gilgamesh and Aga,
?
?Gilgamesh and Huwawa,
? ?Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven,
?
?Gilgamesh and the Underworld,
? and ?The Death of
Gilgamesh.? (Sumerian is a non Semitic language unrelated to
any other that we know, and is as distant from Akkadian as
Chinese is from English. It became the learned language of
ancient Mesopotamia and was part of the scribal curriculum.)
These five poems-written in a leisurely, repetitive, hieratic style,
much less condensed and vivid than the Akkadian epic-would
have been familiar to later poets and editors.
The direct ancestor of the eleven clay tablets dug up at Nineveh is
called the Old Babylonian version. It was written in Akka-dian (of
which Babylonian is a dialect) and dates from about 1700 BCE;
eleven fragments have survived, including three tablets that are
almost complete. This version, though it paraphrases a few
episodes in the Sumerian Gilgamesh texts, is an original poem,
the first Epic of Gilgamesh. In its themes and its form, it is
essentially the same poem as its Ninevite descendent: a story
about friendship, the death of the beloved, and the quest for
immortality.
Some five hundred years after the Old Babylonian version was
written, a scholar-priest named S?n-leqi-unninni revised and
elaborated on it. His epic, which scholars call the Standard
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Version, is the basis for all modern translations. As of now, with
seventy-three fragments discovered, slightly fewer than two
thousand of the three thousand lines of the original text exist in
readable, continuous form; the rest is damaged or missing, and
there are many gaps in the sections that have survived.
We don?t know exactly what S?n-leqi-unninni?s contribution to
the Standard Version was, since so few fragments of the Old
Babylonian version have survived for comparison. From what we
can see, he is often a conservative editor, following the older
version line for line, with few if any changes in vocabulary and
word order. Sometimes, though, he expands or contracts, drops
passages or adds them, and functions not as an editor but as an
original poet. The two major passages that we know he added, the
Prologue and the priestess Shamhat?s speech inviting Enkidu to
Uruk, have the vividness and density of great art.
The Gilgamesh that you are about to read is a sometimes free,
sometimes close adaptation into English verse of S?n-leqiunninni?s
Standard Version.
*Even scholars making literal
translations don?t simply translate the Standard Version; they fill
in some of the textual gaps with passages from other versions, the
Old Babylonian being the most important. I have taken this
practice further: occasionally, when the Standard Version is
particularly fragmentary, I have supplemented it with passages
from the Sumerian Gilgamesh poems. I have also added lines or
short passages to bridge the gaps or to clarify the story. My
intention throughout has been to re-create the ancient epic, as a
contemporary poem, in the parallel universe of the English
language.
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CIVILIZING THE WILD MAN
Gilgamesh is the story of a hero?s journey; one might say that it is
the mother of all heroes? journeys, with its huge uninhibited
mythic presences moving through a landscape of dream. It is also
the story of how a man becomes civilized, how he learns to rule
himself and therefore his people, and to act with temperance,
wisdom, and piety. The poem begins with the city and ends with
it.
In the first lines of his Prologue, S?n-leqi-unninni states the
breadth and depth of what his hero had endured: ?He had seen
everything, had experienced all emotions.? The next seven lines
tell us the essential details, not even bothering to mention the
hero?s name. Gilgamesh had traveled to the edge of the world and
been granted knowledge of the primeval days of humanity; he had
survived the journey and returned to restore the great temple of
Ishtar and Uruk?s then famous six-mile-long wall.
And now, after this summary, something fascinating happens.
S?n-leqi-unninni turns to his readers and invites them to survey
the great city for themselves:
See how its ramparts gleam like copper in the sun.
Climb the stone staircase, more ancient than the mind can
imagine, approach the Eanna Temple, sacred to Ishtar, a temple
that no king has equaled in size or beauty, walk on the wall of
Uruk, follow its course around the city, inspect its mighty
foundations, examine its brickwork, how masterfully it is built,
observe the land it encloses: the palm trees, the gardens, the
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orchards, the glorious palaces and temples, the shops and
marketplaces, the houses, the public squares.
It is a very strange and touching moment. The poet is ostensibly
addressing an audience of ancient Babylonians in 1200 BCE,
directing them to admire a city that was built in time immemorial.
But the readers, as it turns out, are you and I. We are the ones who
are being invited, more than three thousand years later, to walk on
the wall of Uruk and observe the splendor and bustling life of the
great city. The invitation is touching not because the city is in
ruins and the civilization has been destroyed-this is not an ironic
?Ozymandias? moment-but because in our imagination we can
climb the ancient stone staircase and observe the lush gardens and
orchards, the palaces and temples, the shops and marketplaces, the
houses, the public squares, and share the poet?s amazement and
pride in his city.
Then S?n-leqi-unninni?s invitation becomes more intimate.
?Find the cornerstone,
? he tells us,
and under it the copper box that is marked with his name. Unlock
it. Open the lid. Take out the tablet of lapis lazuli. Read how
Gilgamesh suffered all and accomplished all.
I doubt whether even in 1200 BCE this was meant to be taken
literally. Even to an ancient Babylonian reader, the lines would
have been vivid enough to make the physical act unnecessary. As
we read the instructions, we can see ourselves finding the
cornerstone, taking out the copper box, unlocking it, opening its
lid, and taking out the priceless tablet of lapis lazuli, which turns
out, in the end, to be the very poem we are about to read. We are
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looking beneath the surface of things, into the hidden places, the
locked repositories of human experience. The trials that
Gilgamesh himself is supposed to have written down long ago are
now being revealed to us in words that, whether ?carved on stone
tablets? or printed on paper, create their own sense of authenticity.
They issue directly from the source: if not from the historical
Gilgamesh, then from a poet who has imagined that hero?s
experience intensely enough for it to be true.
The Old Babylonian poem that S?n-leqi-unninni inherited begins
with the phrase ?Surpassing all kings.? It describes Gilgamesh as
a gigantic and manic young man (his name may mean ?The Old
Man is a Young Man?), a warrior, and, after his return, as a good
king and benefactor to his people: a combination of Goliath and
David. But to begin with he is a tyrant. When we first enter the
poem, there is an essential imbalance in the city; something has
gone drastically wrong. The man of unsurpassable courage and
inexhaustible energy has become a monster of selfishness; the
shepherd has become a wolf. He oppresses the young men,
perhaps with forced labor, and oppresses the young women,
perhaps with his ravenous sexual appetite. Because he is an
absolute monarch (and two-thirds divine into the bargain), no one
dares to criticize him. The people call out to heaven, like the
Israelite slaves in Exodus, and their cry is heard. But Anu, father
of the gods, doesn?t intervene directly. He sends help in a
deliciously roundabout way. He asks the great mother goddess,
Aruru, to reenact her first creation of human beings:
?Now go and create a double for Gilgamesh, his second self, a
man who equals his strength and courage, a man who equals his
stormy heart. Create a new hero, let them balance each other
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perfectly, so that Uruk has peace.?
Like the Lord God in Genesis, Aruru forms a man from the dust
of the ground, and he becomes a living being, the original man
himself: natural, innocent, solitary. This second Adam will find ?a
help meet for him? not in a woman but in the man for whose sake
he was created. Thus begins-a thousand years before Achilles and
Patroclus, or David and Jonathan-the first great friendship in
literature.
Enkidu is indeed Gilgamesh?s double, so huge and powerful that
when people see him they are struck with awe. But he is also
Gilgamesh?s opposite and mirror image: two-thirds animal to Gilgamesh?s
two-thirds divine. These animal qualities are actually
much more attractive than the divine ones. Where Gilgamesh is
arrogant, Enkidu is childlike; where Gilgamesh is violent, Enkidu
is peaceful, a naked herbivore among the herds. He lives and
wanders with them from pasture to pasture, and (as we learn later
in the poem) he drives away marauding predators, thus acting as
both sheep and shepherd. With his natural altruism, he is also the
original animal activist, setting his friends free from human pits
and traps.
When the trapper discovers Enkidu drinking with the animals at a
waterhole, he is filled with dread, as if he has seen a bigfoot or
abominable snowman. What makes his face go white and his legs
shake is not the fear of being harmed by a powerful savage (after
all, he doesn?t have to get any closer): it is the fear of being face
to face with primordial humanity, the thing itself. He goes to his
father for advice, and the father sends him on to Gilgamesh, who
?will know what to do.?
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Gilgamesh may be a tyrant, but he is an insightful one. He does
know what to do about the wild man, and he tells it to the trapper
without a moment?s hesitation. ?Go to the temple of Ishtar,
? he
says,
?ask them there for a woman named Shamhat, one of the
priestesses who give their bodies to any man, in honor of the
goddess. Take her into the wilderness. When the animals are
drinking at the waterhole, tell her to strip off her robe and lie there
naked, ready, with her legs apart. The wild man will approach.
Let her use her love-arts. Nature will take its course, and then the
animals who knew him in the wilderness will be bewildered, and
will leave him forever.?
It is a startling recommendation, especially coming from a man
whose modus operandi is force. We might have expected him to
send out a battalion to hunt down and capture Enkidu. Instead, he
commissions a single woman. Somehow he knows that Enkidu
needs to be tamed rather than captured, and that the only way to
civilize him is through the power of eros. He doesn?t seem to
suspect, however, that the wild man has been sent by the gods to
civilize him.
The poem says nothing about Gilgamesh?s relationship to
Shamhat. Does he know how skilled she is because he has made
love with her himself at the temple? Is he a regular client? Or has
he just heard of her prowess? All we are told is that he knows she
is the right woman for the job.
Shamhat is one of the most fascinating characters in Gilgamesh. If
we want to appreciate her role as an ancient Babylonian cultic
prostitute, our imagination needs to bypass any filters of romantic
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love, Judeo-Christian morality, male lubricity, or female
indignation. Actually, we have no word in English for what
Shamhat is. The Akkadian words ?ar?mtu and ?am??tu certainly
do not mean ?prostitute? in our sense of the term, a woman who
sells herself for personal gain. She is a priestess of Ishtar, the
goddess of love, and, as a kind of reverse nun, has dedicated her
life to what the Babylonians considered the sacred mystery of
sexual union. In opening to the anonymous man who appears
before her in the temple, young or old, handsome or ugly, she is
opening to Everyman-that is, to God. She has become an
incarnation of the goddess, and with her own body reenacts the
cosmic marriage. As a pure servant of eros, she is a vessel for the
force that moves the stars, the force that through the green fuse
drives the flower.
In a passage about the attractions of Uruk that was added in the
Standard Version, S?n-leqi-unninni mentions Ishtar?s priestesses
with enormous pride:
?Come,
? said Shamhat,
?let us go to Uruk, I will lead you to
Gilgamesh the mighty king. You will see the great city with its
massive wall, you will see the young men dressed in their
splendor, in the finest linen and embroidered wool, brilliantly
colored, with fringed shawls and wide belts. Every day is a
festival in Uruk, with people singing and dancing in the streets,
musicians playing their lyres and drums, the lovely priestesses
standing before the temple of Ishtar, chatting and laughing,
flushed with sexual joy, and ready to serve men?s pleasure, in
honor of the goddess, so that even old men are aroused from their
beds.?
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How the poet loves his city! The great wall, the colors, the finery,
the music and dancing-they all form the texture of the continuous
celebration of life that makes this passage so alive. Part of the
enjoyment he conveys is that in Uruk male sexual desire is so
abundantly gratified. But it is the lovely, joyful priestesses,
themselves gratified in the act of gratification, who light up his
portrait of the city. Their laughter and sexual glow is for him one
of the principal glories of civilization.
The trapper finds Shamhat and tells her of the king?s command.
Shamhat has been trained in the art of surrender, and I imagine
her as giving her full consent to the mission, dangerous though it
might be. The creature she will be offering herself to is, after all,
an unknown. He may be ferocious, he may be more beast than
man, he may even tear her to shreds, for all she knows (and she
probably knows that the very sight of him filled the trapper with
dread). But she agrees to go-calmly, as I imagine her, trusting in
her art and in the power of eros.
The waterhole is a three days? hike through the wilderness, and
the poet could easily have inserted dialogues here between the
young priestess of Ishtar and the trapper. What was she feeling on
the long and perhaps physically taxing walk? Was she afraid?
What did she ask him about his life, about Enkidu? Was he
dazzled by her sexual presence? Was he tempted? Did they make
love, or was that forbidden? What did he ask her, and what did
she answer, about the life of the city, about her experiences in the
temple, about Gilgamesh the king? The poet compresses all the
dramatic possibilities of these three days into two lines:
For three days they walked. On the third day they reached the
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waterhole. There they waited.
The economy of his art is exquisite.
For another two days Shamhat and the trapper wait at the
waterhole. When Enkidu appears, Shamhat follows directions (not
that a skilled priestess of Ishtar would have needed directions),
and events unfold just as Gilgamesh predicted they would. It is a
deeply moving episode, especially if we have in the back of our
minds the Genesis myth of the loss of human innocence. Here
Shamhat plays the role of Eve, but she is a benign seductress,
leading Enkidu not into the knowledge of a polarized good and
evil, but into the glories of sexuality, the intimate understanding
of what a woman is, and self-awareness as a human being. There
is no serpent in this garden, no anxious deity announcing
prohibitions and punishments. Again, the poet?s economy is
superb. The seven days of lovemaking are described in the
simplest of terms; compressed into seven lines is a whole epic of
sexual initiation. Enkidu, in his innocence and trust, follows
where his penis points, and discovers in himself an elemental
potency, a state of perpetual erection. For Shamhat?s part,
however frightened she may be as the enormous hairy creature
approaches, she takes him in lovingly, and keeps taking him in for
seven days-a feat that is at least equal to any of the showier male
heroics later in the poem.
She used her love-arts, she took his breath with her kisses, held
nothing back, and showed him what a woman is. For seven days
he stayed erect and made love with her.
There are no traces of puritan consciousness in the culture of this
poem: sex is seen as a civilizing event rather than as something
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dangerous to the social order. One would be interested to know
precisely what the love-arts of a Babylonian priestess were, but
this also the poet leaves to the imagination. Whatever the graphic
details, Shamhat obviously does her job well. Adept and lavishly
generous, she totally justifies Gilgamesh?s confidence in her.
At the end of seven days, when he has had enough of the nonstop
lovemaking, Enkidu tries to rejoin his animals, but they dart away
at full speed, like the fawn that emerges with Alice from the wood
where things have no names. Enkidu no longer has the
unconscious mind of an animal or the vital force he had as a child
of the wilderness. Something has been lost, but it is not paradise.
In fact, Enkidu is about to enter another kind of paradise:
civilization, the city where every day is a festival. Walking back
to Shamhat, he realizes that although he can no longer run like an
animal, he has gained something that more than makes up for his
lost powers. In knowing Shamhat sexually, his mind has been
enlarged: he has begun to know himself. He sits down at her feet,
and as he listens he discovers that he can understand human
language. He also discovers for himself what the Lord God
realizes for Adam in Genesis, that ?it is not good that the man
should be alone.? In this longing for a true friend, he intuits what
he was created for.
Shamhat not only initiates Enkidu into self-awareness between
her civilizing thighs; she invites him to Uruk, gives him human
clothing, and teaches him to eat human food in the hut of some
shepherds who live conveniently nearby. She acts as a patient,
loving mother as she guides him through this rite of passage. The
scene at the shepherds? table is both hilarious and touching, with
its shame-free awareness that initiation into humanity means
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knowing what it is to be sexual, intoxicated, and clean.
They led him to their table, they put bread and beer in front of
him. Enkidu sat and stared, he had never seen human food, he
didn?t know what to do. Then Shamhat said,
?Go ahead, Enkidu.
This is food, we humans eat and drink this.? Warily he tasted the
bread. Then he ate a piece, he ate a whole loaf, then ate another,
he ate until he was full, drank seven pitchers of the beer, his heart
grew light, his face glowed, and he sang out with joy. He had his
hair cut, he washed, he rubbed sweet oil into his skin, and became
fully human.
We get three further glimpses of Shamhat: as she and Enkidu
make love yet again, as she humbly carries out a request of his,
and finally, as she accompanies him to Uruk. Then, having
completed her mission, she is gone.
THE CHALLENGE
Great-walled Uruk, city of gardens and temples and public
squares, is the paradise of Shamhat?s description, but it is also a
place of suffering, where the people cry out because of
Gilgamesh?s tyranny. The two realities coexist; they appear
according to one?s perception, the way light is either particle or
wave; it all depends on how one approaches the city. When she
invites Enkidu to Uruk, Shamhat suggests that he approach with
the eyes of appreciation, that he stand before Gilgamesh and
?gaze with wonder? at his magnificence. But Enkidu isn?t ready
for this. He needs to approach him as a tyrant and an adversary.
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Shamhat did in fact introduce Gilgamesh as a tyrant the first time
she mentioned him, without a hint of the panegyric that is to
follow:
?Let me take you to great-walled Uruk, to the temple of Ishtar, to
the palace of Gilgamesh the mighty king, who in his arrogance
oppresses the people, trampling upon them like a wild bull.?
Enkidu?s response is surprising. He doesn?t bristle or become
white with anger, as he does later when he hears of Gilgamesh?s
apparent right to sleep with any about-to-be-married virgin. He
intuits something in Gilgamesh beyond his brute strength and
callousness. His longing is a recognition that floats up toward the
surface of his consciousness, a recognition, before the fact, that
however unjust Gil-gamesh may be, they are meant for each
other.
Deep in his heart he felt something stir, a longing he had never
known before, the longing for a true friend.
But immediately he shifts from this poignant, introspective
silence to an aggressive stance that matches Gilgamesh in
arrogance. ?I will challenge him,
? Enkidu says.
?I will shout to his face: ?I am the mightiest! I am the man who
can make the world tremble! I am supreme!??
If a strong young gorilla had the power of speech, this is what he
might cry out to the alpha male with his harem of wives. The
challenge is touching in its primitiveness. There is no Homeric
subtlety or eloquence here, just testosterone speaking. Another
hero? I will fight him! Enkidu needs to test himself, to enter
civilization with a chip on his shoulder the size of a cedar trunk.
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Shamhat, speaking as his teacher, suggests that he approach
Gilgamesh from a different perspective:
?I will show you Gilgamesh the mighty king, the hero destined for
both joy and grief. You will stand before him and gaze with
wonder, you will see how handsome, how virile he is, how his
body pulses with erotic power. He is even taller and stronger than
you?so full of life-force that he needs no sleep. Enkidu, put aside
your aggression.?
But Enkidu is having none of it. Nothing can bring him out of his
male challenge mode.
The specific impetus for the trip to Uruk comes from the mouth of
a young man who passes Enkidu and Shamhat, as they are making
love again, on his way to Uruk for a wedding that he has catered.
Enkidu?s curiosity is aroused more highly than his passion;
heinterrupts the coitus and sends Shamhat over to make inquiries.
The young man describes what will happen at the end of the
ceremony:
?The priest will bless the young couple, the guests will rejoice,
the bridegroom will step aside, and the virgin will wait in the
marriage bed for Gilgamesh, king of great-walled Uruk. It is he
who mates first with the lawful wife. After he is done, the
bridegroom follows. This is the order that the gods have decreed.
From the moment the king?s birth-cord was cut, every girl?s
hymen has belonged to him.?
?As he listened,
? we are told,
?Enkidu?s face went pale / with
anger,
? but we aren?t told why he is angry. Is this the
indiscriminate fury of a young challenger? Is he feeling moral
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outrage at Gilgamesh?s ius primae noctis? If so, hasn?t he
understood that this is a ritual act sanctioned by the gods? Is the
act sanctioned by the gods, as the young man says, or is this
statement propaganda issuing from a sexually predatory tyrant?
(We know that the gods have sent Enkidu to balance Gilgamesh?s
oppression, but we don?t know the precise nature of that
oppression. It is entirely possible that Gilgamesh, as the
embodiment of the divine male principle, does have the right to
sleep with every bride on her wedding night, but that he is
appropriating other young women as well. It is also possible, as
some scholars think, that the oppression has nothing sexual about
it, that Gilgamesh, as a gigantic superjock, has been exhausting
the men in athletic contests, and the women are worn out from
taking care of them.) Finally, if the young man?s report is accurate
and if Enkidu has understood it correctly, is he rebelling against
the divine order? Or, alternatively, does he accept the divine order
and simply want to replace Gilgamesh as the stud planting his
seed in the virgins of Uruk? We simply don?t know.
This not-knowing is an interesting position to be in as a reader. (It
will become even more interesting in the monster-slaying episode
of Books III-V.) One thing it means is that we don?t take sides.
Yes, Gilgamesh is a tyrant, but he is also magnificent. Yes, he
mates with the lawful wife, but this apparent sexual predation
may be in the divine order of things, and to oppose it is not
necessarily virtuous. Every negative about him is balanced by a
positive. Of course, from another perspective, it is clear that the
whole world of Uruk is out of balance because of Gilgamesh?s
manic excesses and that Enkidu has been created to restore that
balance. It is equally clear that the confrontation between the two
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heroes is not going to be a struggle between good and evil. There
are too many ambiguities here for the mind to settle in a position
of moral certainty. This leaves us with the raw emotion of
Enkidu?s anger, which, unexplained and uninterpretable, serves to
move him from the shepherds? huts to the great city.
As Enkidu enters Uruk, he is mobbed like a celebrity. He may be
gigantic, he may have a savage past, but he is fully human now,
and, recognizing his innocence, people are not too frightened to
approach him, as the trapper was. The crowds treat him with a
mixture of awe and tenderness, marveling at his enormous body
and kissing his enormous feet as if they were doting mothers
kissing the most luscious morsels of infant flesh. Enkidu finds his
way to the marriage house and plants himself in front of the door,
immovable.
When Gilgamesh arrives, the two heroes seize each other, butting
heads like wild bulls, careening through the streets, crashing into
walls, and making the houses tremble. The confrontation could
hardly be more primal, stripped down to the element of male
pride. Enkidu?s anger is beside the point. There are no principles
to be upheld, no justifications and counterjustifications. The battle
is as silly as a schoolyard fight, yet there is something beautiful
about its energy. There is also a deeply erotic element in it. This is
not a fight to the death, as in the Iliad or Beowulf. It is a fight at
the end of which each man will be able to say to his opponent,
?Now I know you,
? or even (as Jacob said to his angel),
?I will
not let thee go, except thou bless me.? It is an entrance into
intimacy, and as close to lovemaking as to violence.
The poem comes just short of stating that the relationship between
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Gilgamesh and Enkidu is homosexual (in Tablet XII, a separate
poem appended to the epic, the genital sexuality is explicit). But
it?s clear that the homoerotic element in their bond is very strong.
Even before he meets Enkidu in combat, Gilgamesh dreams of
him in an image of great physical tenderness. A boulder
representing Enkidu falls from the sky; at first it is too heavy to
budge, then it becomes the beloved in his arms, stone turning to
warm flesh through the power of the metaphor. Gilgamesh?s
mother, in interpreting the dream, says that that is indeed how it
will be, that the boulder
?stands for a dear friend, a mighty hero. You will take him in your
arms, embrace and caress him the way a man caresses his wife.?
Both men come to feel their friendship as a kind of marriage, and
each one could say, as David says of Jonathan,
?Thy love to me
[is] wonderful, passing the love of women.?
After the fight, Enkidu doesn?t slink off or proffer his neck like an
animal defeated by the alpha male; in a speech of the loveliest,
most dignified humility, he acknowledges Gilgamesh as the
superior fighter, the superior human being. In fact, he sees him
with the eyes of appreciation, gazing at him in wonder as Shamhat
had advised him to.
?Gilgamesh, you are unique among humans. Your mother, the
goddess Ninsun, made you stronger and braver than any mortal,
and rightly has Enlil
*
granted you the kingship, since you are
destined to rule over men.?
Gilgamesh, as victor, doesn?t feel the need to reciprocate with any
appreciation of Enkidu. But he knows that what he dreamed at the
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end of Book I has come true. The dear friend and mighty hero has
appeared, the longed-for companion of his heart, the man who
will stand at his side through the greatest dangers. The fight is
over without any residue of anger, resentment, or
competitiveness. They know each other through and through. Like
David and Jonathan, each loves the other as his own soul.
A MONSTER I N THE HOUS E
So Gilgamesh and Enkidu become true friends. Now, because the
two heroes ?balance each other perfectly,
? Uruk can have peace.
Now the son can return to his father, the girl can return to her
mother, and the life of the great city can continue in all its
vibrancy, with no shadow of oppression to make the people cry
out. The two realities can collapse into Shamhat?s enamored
vision of a truly civilized, festive society of bright colors and
finery and music and laughing courtesan-priestesses and gratified
desire. The gods are in their heaven and, for the time being, all?s
right with the world.
The transition to the next episode?the journey to the Cedar
Forest and the killing of the monster Humbaba?is fragmentary
and obscure. We aren?t told how long Gilgamesh and Enkidu
stayed in Uruk deepening their friendship; we don?t know what
they did during those weeks or months. How do vigorous young
giants spend their free time? This is not one of the poem?s
interests, but it?s easy to imagine an ongoing revel of feasting and
beer drinking, wrestling matches, swimming, polo, bullfighting
perhaps, Gilgamesh delightedly teaching his friend all the new
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dances and songs, daily visits to the Eanna temple to make love
with the most beautiful of the young priestesses (Shamhat
included), and?because ancient Babylonian kings prided
themselves on being scholars as well as warriors and athletes?
daily visits to the royal library, where Enkidu can take lessons in
elementary cuneiform.
At a certain point, though, out of the blue, Gilgamesh announces
that it is time to leave Uruk and begin the fatal adventure that
provides the shape for the rest of the epic: an ascent to an
ambiguous victory, followed by a plunge into death,
unassuageable grief, and the futile search for immortality. ?Now
we must travel to the Cedar Forest,
? Gilgamesh says,
?where the fierce monster Humbaba lives. We must kill him and
drive out evil from the world.?
Living in the year 2004, one can?t help hearing this statement of
an ancient Mesopotamian king in eerie counterpoint to the recent
American invasion of Iraq. From this perspective, Gilgamesh?s
action is the original preemptive attack. Ancient readers, like
many contemporary Americans, would have considered it to be
unquestionably heroic. But the poem is wiser than the culture
from which it arose. It wonderfully complicates the ostensible
moral certainties, and once again, when we look closely, the mind
finds no solid ground to stand on.
What impels Gilgamesh to go on this adventure? Why should he
kill the monster? At first, all we hear is the sudden announcement
itself. As listeners to a great adventure story, we don?t need any
more motivation than this. After all, that?s what heroes do: they
slay monsters. The motivation in this sense is literary rather than
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psychological. Story, not character, is fate.
But a bit further on, the poet does provide a motivation for the
decision to leave for the Cedar Forest. What Gilgamesh wants is
fame, as he explains in a passionate speech to Enkidu:
?We are not gods, we cannot ascend to heaven. No, we are mortal
men. Only the gods live forever. Our days are few in number, and
whatever we achieve is a puff of wind. Why be afraid then, since
sooner or later death must come? ? I will cut down the tree, I
will kill Humbaba, I will make a lasting name for myself, I will
stamp my fame on men?s minds forever.?
It is obvious that Gilgamesh considers himself fully human and
that, for him,
?two-thirds divine? is just a polite compliment or a
rhetorical flourish. His mother may be a goddess, but he is as
mortal as any other human. The only way for him to transcend
death, he thinks, is to make an everlasting name for himself.
The desire for fame is at the heart of the ancient heroic traditions,
Babylonian, Greek, and Germanic. It is one of the nobler
delusions, and it can produce great art?in addition, as we know,
to great havoc. There is something very human and even
endearing about all this posturing; human nature hasn?t changed
much from Gilgamesh?or Enkidu, with his ?I am the
mightiest!??to Cassius Clay. But heroic? It?s hard to take the
boasts and the derring-do seriously in 28 comparison with the
actions of what we would all consider true heroes: those who risk
harm or death for the sake of others. The anonymous, everyday
heroism of fire fighters and police officers makes the desire for ?a
lasting name? seem far less admirable to us than it has seemed to
other cultures. In any event, the poet makes it clear from the
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outset that however morally Gilgamesh thinks he is acting, he
wants to kill Humbaba ?and drive out evil from the world,
? not
for the sake of the people, or to alleviate suffering, or to help
anyone but himself.
As the story proceeds, we hear another possible motivation: that
Shamash, the sun god, god of justice and Gilgamesh?s special
protector, has put this decision into his head. At least, that is the
theory of Gilgamesh?s mother, the goddess Ninsun (neither
Gilgamesh nor Shamash ever acknowledges it). According to her,
the whole adventure is Shamash?s idea, and Gilgamesh is only an
instrument in his hand, a warrior in the battle of good against evil.
?Lord of heaven,
? Ninsun says in her prayer to the sun god,
?you have granted my son beauty and strength and courage?why
have you burdened him with a restless heart? Now you have
stirred him up to attack the monster Humbaba, to make a long
journey from which he may not return. Since he has resolved to
go, protect him until he arrives at the Cedar Forest, until he kills
the monster Humbaba and drives from the world the evil that you
hate.?
Here Ninsun,
?the wise, the all-knowing,
? is portrayed as a purely
human figure, neither more nor less wise than any worried mother
of flesh and blood. She knows her son well, and when she
mentions his ?restless heart,
? she is pointing to what drives
Gilgamesh throughout the epic, both before and after Enkidu?s
death. Whatever Shamash?s part in the process may be, we can
understand how Gilgamesh?s restless heart has stirred him up, as
powerfully as his desire for fame. Psychologically, this
restlessness can?t be inspired by the god of justice; it is the
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opposite of inspiration; it is ultimately desperation. One might
even say that the attack on Humbaba stems from what Pascal
called the cause of all human misery: the inability to sit
contentedly alone in a room.
Is Ninsun correct in her theory that this is a battle of good against
evil? Everything in the poem argues against it. As a matter of fact,
the only evil we are informed of is the suffering Gilgamesh has
inflicted on his own people; the only monster is Gilgamesh
himself.
*
If he has a real enemy, it is the selfishness that arises
from his own restless heart. Uruk may be at peace now, but
Gilgamesh isn?t. The moral imbalance still exists; he is, as far as
we are told, unable to acknowledge what he has done, unable to
apologize or make amends to the young men and women he has
been terrorizing.
Whatever Gilgamesh?s mother may say, the poet makes it
impossible to see Humbaba as a threat to the security of Uruk or
as part of any ?axis of evil.? Unlike Grendel in Beowulf, he is not
seen as the enemy of God; there is no devil or negative
metaphysical force in the poet?s cosmology for him to be an
instrument of. He hasn?t harmed a single living being, as far as we
know. If anything, our sympathies are with him. He may be ugly
and terrifying, with his fire-spewing breath, thunderous voice, and
nightmare faces, but to be terrifying is his job. He just stays where
he is, minding his business and doing his duty, which is to take
care of the Cedar Forest and keep humans out. ?If anyone knows
the rules of my forest,
? he says later to Enkidu,
?it is you. You know that this is my place and that I am the
forest?s guardian. Enlil put me here to terrify men, and I guard the
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forest as Enlil ordains.?
Like the precivilized Enkidu, Humbaba is a figure of balance and
a defender of the ecosystem. (Having a monster or two around to
guard our national forests from corporate and other predators
wouldn?t be such a bad thing.)
I love how the poet has morally situated his poem so that as soon
as we are tempted to take a position about good and evil, we
realize that there is an opposite and equally valid position. This
world, like ours, is not black and white; there is ultimately
nowhere to stand, no side we can ultimately take and not cut
ourselves off from the truth. Yes, Humbaba is a monster; perhaps
he is evil, as Ninsun says; conceivably he is even a threat to the
city, though we are never told how. But it is at least as true that
Humbaba has his appointed place in the divine order of things. He
has specifically been commissioned to be monstrous by one of the
great gods, because humans are not supposed to penetrate into the
Cedar Forest and chop down its trees.
If there must be a monster in the house (to paraphrase Wallace
Stevens), let him be one who is just doing his job, without malice.
The problem with believing in evil monsters and an evil-hating
god (or God) is that it splits the universe down the middle,
separates us from at least half of creation, and eventually leads to
the claustrophobic and doom-haunted world of the Germanic hero
sagas, however idealistic we may be. ?The struggle between good
and evil / is the primal disease of the mind,
? wrote the sixthcentury
Zen master Seng-ts?an, who knew what he was talking
about. It is all too easy to see ourselves as fighting on God?s side,
to identify our ideology with what is best for the world and use it
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to justify crusades, pogroms, or preemptive attacks. Projecting
evil onto the world makes me unassailably right?a position as
dangerous in politics as in marriage.
Much of Book III is in debate form: between Gilgamesh and
Enkidu, then between Gilgamesh and the elders of Uruk. It is a
debate between bravery (or foolhardiness) and prudence.
Gilgamesh?s position is that he must go on this journey in order to
win everlasting fame. Enkidu first points out that the Cedar Forest
is forbidden to humans and that Humbaba has been put there by
Enlil himself, to terrify men. Then, echoed by the elders, he says
that in any case the journey is too dangerous and Humbaba too
powerful. The arguments are not sophisticated and don?t vary.
Gilgamesh wins the debate by walking away. He is the king, after
all, and can do whatever he wants; what he wants now is to order
new weapons at the forge. By the end of the episode, Enkidu and
the whole city support him. The elders offer their cautious,
geriatric advice. The young men cheer. The heroes depart.
They walk east, in three-day marches, at the pace of more than
three hundred miles a day (not a huge effort for someone like Gilgamesh,
whose legs, according to one fragmentary passage, are
nine feet long). Each march is described in exactly the same way;
the repetition creates a sense of extended time, a shift from the
ordinary time of the city into mythological time. Each culminates
in the dream ritual, which is described in the same few crisply
visualized lines. Gilgamesh?s dreams vary in their details, but
they are all essentially the same dream of disaster or near disaster.
Enkidu, by the method known as ?reversal of values,
? interprets
them as omens that promise victory. And though his interpretation
is correct for the actual battle with Humbaba, there is another
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sense in which the dreams are begging to be taken at their face
value, unreversed, as the other dreams in the epic are. A disaster
does indeed loom ahead, though with a time delay. Ironically, it
involves the death of the dream interpreter, a death that is the
direct, divinely ordained consequence of killing Humbaba. A
more literal interpreter might advise Gilgamesh to turn back,
however aggressively Shamash urges him to attack.
Inside the Cedar Forest, Gilgamesh and Enkidu are alternately
seized by terror, and each in turn encourages the other. For a
Babylonian hero, unlike the imperviously brave men of Germanic
legends, like Beowulf and Siegfried, it was no disgrace to feel
fear. Gilgamesh can not only be afraid at the sight of the monster,
but can say he is. He does not run like the great Hector fleeing in
terror from Achilles outside the wall of Troy, but he is frozen in
his tracks. Enkidu, who previously was so reluctant to proceed,
now urges Gilgamesh not to retreat, and they walk on to the
monster?s den.
The battle is over quickly. Humbaba is about to overwhelm the
two heroes when Shamash sends mighty winds that pin him down
and paralyze him. This divine intervention may strike us as rather
unfair, but a world in which the gods take sides is not a
meritocracy.
With Gilgamesh on top of him, holding a knife to his throat,
Humbaba begs both heroes for mercy. These passages are at once
comic and poignant: comic in the disproportion between the
monster?s previous threats and his present abasement, and
poignant in the humility and reasonableness of his request. It is an
extraordinary moment?think how impossible it would be in
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Beowulf for a monster to refer to the concept of mercy or for the
hero even to consider it. One can?t help feeling a surge of
sympathy for the doomed Humbaba.
Gilgamesh hesitates. We are not told why, but it is probable that,
like his predecessor in the Sumerian poem ?Gilgamesh and
Huwawa,
? ?Gilgamesh?s noble heart took pity on? the monster.
Enkidu, though, has no doubts. Three separate times he urges his
friend to kill the guardian of the Cedar Forest, even though he is
aware that killing him will enrage not only Enlil but their own
protector Shamash as well. (Thus, as it turns out, Ninsun,
?the
wise, the all-knowing,
? was mistaken in her opinion that
Humbaba is an evil thing that Shamash wants to have destroyed.
Defeated, yes; destroyed, no.)
?Dear friend, quickly, before another moment goes by, kill
Humbaba, don?t listen to his words, don?t hesitate, slaughter him,
slit his throat, before the great god Enlil can stop us, before the
great gods can get enraged, Enlil in Nippur, Shamash in Larsa.
Establish your fame, so that forever men will speak of brave
Gilgamesh, who killed Humbaba in the Cedar Forest.?
Enkidu, it seems, has by now completely taken on Gilgamesh?s
warrior ethos, the desire for fame superseding every other
consideration. True, it is his friend?s fame, not his own, that he
wants to establish. But generous as it may be, this love is still an
?go?sme ? deux; it has simply replaced I am the mightiest! with
You are the mightiest! And in its disregard for mercy, prudence,
and cosmic hierarchy, it creates disaster.
The principle that every action has an effect is not something that
Gilgamesh or Enkidu can be expected to know (as heroes, they
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need to be strong and brave, not insightful). But the poet, as we
will see, is aware of it; he is too intelligent not to know that
monster-slaying expeditions, even the most well-intentioned ones,
have unforeseen and potentially disastrous consequences. Enkidu
is morally responsible for persuading his friend not to spare the
monster?s life; therefore his own life becomes forfeit. When
Gilgamesh kills Humbaba, the poet says, a gentle rain falls onto
the mountains, as if the heavens themselves are weeping for the
consequences of that act.
HUMILIATING THE GODDESS
Almost all the female characters in Gilgamesh-Shamhat, Ninsun,
Shiduri, and Utnapishtim?s wife-are portrayed as admirable:
intelligent, generous, compassionate. The one exception is Ishtar,
goddess of love and patron deity of Uruk. In the very peculiar and
invigorating Book VI, she is rejected, insulted, threatened, and
humiliated by both Gilgamesh and Enkidu. This is surprising in a
poem that mentions her temple with reverence and makes one of
her priestesses a central character in the initial drama. It is even
more surprising in light of the goddess?s millennia-old position in
Mesopotamian culture: she was known to the Sumerians as
Inanna, the Queen of Heaven, and ?played a greater role in myth,
epic, and hymn than any other deity, male or female.? Anyone
who has first read the beautiful, tender, marvelously erotic song
cycle called ?The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi? is likely to
feel flabbergasted at the shabby treatment Ishtar receives at the
hand of the Gilgamesh poet.
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But there is another side to the beloved goddess who brought
culture and fertility to her people in Sumer. She is also the
goddess of war, and she can be selfish, arbitrary, and brutal. In the
Sumerian poem ?The Descent of Inanna,
? she ?fastens the eye of
death? on her husband, Dumuzi (Tammuz), and orders him to be
dragged down to hell by two persistent demons. In a lesser-known
poem called ?Inanna and Ebih,
? which begins with an invocation
to the ?goddess of the dreadful powers, clad in terror, drenched in
blood,
? she destroys an entire mountain range because it doesn?t
show her enough respect. Sumerian literature furnishes other
examples of her ruthlessness.
Why the Gilgamesh poet chose to focus so exclusively on Ishtar?s
dark side in Book VI and to portray his heroes as so vituperative
is a mystery. No scholar has provided an adequate explanation of
whatever cultural forces were at work behind the episode. Is it
symptomatic of a religious movement among first the Sumerians
and later the Babylonians to displace her with a male deity? Then
why are her priestesses treated with such respect? And how can
we explain the poet?s irreverence to the gods in general, who are
later compared to dogs and flies? We just don?t know. All we can
do is enjoy the episode and see how it fits into the poem as a
whole.
Things begin calmly enough. Gilgamesh, having returned from
the Cedar Forest, washes himself and gets dressed in his
magnificent royal robes. He is looking mighty fine. Ishtar sees
him and falls in love, or lust. In a speech that seems forward or
straightforward, depending on one?s cultural bias, she
propositions him, offering him an array of fabulous gifts if only
he will be her lover.
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Gilgamesh?s rejection is at first polite, even tactful. But it soon
changes into a series of metaphorical insults, all of which accuse
Ishtar of damaging the very person whom she should have been
caring for. Next, he cites six famous love affairs of Ishtar?s?with
Tammuz, then with the roller bird, the lion, the stallion, the
shepherd, and the gardener Ishullanu (her taste in lovers is
species-transcendent, omnisexual)?all of them black-widow
affairs in which she turned against her lover and harmed him.
Gilgamesh concludes by saying that if he were to accept her offer,
she would treat him as cruelly as she treated them.
It is a remarkably vivid speech, the longest in the poem except for
Utnapishtim?s account of the Flood. Reading it, we are caught up
in the pure energy of the insults. It is like a tribal dance in which
lines of young men and young women advance in turn and fling
ritual taunts at each other. The speech?s climax, the catalogue of
lovers, is a miniature Metamorphoses that casts Ishtar as Circe
and moves from disaster to disaster, not only with the satisfaction
of a lawyer proving his case, but also with the delight of a
storyteller. Aside from the affair with Tammuz, we are ignorant of
the myths the poet is referring to (they haven?t survived in
Sumerian or Akkadian literature); for modern readers this gives
the passage a certain piquancy, as if we were overhearing intimate
stories about people we don?t know.
Is Gilgamesh?s response inappropriate? Is it a frightened male
reaction to a woman who takes the sexual initiative? Perhaps,
though that would be odd in a poem that celebrates a character
like Shamhat. But from the above-mentioned ?Descent of
Inanna,
? we can be sure that in at least one of his six examples,
Gilgamesh is giving us accurate information. Sleeping with Ishtar
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can be dangerous to your health. And when we witness her violent
response to his rejection, we tend to think that he has been
entirely reasonable in just saying no.
The next scene is a portrait of Ishtar as a murderous spoiled brat.
She explodes with tears of rage and frustration, goes to Anu,
father of the gods, and throws a tantrum until he lends her the Bull
of Heaven to kill Gilgamesh and destroy his palace. As a woman
scorned, Ishtar is not only petulant and vengeful; she is a real
monster, willing to sacrifice hundreds of people for the sake of
her revenge.
But Enkidu and Gilgamesh make short work of the gigantic Bull.
They are fearless; there is none of the hauntedness and wavering
of the Humbaba episode. There isn?t even a feeling of danger, in
spite of the Bull?s first two warrior-demolishing snorts. The action
is swift, the humor coarse, and the killing of the Bull seems less a
battle than a sport. In its grace of movement, it is like the roughly
contemporaneous bull-leaping fresco in the palace of Knossos on
Crete, in which an athlete has leaped over the bull?s horns and,
arms gripping its sides, legs dangling above his head, is about to
flip over its haunch onto the ground.
Ishtar is brought to helpless tears by her failure. Standing on top
of the city wall, she cries out,
?Not only did Gilgamesh slander me-now the brute has killed his
own punishment, the Bull of Heaven.?
This is funny, but with an uncomfortable kind of humor that
depends on the humiliation of the villain. (How many of us
nowadays can enjoy Shylock?s anguished, ridiculous cry ?My
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daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!??) Even when the
villainess has just murdered three hundred people, one doesn?t
like to take pleasure in her pain.
Enkidu, however, is not so delicate:
When Enkidu heard these words, he laughed, he reached down,
ripped off one of the Bull?s thighs, and flung it in Ishtar?s face. ?If
only I could catch you, this is what I would do to you, I would rip
you apart and drape the Bull?s guts over your arms!?
Here again, as in the killing of Humbaba, Enkidu is the more
extreme of the two friends. As with the hero?s ethic, he has gotten
on Gilgamesh?s high horse and ridden it so far that Gilgamesh
seems almost temperate in comparison. This final heaping of
insult upon insult, as energizing as it is shocking in its hubris and
sheer outrageousness, is clearly dangerous, especially when your
opponent is a goddess. What makes it so grotesquely funny is the
combinationof innocence and cruelty, in which there is more than
a passing resemblance between Ishtar and the two heroes.
Later that day, after the victory parade, when Gilgamesh boasts
and does his victory strut, he reminds us of a champion athlete
who not only crushes his opponent but flips him the bird:
?Tell me: Who is the handsomest of men? Tell me: Who is the
bravest of heroes? Gilgamesh-he is the handsomest of men,
Enkidu-he is the bravest of heroes. We are the victors who in our
fury flung the Bull?s thigh in Ishtar?s face, and now, in the streets,
she has no one to avenge her.?
There are more intelligent ways to return home after a death that
you know has enraged the great gods.
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If the psychological task of the hero is to gain mastery over the
internal monsters by killing the external ones, Gilgamesh has been
radically unsuccessful. Killing Humbaba and the Bull has given
him no greater control over himself and his own arrogance.
Enkidu?s arrival may have provided some balance for him; at least
he has stopped oppressing the citizens of Uruk. But if the gods
expected that Enkidu would provide peace for the king as well as
for the city, they are sadly mistaken. Gilgamesh will have to learn
limits another way.
It is obvious that Book VI is a separable episode that could be
omitted without any loss of continuity. The heroes kill Humbaba
in Book V, and in the death of Enkidu at the end of Book VII they
suffer the results of their act. But the progression to tragedy would
seem abrupt without the Ishtar episode. Book VI is a comic
interlude, like the satyr play that was performed after Greek
tragedies: obscene, vulgar, high-spirited, irreverent, and
rambunctious, letting loose all the energies that will soon enough
become contained and very somber.
DEATH AND DEPARTURE
Suddenly Enkidu has two dreams about dying. The second of
them gives us a wonderfully graphic picture of how the ancient
Mesopotamians imagined the dead, who sit miserably in pitch
darkness,
?dressed in feathered garments like birds.? The great
gods are not mocked, and the killing of Humbaba will have fatal
consequences. Gilgamesh, through his tears, calls the first dream
nonsense and makes a weak attempt to interpret the second one as
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a good omen. But both friends know that Enkidu is doomed. And
indeed, as his dreams warned, he falls mortally ill.
The next morning, Enkidu curses the trapper, and then Shamhat,
for taking him out of the wilderness. (It never occurs to him to
curse his beloved Gilgamesh as well, though this was
Gilgamesh?s idea.) The speech expresses Enkidu?s impotence at
the thought of dying, and part of its power is in letting out all the
stops on the vindictive, outward-blaming ego. ?May wild dogs
camp in your bedroom,
? Enkidu says,
?may owls nest in your attic, may drunkards vomit all over you,
may a tavern wall be your place of business, may you be dressed
in torn robes and filthy underwear, may angry wives sue you, may
thorns and briars make your feet bloody, may young men jeer and
the rabble mock you as you walk the streets.?
The speech is not just a rant; it is also powerful reporting, once we
transpose the optative to the indicative: a portrait of the life of an
aging prostitute, with its poverty, abuse, and humiliation.
Shamash provides Enkidu with a more balanced view that calms
his ?raging heart.? Civilization, the god points out, has been just
as much a paradise for Enkidu as the wilderness was. And wasn?t
it Shamhat who brought Enkidu the greatest joy of all, his
friendship with Gilgamesh? Enkidu acknowledges this and turns
his curse of Shamhat into a blessing. ?May you be adored by
nobles and princes,
? he says; ?may Ishtar give you generous
lovers / whose treasure chests brim with jewels and gold.? In the
interval between the curse and the blessing, Shamhat has
ascended from the cheapest of whores to the most expensive and
esteemed of courtesans, a kind of Babylonian Ninon de Lenclos.
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Oddly, both curse and blessing imagine Shamhat as a prostitute
(poor or rich) rather than a priestess; Enkidu doesn?t seem to
know the difference. Of course, it is possible that many
priestesses of Ishtar would have been delighted to be wealthy
courtesans instead. But for the true devotee, the change would
hardly have been a blessing. Devotion to the goddess was at the
core of her life, and in comparison, even the kind of wealth and
adulation given to a Hollywood star would have been
meaningless.
After twelve days of agony, Enkidu dies and leaves Gilgamesh
alone with his grief. It is a tragic moment in the epic, though epics
are not necessarily tragic; the Homeric poems contain both the
tragedy of Achilles and the romance of Odysseus, with its happy
ending (for him, if not for the suitors and the little dangling
maids). Enkidu could easily be seen as a tragic hero, pulled out of
his Eden into the corrupt world of humans to suffer an arbitrary
death sentence from the gods. And, as reconciled as he seems,
there is a certain lingering bitterness about his death. One might
say that his death was caused by Gil-gamesh?s monster-hunting,
just as his birth was caused by Gil-gamesh?s tyranny. But more
accurately, Enkidu caused his own death by insisting that
Gilgamesh kill Humbaba; if they had let the monster live, all
would have been well. The fact that neither Enkidu nor Gilgamesh
ever realizes this is part of the pathos of the situation.
Gilgamesh?s lament at the beginning of Book VIII is one of the
most beautiful elegies in literature. In it he asks both the natural
world and the world of the city to join him as he mourns his
friend. The simple, repeated phrases of his lament are exquisitely
sorrowful.
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?My beloved friend is dead, he is dead, my beloved brother is
dead, I will mourn as long as I breathe, I will sob for him like a
woman who has lost her only child.?
Gilgamesh?s grief is too intense for any understanding to
penetrate. There is no way, in spite of Enkidu?s first dream, that
he can make a causal connection between the killing of Humbaba
and Enkidu?s death. For him, the events just occurred, one after
the other, and he can still boast of the killings, unconscious that
they have cost him his beloved friend. Indeed, the music of his
grief is so enchanting that, for the time being, we don?t even want
him to understand.
?Beloved friend, swift stallion, wild deer, leopard ranging in the
wilderness?Enkidu, my friend, swift stallion, wild deer, leopard
ranging in the wilderness?together we crossed the mountains,
together we slaughtered the Bull of Heaven, we killed Humbaba,
who guarded the Cedar Forest.?
Actually, he is in a trance of pain: even if he could understand
why Enkidu died, it wouldn?t matter; the brute fact of the event
would blot out any other consideration. He is so overwhelmed by
the sight of Enkidu?s lifeless body that, a dozen lines after
lamenting that his friend is dead, he can no longer even find a
name for death. As a great warrior, he has seen and caused many
deaths. But now, for the first time, death is an intimate reality, and
he can barely recognize it.
?O Enkidu, what is this sleep that has seized you, that has
darkened your face and stopped your breath??
Even though he has been up all night, sobbing for Enkidu, he
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can?t let himself know what has happened. It?s as if he has never
seen a corpse before. He reacts like a young child, or like an
animal sniffing at the dead body of its mate, bewildered. He halfexpects
Enkidu to answer. When he touches Enkidu?s heart, he
seems surprised that it isn?t beating.
It takes a while longer for Gilgamesh to finally acknowledge that
his friend is dead. But even then, his first gesture is to make death
into a kind of marriage. He can?t help treating Enkidu as if he
were still alive and in mortal danger; after being the desolate
bridegroom, he becomes the anxious mother.
Then he veiled Enkidu?s face like a bride?s. Like an eagle
Gilgamesh circled around him, he paced in front of him, back and
forth, like a lioness whose cubs are trapped in a pit, he tore out
clumps of his hair, tore off his magnificent robes as though they
were cursed.
Finally, it?s over. Gilgamesh orders a magnificent votive statue of
Enkidu; he goes through all the necessary rituals to ensure that the
gods of the underworld will welcome him and help him to ?be
peaceful and not sick at heart.? But the ritual gestures, though
meticulous, seem desperate. At best, Enkidu will be one of those
miserable dirt eating human birds who squat or shuffle in utter
darkness, forever. This is poor comfort. So, abandoning all his
privileges and responsibilities, giving up his roles as warrior and
king, reversing Enkidu?s journey from wilderness to civilization,
Gilgamesh puts on an animal skin and leaves Uruk.
His departure is reminiscent of another royal departure a thousand
years later, in the legend of the Buddha. Like Gilgamesh, Gotama,
the future Awakened One, is transfixed by a vision of human
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vulnerability and feels compelled to leave his palace and all his
possessions behind, so that he can search for the secret of life and
death. Gotama?s grief is not personal, though; he hasn?t lost a
beloved friend; he hasn?t lost anyone except himself, his own
identity. When, for the first time in his sheltered life, he sees
sickness, old age, and death, his whole idea of what it is to be
human, what it is that someday awaits him, collapses, and he is
plunged into a desperate questioning. His story has a happier
ending than Gilgamesh?s: after six years of futile austerities, he
sits down under the Bodhi tree, determined not to move until
either death or understanding comes, and at dawn, when the
morning star appears, suddenly he wakes up from the dream of
suffering. ?When you see the unborn, uncreated, unconditioned,
?
he later said,
?you are liberated from everything born, created,
and conditioned.?
Gilgamesh too asks an all-consuming question about life and
death. But his question is not driven by a deep need for
understand-ing; it is driven by fear. (Rilke called Gilgamesh ?the
epic of the fear of death.?) Fear is the reverse side of the cool
warrior ethos, in which the consciousness of mortality motivates
the hero to establish his fame. ?Our days are few in number,
?
Gilgamesh had said, imperturbably. ?Why be afraid then, / since
sooner or later death must come?? Why indeed? Except that terror
comes unbidden, on the way to monsters or in the presence of
overwhelming loss. Love has changed everything; it has made
Gilgamesh absolutely vulnerable. His earlier consciousness of
mortality turns out to be a pale, abstract thing in comparison with
the anguish he feels as he roams though the wilderness.
?Must I die too? Must I be as lifeless as Enkidu? How can I bear
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this sorrow that gnaws at my belly, this fear of death that
restlessly drives me onward? If only I could find the one man
whom the gods made immortal, I would ask him how to overcome
death.?
In his previous, heroic mode, Gilgamesh thought he knew that
only the gods live forever. Now, terrified, he is no longer certain.
His first question??Must I die too???is not rhetorical; he really
doesn?t know the answer anymore. It is the question of a child at
the threshold of adult awareness, who for the first time is faced
with the concept of dying. Every child, to become an adult, must
realize that the answer to that question is yes. (Once he has passed
through the gate of ?I will die,
? he can later, if his questioning
goes deep enough, pass through the gate of ?I was never born.?)
Gilgamesh wants to find the one exception to the rule of
mortality, his ancestor Utnapishtim, who was granted eternal life
and dwells somewhere at the eastern edge of the world. The fact
that there has been one exception to the rule of mortality means
that there may be a second exception. This hope postpones
Gilgamesh?s necessary acceptance until a time when he is more
ready for it, less raw with grief. Like a thousand later heroes in
folktales and Zen stories, he sets out in search of a teacher who
can give him wisdom. In this he is bound to be disappointed.
Wisdom isn?t an object; it can?t be grasped by words, nor can it be
passed on. But until Gilgamesh completes his quest, he won?t be
able to realize the futility of it. ?This thing we tell of can never be
found by seeking,
? said the Sufi master Abu Yazid al-Bistami,
?yet only seekers find it.?
The first arrival we hear about is at the Twin Peaks, two high
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mountains overlooking the tunnel into which the sun sets for its
nightly underground journey and out of which it rises in the
morning. Two terrifying monsters called ?scorpion people? guard
the eastern end of this tunnel, just as Humbaba guarded the Cedar
Forest.
After Gilgamesh recovers from his dread and approaches them
(he is no longer in a monster-slaying frame of mind), the creatures
turn out to be quite courteous and tell him that the road to
Utnapishtim lies through the tunnel. The scorpion man, at his
wife?s compassionate urging, allows Gilgamesh to enter the
tunnel, warning him that if he fails to get to the western end
before the sun enters, he will be burned to a crisp. For twelve
hours, nonstop, Gilgamesh runs through the pitch blackness, and
he exits just as the sun is setting. This is a symbolic death and
rebirth, in which he passes through the darkness of an underworld
and emerges into the dazzling, Arabian Nights-like garden of the
gods.
But in its effects, it is not much of a rebirth. Gilgamesh is the
same anguished, violent man he was before. Indeed, when he
meets Shiduri the tavern keeper, he looks so murderous that she
runs into her tavern and locks herself in. Gilgamesh deals with
this by threatening to smash down the door. Force is still his
automatic reaction-the way he responds to the world.
Shiduri is a strange character: a matron, possibly a goddess, who
brews beer in a tavern at the edge of the ocean, apparently for
those rare customers who can outrace the sun. She is frightened
but curious, and from the roof asks Gilgamesh questions about his
appearance and his destination that are repeated later in the poem.
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Gilgamesh once again gives eloquent voice to his grief.
?Shouldn?t my heart be filled with anguish?? he cries out.
?My friend, my brother, whom I loved so dearly, who
accompanied me through every danger-Enkidu, my brother,
whom I loved so dearly, who accompanied me through every
danger-the fate of mankind has overwhelmed him. For six days I
would not let him be buried, thinking,
?If my grief is violent
enough, perhaps he will come back to life again.? For six days and
seven nights I mourned him, until a maggot fell out of his nose.
Then I was afraid, I was frightened by death, and I set out to roam
the wilderness. I cannot bear what happened to my friend-I cannot
bear what happened to Enkidu-so I roam the wilderness in my
grief. How can my mind have any rest? My beloved friend has
turned into clay-my beloved Enkidu has turned into clay. And
won?t I too lie down in the dirt like him, and never arise again??
This speech is as palpable and moving as his lament in Book VIII.
Shiduri sends him on to the next stage of his journey, but not
before giving him a charming piece of conventional wisdom that
can do him no earthly good. (No advice can. He needs to come to
wisdom by himself.)
?Savor your food, make each of your days a delight, bathe and
anoint yourself, wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean, let
music and dancing fill your house, love the child who holds you
by the hand, and give your wife pleasure in your embrace. That is
the best way for a man to live.?
But Gilgamesh is incapable of enjoyment; he must persevere until
he finds Utnapishtim. Shiduri tells him that the only man who can
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help is Urshanabi, Utnapishtim?s boatman. If Gilgamesh asks,
perhaps Urshanabi will sail him across the vast ocean in his boat,
crewed by the Stone Men, who are invulnerable to the Waters of
Death.
Instead of being civil to the man on whom everything now
depends, Gilgamesh proceeds with the senseless, self-defeating
violence he is used to: he attacks Urshanabi and smashes the
Stone Men to pieces. Fortunately for him, however, Urshanabi is
a genial, forgiving fellow, who proposes an alternative method of
crossing the Waters of Death, using punting poles instead of the
demolished Stone Men. They sail ?without stopping, for three
days and nights, / a six weeks? journey for ordinary men,
? cross
the Waters of Death, and finally land on the shore where
Utnapishtim is waiting. Gilgamesh doesn?t realize it yet, but he is
standing face to face with the man who is his last hope.
WHEN THERE?S NO WAY OUT, YOU
JUST FOLLOW THE WAY INFRONT OF
YOU
The archetypal hero?s journey proceeds in stages: being called to
action, meeting a wise man or guide, crossing the threshold into
the numinous world of the adventure, passing various tests,
attaining the goal, defeating the forces of evil, and going back
home. It leads to a spiritual transformation at the end, a sense of
gratitude, humility, and deepened trust in the intelligence of the
universe. After he finds the treasure or slays the dragon or wins
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the princess or joins with the mind of the sage, the hero can return
to ordinary life in a state of grace, as a blessing to himself and to
his whole community. He has suffered, he has triumphed, he is at
peace.
The more we try to fit Gilgamesh into the pattern of this
archetypal journey, the more bizarre, quirky, and postmodern it
seems. It is the original quest story. But it is also an anti-quest,
since it undermines the quest myth from the beginning.
Gilgamesh does slay the monster, but that, it turns out, is a
violation of the divine order of things and causes the death of his
beloved friend. He does journey to the edge of the world, he
meets the wise man, but still there is no transformation.
Utnapishtim asks him the same questions Shiduri asked, and
Gilgamesh answers with the same anguished cries, whereupon
Utnapishtim offers him yet another piece of conventional wisdom
?beautiful words, but as useless to him as Shiduri?s were. What?s
the good of saying, like everybody?s obtuse uncle, that Gilgamesh
should realize how fortunate he is, that life is short and death is
final? It is like all well-meaning advice that tells us to accept
things as they are. We can?t accept things as they are, so long as
we think that things should be different. Tell us how not to
believe what we think, and then maybe we?ll be able to hear.
In any case, for Utnapishtim to say that life is short is a bit
disingenuous. Life isn?t short-for him. That?s the point! Why else
has Gilgamesh traveled to the edge of the world to see him? The
desperate, grief-stricken man standing before Utnapishtim feels
less fortunate than the very fool he is purportedly so superior to.
He wants to transcend death, not accept it?right now, not in
some happy future.
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There is no consolation in platitudes, and for Utnapishtim to tell
him that he is going to die seems as tactless as it was for St. Paul
to tell the Thessalonians that they were not going to die.
The only effect the speech seems to have is that Gilgamesh finally
recognizes the old man as Utnapishtim. He also acts with a
restraint that we haven?t seen before. ?I intended to fight you,
? he
says,
?yet now that I stand before you, now that I see who you are, I
can?t fight, something is holding me back.?
Finally, Gilgamesh gets to ask his burning question: How did
Utnapishtim overcome death and become immortal? Utnapishtim,
who is not a believer in making a long story short, tells him about
the Great Flood. His speech is a very strong piece of writing, as
beautiful as its descendent, the Noah story, but far more detailed
and dramatic, and filled with the most vivid images: the
unsuspecting workmen drinking barrels of beer and wine to
celebrate the completion of the ship; the terrified gods fleeing to
the highest heaven and cowering there like dogs; Utnapishtim
falling to his knees and weeping at the first touch of the blessed
sunlight; the gods, starved because all their human food-providers
have drowned, smelling the sweet fragrance of Utnapishtim?s
sacrifice and clustering around it like flies.
The Flood story explains Utnapishtim?s exemption from mortality
by narrating the circumstances that prompted the gods? decision.
It also explains the Prologue?s statement that Gilgamesh ?had
been granted a vision / into the great mystery, the secret places, /
the primeval days before the Flood.? The vision into the great
mystery does not, however, seem to do Gilgamesh a bit of good,
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at least now. It certainly doesn?t tell him how to overcome death.
Immortality, it turns out, was a one-time offer, and that bleak fact
is Utnapishtim?s main revelation.
Why, then, did the poet include the Flood story at such length? Is
it merely an interesting digression? Any reader who wants to
understand its dramatic function in the poem should read Book XI
again, this time skipping from Gilgamesh?s first question (?Tell
me, how is it that you, a mortal ??) to the end of Utnapishtim?s
speech (?Now then, Gilgamesh, who will assemble ? ??). If you
delete or drastically abridge the Flood story, the interval between
the question and the dashing of Gilgamesh?s hopes seems far too
short. But with the story continuing for as long as it does, the
suspense keeps growing. We are aware that Gilgamesh is listening
with absolute attention, because at any moment the way to
overcome death may be revealed. We can feel his attention even
the second or tenth time we read this speech, when we know that
Gilgamesh won?t find his answer. And when the speech comes to
its disappointing climax, we are carried on to the next incident
with at least the satisfaction of knowing the whole story. We have
heard everything there is to hear about how Utnapishtim became a
god. Obviously, this is not the way out.
The story has another dramatic effect as well. It gives us a
harrowing picture of the cost of Utnapishtim?s immortality; the
immortality itself seems like a pallid afterthought. Hovering in the
background of this narrative is an unspoken question: If you had
to experience all that terror, and the death of almost every living
thing, in order to be granted immortality, would it seem worth it?
Far from being sympathetic to Gilgamesh?s anguish, Utnapish-tim
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is gruff, almost taunting, in the conclusion to his speech:
?Now then, Gilgamesh, who will assemble the gods for your
sake? Who will convince them to grant you the eternal life that
you seek??
(The more Utnapishtim reveals of his crankiness and cynicism,
the less attractive immortality becomes.) He proposes a test: If
Gil-gamesh can overcome sleep for seven days?sleep being the
likeness of death?perhaps he will be able to overcome death too.
But Utnapishtim knows from the start that Gilgamesh,
?worn out
and ready to collapse,
? will fail the test. And indeed, he falls
asleep immediately. Utnapishtim says with contempt:
?Look at this fellow! He wanted to live forever, but the very
moment he sat down, sleep swirled over him, like a fog.?
There is a poignant irony about this test. In the bad old days,
when Gilgamesh was terrorizing the citizens of Uruk, it was a
well-known fact, as Shamhat told Enkidu, that the king was ?so
full of life-force that he need[ed] no sleep.? Sometime after
Enkidu?s arrival he lost that vitality, in the same way that Enkidu,
after he made love with Shamhat, lost his life-force and could no
longer run like an animal. In this too Gilgamesh and Enkidu are
twins. The poem doesn?t tell us exactly when Gilgamesh began to
need sleep. The first we hear of it is on the journey to the Cedar
Forest, when it is a recurring element in the ritual for dreams.
Gilgamesh sat there, with his chin on his knees, and sleep
overcame him, as it does all men.
Experiencing intimacy seems to be for Gilgamesh what
experiencing sex is for Enkidu: an initiation into human
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vulnerability. Once he found the companion of his heart,
Gilgamesh became, in effect, three-thirds human. He left behind
his kinship with the ?unsleeping, undy-ing? gods, just as Enkidu
left behind the two-thirds of him that was animal. Unwittingly,
each gave up part of his physical strength in order to know the
kind of love that ?an animal [or a god] can?t know.?
After Gilgamesh fails the test, Utnapishtim?s wife, sweet where
her husband is sour, suggests that they wake him up and gently
send him back home. But according to Utnapishtim, Gilgamesh is
a deceiver like all humans and must be shown proof that he slept,
and this the seven hardening loaves provide. Gilgamesh,
acknowledging his failure, cries out in a very moving and
beautiful passage:
?What shall I do, where shall I go now? Death has caught me, it
lurks in my bedroom, and everywhere I look, everywhere I turn,
there is only death.?
After first making sure that Gilgamesh is washed and anointed, in
a kind of ritual renewal, and is given royal robes that will stay
clean until he returns to Uruk, Utnapishtim sends him on his way.
And that seems to be the end of the story.
But Utnapishtim?s compassionate wife intervenes once again. So,
as a parting gift, Utnapishtim reveals a second secret of the gods.
He tells Gilgamesh where, in the waters of the Great Deep (the
freshwater sea under the earth), he can find a magical plant that
will restore him to youth. However young his name implies he is,
Gil-gamesh feels old and weary now, and in desperate need of
renewal. He plunges into the Great Deep, finds the plant, and
brings it to the surface. Finally, it seems, he has found something
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that will put his heart at ease. But in this poem there is always a
?but.?
Gilgamesh?s speech to Urshanabi the boatman on the shore of the
Great Deep is a wonderfully complex little passage. First, he calls
the marvelous plant ?the antidote to the fear of death,
? and our
questions begin. If eating the plant is not equivalent to passing the
sleep test, but is a consolation prize instead-if it doesn?t make you
immortal like the fruit of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Edendoes
it at least restore you to a protected youth in which you can?t
get fatally sick or injured, after which you again age and then die?
Or is your youth just as vulnerable as an ordinary young person?s?
And when you grow old, can you take another bite and grow
young a second time, a hundredth time, until the supply gives out?
None of this is made clear; none of it has to be; any of it is
possible. What is clear is that for someone who eats the plant,
death has been temporarily avoided and the fear of death has been
postponed. The plant is a medicine that addresses the symptoms
of the fear of death, not its cause; it is a palliative, not a cure.
Still, Gilgamesh is elated. He tells Urshanabi that rather than
eating the plant immediately, he first wants to test its effects:
?I will take it to Uruk, I will test its power by seeing what
happens when an old man eats it. If that succeeds, I will eat some
myself and become a carefree young man again.?
This statement too is complex and fascinating. Like the killing of
Humbaba, it is first of all story-driven rather than characterdriven.
Gilgamesh must kill the monster because that?s what
heroes do; he must not eat the plant because, as we all know, he
returns home aged and exhausted. But there are several
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possibilities implicit in his desire to take the plant home. Perhaps
he is just being prudent (for the first time in his life). Perhaps he is
afraid of the plant?s effects, or at least cautious about them, and
needs to use an old man in Uruk as a human guinea pig. On the
other hand, it may not be prudence that motivates him to bring the
plant home before eating it. Perhaps some transformation in his
character has already begun, which makes him want to postpone
the magical return to youth until he can do it in his own city,
before the eyes of his own people. Perhaps there is also a desire to
use the plant for the benefit of the whole community. He will go
home, choose a particularly deserving old man who has nothing to
lose by having the experiment fail, and if it succeeds, he will
portion out tiny samples of the plant to a thousand old men, and
give a sprig to the royal gardener to see if it can be cultivated in
lush-gardened Uruk, so that it will be available for future
generations as well. It is possible that something like these
thoughts are taking shape in the shadowy recesses of Gilgamesh?s
mind.
So, without tasting the plant, he and Urshanabi head back to Uruk.
The poet describes the trip in the same words that he used for the
journey to the Cedar Forest: ?At four hundred miles they stopped
to eat, / at a thousand miles they pitched their camp.? This is a
reverse journey through the landscape of dreams; it is, in its
formulaic language, the way back from the monster. But this time,
it is not a return to hubris, violence, and death. It is a return to
wholeness.
Still, there is one last failure to endure and overcome. On the way
back, Gilgamesh bathes in a pond and, rather than handing the
precious plant to Urshanabi, he leaves it on the ground. This act of
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stunning carelessness is like other famous last-minute mistakes in
myths and folktales throughout the world (Orpheus? over-the
shoulder glance at Eurydice, for example, or the youngest son?s
choice to sit on the edge of a well in the Grimms? ?The Golden
Bird?). There is always something fated about these mistakes;
they don?t seem like accidents, because they are willed by the
shape of the story; we feel that they had to happen. In light of
Gilgamesh?s history of violence and self-destruction, it seems that
some inner dynamic won?t allow him to eat the plant-that would
be too simple, too good to be true. The spoiler is a snake, as in the
Eden story, though here the snake is not cunning, it is entirely
innocent and simply takes advantage of a good opportunity. The
poet needs only three lines to shatter Gilgamesh?s hopes:
A snake smelled its fragrance, stealthily it crawled up and carried
the plant away. As it disappeared, it cast off its skin.
Thus, in the words of Psalm 103, the snake?s mouth is ?satisfied
with good things,
? and its ?youth is renewed like the eagle?s.? O
felix serpens!
When Gilgamesh realizes that the snake has slithered off with his
antidote, he cries out yet again:
?What shall I do now? All my hardships have been for nothing. O
Urshanabi, was it for this that my hands have labored, was it for
this that I gave my heart?s blood??
It is the last gasp of tragedy. One is touched by his anguish, but
only so far. One also wants to say, Well, what do you expect, you
silly goose?-
that?s what happens when you leave magic plants lying on the
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ground!
This is not the point, of course. The episode is not meant to be a
lesson in prudence. It is the end of the line for Gilgamesh?s quest.
He is face to face with the realization that there is no immortality
and no return to youth: a realization that can result (depending on
your readiness) in either despair or freedom. When there?s no way
out, you just follow the way in front of you.
That way, for Gilgamesh, leads back home. And on the way
home, in the course of the hundreds of miles he and Urshanabi
travel every day, in the dream time that is left in total silence, an
astonishing thing happens: Gilgamesh becomes one with the
poet?s voice. In spite of the Prologue?s statement, we have never
believed that Gil-gamesh wrote the poem; he has always been a
character in the story, not the narrator of it: a part of it, not the
whole. Only now, for the first time, as Gilgamesh addresses
Urshanabi with the same words that S?n-leqi-unninni addressed us
with at the beginning of the poem, can we hear this authorial
voice for ourselves.
When at last they arrived, Gilgamesh said to Urshanabi,
?This is
the wall of Uruk, which no city on earth can equal. See how its
ramparts gleam like copper in the sun. Climb the stone staircase,
more ancient than the mind can imagine, approach the Eanna
Temple, sacred to Ishtar, a temple that no king has equaled in size
or beauty, walk on the wall of Uruk, follow its course around the
city, inspect its mighty foundations, examine its brickwork, how
masterfully it is built, observe the land it encloses: the palm trees,
the gardens, the orchards, the glorious palaces and temples, the
shops and marketplaces, the houses, the public squares.?
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And that is how the poem ends: where it began. Its form is not
circular, like Finnegans Wake, but spiral, since it begins again at
another level, with Gilgamesh narrating. His transformation has
taken place offstage, outside the frame of the poem, at the last
possible moment.
When we return to the beginning, where Gilgamesh?s echoing
lines point us, it is clear that he has completed the final stage of
the archetypal hero?s journey, in which the hero gives new life to
his community, returning to them with the gifts he has discovered
on his adventure.
He brought back the ancient, forgotten rites, restoring the temples
that the Flood had destroyed, renewing the statutes and
sacraments for the welfare of the people and the sacred land.
We are not told how he learned ?the ancient, forgotten rites? from
Utnapishtim. But we know that for the first time he is acting as a
responsible, compassionate king, a benefactor to his people and
their descendents. Out of the depths, somehow, Gilgamesh has
managed to ?close the gate of sorrow?; he has learned how to rule
himself and his city without violence, selfishness, or the
compulsions of a restless heart.
Gilgamesh?s quest is not an allegory. It is too subtle and rich in
minute particulars to fit any abstract scheme. But issuing as it
does from a deep level of human experience, it has a certain
allegorical resonance. We don?t need to be aware of this
resonance in order to enjoy the story. Yet it is there.
When Gilgamesh leaves his city and goes into uncharted territory
in search of a way beyond death, he is looking for something that
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is impossible to find. His quest is like the mind?s search for
control, order, and meaning in a world where everything is
constantly disintegrating. The quest proves the futility of the
quest. There is no way to overcome death; there is no way to
control reality. ?When I argue with reality, I lose,
? Byron Katie
writes,
?-but only 100 percent of the time.?
Not until Gilgamesh gives up on transcendence can he realize
how beautiful his city is; only then, freed from his restless heart,
can he fully return to the place he started out from. Suppose that
the city is this moment: things as they are, without any meaning
added. When the mind gives up on its quest for control, order, and
meaning, it finds that it has come home, to reality, where it has
always been. What it has?what it is?in this very moment is
everything it ever wanted.
Somehow, in the interval between story and return, Gilgamesh
has become wise. He has absorbed not the conventional wisdom
of a Shiduri or an Utnapishtim, but the deeper wisdom of the
poem?s narrative voice, a wisdom that is impartial, humorous,
civilized, sexual, irreverent, skeptical of moral absolutes,
delighted with the things of this world, and supremely confident
in the power of its own language.
See ?About This Version,
? p. 65.
Enlil, along with Anu and Ea, is one of the triumvirate of great
gods who govern the universe.
This is not counting the separable Bull of Heaven episode of
Book VI, which contains two monsters, Ishtar and the Bull, or the
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story-within-a-story of Book XI, in which the great gods send the
Flood in a fit of genocidal monstrosity.
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ABOUT THIS VERSION
I have called this a ?version? of Gilgamesh rather than a
translation. I don?t read cuneiform and have no knowledge of
Akkadian; for the meaning of the text, I have depended on literal
translations by seven scholars. I am particularly indebted to A. R.
George?s superb, meticulous, monumental two-volume edition of
the original texts, which far excels all previous scholarship. I have
also read and profited from the translations of Jean Bott?ro,
Benjamin R. Foster, Maureen Gallery Kovacs, Albert Schott, and
Raymond Jacques Tournay and Aaron Shaffer, as well as from the
literary, nonscholarly versions of David Ferry and Raoul Schrott.
Jean Bott?ro?s notes helped me in the interpretation of many
passages.
My method was this: I first read and compared all the translations
listed in the bibliography, understood the difficult passages to the
best of my inexpert ability, and cobbled together a rough prose
version. (Like many other translators, I have omitted Tablet XII,
which most scholars consider as not belonging to the epic.) At this
stage, I felt rather like a bat, feeling out the contours of the
original text by flinging sound waves into the dark. Once my
prose version was completed, I began the real work, of raising the
language to the level of English verse. The line that I use, a loose,
noniambic, nonal-literative tetrameter,
*
is rare in English; the two
examples I know well are sections of Eliot?s Four Quartets and
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Elizabeth Bishop?s wonderful ?Sestina.? I worked hard to keep
my rhythms from sounding too regular, and I varied them so that
no two consecutive lines have the identical rhythm.
When possible, I kept fairly close to the literal meaning; when
necessary, I was much freer and did not so much translate as
adapt. I chose not to reproduce some of the quirks of Akkadian
style, which for ancient readers may have been embellishments
but are tedious for us: for example, the word-for-word repetitions
of entire passages and the enumerations from one to seven or
twelve. I filled in the many gaps in the text; I changed images that
were unclear; I added lines when the drama of the situation called
for elaboration or when passages ended abruptly and needed
transitions; I cut out a number of fragmentary passages; and when
the text was garbled, I occasionally changed the order of passages.
(All these changes are documented in the notes.) While I have
tried to be faithful to the spirit of the Akkadian text, I have often
been as free with the letter of it as S?n-le-qi-unninni and his Old
Babylonian predecessors were with their material. I like to think
that they would have approved.
Except for the Prologue and the end of Book XI, which have five
beats to the line.
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GILGAMESH
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He had seen everything, had experienced all emotions, from
exaltation to despair, had been granted a vision into the great
mystery, the secret places, the primeval days before the Flood. He
had journeyed to the edge of the world and made his way back,
exhausted but whole. He had carved his trials on stone tablets, had
restored the holy Eanna Temple and the massive wall of Uruk,
which no city on earth can equal. See how its ramparts gleam like
copper in the sun. Climb the stone staircase, more ancient than the
mind can imagine, approach the Eanna Temple, sacred to Ishtar, a
temple that no king has equaled in size or beauty, walk on the
wall of Uruk, follow its course around the city, inspect its mighty
foundations, examine its brickwork, how masterfully it is built,
observe the land it encloses: the palm trees, the gardens, the
orchards, the glorious palaces and temples, the shops and
marketplaces, the houses, the public squares. Find the cornerstone
and under it the copper box that is marked with his name. Unlock
it. Open the lid. Take out the tablet of lapis lazuli. Read how
Gilgamesh suffered all and accomplished all.
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Surpassing all kings, powerful and tall beyond all others, violent,
splendid, a wild bull of a man, unvanquished leader, hero in the
front lines, beloved by his soldiers?fortress they called him,
protector of the people, raging flood that destroys all defenses?
two-thirds divine and one-third human, son of King Lugalbanda,
who became a god, and of the goddess Ninsun, he opened the
mountain passes, dug wells on the slopes, crossed the vast ocean,
sailed to the rising sun, journeyed to the edge of the world, in
search of eternal life, and once he found Utnapishtim?the man
who survived the Great Flood and was made immortal?he
brought back the ancient, forgotten rites, restoring the temples
that the Flood had destroyed, renewing the statutes and
sacraments for the welfare of the people and the sacred land. Who
is like Gilgamesh? What other king has inspired such awe? Who
else can say,
?I alone rule, supreme among mankind?? The
goddess Aruru, mother of creation, had designed his body, had
made him the strongest of men?huge, handsome, radiant,
perfect.
The city is his possession, he struts through it, arrogant, his head
raised high, trampling its citizens like a wild bull. He is king, he
does whatever he wants, takes the son from his father and crushes
him, takes the girl from her mother and uses her, the warrior?s
daughter, the young man?s bride, he uses her, no one dares to
oppose him. But the people of Uruk cried out to heaven, and their
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lamentation was heard, the gods are not unfeeling, their hearts
were touched, they went to Anu, father of them all, protector of
the realm of sacred Uruk, and spoke to him on the people?s
behalf: ?Heavenly Father, Gilgamesh?noble as he is, splendid as
he is?has exceeded all bounds. The people suffer from his
tyranny, the people cry out that he takes the son from his father
and crushes him, takes the girl from her mother and uses her, the
warrior?s daughter, the young man?s bride, he uses her, no one
dares to oppose him. Is this how you want your king to rule?
Should a shepherd savage his own flock? Father, do something,
quickly, before the people overwhelm heaven with their
heartrending cries.?
Anu heard them, he nodded his head, then to the goddess, mother
of creation, he called out: ?Aruru, you are the one who created
humans. Now go and create a double for Gilgamesh, his second
self, a man who equals his strength and courage, a man who
equals his stormy heart. Create a new hero, let them balance each
other perfectly, so that Uruk has peace.?
When Aruru heard this, she closed her eyes, and what Anu had
commanded she formed in her mind. She moistened her hands,
she pinched off some clay, she threw it into the wilderness,
kneaded it, shaped it to her idea, and fashioned a man, a warrior, a
hero: Enkidu the brave, as powerful and fierce as the war god
Ninurta. Hair covered his body, hair grew thick on his head and
hung down to his waist, like a woman?s hair. He roamed all over
the wilderness, naked, far from the cities of men, ate grass with
gazelles, and when he was thirsty he drank clear water from the
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waterholes, kneeling beside the antelope and deer.
One day, a human?a trapper?saw him drinking with the
animals at a waterhole. The trapper?s heart pounded, his face went
white, his legs shook, he was numb with terror. The same thing
happened a second, a third day. Fear gripped his belly, he looked
drained and haggard like someone who has been on a long, hard
journey.
He went to his father. ?Father, I have seen a savage man at the
waterhole. He must be the strongest man in the world, with
muscles like rock. I have seen him outrun the swiftest animals. He
lives among them, eats grass with gazelles, and when he is thirsty
he drinks clear water from the waterholes. I haven?t approached
him?I am too afraid. He fills in the pits I have dug, he tears out
the traps I have set, he frees the animals, and I can catch nothing.
My livelihood is gone.?
?Son, in Uruk there lives a man named Gilgamesh. He is king of
that city and the strongest man in the world, they say, with
muscles like rock. Go now to Uruk, go to Gilgamesh, tell him
what happened, then follow his advice. He will know what to do.?
He made the journey, he stood before Gilgamesh in the center of
Uruk, he told him about the savage man. The king said,
?Go to the
temple of Ishtar, ask them there for a woman named Shamhat, one
of the priestesses who give their bodies to any man, in honor of
the goddess. Take her into the wilderness. When the animals are
drinking at the waterhole, tell her to strip off her robe and lie there
naked, ready, with her legs apart. The wild man will approach.
Let her use her love-arts. Nature will take its course, and then the
animals who knew him in the wilderness will be bewildered, and
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will leave him forever.?
The trapper found Shamhat, Ishtar?s priestess, and they went off
into the wilderness. For three days they walked. On the third day
they reached the waterhole. There they waited. For two days they
sat as the animals came to drink clear water. Early in the morning
of the third day, Enkidu came and knelt down to drink clear water
with the antelope and deer. They looked in amazement. The man
was huge and beautiful. Deep in Shamhat?s loins desire stirred.
Her breath quickened as she stared at this primordial being.
?Look,
? the trapper said,
?there he is. Now use your love-arts.
Strip off your robe and lie here naked, with your legs apart. Stir
up his lust when he approaches, touch him, excite him, take his
breath with your kisses, show him what a woman is. The animals
who knew him in the wilderness will be bewildered, and will
leave him forever.?
She stripped off her robe and lay there naked, with her legs apart,
touching herself. Enkidu saw her and warily approached. He
sniffed the air. He gazed at her body. He drew close, Shamhat
touched him on the thigh, touched his penis, and put him inside
her. She used her love-arts, she took his breath with her kisses,
held nothing back, and showed him what a woman is. For seven
days he stayed erect and made love with her, until he had had
enough. At last he stood up and walked toward the waterhole to
rejoin his animals. But the gazelles saw him and scattered, the
antelope and deer bounded away. He tried to catch up, but his
body was exhausted, his life-force was spent, his knees trembled,
he could no longer run like an animal, as he had before. He turned
back to Shamhat, and as he walked he knew that his mind had
somehow grown larger, he knew things now that an animal can?t
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know.
Enkidu sat down at Shamhat?s feet. He looked at her, and he
understood all the words she was speaking to him. ?Now, Enkidu,
you know what it is to be with a woman, to unite with her. You
are beautiful, you are like a god. Why should you roam the
wilderness and live like an animal? Let me take you to greatwalled
Uruk, to the temple of Ishtar, to the palace of Gilgamesh
the mighty king, who in his arrogance oppresses the people,
trampling upon them like a wild bull.?
She finished, and Enkidu nodded his head. Deep in his heart he
felt something stir, a longing he had never known before, the
longing for a true friend. Enkidu said,
?I will go, Shamhat. Take
me with you to great-walled Uruk, to the temple of Ishtar, to the
palace of Gilgamesh the mighty king. I will challenge him. I will
shout to his face: ?I am the mightiest! I am the man who can make
the world tremble! I am supreme!??
?Come,
? said Shamhat,
?let us go to Uruk, I will lead you to
Gilgamesh the mighty king. You will see the great city with its
massive wall, you will see the young men dressed in their
splendor, in the finest linen and embroidered wool, brilliantly
colored, with fringed shawls and wide belts. Every day is a
festival in Uruk, with people singing and dancing in the streets,
musicians playing their lyres and drums, the lovely priestesses
standing before the temple of Ishtar, chatting and laughing,
flushed with sexual joy, and ready to serve men?s pleasure, in
honor of the goddess, so that even old men are aroused from their
beds. You who are still so ignorant of life, I will show you
Gilgamesh the mighty king, the hero destined for both joy and
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grief. You will stand before him and gaze with wonder, you will
see how handsome, how virile he is, how his body pulses with
erotic power. He is even taller and stronger than you?so full of
life-force that he needs no sleep. Enkidu, put aside your
aggression. Shamash, the sun god, loves him, and his mind has
been made large by Anu, father of the gods, made large by Enlil,
the god of earth, and by Ea, the god of water and wisdom. Even
before you came down from the hills, you had come to Gilgamesh
in a dream.? And she told Enkidu what she had heard. ?He went
to his mother, the goddess Ninsun, and asked her to interpret the
dream. ?I saw a bright star, it shot across the morning sky, it fell at
my feet and lay before me like a huge boulder. I tried to lift it, but
it was too heavy. I tried to move it, but it would not budge. A
crowd of people gathered around me, the people of Uruk pressed
in to see it, like a little baby they kissed its feet. This boulder, this
star that had fallen to earth?I took it in my arms, I embraced and
caressed it the way a man caresses his wife. Then I took it and
laid it before you. You told me that it was my double, my second
self.? The mother of Gilgamesh, Lady Ninsun, the wise, the allknowing,
said to her son,
?Dearest child, this bright star from
heaven, this huge boulder that you could not lift?it stands for a
dear friend, a mighty hero. You will take him in your arms,
embrace and caress him the way a man caresses his wife. He will
be your double, your second self, a man who is loyal, who will
stand at your side through the greatest dangers. Soon you will
meet him, the companion of your heart. Your dream has said so.?
Gilgamesh said,
?May the dream come true. May the true friend
appear, the true companion, who through every danger will stand
at my side.??
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When Shamhat had finished speaking, Enkidu turned to her, and
again they made love.
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Then Shamhat gave Enkidu one of her robes and he put it on.
Taking his hand, she led him like a child to some shepherds? huts.
Marveling, the shepherds crowded around him. ?What an
enormous man!? they whispered. ?How much like Gilgamesh he
is?tall and strong, with muscles like rock.? They led him to their
table, they put bread and beer in front of him. Enkidu sat and
stared. He had never seen human food, he didn?t know what to do.
Then Shamhat said,
?Go ahead, Enkidu. This is food, we humans
eat and drink this.? Warily he tasted the bread. Then he ate a
piece, he ate a whole loaf, then ate another, he ate until he was
full, drank seven pitchers of the beer, his heart grew light, his face
glowed, and he sang out with joy. He had his hair cut, he washed,
he rubbed sweet oil into his skin, and became fully human.
Shining, he looked handsome as a bridegroom. When the
shepherds lay down, Enkidu went out with sword and spear. He
chased off lions and wolves, all night he guarded the flocks, he
stayed awake and guarded them while the shepherds slept.
One day, while he was making love, he looked up and saw a
young man pass by. ?Shamhat,
? he said,
?bring that man here. I
want to talk to him. Where is he going?? She called out, then went
to the man and said,
?Where are you going in such a rush?? The
man said to Enkidu,
?I am on my way to a wedding banquet. I
have piled the table with exquisite food for the ceremony. The
priest will bless the young couple, the guests will rejoice, the
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bridegroom will step aside, and the virgin will wait in the
marriage bed for Gilgamesh, king of great-walled Uruk. It is he
who mates first with the lawful wife. After he is done, the
bridegroom follows. This is the order that the gods have decreed.
From the moment the king?s birth-cord was cut, every girl?s
hymen has belonged to him.?
As he listened, Enkidu?s face went pale with anger. ?I will go to
Uruk now, to the palace of Gilgamesh the mighty king. I will
challenge him. I will shout to his face: ?I am the mightiest! I am
the man who can make the world tremble! I am supreme!??
Together they went to great-walled Uruk, Enkidu in front,
Shamhat behind him.
When he walked into the main street of Uruk, the people gathered
around him, marveling, the crowds kept pressing closer to see
him, like a little baby they kissed his feet. ?What an enormous
man!? they whispered. ?How much like Gilgamesh?not quite so
tall but stronger-boned. In the wilderness he grew up eating grass
with gazelles, he was nursed on the milk of antelope and deer.
Gilgamesh truly has met his match. This wild man can rival the
mightiest of kings.?
The wedding ritual had taken place, the musicians were playing
their drums and lyres, the guests were eating, singing and
laughing, the bride was ready for Gilgamesh as though for a god,
she was waiting in her bed to open to him, in honor of Ishtar, to
forget her husband and open to the king.
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When Gilgamesh reached the marriage house, Enkidu was there.
He stood like a boulder, blocking the door. Gilgamesh, raging,
stepped up and seized him, huge arms gripped huge arms,
foreheads crashed like wild bulls, the two men staggered, they
pitched against houses, the doorposts trembled, the outer walls
shook, they careened through the streets, they grappled each
other, limbs intertwined, each huge body straining to break free
from the other?s embrace. Finally, Gilgamesh threw the wild man
and with his right knee pinned him to the ground. His anger left
him. He turned away. The contest was over. Enkidu said,
?Gilgamesh, you are unique among humans. Your mother, the
goddess Ninsun, made you stronger and braver than any mortal,
and rightly has Enlil granted you the kingship, since you are
destined to rule over men.? They embraced and kissed. They held
hands like brothers. They walked side by side. They became true
friends.
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Time passed quickly. Gilgamesh said,
?Now we must travel to the
Cedar Forest, where the fierce monster Humbaba lives. We must
kill him and drive out evil from the world.?
Enkidu sighed. His eyes filled with tears. Gilgamesh said,
?Why
are you sighing? Why, dear friend, do your eyes fill with tears??
Enkidu answered,
?Dear friend, a scream sticks in my throat, my
arms are limp. I knew that country when I roamed the hills with
the antelope and deer. The forest is endless, it spreads far and
wide for a thousand miles. What man would dare to penetrate its
depths??
Gilgamesh said,
?Listen, dear friend, even if the forest goes on
forever, I have to enter it, climb its slopes, cut down a cedar that
is tall enough to make a whirlwind as it falls to earth.?
Enkidu said,
?But how can any man dare to enter the Cedar
Forest? It is sacred to Enlil. Hasn?t he declared its entrance
forbidden, hasn?t he put Humbaba there to terrify men? We must
not go on this journey, we must not fight this creature. His breath
spews fire, his voice booms like thunder, his jaws are death. He
can hear all sounds in the forest, even the faintest rustling among
the leaves, he will hear us a hundred miles away. Who among
men or gods could defeat him? Humbaba is the forest?s guardian,
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Enlil put him there to terrify men. Whoever enters will be struck
down by fear.?
Gilgamesh answered,
?Why, dear friend, do you speak like a
coward? What you just said is unworthy of you, it grieves my
heart.
We are not gods, we cannot ascend to heaven. No, we are mortal
men.
Only the gods live forever.Our days are few in number, and
whatever we achieve is a puff of wind. Why be afraid then, since
sooner or later death must come? Where is the courage you have
always had? If I die in the forest on this great adventure, won?t
you be ashamed when people say,
?Gilgamesh met a hero?s death
battling the monster Humbaba. And where was Enkidu? He was
safe at home!? You were raised in the mountains, with your own
hands you have killed marauding lions and wolves, you are brave,
your heart has been tested in combat. But whether you come
along or not, I will cut down the tree, I will kill Humbaba, I will
make a lasting name for myself, I will stamp my fame on men?s
minds forever.?
Gilgamesh bolted the seven gates of great-walled Uruk, and the
people gathered, crowds of them poured out into the streets.
Gilgamesh sat on his throne. The crowds pressed in to hear him.
Gilgamesh spoke: ?Hear me, elders of great-walled Uruk. I must
travel now to the Cedar Forest, where the fierce monster
Humbaba lives. I will conquer him in the Cedar Forest, I will cut
down the tree, I will kill Humbaba, the whole world will know
how mighty I am. I will make a lasting name for myself, I will
stamp my fame on men?s minds forever.?
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Then Gilgamesh turned to the young men and spoke: ?Hear me,
young men of great-walled Uruk, warriors and comrades who
have fought at my side. I will journey to meet the monster
Humbaba, I will walk a road that no man has traveled, I will face
a combat that no man has known. Give me your blessing before I
leave, so that I may come back from the Cedar Forest victorious,
and see your faces again. Once again may I celebrate the New
Year with you, in the streets of great-walled Uruk, to the lyre?s
sound and the beat of the drums.?
Enkidu stood up. There were tears in his eyes. ?Elders of Uruk,
persuade the king not to go to the Cedar Forest, not to fight the
fierce monster Humbaba, whose roar booms forth like a
thunderclap, whose breath spews fire, whose jaws are death, who
can hear all sounds in the forest, even the faintest rustling among
the leaves. Who among men or gods could defeat him? Humbaba
is the forest?s guardian, Enlil put him there to terrify men.?
The elders bowed to the king and said,
?You are young, Sire, your
heart beats high and runs away with you. Why do you wish to
embark on this folly? We have heard of Humbaba, he is
dangerous, he is horrible to look at, his breath spews fire, his jaws
are death. How can any man, even you, dare to enter the Cedar
Forest? Who among men or gods could defeat him? Humbaba is
the forest?s guardian, Enlil put him there to terrify men.?
After he had listened to the elders? words, Gilgamesh laughed. He
got up and said,
?Dear friend, tell me, has your courage returned?
Are you ready to leave? Or are you still afraid of dying a hero?s
death? Enkidu, let us go to the forge and order the smiths to make
us weapons that only the mightiest heroes could use.?
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Enkidu listened gravely. He stood silent there for a long time. At
last he nodded. Gilgamesh took his hand.
The smiths listened to their instructions. They cast huge weapons
that ordinary men could never carry: axes that weighed two
hundred pounds each, knives with cross guards and heavy
mountings of solid gold. Each man carried weapons and armor
weighing more than six hundred pounds.
Gilgamesh said,
?Before we leave, let us pay a visit to my
mother?s temple, let us go and speak to the lady Ninsun, the wise,
the all-knowing. Let us bow before her, let us ask for her blessing
and her advice.?
Hand in hand, the two friends walked to Ninsun?s temple.
Gilgamesh bowed to his mother, the goddess Ninsun, and said,
?I
must travel now to the Cedar Forest, I must journey to meet the
fierce monster Humbaba, I must walk a road that no man has
traveled, I must face a combat that no man has known. Dear
mother, great goddess, help me in this, give me your blessing
before I leave, so that I may come back from the Cedar Forest
victorious, and see your face again.?
Ninsun listened to his words with sorrow. With sorrow she
entered her inner room, she bathed in water of tamarisk and
soapwort, she put on her finest robe, a wide belt, a jeweled
necklace, then put on her crown. She climbed the stairs and went
up to the roof, she lit sweet incense in honor of Shamash, she
lifted her arms in prayer and said,
?Lord of heaven, you have
granted my son beauty and strength and courage-why have you
burdened him with a restless heart? Now you have stirred him up
to attack the monster Humbaba, to make a long journey from
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which he may not return. Since he has resolved to go, protect him
until he arrives at the Cedar Forest, until he kills the monster
Humbaba and drives from the world the evil that you hate. Protect
him each day as you cross the sky, and at twilight may Aya your
bride entrust him to the valiant stars, the watchmen of the night. O
Lord Shamash, glorious sun, delight of the gods, illuminator of
the world, who rise and the light is born, it fills the heavens, the
whole earth takes shape, the mountains form, the valleys grow
bright, darkness vanishes, evil retreats, all creatures wake up and
open their eyes, they see you, they are filled with joy-protect my
son. On his dangerous journey let the days be long, let the nights
be short, let his stride be vigorous and his legs sturdy. When he
and his dear friend Enkidu arrive, stir up strong winds against
Humbaba, the south wind, the north wind, the east and the west,
storm wind, gale wind, hurricane, tornado, to pin Humbaba, to
paralyze his steps and make it easy for my son kill him. Then your
swift mules will carry you onward to your stopping place and bed
for the night, the gods will bring luscious food to delight you, Aya
will dry your face with the fringe of her pure white robe. Hear me,
O Lord, protect my son, in your great mercy lead him to the
Forest, then bring him home.?
After she had prayed, the goddess Ninsun, the wise, the allknowing,
came down from the roof and summoned Enkidu. ?Dear
child,
? she said,
?you were not born from my womb, but now I
adopt you as my son.? She hung a jeweled amulet around
Enkidu?s neck. ?As a priestess takes in an abandoned child, I have
taken in Enkidu as my own son. May he be a brother for
Gilgamesh. May he guide him to the Forest, and bring him
home.?
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Enkidu listened. Tears filled his eyes. He and Gilgamesh clasped
hands like brothers.
They took their weapons: the massive axes, the massive knives,
the quivers, the bows. The elders made way. The young men
cheered.
The elders stood up and addressed the king: ?Come back safely to
great-walled Uruk. Do not rely on your strength alone, but be
watchful, be wary, make each blow count. Remember what the
ancient proverb says: ?If you walk in front, you protect your
comrade; if you know the route, you safeguard your friend.? Let
Enkidu go ahead as you walk, he knows the way to the Cedar
Forest, he is tested in battle, he is brave and strong, he will guard
you at every stage of the journey, through every danger he will
stand at your side. May Shamash grant you your heart?s desire,
may the path to the Cedar Forest be straight, may the nights be
safe, with no dangers lurking, may your father Lugalbanda protect
you, may you conquer Humbaba, may the battle be quick, may
you joyfully wash your feet in his river. Dig a well when you stop
for the night, fill your waterskins with fresh water, each day make
an offering to Shamash, and remember Lugalbanda your father,
who journeyed to far-off mountains himself.?
The elders turned to Enkidu and said,
?We leave the king in your
care. Protect him, guide him through all the treacherous passes,
show him where to find food and where to dig for fresh water,
lead him to the forest and fight at his side. May Shamash help
you, may the gods grant your heart?s desire and bring you back
safe to great-walled Uruk.?
Enkidu said to Gilgamesh,
?Since you must do this, I must go
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with you. So let us leave. Let our hearts be fearless. I will go first,
since I know the way to the Cedar Forest, where Humbaba lives.?
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At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, at a thousand miles
they pitched their camp. They had traveled for just three days and
nights, a six weeks? journey for ordinary men. When the sun was
setting, they dug a well, they filled their waterskins with fresh
water, Gilgamesh climbed to the mountaintop, he poured out flour
as an offering and said,
?Mountain, bring me a favorable dream.?
Enkidu did the ritual for dreams, praying for a sign. A gust of
wind passed. He built a shelter for the night, placed Gilgamesh on
the floor and spread a magic circle of flour around him, then
sprawled like a net across the doorway. Gilgamesh sat there, with
his chin on his knees, and sleep overcame him, as it does all men.
At midnight he awoke. He said to Enkidu,
?What happened? Did
you touch me? Did a god pass by? What makes my skin creep?
Why am I cold? Enkidu, dear friend, I have had a dream, a
horrible dream. We were walking in a gorge, and when I looked
up, a huge mountain loomed, so huge that we were as small as
flies. Then the mountain fell down on top of us. Dear friend, tell
me, what does this mean??
Enkidu said,
?Don?t worry, my friend, the dream you had is a
favorable one. The mountain stands for Humbaba. He will fall just
like that mountain. Lord Shamash will grant us victory, we will
kill the monster and leave his corpse on the battlefield.?
Gilgamesh, happy with his good dream, smiled, and his face lit up
with pleasure.
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At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, at a thousand miles
they pitched their camp. They had traveled for just three days and
nights, a six weeks? journey for ordinary men. When the sun was
setting, they dug a well, they filled their waterskins with fresh
water, Gilgamesh climbed to the mountaintop, he poured out flour
as an offering and said,
?Mountain, bring me a favorable dream.?
Enkidu did the ritual for dreams, praying for a sign. A gust of
wind passed. He built a shelter for the night, placed Gilgamesh on
the floor and spread a magic circle of flour around him, then
sprawled like a net across the doorway. Gilgamesh sat there, with
his chin on his knees, and sleep overcame him, as it does all men.
At midnight he awoke. He said to Enkidu,
?What happened? Did
you touch me? Did a god pass by? What makes my skin creep?
Why am I cold? Enkidu, dear friend, I have had a dream, a dream
more horrible than the first. I looked up and a huge mountain
loomed, it threw me down, it pinned me by the feet, a terrifying
brightness hurt my eyes, suddenly a young man appeared, he was
shining and handsome, he took me by the arm, he pulled me out
from under the mountain, he gave me water, my heart grew calm.
Dear friend, tell me, what does this mean??
Enkidu said,
?Don?t worry, my friend, the dream you had is a
favorable one. Again, the mountain stands for Humbaba. He
threw you down, but he could not kill you. As for the handsome
young man who appeared, he stands for Lord Shamash, who will
rescue you and grant you everything you desire.? Gilgamesh,
happy with his good dream, smiled, and his face lit up with
pleasure.
At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, at a thousand miles
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they pitched their camp. They had traveled for just three days and
nights, a six weeks? journey for ordinary men. When the sun was
setting, they dug a well, they filled their waterskins with fresh
water, Gilgamesh climbed to the mountaintop, he poured out flour
as an offering and said,
?Mountain, bring me a favorable dream.?
Enkidu did the ritual for dreams, praying for a sign. A gust of
wind passed. He built a shelter for the night, placed Gilgamesh on
the floor and spread a magic circle of flour around him, then
sprawled like a net across the doorway. Gilgamesh sat there, with
his chin on his knees, and sleep overcame him, as it does all men.
At midnight he awoke. He said to Enkidu,
?What happened? Did
you touch me? Did a god pass by? What makes my skin creep?
Why am I cold? Enkidu, dear friend, I have had a dream, a dream
more horrible than both the others. The heavens roared and the
earth heaved, then darkness, silence. Lightning flashed, igniting
the trees. By the time the flames died out, the ground was covered
with ash. Dear friend, tell me, what does this mean??
Enkidu said,
?Don?t worry, my friend, the dream you had is a
favorable one. The fiery heavens stand for Humbaba, who tried to
kill you with lightning and flames. But in spite of the fire, he
could not harm you. We will kill Humbaba. Success is ours.
However he attacks us, we will prevail.? Gilgamesh, happy with
his good dream, smiled, and his face lit up with pleasure.
At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, at a thousand miles
they pitched their camp. They had traveled for just three days and
nights, a six weeks? journey for ordinary men. When the sun was
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setting, they dug a well, they filled their waterskins with fresh
water, Gilgamesh climbed to the mountaintop, he poured out flour
as an offering and said,
?Mountain, bring me a favorable dream.?
Enkidu did the ritual for dreams, praying for a sign. A gust of
wind passed. He built a shelter for the night, placed Gilgamesh on
the floor and spread a magic circle of flour around him, then
sprawled like a net across the doorway. Gilgamesh sat there, with
his chin on his knees, and sleep overcame him, as it does all men.
At midnight he awoke. He said to Enkidu,
?What happened? Did
you touch me? Did a god pass by? What makes my skin creep?
Why am I cold? Enkidu, dear friend, I have had a fourth dream, a
dream more horrible than the three others. I saw a fierce eagle
with a lion?s head, it floated down toward me like a huge cloud, it
grimaced at me, terrifying flames shot from its mouth, then beside
me I saw a young man with an unearthly glow, he seized the
creature, he broke its wings, he wrung its neck and threw it to the
ground. Dear friend, tell me, what does this mean??
Enkidu said,
?Don?t worry, my friend, the dream you had is a
favorable one. The eagle that you saw, with a lion?s head, stands
for Humbaba. Though it dived straight toward you and terrifying
flames shot from its mouth, nothing could cause you harm. The
young man who came to your rescue was our lord, Shamash. He
will stand beside us when the monster attacks. Whatever happens,
we will prevail.? Gilgamesh, happy with his good dream, smiled,
and his face lit up with pleasure.
At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, at a thousand miles
they pitched their camp. They had traveled for just three days and
nights, a six weeks? journey for ordinary men. When the sun was
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setting, they dug a well, they filled their waterskins with fresh
water, Gilgamesh climbed to the mountaintop, he poured out flour
as an offering and said,
?Mountain, bring me a favorable dream.?
Enkidu did the ritual for dreams, praying for a sign. A gust of
wind passed. He built a shelter for the night, placed Gilgamesh on
the floor and spread a magic circle of flour around him, then
sprawled like a net across the doorway. Gilgamesh sat there, with
his chin on his knees, and sleep overcame him, as it does all men.
At midnight he awoke. He said to Enkidu,
?What happened? Did
you touch me? Did a god pass by? What makes my skin creep?
Why am I cold? Enkidu, dear friend, I have had a fifth dream, a
dream more horrible than all the others. I was wrestling with a
gigantic bull, its bellow shattered the ground and raised clouds of
dust that darkened the sky, it pinned me down, it crushed me, I
felt its breath on my face, then suddenly a man pulled me up, put
his arms around me, and gave me fresh water from his waterskin.
Dear friend, tell me, what does this mean??
Enkidu said,
?Don?t worry, my friend, the dream you had is a
favorable one. The gigantic bull is no enemy of ours. He stands
for the very god who has helped us, bright Shamash, our
protector, lord of the sky, who in every danger will come to our
aid. The man who pulled you up from the ground and gave you
fresh water from his waterskin is Lugalbanda, your personal god.
Withhis help, we will achieve a triumph greater than any man has
achieved.?
They had reached the edge of the Cedar Forest. They could hear
Humbaba?s terrifying roar. Gilgamesh stopped. He was trembling.
Tears flowed down his cheeks. ?O Shamash,
? he cried,
?protect
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me on this dangerous journey. Remember me, help me, hear my
prayer.? They stood and listened. A moment passed. Then, from
heaven, the voice of the god called to Gilgamesh: ?Hurry, attack,
attack Humbaba while the time is right, before he enters the
depths of the forest, before he can hide there and wrap himself in
his seven auras with their paralyzing glare.
He is wearing just one now. Attack him! Now!? They stood at the
edge of the Cedar Forest, gazing, silent. There was nothing to say.
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They stood at the edge of the Cedar Forest, marveling at the great
height of the trees. They could see, before them, a well-marked
trail beaten by Humbaba as he came and went. From far off they
saw the Cedar Mountain, sacred to Ishtar, where the gods dwell,
the slopes of it steep, and rich in cedars with their sharp fragrance
and pleasant shade. Gripping their axes, their knives unsheathed,
they entered the Forest and made their way through the tangle of
thorn bushes underfoot.
Suddenly Enkidu was seized by terror, his face turned pale like a
severed head. He said to Gilgamesh,
?Dear friend, I cannot
continue, I am frightened, I cannot go on. You go into the dreadful
forest, you kill Humbaba and win the fame. I will return now to
great-walled Uruk, and all men will know what a coward I have
been.?
Gilgamesh answered,
?Dear friend, dear brother, I cannot kill
Humbaba alone. Please stay here with me. Stand at my side. ?Two
boats lashed together will never sink. A three-ply rope is not
easily broken.? If we help each other and fight side by side, what
harm can come to us? Let us go on and attack the monster. We
have come so far. Whatever you are feeling, let us go on.?
Enkidu said,
?You have never met him, so you don?t know the
horror that lurks ahead. But when I saw him, my blood ran cold.
His teeth are knife-sharp, they stick out like tusks, his face, blood-
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smeared, is a lion?s face, he charges ahead like a raging torrent,
his forehead ablaze. Who can withstand him? I am terrified. I
cannot go on.?
Gilgamesh said,
?Courage, dear brother, this is no time to give in
to fear. We have come so far, across so many mountains, and our
journey is about to reach its goal. You were raised in the wild,
with your own hands you have killed marauding lions and wolves,
you are brave, your heart has been tested in combat. Though your
arms feel weak now and your legs tremble, you are a warrior, you
know what to do. Shout out your battle-cry, let your voice pound
like a kettle drum. Let your heart inspire you to be joyous in
battle, to forget about death. If we help each other and fight side
by side, we will make a lasting name for ourselves, we will stamp
our fame on men?s minds forever.?
They walked deep into the Cedar Forest, gripping their axes, their
knives unsheathed, following the trail that Humbaba had made.
They came within sight of the monster?s den. He was waiting
inside it. Their blood ran cold. He saw the two friends, he
grimaced, he bared his teeth, he let out a deafening roar. He
glared at Gilgamesh. ?Young man,
? he said,
?you will never go
home. Prepare to die.? Dread surged through Gilgamesh, terror
flooded his muscles, his heart froze, his mouth went dry, his legs
shook, his feet were rooted to the ground.
Enkidu saw his dismay and said,
?Dear friend, great warrior,
noble hero, don?t lose courage, remember this: ?Two boats lashed
together will never sink. A three-ply rope is not easily broken.? If
we help each other and fight side by side, what harm can come to
us? Let us go on.?
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They advanced to the monster?s den. Humbaba charged out
roaring at them and said,
?I know you, Gilgamesh. Don?t be a
fool. Go away. Leave the Cedar Forest. Have madmen told you to
confront me here? I will tear you limb from limb, I will crush you
and leave you bloody and mangled on the ground. And you,
Enkidu, you son of a fish or a turtle, you gutless, fatherless spawn
who never suckled on mother?s milk, I saw you in the pastures
when you were young, I saw you graze with the wandering herds
but I didn?t kill you, you were too scrawny, you wouldn?t have
made a decent meal. And now you dare to lead Gilgamesh here,
you both stand before me looking like a pair of frightened girls. I
will slit your throats, I will cut off your heads, I will feed your
stinking guts to the shrieking vultures and crows.?
Gilgamesh backed away. He said,
?How dreadful Humbaba?s face
has become! It is changing into a thousand nightmare faces, more
horrible than I can bear. I feel haunted. I am too afraid to go on.?
Enkidu answered,
?Why, dear friend, do you speak like a coward?
What you just said is unworthy of you. It grieves my heart. We
must not hesitate or retreat.
Two intimate friends cannot be defeated. Be courageous.
Remember how strong you are. I will stand by you. Now let us
attack.?
Gilgamesh felt his courage return. They charged at Humbaba like
two wild bulls. The monster let out a deafening cry, his roar
boomed forth like a blast of thunder, he stamped and the ground
burst open, his steps split the mountains of Lebanon, the clouds
turned black, a sulfurous fog descended on them and made their
eyes ache. Then Shamash threw strong winds at Humbaba, the
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south wind, the north wind, the east and the west, storm wind,
gale wind, hurricane, tornado, to pin him down and paralyze his
steps. He could not move forward, could not retreat. Gilgamesh
saw it, he leaped upon him, he held a knife to Humbaba?s throat.
Humbaba said,
?Gilgamesh, have mercy. Let me live here in the
Cedar Forest. If you spare my life, I will be your slave, I will give
you as many cedars as you wish. You are king of Uruk by the
grace of Shamash, honor him with a cedar temple and a glorious
cedar palace for yourself. All this is yours, if only you spare me.?
Enkidu said,
?Dear friend, don?t listen to anything that the
monster says. Kill him before you become confused.?
Humbaba said,
?If any mortal, Enkidu, knows the rules of my
forest, it is you. You know that this is my place and that I am the
forest?s guardian. Enlil put me here to terrify men, and I guard the
forest as Enlil ordains. If you kill me, you will call down the
gods? wrath, and their judgment will be severe. I could have killed
you at the forest?s edge, I could have hung you from a cedar and
fed your guts to the shrieking vultures and crows. Now it is your
turn to show me mercy. Speak to him, beg him to spare my life.?
Enkidu said,
?Dear friend, quickly, before another moment goes
by, kill Humbaba, don?t listen to his words, don?t hesitate,
slaughter him, slit his throat, before the great god Enlil can stop
us, before the great gods can get enraged, Enlil in Nippur,
Shamash in Larsa. Establish your fame, so that forever men will
speak of brave Gilgamesh, who killed Humbaba in the Cedar
Forest.?
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Knowing he was doomed, Humbaba cried out,
?I curse you both.
Because you have done this, may Enkidu die, may he die in great
pain, may Gilgamesh be inconsolable, may his merciless heart be
crushed with grief.?
Gilgamesh dropped his axe, appalled. Enkidu said,
?Courage, dear
friend. Close your ears to Humbaba?s curses. Don?t listen to a
word. Slaughter him! Now!?
Gilgamesh, hearing his beloved friend, came to himself. He
yelled, he lifted his massive axe, he swung it, it tore into
Humbaba?s neck, the blood shot out, again the axe bit flesh and
bone, the monster staggered, his eyes rolled, and at the axe?s third
stroke he toppled like a cedar and crashed to the ground. At his
death-roar the mountains of Lebanon shook, the valleys ran with
his blood, for ten miles the forest resounded. Then the two friends
sliced him open, pulled out his intestines, cut off his head with its
knife-sharp teeth and horrible bloodshot staring eyes. A gentle
rain fell onto the mountains. A gentle rain fell onto the mountains.
They took their axes and penetrated deeper into the forest, they
went chopping down cedars, the woods chips flew, Gilgamesh
chopped down the mighty trees, Enkidu hewed the trunks into
timbers. Enkidu said,
?By your great strength you have killed
Humbaba, the forest?s watchman. What could bring you dishonor
now? We have chopped down the trees of the Cedar Forest, we
have brought to earth the highest of the trees, the cedar whose top
once pierced the sky. We will make it into a gigantic door, a
hundred feet high and thirty feet wide, we will float it down the
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Euphrates to Enlil?s temple in Nippur. No men shall go through it,
but only the gods. May Enlil delight in it, may it be a joy to the
people of Nippur.?
They bound logs together and built a raft. Enkidu steered it down
the great river. Gilgamesh carried Humbaba?s head.
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When he returned to great-walled Uruk, Gilgamesh bathed, he
washed his matted hair and shook it over his back, he took off his
filthy, blood-spattered clothes, put on a tunic of the finest wool,
wrapped himself in a glorious gold-trimmed purple robe and
fastened it with a wide fringed belt, then put on his crown.
The goddess Ishtar caught sight of him, she saw how splendid a
man he was, her heart was smitten, her loins caught fire.
?Come here, Gilgamesh,
? Ishtar said,
?marry me, give me your
luscious fruits, be my husband, be my sweet man. I will give you
abundance beyond your dreams: marble and alabaster, ivory and
jade, gorgeous servants with blue-green eyes, a chariot of lapis
lazuli with golden wheels and guide-horns of amber, pulled by
storm-demons like giant mules. When you enter my temple and
its cedar fragrance, high priests will bow down and kiss your feet,
kings and princes will kneel before you, bringing you tribute from
east and west. And I will bless everything that you own, your
goats will bear triplets, your ewes will twin, your donkeys will be
faster than any mule, your chariot-horses will win every race,
your oxen will be the envy of the world. These are the least of the
gifts I will shower upon you. Come here. Be my sweet man.?
Gilgamesh said,
?Your price is too high, such riches are far
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beyond my means. Tell me, how could I ever repay you, even if I
gave you jewels, perfumes, rich robes? And what will happen to
me when your heart turns elsewhere and your lust burns out?
?Why would I want to be the lover of a broken oven that fails in
the cold, a flimsy door that the wind blows through, a palace that
falls on its staunchest defenders, a mouse that gnaws through its
thin reed shelter, tar that blackens the workman?s hands, a
waterskin that is full of holes and leaks all over its bearer, a piece
of limestone that crumbles and undermines a solid stone wall, a
battering ram that knocks down the rampart of an allied city, a
shoe that mangles its owner?s foot?
?Which of your husbands did you love forever? Which could
satisfy your endless desires? Let me remind you of how they
suffered, how each one came to a bitter end. Remember what
happened to that beautiful boy Tammuz: you loved him when you
were both young, then you changed, you sent him to the
underworld and doomed him to be wailed for, year after year.
You loved the bright-speckled roller bird, then you changed, you
attacked him and broke his wings, and he sits in the woods crying
Ow-ee! Ow-ee! You loved the lion, matchless in strength, then
you changed, you dug seven pits for him, and when he fell, you
left him to die. You loved the hot-blooded, war-bold stallion, then
you changed, you doomed him to whip and spurs, to endlessly
gallop, with a bit in his mouth, to muddy his own water when he
drinks from a pool, and for his mother, the goddess Silili, you
ordained a weeping that will never end. You loved the shepherd,
the master of the flocks, who every day would bake bread for you
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and would bring you a fresh-slaughtered, roasted lamb, then you
changed, you touched him, he became a wolf, and now his own
shepherd boys drive him away and his own dogs snap at his hairy
thighs. You loved the gardener Ishullanu, who would bring you
baskets of fresh-picked dates, every day, to brighten your table,
you lusted for him, you drew close and said,
?Sweet Ishullanu, let
me suck your rod, touch my vagina, caress my jewel,
? and he
frowned and answered,
?Why should I eat this rotten meal of
yours? What can you offer but the bread of dishonor, the beer of
shame, and thin reeds as covers when the cold wind blows?? But
you kept up your sweet-talk and at last he gave in, then you
changed, you turned him into a toad and doomed him to live in his
devastated garden. And why would my fate be any different? If I
too became your lover, you would treat me as cruelly as you
treated them.?
Ishtar shrieked, she exploded with fury. Raging, weeping, she
went up to heaven, to her father, Anu, and Antu, her mother, as
tears of anger poured down her cheeks. ?Father, Gilgamesh
slandered me! He hurled the worst insults at me, he said horrible,
unforgivable things!?
Anu said to the princess Ishtar,
?But might you not have provoked
this? Did you try to seduce him? Or did he just start insulting you
for no reason at all??
Ishtar said,
?Please, Father, I beg you, give me the Bull of
Heaven, just for a little while. I want to bring it to the earth, I
want it to kill that liar Gilgamesh and destroy his palace. If you
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say no, I will smash the gates of the underworld, and a million
famished ghouls will ascend to devour the living, and the living
will be outnumbered by the dead.?
Anu said to the princess Ishtar,
?But if I give you the Bull of
Heaven, Uruk will have famine for seven long years. Have you
provided the people with grain for seven years, and the cattle with
fodder??
Ishtar said,
?Yes, of course I have gathered grain and fodder, I
have stored up enough-more than enough?for seven years.?
When Anu heard this, he called for the Bull and handed its nose
rope to the princess Ishtar. Ishtar led the Bull down to the earth, it
entered and bellowed, the whole land shook, the streams and
marshes dried up, the Euphrates? water level dropped by ten feet.
When the Bull snorted, the earth cracked open and a hundred
warriors fell in and died. It snorted again, the earth cracked open
and two hundred warriors fell in and died. When it snorted a third
time, the earth cracked open and Enkidu fell in, up to his waist, he
jumped out and grabbed the Bull?s horns, it spat its slobber into
his face, it lifted its tail and spewed dung all over him. Gilgamesh
rushed in and shouted,
?Dear friend, keep fighting, together we
are sure to win.? Enkidu circled behind the Bull, seized it by the
tail and set his foot on its haunch, then Gilgamesh skillfully, like a
butcher, strode up and thrust his knife between its shoulders and
the base of its horns.
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After they had killed the Bull of Heaven, they ripped out its heart
and they offered it to Shamash. Then they both bowed before him
and sat down like brothers, side by side.
Ishtar was outraged. She climbed to the top of Uruk?s great wall,
she writhed in grief and wailed,
?Not only did Gilgamesh slander
me-now the brute has killed his own punishment, the Bull of
Heaven.?
When Enkidu heard these words, he laughed, he reached down,
ripped off one of the Bull?s thighs, and flung it in Ishtar?s face. ?If
only I could catch you, this is what I would do to you, I would rip
you apart and drape the Bull?s guts over your arms!?
Ishtar assembled her priestesses, those who offer themselves to all
men in her honor. They placed the Bull?s gory thigh on the altar,
and began a solemn lament.
Gilgamesh summoned his master craftsmen. They marveled at the
gigantic horns. Each horn was made from thirty pounds of lapis
lazuli, each was as thick as the length of two thumbs, together
they held four hundred gallons. He called for that much oil to
anoint his father?s statue, then hung the two massive horns in the
chapel dedicated to Lugalbanda.
The two friends washed themselves in the river and returned to
the palace, hand in hand. They rode in a chariot through the main
streets, the people shouted and cheered as they passed.
Gilgamesh said to his singing girls,
?Tell me: Who is the
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handsomest of men? Tell me: Who is the bravest of heroes?
Gilgamesh-he is the handsomest of men, Enkidu-he is the bravest
of heroes. We are the victors who in our fury flung the Bull?s
thigh in Ishtar?s face, and now, in the streets, she has no one to
avenge her.?
There was singing and feasting in the palace that night. Later,
when the warriors were stretched out asleep, Enkidu had a
terrifying dream. When he woke up, he said to Gilgamesh,
?Dear
friend, why are the great gods assembled??
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?Beloved brother,
? Enkidu said,
?last night I had a terrifying
dream. I dreamed that we had offended the gods, they met in
council and Anu said,
?They have slaughtered the Bull of Heaven
and killed Humbaba, watchman of the Cedar Forest. Therefore
one of the two must die.? Then Enlil said to him,
?Enkidu, not
Gilgamesh, is the one who must die.??
Enkidu fell sick. He lay on his bed, sick at heart, and his tears
flowed like streams. He said to Gilgamesh,
?Dear friend, dear
brother, they are taking me from you. I will not return. I will sit
with the dead in the underworld, and never will I see my dear
brother again.?
When Gilgamesh heard his friend?s words, he wept, swiftly the
tears flowed down his cheeks. He said to Enkidu,
?Dearest
brother, you have been a reasonable man, but now you are talking
nonsense. How do you know that your dream is not a favorable
one? Fear has set your lips buzzing like flies.?
Enkidu said,
?Beloved brother, last night I had a second bad
dream. The heavens thundered, the earth replied, and I was
standing on a shadowy plain. A creature appeared with a lion?s
head, his face was ghastly, he had a lion?s paws, an eagle?s talons
and wings. He flew at me, he seized me by the hair, I tried to
struggle, but with one blow he capsized me like a raft, he leaped
upon me, like a bull he trampled my bones. ?Gilgamesh, save me,
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save me!? I cried. But you didn?t save me. You were afraid and
you didn?t come. The creature touched me and suddenly feathers
covered my arms, he bound them behind me and forced me down
to the underworld, the house of darkness, the home of the dead,
where all who enter never return to the sweet earth again. Those
who dwell there squat in the darkness, dirt is their food, their
drink is clay, they are dressed in feathered garments like birds,
they never see light, and on door and bolt the dust lies thick.
When I entered that house, I looked, and around me were piles of
crowns, I saw proud kings who had ruled the land, who had set
out roast meat before the gods and offered cool water and cakes
for the dead. I saw high priests and acolytes squatting, exorcists
and prophets, the ecstatic and the dull, I saw Etana, the primeval
king, Sumuqan, the wild animals? god, and Ereshkigal, the
somber queen of the underworld. Belet-seri, her scribe, was
kneeling before her, reading from the tablet on which each
mortal?s death is inscribed. When the queen saw me, she glared
and said,
?Who has brought this new resident here???
Gilgamesh said,
?Though it sounds bad, this dream may be a good
omen. The gods send dreams just to the healthy, never to the
weak, so it is a healthy man who has dreamed this. Now I will
pray to the great gods for help, I will pray to Shamash and to your
god, to Anu, father of the gods, to Enlil the counselor, and to Ea
the wise, I will beg them to show you mercy, then I will have a
gold statue made in your image. Don?t worry, dear friend, you
will soon get better, this votive image will restore you to health.?
Enkidu said,
?There is no gold statue that can cure this illness,
beloved friend. What Enlil has decided cannot be changed. My
fate is settled. There is nothing you can do.?
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At the first glow of dawn, Enkidu cried out to Shamash, he raised
his head, and the tears poured down his cheeks. ?I turn to you,
Lord, since suddenly fate has turned against me. As for that
wretched trapper who found me when I was free in the
wilderness-because he destroyed my life, destroy his livelihood,
may he go home empty, may no animals ever enter his traps, or if
they do, may they vanish like mist, and may he starve for bringing
me here.?
After he had cursed him to his heart?s content, he then cursed
Shamhat, the priestess of Ishtar. ?Shamhat, I assign you an eternal
fate, I curse you with the ultimate curse, may it seize you
instantly, as it leaves my mouth. Never may you have a home and
family, never caress a child of your own, may your man prefer
younger, prettier girls, may he beat you as a housewife beats a
rug, may you never acquire bright alabaster or shining silver, the
delight of men, may your roof keep leaking and no carpenter fix
it, may wild dogs camp in your bedroom, may owls nest in your
attic, may drunkards vomit all over you, may a tavern wall be
your place of business, may you be dressed in torn robes and
filthy underwear, may angry wives sue you, may thorns and briars
make your feet bloody, may young men jeer and the rabble mock
you as you walk the streets. Shamhat, may all this be your reward
for seducing me in the wilderness when I was strong and innocent
and free.?
Bright Shamash, the protector, heard his prayer. Then from
heaven the voice of the god called out: ?Enkidu, why are you
cursing the priestess Shamhat? Wasn?t it she who gave you fine
bread fit for a god and fine beer fit for a king, who clothed you in
a glorious robe and gave you splendid Gilgamesh as your intimate
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friend? He will lay you down on a bed of honor, he will put you
on a royal bier, on his left he will place your statue in the seat of
repose, the princes of the earth will kiss its feet, the people of
Uruk will mourn you, and when you are gone, he will roam the
wilderness with matted hair, in a lion skin.?
When Enkidu heard this, his raging heart grew calm. He thought
of Shamhat and said,
?Shamhat, I assign you a different fate, my
mouth that cursed you will bless you now. May you be adored by
nobles and princes, two miles away from you may your lover
tremble with excitement, one mile away may he bite his lip in
anticipation, may the warrior long to be naked beside you, may
Ishtar give you generous lovers whose treasure chests brim with
jewels and gold, may the mother of seven be abandoned for your
sake.?
Then Enkidu said to Gilgamesh,
?You who have walked beside
me, steadfast through so many dangers, remember me, never
forget what I have endured.?
The day that Enkidu had his dreams, his strength began failing.
For twelve long days he was deathly sick, he lay in his bed in
agony, unable to rest, and every day he grew worse. At last he sat
up and called out to Gilgamesh: ?Have you abandoned me now,
dear friend? You told me that you would come to help me when I
was afraid. But I cannot see you, you have not come to fight off
this danger. Yet weren?t we to remain forever inseparable, you
and I??
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When he heard the death rattle, Gilgamesh moaned like a dove.
His face grew dark. ?Beloved, wait, don?t leave me. Dearest of
men, don?t die, don?t let them take you from me.?
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All through the long night, Gilgamesh wept for his dead friend. At
the first glow of dawn, he cried out,
?Enkidu, dearest brother, you
came to Uruk from the wilderness, your mother was a gazelle,
your father a wild ass, you were raised on the milk of antelope
and deer, and the wandering herds taught you where the best
pastures were. May the paths that led you to the Cedar Forest
mourn you constantly, day and night, may the elders of greatwalled
Uruk mourn you, who gave us their blessing when we
departed, may the hills mourn you and the mountains we climbed,
may the pastures mourn you as their own son, may the forest we
slashed in our fury mourn you, may the bear mourn you, the
hyena, the panther, the leopard, deer, jackal, lion, wild bull,
gazelle, may the rivers Ulaya and Euphrates mourn you, whose
sacred waters we offered to the gods, may the young men of
great-walled Uruk mourn you, who cheered when we slaughtered
the Bull of Heaven, may the farmer mourn you, who praised you
to the skies in his harvest song, may the shepherd mourn you,
who brought you milk, may the brewer mourn you, who made
you fine beer, may Ishtar?s priestess mourn you, who massaged
you with sweet-smelling oil, may the wedding guests mourn you
like their own brother, may the temple priests mourn you,
loosening their hair.
?Hear me, elders, hear me, young men, my beloved friend is dead,
he is dead, my beloved brother is dead, I will mourn as long as I
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breathe, I will sob for him like a woman who has lost her only
child. O Enkidu, you were the axe at my side in which my arm
trusted, the knife in my sheath, the shield I carried, my glorious
robe, the wide belt around my loins, and now a harsh fate has torn
you from me, forever. Beloved friend, swift stallion, wild deer,
leopard ranging in the wilderness?Enkidu, my friend, swift
stallion, wild deer, leopard ranging in the wilderness?together
we crossed the mountains, together we slaughtered the Bull of
Heaven, we killed Humbaba, who guarded the Cedar Forest?O
Enkidu, what is this sleep that has seized you, that has darkened
your face and stopped your breath??
But Enkidu did not answer. Gilgamesh touched his heart, but it
did not beat.
Then he veiled Enkidu?s face like a bride?s. Like an eagle
Gilgamesh circled around him, he paced in front of him, back and
forth, like a lioness whose cubs are trapped in a pit, he tore out
clumps of his hair, tore off his magnificent robes as though they
were cursed.
At the first glow of dawn, Gilgamesh sent out a proclamation:
?Blacksmiths, goldsmiths, workers in silver, metal, and gemscreate
a statue of Enkidu, my friend, make it more splendid than
any statue that has ever been made. Cover his beard with lapis
lazuli, his chest with gold. Let obsidian and all other beautiful
stones-a thousand jewels of every color-be piled along with the
silver and gold and sent on a barge, down the Euphrates to greatwalled
Uruk, for Enkidu?s statue. I will lay him down on a bed of
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honor, I will put him on a royal bier, on my left I will place his
statue in the seat of repose, the princes of the earth will kiss its
feet, the people of Uruk will mourn him, and when he is gone, I
will roam the wilderness with matted hair, in a lion skin.?
After he sent out the proclamation, he went to the treasury,
unlocked the door and surveyed his riches, then he brought out
priceless, jewel-studded weapons and tools, with inlaid handles of
ivory and gold, and he heaped them up for Enkidu, his friend, as
an offering to the gods of the underworld. He gathered fattened
oxen and sheep, he butchered them, and he piled them high for
Enkidu, his beloved friend. He closed his eyes, in his mind he
formed an image of the infernal river, then he opened the palace
gate, brought out an offering table of precious yew wood, filled a
carnelian bowl with honey, filled a lapis lazuli bowl with butter,
and when the offerings were ready he spread out each one in front
of Shamash.
To the great queen Ishtar his offering was a polished javelin of
pure cedar. ?Let Ishtar accept this, let her welcome my friend and
walk at his side in the underworld, so that Enkidu may not be sick
at heart.? To S?n, the god of the moon, he offered a knife with a
curved obsidian blade. ?Let S?n accept this, let him welcome my
friend and walk at his side in the underworld, so that Enkidu may
not be sick at heart.? To Ereshkigal, the dark queen of the dead,
he offered a lapis lazuli flask. ?Let the queen accept this, let her
welcome my friend and walk at his side in the underworld, so that
Enkidu may not be sick at heart.? To Tammuz, the shepherd
beloved by Ishtar, his offering was a carnelian flute; to Namtar,
vizier of the dark gods, a lapis lazuli chair and scepter; to
Hushbishag, handmaid of the dark gods, a golden necklace; to
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Qassa-tabat, the infernal sweeper, a silver bracelet; to the
housekeeper, Ninshuluhha, a mirror of alabaster, on the back of
which was a picture of the Cedar Forest, inlaid with rubies and
lapis lazuli; to the butcher, Bibbu, a double-edged knife with a
haft of lapis lazuli bearing a picture of the holy Euphrates. When
all the offerings were set out, he prayed,
?Let the gods accept
these, let them welcome my friend and walk at his side in the
underworld, so that Enkidu may not be sick at heart.?
After the funeral, Gilgamesh went out from Uruk, into the
wilderness with matted hair, in a lion skin.
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Gilgamesh wept over Enkidu his friend, bitterly he wept through
the wilderness. ?Must I die too? Must I be as lifeless as Enkidu?
How can I bear this sorrow that gnaws at my belly, this fear of
death that restlessly drives me onward? If only I could find the
one man whom the gods made immortal, I would ask him how to
overcome death.?
So Gilgamesh roamed, his heart full of anguish, wandering,
always eastward, in search of Utnapishtim, whom the gods made
immortal.
Finally he arrived at the two high mountains called the Twin
Peaks. Their summits touch the vault of heaven, their bases reach
down to the underworld, they keep watch over the sun?s departure
and its return. Two scorpion people were posted at the entrance,
guarding the tunnel into which the sun plunges when it sets and
moves through the earth to emerge above the horizon at dawn.
The sight of these two inspired such terror that it could kill an
ordinary man. Their auras shimmered over the mountains. When
Gilgamesh saw them, he was pierced with dread, but he steadied
himself and headed toward them.
The scorpion man called out to his wife,
?This one who
approaches-he must be a god.?
The scorpion woman called back to him,
?He is two-thirds divine
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and one-third human.?
The scorpion man said,
?What is your name? How have you dared
to come here? Why have you traveled so far, over seas and
mountains difficult to cross, through wastelands and deserts no
mortal has ever entered? Tell me the goal of your journey. I want
to know.?
?Gilgamesh is my name,
? he answered,
?I am the king of greatwalled
Uruk and have come here to find my ancestor
Utnapishtim, who joined the assembly of the gods, and was
granted eternal life. He is my last hope. I want to ask him how he
managed to overcome death.?
The scorpion man said,
?No one is able to cross the Twin Peaks,
nor has anyone ever entered the tunnel into which the sun plunges
when it sets and moves through the earth. Inside the tunnel there
is total darkness: deep is the darkness, with no light at all.?
The scorpion woman said,
?This brave man, driven by despair, his
body frost-chilled, exhausted, and burnt by the desert sun-show
him the way to Utnapishtim.?
The scorpion man said,
?Ever downward through the deep
darkness the tunnel leads. All will be pitch black before and
behind you, all will be pitch black to either side. You must run
through the tunnel faster than the wind. You have just twelve
hours. If you don?t emerge from the tunnel before the sun sets and
enters, you will find no refuge from its deadly fire. Penetrate into
the mountains? depths, may the Twin Peaks lead you safely to
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your goal, may they safely take you to the edge of the world. The
gate to the tunnel lies here before you. Go now in peace, and
return in peace.?
As the sun was rising, Gilgamesh entered. He began to run. For
one hour he ran, deep was the darkness, with no light at all before
and behind him and to either side. For a second and a third hour
Gilgamesh ran, deep was the darkness, with no light at all before
and behind him and to either side. For a fourth and a fifth hour
Gilgamesh ran, deep was the darkness, with no light at all before
and behind him and to either side. For a sixth and a seventh hour
Gilgamesh ran, deep was the darkness, with no light at all before
and behind him and to either side. At the eighth hour Gilgamesh
cried out with fear, deep was the darkness, with no light at all
before and behind him and to either side. At the ninth hour he felt
a breeze on his face, deep was the darkness, with no light at all
before and behind him and to either side. For a tenth and eleventh
hour Gilgamesh ran, deep was the darkness, with no light at all
before and behind him and to either side. At the twelfth hour he
emerged from the tunnel into the light. The sun was hurtling
toward the entrance. He had barely escaped.
Before him the garden of the gods appeared, with gem-trees of all
colors, dazzling to see. There were trees that grew rubies, trees
with lapis lazuli flowers, trees that dangled gigantic coral clusters
like dates. Everywhere, sparkling on all the branches, were
enormous jewels: emeralds, sapphires, hematite, diamonds,
carnelians, pearls. Gilgamesh looked up and marveled at it all.
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At the edge of the ocean, the tavern keeper Shiduri was sitting.
Her face was veiled, her golden pot-stand and brewing vat stood
at her side. As Gilgamesh came toward her, worn out, his heart
full of anguish, she thought,
?This desperate man must be a
murderer. Why else is he heading straight toward me?? She
rushed into her tavern, locked the door, then climbed to the roof.
Gilgamesh heard the noise, he looked up and saw her standing
there, staring at him. ?Why did you lock yourself in?? he shouted.
?I want to enter now. If you don?t let me, I will smash your locks
and break down your door.?
Shiduri answered,
?You seemed so wild that I locked my door and
climbed to the roof. Tell me your name now. Where you are
going??
?Gilgamesh is my name,
? he said. ?I am the king of great-walled
Uruk. I am the man who killed Humbaba in the Cedar Forest, I
am the man who triumphed over the Bull of Heaven.?
Shiduri said,
?Why are your cheeks so hollow and your features
so ravaged? Why is your face frost-chilled, and burnt by the
desert sun? Why is there so much grief in your heart? Why are
you worn out and ready to collapse, like someone who has been
on a long, hard journey??
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Gilgamesh said,
?Shouldn?t my cheeks be hollow, shouldn?t my
face be ravaged, frost-chilled, and burnt by the desert sun?
Shouldn?t my heart be filled with grief? Shouldn?t I be worn out
and ready to collapse? My friend, my brother, whom I loved so
dearly, who accompanied me through every danger?Enkidu, my
brother, whom I loved so dearly, who accompanied me through
every danger?the fate of mankind has overwhelmed him. For six
days I would not let him be buried, thinking,
?If my grief is
violent enough, perhaps he will come back to life again.? For six
days and seven nights I mourned him, until a maggot fell out of
his nose. Then I was frightened, I was terrified by death, and I set
out to roam the wilderness. I cannot bear what happened to my
friend?I cannot bear what happened to Enkidu?so I roam the
wilderness in my grief. How can my mind have any rest? My
beloved friend has turned into clay?my beloved Enkidu has
turned into clay. And won?t I too lie down in the dirt like him, and
never arise again??
Shiduri said,
?Gilgamesh, where are you roaming? You will never
find the eternal life that you seek. When the gods created
mankind, they also created death, and they held back eternal life
for themselves alone. Humans are born, they live, then they die,
this is the order that the gods have decreed. But until the end
comes, enjoy your life, spend it in happiness, not despair. Savor
your food, make each of your days a delight, bathe and anoint
yourself, wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean, let music
and dancing fill your house, love the child who holds you by the
hand, and give your wife pleasure in your embrace. That is the
best way for a man to live.?
Gilgamesh cried out,
?What are you saying, tavern keeper? My
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heart is sick for my friend who died. What can your words mean
when my heart is sick for Enkidu who died? Show me the road to
Utnapishtim. I will cross the vast ocean if I can. If not, I will roam
the wilderness in my grief.?
Shiduri said,
?Never has there been a path across the vast ocean,
nor has there ever been any human who was able to cross it. Only
brave Shamash as he climbs the sky can cross the vast ocean-who
else can do it? The crossing is harsh, the danger is great, and
midway lie the Waters of Death, whose touch kills instantly. Even
if you manage to sail that distance, what will you do when you
reach the Waters of Death? The one man who can help you is
Urshanabi, Utnapishtim?s boatman. He is trimming pine branches
down in the forest, and he has the Stone Men with him. Go to
him. Ask. If he says yes, you can cross the vast ocean. If he says
no, you will have to turn back.?
At these words, Gilgamesh gripped his axe, drew his knife, and
crept down toward them. When he was close, he fell upon them
like an arrow. His battle-cry rang through the forest. Urshanabi
saw the bright knife, saw the axe flash, and he stood there, dazed.
Fear gripped the Stone Men who crewed the boat. Gilgamesh
smashed them to pieces, then threw them into the sea. They sank
in the water.
Gilgamesh came back and stood before him. Urshanabi stared,
then he said,
?Who are you? Tell me. What is your name? I am
Urshanabi, the servant of Utnapishtim, the Distant One.?
?Gilgamesh is my name,
? he answered,
?I am the king of greatwalled
Uruk. I have traveled here across the high mountains, I
have traveled here on the hidden road through the underworld,
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where the sun comes forth. Show me the way to Utnapishtim.?
Urshanabi said,
?Your own hands have prevented the crossing,
since in your fury you have smashed the Stone Men, who crewed
my boat and could not be injured by the Waters of Death. But
don?t despair. There is one more way we can cross the vast ocean.
Take your axe, cut down three hundred punting poles, each a
hundred feet long, strip them, make grips, and bring them to me. I
will wait for you here.?
Gilgamesh went deep into the forest, he cut down three hundred
punting poles, each a hundred feet long, he stripped them, made
grips, and brought them to Urshanabi the boatman. They boarded
the boat and sailed away.
They sailed, without stopping, for three days and nights, a six
weeks? journey for ordinary men, until they reached the Waters of
Death. Urshanabi said,
?Now be careful, take up the first pole,
push us forward, and do not touch the Waters of Death. When you
come to the end of the first pole, drop it, take up a second and a
third one, until you come to the end of the three-hundredth pole
and the Waters of Death are well behind us.?
When all three hundred poles had been used, Gilgamesh took
Urshanabi?s robe. He held it as a sail, with both arms extended,
and the little boat moved on toward the shore.
Alone on the shore stood Utnapishtim, wondering as he watched
them approach. ?Where are the Stone Men who crew the boat?
Why is there a stranger on board? I have never seen him. Who can
he be??
Gilgamesh landed. When he saw the old man, he said to him,
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?Tell me, where can I find Utnapishtim, who joined the assembly
of the gods, and was granted eternal life??
Utnapishtim said,
?Why are your cheeks so hollow? Why is your
face so ravaged, frost-chilled, and burnt by the desert sun? Why is
there so much grief in your heart? Why are you worn out and
ready to collapse, like someone who has been on a long, hard
journey??
Gilgamesh said,
?Shouldn?t my cheeks be hollow, shouldn?t my
face be ravaged, frost-chilled, and burnt by the desert sun?
Shouldn?t my heart be filled with grief? Shouldn?t I be worn out
and ready to collapse? My friend, my brother, whom I loved so
dearly, who accompanied me through every danger?Enkidu, my
brother, whom I loved so dearly, who accompanied me through
every danger?the fate of mankind has overwhelmed him. For six
days I would not let him be buried, thinking,
?If my grief is
violent enough, perhaps he will come back to life again.? For six
days and seven nights I mourned him, until a maggot fell out of
his nose. Then I was frightened, I was terrified by death, and I set
out to roam the wilderness. I cannot bear what happened to my
friend?I cannot bear what happened to Enkidu?so I roam the
wilderness in my grief. How can my mind have any rest? My
beloved friend has turned into clay?my beloved Enkidu has
turned into clay. And won?t I too lie down in the dirt like him, and
never arise again? That is why I must find Utnapishtim, whom
men call ?The Distant One.? I must ask him how he managed to
overcome death. I have wandered the world, climbed the most
treacherous mountains, crossed deserts, sailed the vast ocean, and
sweet sleep has rarely softened my face. I have worn myself out
through ceaseless striving, I have filled my muscles with pain and
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anguish. I have killed bear, lion, hyena, leopard, tiger, deer,
antelope, ibex, I have eaten their meat and have wrapped their
rough skins around me. And what in the end have I achieved?
When I reached Shiduri the tavern keeper, I was filthy, exhausted,
heartsick. Now let the gate of sorrow be closed behind me, and let
it be sealed shut with tar and pitch.?
Utnapishtim said,
?Gilgamesh, why prolong your grief? Have you
ever paused to compare your own blessed lot with a fool?s? You
were made from the flesh of both gods and humans, the gods have
lavished you with their gifts as though they were your fathers and
mothers, from your birth they assigned you a throne and told you,
?Rule over men!? To the fool they gave beer dregs instead of
butter, stale crusts instead of bread that is fit for gods, rags instead
of magnificent garments, instead of a wide fringed belt an old
rope, and a frantic, senseless, dissatisfied mind. Can?t you see
how fortunate you are? You have worn yourself out through
ceaseless striving, you have filled your muscles with pain and
anguish. And what have you achieved but to bring yourself one
day nearer to the end of your days? At night the moon travels
across the sky, the gods of heaven stay awake and watch us,
unsleeping, undying. This is the way the world is established,
from ancient times.
?Yes: the gods took Enkidu?s life. But man?s life is short, at any
moment it can be snapped, like a reed in a canebrake. The
handsome young man, the lovely young woman?in their prime,
death comes and drags them away. Though no one has seen
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death?s face or heard death?s voice, suddenly, savagely, death
destroys us, all of us, old or young. And yet we build houses,
make contracts, brothers divide their inheritance, conflicts occur
?as though this human life lasted forever. The river rises, flows
over its banks and carries us all away, like mayflies floating
downstream: they stare at the sun, then all at once there is
nothing.
?The sleeper and the dead, how alike they are! Yet the sleeper
wakes up and opens his eyes, while no one returns from death.
And who can know when the last of his days will come? When
the gods assemble, they decide your fate, they establish both life
and death for you, but the time of death they do not reveal.?
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Gilgamesh said to Utnapishtim,
?I imagined that you would look
like a god. But you look like me, you are not any different. I
intended to fight you, yet now that I stand before you, now that I
see who you are, I can?t fight, something is holding me back. Tell
me, how is it that you, a mortal, overcame death and joined the
assembly of the gods and were granted eternal life??
Utnapishtim said,
?I will tell you a mystery, a secret of the gods.
You know Shuruppak, that ancient city on the Euphrates. I lived
there once. I was its king once, a long time ago, when the great
gods decided to send the Flood. Five gods decided, and they took
an oath to keep the plan secret: Anu their father, the counselor
Enlil, Ninurta the gods? chamberlain, and Ennugi the sheriff. Ea
also, the cleverest of the gods, had taken the oath, but I heard him
whisper the secret to the reed fence around my house. ?Reed
fence, reed fence, listen to my words. King of Shuruppak,
quickly, quickly tear down your house and build a great ship,
leave your possessions, save your life. The ship must be square,
so that its length equals its width. Build a roof over it, just as the
Great Deep is covered by the earth. Then gather and take aboard
the ship examples of every living creature.?
?I understood Ea?s words, and I said,
?My lord, I will obey your
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command, exactly as you have spoken it. But what shall I say
when the people ask me why I am building such a large ship??
?Ea said,
?Tell them that Enlil hates you, that you can no longer
live in their city or walk on the earth, which belongs to Enlil, that
it is your fate to go down into the Great Deep and live with Ea
your lord, and that Ea will rain abundance upon them. They will
all have all that they want, and more.?
?I laid out the structure, I drafted plans. At the first glow of dawn,
everyone gathered?carpenters brought their saws and axes, reed
workers brought their flattening-stones, rope makers brought their
ropes, and children carried the tar. The poor helped also, however
they could-some carried timber, some hammered nails, some cut
wood. By the end of the fifth day the hull had been built: the
decks were an acre large, the sides two hundred feet high. I built
six decks, so that the ship?s height was divided in seven. I divided
each deck into nine compartments, drove water plugs into all the
holes, brought aboard spars and other equipment, had three
thousand gallons of tar poured into the furnace, and three
thousand gallons of pitch poured out. The bucket carriers brought
three thousand gallons of oil?a thousand were used for the
caulking, two thousand were left, which the boatman stored. Each
day I slaughtered bulls for my workmen, I slaughtered sheep, I
gave them barrels of beer and ale and wine, and they drank it like
river water. When all our work on the ship was finished, we
feasted as though it were New Year?s Day. At sunrise I handed
out oil for the ritual, by sunset the ship was ready. The launching
was difficult. We rolled her on logs down to the river and eased
her in until two-thirds was under the water. I loaded onto her
everything precious that I owned: all my silver and gold, all my
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family, all my kinfolk, all kinds of animals, wild and tame,
craftsmen and artisans of every kind.
?Then Shamash announced that the time had come. ?Enter the
ship now. Seal the hatch.? I gazed at the sky?it was terrifying. I
entered the ship. To Puzur-amurri the shipwright, the man who
sealed the hatch, I gave my palace, with all its contents.
?At the first glow of dawn, an immense black cloud rose on the
horizon and crossed the sky. Inside it the storm god Adad was
thundering, while Shullat and Hanish, twin gods of destruction,
went first, tearing through mountains and valleys. Nergal, the god
of pestilence, ripped out the dams of the Great Deep, Ninurta
opened the floodgates of heaven, the infernal gods blazed and set
the whole land on fire. A deadly silence spread through the sky
and what had been bright now turned to darkness. The land was
shattered like a clay pot. All day, ceaselessly, the storm winds
blew, the rain fell, then the Flood burst forth, overwhelming the
people like war. No one could see through the rain, it fell harder
and harder, so thick that you couldn?t see your own hand before
your eyes. Even the gods were afraid. The water rose higher and
higher until the gods fled to Anu?s palace in the highest heaven.
But Anu had shut the gates. The gods cowered by the palace wall,
like dogs.
?Sweet-voiced Aruru, mother of men, screamed out, like a woman
in childbirth: ?If only that day had never been, when I spoke up
for evil in the council of the gods! How could I have agreed to
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destroy my children by sending the Great Flood upon them? I
have given birth to the human race, only to see them fill the ocean
like fish.? The other gods were lamenting with her. They sat and
listened to her and wept. Their lips were parched, crusted with
scabs.
?For six days and seven nights, the storm demolished the earth.
On the seventh day, the downpour stopped. The ocean grew calm.
No land could be seen, just water on all sides, as flat as a roof.
There was no life at all. The human race had turned into clay. I
opened a hatch and the blessed sunlight streamed upon me, I fell
to my knees and wept. When I got up and looked around, a
coastline appeared, a half mile away. On Mount Nimush the ship
ran aground, the mountain held it and would not release it. For six
days and seven nights, the mountain would not release it. On the
seventh day, I brought out a dove and set it free. The dove flew
off, then flew back to the ship, because there was no place to land.
I waited, then I brought out a swallow and set it free. The swallow
flew off, then flew back to the ship, because there was no place to
land. I waited, then I brought out a raven and set it free. The raven
flew off, and because the water had receded, it found a branch, it
sat there, it ate, it flew off and didn?t return.
?When the waters had dried up and land appeared, I set free the
animals I had taken, I slaughtered a sheep on the mountaintop and
offered it to the gods, I arranged two rows of seven ritual vases, I
burned reeds, cedar, and myrtle branches. The gods smelled the
fragrance, they smelled the sweet fragrance and clustered around
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the offering like flies.
?When Aruru came, she held up in the air her necklace of lapis
lazuli, Anu?s gift when their love was new. ?I swear by this
precious ornament that never will I forget these days. Let all the
gods come to the sacrifice, except for Enlil, because he recklessly
sent the Great Flood and destroyed my children.?
?Then Enlil arrived. When he saw the ship, he was angry, he
raged at the other gods. ?Who helped these humans escape?
Wasn?t the Flood supposed to destroy them all??
?Ninurta answered,
?Who else but Ea, the cleverest of us, could
devise such a thing??
?Ea said to the counselor Enlil,
?You, the wisest and bravest of the
gods, how did it happen that you so recklessly sent the Great
Flood to destroy mankind? It is right to punish the sinner for his
sins, to punish the criminal for his crime, but be merciful, do not
allow all men to die because of the sins of some. Instead of a
flood, you should have sent lions to decimate the human race, or
wolves, or a famine, or a deadly plague. As for my taking the
solemn oath, I didn?t reveal the secret of the gods, I only
whispered it to a fence and Utnapishtim happened to hear. Now
you must decide what his fate will be.?
?Then Enlil boarded, he took my hand, he led me out, then he led
out my wife. He had us kneel down in front of him, he touched
our foreheads and, standing between us, he blessed us. ?Hear me,
you gods: Until now, Utnapishtim was a mortal man. But from
now on, he and his wife shall be gods like us, they shall live
forever, at the source of the rivers, far away.? Then they brought
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us to this distant place at the source of the rivers. Here we live.
?Now then, Gilgamesh, who will assemble the gods for your
sake? Who will convince them to grant you the eternal life that
you seek? How would they know that you deserve it? First pass
this test: Just stay awake for seven days. Prevail against sleep, and
perhaps you will prevail against death.?
So Gilgamesh sat down against a wall to begin the test. The
moment he sat down, sleep swirled over him, like a fog.
Utnapishtim said to his wife,
?Look at this fellow! He wanted to
live forever, but the very moment he sat down, sleep swirled over
him, like a fog.?
His wife said,
?Touch him on the shoulder, wake him, let him
depart and go back safely to his own land, by the gate he came
through.?
Utnapishtim said,
?All men are liars. When he wakes up, watch
how he tries to deceive us. So bake a loaf for each day he sleeps,
put them in a row beside him, and make a mark on the wall for
every loaf.?
She baked the loaves and put them beside him, she made a mark
for each day he slept. The first loaf was rock-hard, the second loaf
was dried out like leather, the third had shrunk, the fourth had a
whitish covering, the fifth was spotted with mold, the sixth was
stale, the seventh loaf was still on the coals when he reached out
and touched him. Gilgamesh woke with a start and said,
?I was
almost falling asleep when I felt your touch.?
Utnapishtim said,
?Look down, friend, count these loaves that my
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wife baked and put here while you sat sleeping. This first one,
rock-hard, was baked seven days ago, this leathery one was baked
six days ago, and so on for all the rest of the days you sat here
sleeping. Look. They are marked on the wall behind you.?
Gilgamesh cried out,
?What shall I do, where shall I go now?
Death has caught me, it lurks in my bedroom, and everywhere I
look, everywhere I turn, there is only death.?
Utnapishtim said to the boatman,
?This is the last time,
Urshanabi, that you are allowed to cross the vast ocean and reach
these shores. As for this man, he is filthy and tired, his hair is
matted, animal skins have obscured his beauty. Bring him to the
tub and wash out his hair, take off his animal skin and let the
waves of the ocean carry it away, moisten his body with sweetsmelling
oil, bind his hair in a bright new headband, dress him in
fine robes fit for a king. Until he comes to the end of his journey
let his robes be spotless, as though they were new.?
He brought him to the tub, he washed out his hair, he took off his
animal skin and let the waves of the ocean carry it away, he
moistened his body with sweet-smelling oil, he bound his hair in a
bright new headband, he dressed him in fine robes fit for a king.
Then Gilgamesh and Urshanabi boarded, pushed off, and the little
boat began to move away from the shore.
But the wife of Utnapishtim said,
?Wait, this man came a very
long way, he endured many hardships to get here. Won?t you give
him something for his journey home??
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When he heard this, Gilgamesh turned the boat around, and he
brought it back to the shore. Utnapishtim said,
?Gilgamesh, you
came a very long way, you endured many hardships to get here.
Now I will give you something for your journey home, a mystery,
a secret of the gods. There is a small spiny bush that grows in the
waters of the Great Deep, it has sharp spikes that will prick your
fingers like a rose?s thorns. If you find this plant and bring it to
the surface, you will have found the secret of youth.?
Gilgamesh dug a pit on the shore that led down into the Great
Deep. He tied two heavy stones to his feet, they pulled him
downward into the water?s depths. He found the plant, he grasped
it, it tore his fingers, they bled, he cut off the stones, his body shot
up to the surface, and the waves cast him back, gasping, onto the
shore.
Gilgamesh said to Urshanabi,
?Come here, look at this marvelous
plant, the antidote to the fear of death. With it we return to the
youth we once had. I will take it to Uruk, I will test its power by
seeing what happens when an old man eats it. If that succeeds, I
will eat some myself and become a carefree young man again.?
At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, at a thousand miles
they pitched their camp. Gilgamesh saw a pond of cool water. He
left the plant on the ground and bathed. A snake smelled its
fragrance, stealthily it crawled up and carried the plant away. As
it disappeared, it cast off its skin.
When Gilgamesh saw what the snake had done, he sat down and
wept. He said to the boatman,
?What shall I do now? All my
hardships have been for nothing. O Urshanabi, was it for this that
my hands have labored, was it for this that I gave my heart?s
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blood? I have gained no benefit for myself but have lost the
marvelous plant to a reptile. I plucked it from the depths, and how
could I ever manage to find that place again? And our little boat?
we left it on the shore.?
At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, at a thousand miles
they pitched their camp.
When at last they arrived, Gilgamesh said to Urshanabi,
?This is
the wall of Uruk, which no city on earth can equal. See how its
ramparts gleam like copper in the sun. Climb the stone staircase,
more ancient than the mind can imagine, approach the Eanna
Temple, sacred to Ishtar, a temple that no king has equaled in size
or beauty, walk on the wall of Uruk, follow its course around the
city, inspect its mighty foundations, examine its brickwork, how
masterfully it is built, observe the land it encloses: the palm trees,
the gardens, the orchards, the glorious palaces and temples, the
shops and marketplaces, the houses, the public squares.?
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NOTES
INTRODUCTION
p. 1, Enkidu: The accent (as with Gilgamesh) is on the first
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syllable.
p. 3, he wrote at the end of 1916:
?Gilgamesh is stupendous! I
know it from the edition of the original text and consider it to be
among the greatest things that can happen to a person. From time
to time I tell it to people, I tell the whole story, and every time I
have the most astonished listeners. The synthesis of Burckhardt is
not altogether fortunate, it doesn?t achieve the greatness and
significance of the original. I feel that I tell it better. And it suits
me? (to Katharina Kippenberg, December 11, 1916, Briefwechsel:
Rainer Maria Rilke und Katharina Kippenberg, Insel Verlag,
1954, p. 191). ?Have you seen the volume published by Insel
Books, that somewhat like a r?sum? contains an ancient Assyrian
poem: the Gilgamesh. I have immersed myself in the literal
scholarly translation (of Ungnad), and in these truly gigantic
fragments I have experienced measures and forms that belong
with the supreme works that the conjuring Word has ever
produced. I would really prefer to tell it to you-the little Insel
book, tastefully produced though it is, doesn?t convey the real
power of the five-thousandyear old poem. In the (I must admit,
excellently translated) fragments there is a truly colossal
happening and being and fearing, and even the wide gaps in the
text function somehow constructively, in that they keep the
gloriously massive surfaces apart. Here is the epic of the fear of
death, arisen in the immemorial among people who were the first
for whom the separation between life and death became definitive
and fateful. I am sure that your husband too will have the liveliest
joy in reading through these pages. I have been living for weeks
almost entirely in this impression [of them]? (to Helene von
Nostitz, New Year?s Eve, 1916, Briefwech-sel mit Helene von
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Nostitz, Insel Verlag, 1976, p. 99).
p. 3, Austen Henry Layard: ?The French were first in the field in
1842 at Nineveh and, from 1843, at Khorsabad, the eighthcentury-BC
capital of the Assyrian king Sargon II. But they were
soon outshone and outmaneuvered by a young British traveler and
adventurer, Austen Henry Layard. En route to Ceylon, the twentyeight-year-old
Layard became intrigued with stories of buried
remains in the mounds near present-day Mosul which turned out
to be ancient Nineveh and Nimrud, the two most fabled capitals of
the Assyrians.
?Within days of starting the digging at Nimrud, Layard hit upon
the first of eight palaces of the Assyrian kings dating from the
ninth to seventh centuries BC, which he and his assistant
eventually uncovered there and at Nineveh. In amazement they
found room after room lined with carved stone bas-reliefs of
demons and deities, scenes of battle, royal hunts and ceremonies;
doorways flanked by enormous winged bulls and lions; and,
inside some of the chambers, tens of thousands of clay tablets
inscribed with the curious, and then undeciphered, cuneiform
(?wedge-shaped?) script-the remains, as we now know, of
scholarly libraries assembled by the Assyrian kings Sennacherib
and Ashurbanipal. By later standards it was treasure-hunting
rather than archaeology, but after a few years of excavation in
difficult political and financial circumstances, Layard had
succeeded in resurrecting for the first time one of the great early
cultures of Mesopotamia. He never made it to Ceylon.
?The most spectacular finds were shipped back to the British
Museum, where the Victorian fascination with the Bible assured
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these illustrations of Old Testament history a rapturous reception.
By the early 1850s, progress in reading the Assyrian-Babylonian
script had allowed names and events to be attached to the images,
among them Jehu, the ninth-century-BC king of Israel (shown
paying obeisance to King Shalmanesser III), and the siege of
Lachish in Judah by Sen-nacherib. Layard?s account of his
discoveries, Nineveh and Its Remains (1849), soon had a huge
success: ?the greatest achievement of our time,
? according to Lord
Ellesmere, president of the Royal Asiatic Society. ?No man living
has done so much or told it so well.? An abridged edition (1852)
prepared for the series ?Murray?s Reading for the Rail? became an
instant best seller: the first year?s sales of eight thousand (as
Layard remarked in a letter) ?will place it side by side with Mrs.
Rundell?s Cookery.?
?Work on the decipherment of the language of the Assyrian
inscriptions was making good progress while Layard was in the
field, partly owing to his discoveries. But the key to cracking the
cuneiform script lay elsewhere-in a trilingual inscription of the
Persian king Darius carved on the face of a cliff at Behistun in
western Iran around 520 BC. (In all, the cuneiform script was used
for over 3,500 years.) One of the three versions of the text used a
much simpler cuneiform script with only around forty characters,
which scholars soon realized must be alphabetic. Even before
Layard?s excavations, by making some inspired guesses about
likely titles and names, they had deciphered this script and shown
the language to be Old Persian, thus of the Indo-Iranian language
family (a close relative of Indo-European). Having determined the
general meaning of the three texts, scholars now confirmed that
the second version, written in the much more complex cuneiform
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script (some three hundred characters) of the tablets from Assyria,
was, as many had suspected, a Semitic language (i.e., cognate
with Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic)-what we now know as
Babylonian. Many texts could be read reasonably well by the time
Layard?s finds started arriving in England, but the decipherment
was not officially declared to have been achieved until 1857,
when four of the leading experts (including W. H. Fox-Talbot,
one of the inventors of photography) submitted independent
translations of a new inscription and all were shown to be in broad
agreement. After two and a half millennia, the Assyrians had
again found their voice? (Timothy Potts,
?Buried between the
Rivers,
? New York Review of Books, September 25, 2003). See
also Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, The Rise and Progress of
Assyriology, Martin Hopkinson, 1925, pp. 68 ff.
p. 4, Akkadian: The name ?Akkadian? is derived from the citystate
of Akkad (near present-day Baghdad), founded in the middle
of the third millennium BCE and capital of one of the first great
empires in human history. By 2000 BCE Akkadian had supplanted
Sumerian as the major spoken language of Mesopotamia, and
around this time it split into two dialects: Babylonian, which was
spoken in southern Mesopotamia, and Assyrian, which was
spoken in the north.
p. 4,
?On looking down the third column: George Smith, The
Chaldean Account of Genesis, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle
and Rivington, 1876, p. 4. ?I then proceeded,
? Smith?s account
continues,
?to read through this document, and found it was in the
form of a speech from the hero of the Deluge to a person whose
name appeared to be Izdubar (=Gilgamesh; Smith was guessing
[mistakenly, as it turned out] that the three cuneiform signs that
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formed the name had their most common syllabic values). I
recollected a legend belonging to the same hero Izdubar K. 231,
which, on comparison, proved to belong to the same series, and I
then commenced a search for any missing portions of the tablets.
This search was a long and heavy work, for there were thousands
of fragments to go over, and, while on the one side I had gained as
yet only two fragments of the Izdubar legends to judge from, on
the other hand, the unsorted fragments were so small, and
contained so little of the subject, that it was extremely difficult to
ascertain their meaning. My search, however, proved successful. I
found a fragment of another copy of the Deluge, containing again
the sending forth of the birds, and gradually collected several
other portions of this tablet, fitting them in one after another until
I had completed the greater part of the second column. Portions of
a third copy next turned up, which, when joined together,
completed a considerable part of the first and sixth columns. I
now had the account of the Deluge in the state in which I
published it at the meeting of the Society of Biblical Archaeology,
December 3rd, 1872.?
p. 4, according to a later account: Budge, The Rise and Progress
of Assyriology, p. 153.
p. 5, caused a major stir: ?The London Daily Telegraph offered
to fund an expedition to look for the missing part of the tablet.
Smith duly set out, and on only his fifth day of searching through
the spoil heaps of Nineveh-with luck that must have seemed
divinely inspired-found a tablet fragment that filled most of the
gap in the story? (Potts,
?Buried between the Rivers?).
p. 5, Though to a modern reader it seems quaint: Here are two
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examples from Tablet I (the first passage in each example is a
literal prose version, the second is Smith?s translation):
Gilgamesh said to him, to the trapper,
?Go, trapper, and take the
?ar?mtu [sacred prostitute] Shamhat with you. When the animals
come down to the waterhole, have her take off her robe and
expose her vagina. When he sees her, he will approach. The
animals will be estranged from him, though he grew up in their
presence.? The trapper went off, he took the ?ar?mtu Shamhat
with him, they set out on the journey. On the third day they
reached their destination. The trapper and the ?ar?mtu sat down to
wait. A first and a second day they sat by the waterhole as the
animals came to drink at the waterhole. The animals arrived, their
hearts grew pleased, then Enkidu as well, who was born in the
wilderness, who ate grass with the gazelles. He came to drink at
the waterhole with the animals, his heart grew pleased as he drank
the water with the animals. Shamhat saw him, this primordial
being, this savage from the midst of the wilderness. ?Look,
Shamhat, there he is. Bare your breasts, expose your vagina, let
him take in your voluptuousness. Do not hold back, take his
breath. When he sees you, he will approach. Spread out your robe
so that he can lie on you, do for him the work of a woman. Let
him mount you in his lust, and the animals will be estranged from
him, though he grew up in their presence? (I, 161 ff.).
Izdubar to him also said to Zaidu: / go Zaidu and with thee the
female Harimtu, and Samhat take, / and when the beast ? in front
of the field
(directions to the female how to entice Heabani [=Enkidu])
Zaidu went and with him Harimtu, and Samhat he took, and / they
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took the road, and went along the path. / On the third day they
reached the land where the flood happened. / Zaidu and Harimtu
in their places sat, the first day and the second day in front of the
field they sat, / the land where the beast drank of drink, / the land
where the creeping things of the water rejoiced his heart. / And he
Heabani had made for himself a mountain / with the gazelles he
eat food, / with the beasts he drank of drink, / with the creeping
things of the waters his heart rejoiced. Samhat the enticer of men
saw him
(details of the actions of the female Samhat and Heabani)
(The Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 202). A few pages later,
Smith comments,
?I have omitted some of the details in columns
III. and IV. because they were on the one side obscure, and on the
other hand hardly adapted for general reading.?
The second passage comes from later in Tablet I. Smith?s
translation is quite fragmentary:
?I will challenge him, mighty [ ? ]. [ ? ] in Uruk: ?I am the
mightiest! [ ? ] I will change the order of things, [the one] born
in the wilderness is the strongest of all!?
?Let [him] see your face, [I will lead you to Gilgamesh,] I know
where he will be. Come, Enkidu, to Uruk-the-Sheepfold, where
the young men are girt with wide belts. Every day [ ? ] a festival
is held, the lyre and drum are played, the ?arim?ti stand around,
lovely, laughing, filled with sexual joy, so that even old men are
aroused from their beds. Enkidu, [you who don?t yet] know life, I
will show you Gilgamesh, the man of joy and grief. You will look
at him, you will see how handsome and virile he is, how his
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whole body is filled with sexual joy. He is even stronger than
you-he doesn?t sleep day or night. Put aside your audacity,
Enkidu. Shamash loves Gilgamesh, and his mind has been
enlarged by Anu, Enlil, and Ea [the three principal gods].? (I, 221
ff.)
I will meet him and see his power, / I will bring to the midst of
Erech a tiger [!-S.M.], / and if he is able he will destroy it. / In the
desert it is begotten, it has great strength, / ? ? before thee / ?
? everything there is I know / Heabani went to the midst of
Erech Suburi / ? ? the chiefs ? made submission / in that day
they made a festival / ? ? city / ? ? daughter / ? ? made
rejoicing / ? ? becoming great / ? ? mingled and /? ?
Izdubar rejoicing the people / went before him / A prince thou
becomest glory thou hast / ? ? fills his body / ? ? who day
and night / ? ? destroy thy terror / ? ? the god Samas loves
him and / ? ? and Hea have given intelligence to his ears.
(The Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 203-204.)
p. 5, here is the consensus: In the following account, through p. 6,
I rely heavily on Andrew George?s judicious and informative
introduction to The Epic of Gilgamesh (hereafter abbreviated as
EG ).
p. 5, five separate and independent poems in Sumerian:
Translations of all five poems are posted on the Sumerian
Literature site of the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, at
http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk.
p. 5, as distant from Akkadian: ?aussi loin de l?akkadien que le
chinois peut l??tre du fran?ais? (Bott?ro, p. 19).
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p. 6, the eleven clay tablets dug up at Nineveh: ?The ?series of
Gilgamesh,
? in fact, comprises twelve tablets, not just the eleven
of the epic. Tablet XII, the last, is a line-by-line translation of the
latter half of one of the Sumerian Gilgamesh poems ? Most
scholars would agree that it does not belong to the text but was
attached to it because it was plainly related material? (George,
EG, p. xxviii; for an extended discussion, see A. R. George, The
Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, I, pp. 47 ff., hereafter abbreviated as
BGE ).
p.6, the first Epic of Gilgamesh: ?The Akkadian epic was given
its original shape in the Old Babylonian Period by an Akkadian
author who took over, in greater or lesser degree, the plots and
themes of three or four of the Sumerian tales ? Either translating
freely from Sumerian or working from available paraphrases, the
author combined these plots and themes into a unified epic on a
grand scale. As the central idea in this epic, the author seized
upon a theme which was adumbrated in three of the Sumerian
tales, Gilgamesh?s concern with death and his futile desire to
overcome it. The author advanced this theme to a central position
in the story. To this end, Enkidu?s death became the pivotal event
which set Gilgamesh on a feverish search for the immortal flood
hero (whose story existed in Sumerian, but had nothing to do with
the tales about Gilgamesh), hoping to learn how he had overcome
death. The author separated the themes of Enkidu?s death and
Gilgamesh?s grief from their original context in the Sumerian
?Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld? and placed them after
the friends? victory over Huwawa (and possibly over the Bull of
Heaven). To increase the emotional impact that Enkidu?s death
had on Gilgamesh, and perhaps to make the depth of Gilgamesh?s
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grief more plausible, the author seized upon one or two references
to Enkidu in the Sumerian sources as Gilgamesh?s friend, rather
than servant, and treated him consistently as Gilgamesh?s friend
and equal. He even went so far as to compose accounts of
Gilgamesh?s oppression of Uruk, and Enkidu?s creation and early
life, in order to explain why Enkidu was created and how he
became Gilgamesh?s friend? (Tigay, pp. 242 ff.).
p. 6, S?n-leqi-unninni: His name means ?S?n [the moon god] is the
One Who Accepts a Prayer? (or less probably, according to
George, the name is S?n-liqe-unninn?,
?O S?n, Accept my
Prayer!?). ?The first-millennium catalogue of cuneiform literature
which says that ?the series Gilgamesh (is) according to S?n-l?qiunninni
the ex[orcist-priest]? ? was doubtless understood to
mean that S?n-leqi-unninni was the author of the late version,
since that was the only version known in that period. The very
fact that the epic is attributed to him indicates that S?n-leqiunninni
must have made some important, perhaps definitive,
contribution to its formulation. It is certainly possible that he was
the editor of the late version, but that is not necessarily the case. It
often happens that a work of literature is attributed to a figure who
made a decisive contribution to its development, even though a
later form of that work is the one actually in use ? It is possible
that S?n-leqi-unninni produced a Middle Babylonian form of
Gilgamesh which had a substantial enough influence on the final
form of the epic to associate his name with it permanently, but
that the form found in the first-millennium copies was a later
revision of S?n-l?qi-unninni?s text. Still, it is equally possible that
he was the editor of the late version? (Tigay, p. 246).
p. 6, Standard Version: The Standard Version ?is known from a
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total of 73 manuscripts extant: the 35 that have survived from the
libraries of King Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, 8 more tablets and
fragments from three other Assyrian cities (Ashur, Kalah and
Huzirina), and 30 from Babylonia, especially the cities of
Babylon and Uruk ? The eleven tablets of the epic vary in length
from 183 to 326 lines of poetry so that the whole composition
would originally have been about 3,000 lines long [the same
length as Beowulf-S.M.]. As the text now stands, only Tablets I,
VI, X and XI are more or less complete. Leaving aside lines that
are lost but can be restored from parallel passages, overall about
575 lines are still completely missing, that is, they are not
represented by so much as a single word. Many more are too
badly damaged to be useful, so that considerably less than the
four-fifths of the epic that is extant yields a consecutive text?
(George, EG, pp. xxvii-xxviii).
p. 7, the priestess Shamhat?s speech inviting Enkidu to Uruk: This
passage provides us with the only extended comparison of S?nl?qi-unninni?s
marvelous powers of expansion. Here is a literal
prose translation of the Old Babylonian version (from the
Pennsylvania tablet, OB II, ll. 45 ff.):
Enkidu sat in front of the ?ar?mtu. The two of them made love.
He forgot the wilderness where he was born. For seven days and
seven nights Enkidu stayed erect and made love to Shamkatum.
The ?ar?mtu opened her mouth and said to Enkidu,
?When I look
at you, Enkidu, you are like a god. Why should you roam the
wilderness with the animals? Come, let me take you to Uruk of
the Great Square, to the sacred temple, the home of Anu. Enkidu,
get up, let me take you to Eanna, the home of Anu. [The next
three lines are difficult. George restores and translates them as
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follows:] Where [men] are engaged in labors of skill, you too [like
a] true man, will [make a place for] yourself. You are familiar
(enough) with the territory where the shepherd dwells.?
And here is S?n-l?qi-unninni?s version (again in a literal prose
trans-lation):
He embraced her with passion; for six days and seven nights
Enkidu stayed erect, he made love to her until he had had enough
of her delights. Then he stood up and walked toward his animals.
But the gazelles saw Enkidu and scattered, the wild animals took
flight. Enkidu had spent himself, his body was limp, his knees
stood still while his animals went away. Enkidu was diminished,
he could no longer run as he had before. He turned back to
Shamhat, and as he walked he knew that his mind had grown
larger. He sat down at Shamhat?s feet, he looked at her intently,
and he listened carefully to what she said, as she said to him, to
Enkidu,
?You are handsome, Enkidu, you are like a god. Why
should you roam the wilderness with the animals? Let me take
you to Uruk-the-Sheepfold, to the sacred temple, the dwelling of
Anu and Ishtar, where Gilgamesh is mighty and oppresses the
people like a wild bull.?
She spoke to him, and Enkidu agreed with what she said. He
became aware of a longing for a friend. Enkidu said to her, to the
?ar?mtu, ?Come, Shamhat, lead me to the sacred temple, the holy
dwelling of Anu and Ishtar, where Gilgamesh is mighty and
oppresses the people like a wild bull. I will challenge him, mighty
[ ? ]. [ ? ] in Uruk: ?I am the mightiest! [ ? ] I will change the
order of things, [the one] born in the wilderness is the strongest of
all!?
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?Let [him] see your face, [I will lead you to Gilgamesh,] I know
where he will be. Come, Enkidu, to Uruk-the-Sheepfold, where
the young men are girt with wide belts. Every day [ ? ] a festival
is held, the lyre and drum are played, the ?arim?ti stand around,
lovely, laughing, filled with sexual joy, so that even old men are
aroused from their beds. Enkidu, [you who don?t yet] know life, I
will show you Gilgamesh, the man of joy and grief. You will look
at him, you will see how handsome and virile he is, how his
whole body is filled with sexual joy. He is even stronger than
you-he doesn?t sleep day or night. Put aside your audacity,
Enkidu. Shamash loves Gilgamesh, and his mind has been
enlarged by Anu, Enlil, and Ea.? (I, 193 ff.)
p. 8, Uruk?s then famous six-mile-long wall: ?Excavations have
shown that by the Early Dynastic Period, that is, just about the
time of the historical Gil-gamesh, the walls of Uruk had a
perimeter of six miles. The great area of the city at that time, the
end of what archeologists call the Uruk Period (ca. 3800 B.C. to
about the time of the earliest pictographs, ca. 3000 B.C.), shows
that the city was probably without equal in size and wealth.
Within the walls, excavators have found, about a third of the area
was occupied by public buildings and the dwellings of the
wealthy, about a third by houses of the poor, and a third by
gardens, open spaces, and cemeteries? (Maier in Gardner and
Maier, p. 61).
p. 8, observe the land it encloses: ?The uniqueness of what
happened in early Sumer and its significance for world history can
hardly be exaggerated.
The main source of this revolution seems to have been the city of
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Uruk (biblical Erech, modern Warka) in southern Sumer, which
by circa 3400 BC had become the largest permanent urban
settlement ever created. At its core lay two monumental temple
complexes dedicated to the sky-god Anu and the goddess of love
and war, Inanna. In and around these temples were found what are
still the earliest writings from anywhere in the world, the
pictographic system of recording on clay tablets that evolved into
cuneiform, along with sophisticated architectural, technological,
and artistic traditions illustrated by the Warka Vase and Head.
Life in and around the temples was supported by well-coordinated
religious, social, and presumably political administrations? (Potts,
?Buried between the Rivers?).
?At the high point of its development in the fourth and third
millennia, the city enclosed a territory of approximately 5.5 km2
[=2.1 square miles]. The gigantic dimensions may be illustrated
by a compar-ison: Athens under Themistocles measured about 2.5
km2 [=.98 square miles], Jerusalem in the year 43 C.E. about 1
km2 [=.39 square miles]; not until Rome under Hadrian was there
a city larger than Uruk? (translated from Robert Rollinger, in
Schrott, p. 283).
p. 9, the copper box / that is marked with his name: ?Under the
foundations of the main buildings, temples or palaces, people
used to bury caskets containing ?foundation documents? inscribed
in the name of the king who was the builder. Gilgamesh is thus
supposed to have written down his lofty deeds, in a sort of
autobiographical account, on a precious ?tablet of lapis lazuli,
?
whose text might be more or less identical to that of the ?stone
tablets? referred to above. By presenting things in this way, the
author of Gilgame? gave (fictitiously!) as a guarantee of his book
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a text that originated from the very hand of his hero? (translated
from Bott?ro, p. 65).
p. 10, like the Israelite slaves in Exodus: Exodus 2:23 ff.
p. 11, a help meet for him: Genesis 2:18.
p. 11, he drives away marauding predators: ?You were raised in
the mountains, with your own hands / you have killed marauding
lions and wolves? (Book III, p. 94).
p. 12,
?Go to the temple of Ishtar through will leave him forever:
For a literal translation of this passage, see note, p. 206.
p. 13, In opening to the anonymous man: Much later, in the fifth
century BCE, Herodotus described (or invented) the following
custom among the women of Babylon: ?Every woman in the
country must once in her life sit down in the temple of Aphrodite
(=Ishtar) and have intercourse with a stranger ? The men pass
and make their choice. A woman who has once taken her seat is
not allowed to return home until one of the strangers throws a
silver coin into her lap and takes her with him beyond the holy
ground. When he throws the coin he says these words: ?The
goddess Mylitta make you prosper.? (Aphrodite is called Mylitta
by the Assyrians.) The silver coin may be of any size; it cannot be
refused, for that is forbidden by the law, since once thrown it is
sacred. The woman goes with the first man who throws her
money, and rejects no one. After their intercourse, she has made
herself holy in the sight of the goddess and goes home; and
afterward there is no amount of money, however great, that will
buy her favors? (The Histories, Book I, paragraph 199).
p. 14, you will see the young men dressed in their splendor
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through in honor of the god-dess: For a literal translation of this
passage, see note, p. 213.
p. 16, She used her love-arts through he stayed erect and made
love with her: For a literal translation of this passage, see note, p.
235.
p. 17, like the fawn that emerges with Alice: In Chapter 3 of
Lewis Carroll?s Through the Looking-Glass:
Just then a Fawn came wandering by: it looked at Alice with its
large gentle eyes, but didn?t seem at all frightened. ?Here then!
Here then!? Alice said, as she held out her hand and tried to stroke
it; but it only started back a little, and then stood looking at her
again.
?What do you call yourself?? the Fawn said at last. Such a soft
sweet voice it had!
?I wish I knew!? thought poor Alice. She answered, rather sadly,
?Nothing, just now.?
?Think again,
? it said: ?that won?t do.?
Alice thought, but nothing came of it. ?Please, would you tell me
what you call yourself?? she said timidly. ?I think that might help
a little.?
?I?ll tell you, if you?ll move a little further on,
? the Fawn said. ?I
can?t remember here.?
So they walked on together though the wood, Alice with her arms
clasped lovingly round the soft neck of the Fawn, till they came
out into another open field, and here the Fawn gave a sudden
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bound into the air, and shook itself free from Alice?s arms. ?I?m a
Fawn!? it cried out in a voice of delight,
?and, dear me! you?re a
human child!? A sudden look of alarm came into its beautiful
brown eyes, and in another moment it had darted away at full
speed.
p. 17,
?it is not good that the man should be alone
?
: Genesis
2:18.
p. 18, she is gone: Except for a tantalizing glimpse in the first of
the two Old Babylonian tablets in the Sch?yen Collection in
Norway, OB Sch?yen1 , ll. 1? ff. The text reads (in George?s
translation, slightly mod-ified): ??I have acquired a friend, the
counselor that I kept seeing in dreams, / Enkidu, the counselor
that I kept seeing in dreams.? / Enkidu said to her, to the ?ar?mtu:
/ ?Come, ?ar?mtu, let me do you a favor, / because you led me
here into Uruk of the Great Square, / because you showed me a
fine companion, you showed me a friend.??
p. 19, Deep in his heart he felt something stir, / a longing he had
never known before, / the longing for a true friend: For a literal
translation of this passage, see note, p. 236.
p. 21,
?The priest will bless the young couple through Gilgamesh,
king of great-walled Uruk: For a literal translation of this passage,
see note, p. 239.
p. 21, It is he who mates first with the lawful wife: ?The
interpretation [of this pas-sage] is much debated. It may refer to a
normal marriage custom, except that there is no other evidence of
Mesopotamian kings having relations with brides before the
husbands do. The lines may mean that Gilgamesh?s behavior was
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against custom, and related to his wrongful taking of girls, as the
citizens complained in I, 60-64. But how then to reconcile its
being ?ordered by the counsel of Anu?? On the other hand, the
unique term ?destined wife? ? suggests that the scene may refer
to the ancient cultic practice called by scholars the ?Sacred
Marriage,
? a ritual act of intercourse originally associated with the
coronation rite of the kings in Uruk. In the Ur III and early Old
Babylonian periods the cosmic Sacred Marriage of Inanna/Ishtar
to Dumuzi/Tammuz was reenacted by their human
representatives, a priestess and the king. Could ordinary brides be
selected for this role on occasion? If Gilgamesh?s behavior is
legitimate, is Enkidu?s anger due to misunderstanding or to
jealousy?? (Kovacs, pp. 16-17).
p. 21, It is also possible, as some scholars think: ?A third
suggestion is that Gilgame? wore his people out with athletic
contests. This last idea agrees with the Hittite tradition that
Gilgame? triumphed over the young men of Uruk every day, and
with the Sumerian poem of Bilgames and the Netherworld. In the
latter text it seems that Gilgame? continually engages the young
men of Uruk in some kind of time-consuming game or sport
involving the pukku and mekk?, a heavy wooden ball and mallet.
The women of Uruk are obliged to spend their days ministering to
the needs of their exhausted menfolk until their outcry results in
the disappearance of the two objects into the Netherworld?
(George, BGE, I, p. 449).
p. 23, as Jacob said to his angel: Genesis 32:26.
p. 23, the genital sexuality is explicit: ?According to A. D. Kilmer,
the symbols by which Enkidu is represented in the dream episodes
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make allusion to the I?tar cult: the meteorite, ki?ru, evokes kezru,
who would be a male counterpart of a kezertu woman (a kind of
cultic prostitute), and the axe, ?a??innu, evokes assinnu, a cultic
performer who, typically as a eunuch, took the female role in the
sexual act. By this analysis what Gilgame? sees in his dreams is a
twofold prediction of the arrival of a close male friend who will
also be his lover? (George, BGE, I, p. 452). ?The repeated use of
the verb ?ab?bu in this connection implies a sexual connection. If
there is any doubt about the significance of this imagery, note also
SB [Standard Ver-sion] VIII 59, where, in death, Gilgame? veils
Enkidu ?like a bride.? Graphic evidence for a sexual relationship
now comes from SB XII 96-9, as understood in the light of a new
manuscript of the text?s Sumer-ian forerunner, BN [?Bilgames
and the Netherworld?] 250-3? (ibid., p. 454, n. 48). These lines
from Tablet XII describe the return of Enkidu?s ghost from the
underworld:
?If I am going to tell you the rules of the Netherworld that I saw,
sit you down (and) weep!? ?[(So)] let me sit down and weep!?
?[My friend, the] penis that you touched so your heart rejoiced,
grubs devour [(it) ? like an] old garment. [My friend, the crotch
that you] touched so your heart rejoiced, it is filled with dust [like
a crack in the ground.]? (Tablet XII, ll. 93 ff., tr. George)
Fascinatingly, the Sumerian text from which this Akkadian text is
translated has Enkidu talking about the decay of a female lover of
Gilgamesh?s:
?If I am to [tell] you how things are ordered in the Netherworld, O
sit you down and weep!? ?Then I will sit and weep!? ?The one
who handled (your) penis (so) you were glad at heart, (and) you
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said,
?I am going to [ ? like] a roof-beam,
? her vulva is infested
with vermin like an [old] cloak, her vulva is filled with dust like a
crack in the ground.? (?Bilgamesh and the Netherworld,
? ll. 248
ff., tr. George)
p. 23, A boulder representing Enkidu: Literally,
?lump of Anu,
?
i.e., meteorite.
p. 24,
?Thy love to me [is] wonderful, passing the love of
women
?
: 2 Samuel 1:26.
p. 25, each loves the other as his own soul: ?And when he had
finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was merged with
the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul? (1
Samuel 18:1).
p. 26, ancient Babylonian kings prided themselves: ?The perfect
prince was an intellectual as well as a warrior and an athlete, and
among his many achievements King Shulgi [2094-2047 BCE] was
particularly proud of his literacy and cultural accomplishments.
He had rosy memories of his days at the scribal school, where he
boasted that he was the most skilled student in his class. In later
life he was an enthusiastic patron of the arts and claims to have
founded special libraries at Ur and at Nippur, further north in
central Babylonia, in which scribes and minstrels could consult
master copies of, as it were, the Sumerian songbook. Thus he
envisaged that hymns to his glory and other literature of his day
would be preserved for posterity:
For all eternity the Tablet House is never to change, for all
eternity the House of Learning is never to cease functioning.?
(George, EG, xvii)
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p. 26, We must kill him and drive out evil from the world: The
literal text here is fragmentary: ?[ ? ] kill [ ? ], destroy [ ? ].? I
have adopted the conjecture of Schott (followed by Tournay and
Shaffer): ?[You and I will] kill [him] / [so that we can] destroy
[all the evil in the land].? A later, fragmentary speech, from MS
BB1 col. v, may assign a similar statement to Gilgamesh; in
George?s restoration, it reads: ?[During the days that we travel
there and] back, / [until we reach the Forest of] Cedar, / [until we]
slay [ferocious ?umbaba,] / [and annihilate] from [the land the
Evil Thing that ?ama? hates]? (Standard Version III, 202 ff.).
p. 27, the poet does provide a motivation: This motivation is at
least as old as the Sumerian poem ?Gilgamesh and Huwawa?
(Version A), ll. 28 ff.: ?No one is tall enough to reach heaven; no
one can reach wide enough to stretch over the mountains. Since a
man cannot pass beyond the final end of life, I want to set off into
the mountains, to establish my renown there. Where renown can
be established there, I will establish my renown? (from the
translation posted on the Sumerian Literature site of the Oriental
Institute, University of Oxford, at http://wwwetcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/
etcslmac.cgi?text=t.1.8.1.2#). It is
also found in the Old Babylonian Yale tablet, OB III, l. 188: ?I will
establish an everlasting name.?
p. 27, can produce great art:
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity
of Noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious dayes.
(Milton,
?Lycidas,
? ll. 70-72)
p. 29, the cause of all human misery: ?I have discovered that all
human misery comes from a single thing, the inability to sit at
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peace in a room? (Blaise Pascal, Pens?es, fragment 139).
p. 30, hasn?t harmed a single living being: When attacked,
Humbaba does threaten to kill Gilgamesh and Enkidu. (There is
even a hint of cannibalism??I didn?t kill you, you were too
scrawny, / you wouldn?t have made a decent meal??though this
line is actually difficult to decipher; George translates it as ?[ ? ]
? you, ? in my belly.?) But these threats are not actions; they
are words to terrify men away from the forest.
p. 30,
?If anyone knows the rules of my forest: For a literal
translation of this passage, see note, p. 256.
p. 31, to paraphrase Wallace Stevens: ?If there must be a god in
the house ?? (?Less and Less Human, O Savage Spirit,
? The
Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, Knopf, 1954, p. 327).
p. 31, Seng-ts?an: Seng-ts?an (?-606) was a Chinese monk and the
Third Founding Teacher of Zen. This couplet is from his poem
?The Mind of Absolute Trust,
? in Stephen Mitchell, ed., The
Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry,
HarperCollins, 1989, p. 26.
p. 32, one fragmentary passage: See note, p. 232.
p. 32, by the method known as
?
reversal of values
?
: ?All these
dreams are terrify-ing; but they are always interpreted by the
method known as ?reversal of values?: the evil seen in the dream
is turned around, in the future reality, into something favorable?
(Bott?ro, p. 100).
p. 33, imperviously brave men: Siegfried is ?a man who doesn?t
know the meaning of fear.? As for Beowulf, he is portrayed as
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fearless in the battles with Grendel and with Grendel?s mother
(?he didn?t fear at all for his life,
? l. 1444), and in the battle with
the dragon, he feels ?no dread at all? (l. 2348). It is true that later
in the battle he and the dragon are said to cause ?terror in each
other? (l. 2565). And yet, what Beowulf seems to be feeling at
that moment is not what we would call fear. He is in a state of
rage, totally focused on killing his enemy. His adrenaline is telling
him not to flee but to attack. In the very next line, he is described
as ?unyielding? (?firm-spirited? in another translation,
?stout? in
another). So whatever the poet means by ?terror,
? it is not the
same kind of emotion described in Gilgamesh, where the heroes
feel despair, their blood runs cold, and they want to run away.
p. 33, his predecessor in the Sumerian poem
?Gilgamesh and
Huwawa,?
: In ?Gil-gamesh and Huwawa? (Version A). Here is
that poem?s climax (in the translation from the Sumerian
Literature site of the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, ll.
152G ff.):
Huwawa sat down and began to weep, shedding tears. Huwawa
? plea ? to Gilgamesh. He tugged at Gilgamesh?s hand. ?I want
to talk to Utu! (=Shamash-S. M.)? ?Utu, I never knew a mother
who bore me, nor a father who brought me up! I was born in the
mountains-you brought me up! Yet Gilgamesh swore to me by
heaven, by earth, and by the mountains.?
Huwawa clutched at Gilgamesh?s hand, and prostrated himself
before him. Then Gilgamesh?s noble heart took pity on him.
Gilgamesh addressed Enkidu: ?Enkidu, let the captured bird run
away home! Let the captured man return to his mother?s
embrace!?
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Enkidu replied to Gilgamesh: ?Come on now, you heroic bearer
of a sceptre of wide-ranging power! Noble glory of the gods,
angry bull standing ready for a fight! Young lord Gilgamesh,
cherished in Unug, your mother knew well how to bear sons, and
your nurse knew well how to nourish children!-One so exalted
and yet so lacking in understanding will be devoured by fate
without him ever understanding that fate. The very idea that a
captured bird should run away home, or a captured man should
return to his mother?s embrace!-Then you yourself would never
get back to the mother-city that bore you!?
Huwawa addressed Enkidu: ?Enkidu, you speak such hateful
words against me to him! You hireling, who are hired for your
keep! You who follow along after him?why do you speak such
hateful words to him??
As Huwawa spoke thus to him, Enkidu, full of rage and anger, cut
his throat. He put his head in a leather bag.
They entered before Enlil. After they had kissed the ground
before Enlil, they threw the leather bag down, tipped out his head,
and placed it before Enlil. When Enlil saw the head of Huwawa,
he spoke angrily to Gilgamesh: ?Why did you act in this way? He
should have sat before you! He should have eaten the bread that
you eat, and should have drunk the water that you drink! He
should have been honoured ? you!?
p. 34, he is aware that killing him: ?For a reason that is unclear to
us, but without doubt primarily because of the ?divine? character
of Humbaba and of the mission that the king of the gods had
assigned to him ? , Enlil did not want the Guardian of the Forest
to be killed, and Enkidu knew it. Hence his eagerness to put him
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to death before Enlil could intervene from his great temple in
Nippur, and ?ama? from his, in Larsa or Sippar. ?ama? was thus
thought to be opposed to the death of the adversary of his two
prot?g?s: in other words, he was willing to help them defeat
Humbaba, in order to use him as they wished, with his forest and
especially his cedars, but not to destroy him. The rest of the story
follows from this fact: Enkidu, held responsible for the death of
Humbaba, will be condemned by the gods to a premature end?
(Bott?ro, p. 117).
p. 35,
?
played a greater role in myth, epic, and hymn: Samuel
Noah Kramer, From the Poetry of Sumer: Creation, Glorification,
Adoration,University of California Press,1979, p. 71.
pp. 35-36, marvelously erotic song cycle: I am referring to the
versions by Diane Wolkstein in Inanna, Queen of Heaven and
Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer (with Samuel Noah
Kramer), Harper & Row, 1983. Some of the most delicious of
them are reprinted in Robert Hass and Stephen Mitchell, ed., Into
the Garden: A Wedding Anthology, HarperCollins, 1993.
p. 36, an invocation to the
?
goddess ??
: ?Goddess of the
fearsome divine powers, clad in terror, riding on the great divine
powers, Inanna, made complete by the strength of the holy ankar
weapon, drenched in blood,rushing around in great battles, with
shield resting on the ground (?), covered in storm and flood, great
lady Inanna, knowing well how to plan conflicts, you destroy
mighty lands with arrow and strength and overpower lands? (from
the translation posted at http://www.gatewaystoba-bylon.
com/myths/texts/inanna/inannaebih.htm#top).
p. 36, first the Sumerians: The Sumerian poem ?Gilgamesh and
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the Bull of Heaven,
? though it is without an equivalent to
Gilgamesh?s long diatribe, has basically the same plot: it begins
with Gilgamesh?s rejection of the goddess?s advances and ends
with him flinging a haunch of the slaughtered Bull at her.
p. 36 later compared to dogs and flies: In Book XI, pp. 186, 188.
p. 38, the roughly contemporaneous bull-leaping fresco: Painted
ca. 1600 to 1400 BCE, the time of the Old Babylonian version. A
photograph of the fresco can be found on
http://www.daedalus.gr/DAEI/THEME/B30.jpg and on many
other Internet websites.
p. 41, the killing of Humbaba will have fatal consequences: The
explicit causality of Enkidu?s death is missing from the Standard
Version, and most translators fill in with a passage from the
Hittite version: literally,
?I dreamed that Anu, Enlil, and Shamash
held a council, and Anu said to Enlil,
?Because they killed the
Bull of Heaven and also killed Humbaba, one of them must die.?
Then Enlil said to him,
?Enkidu, not Gilgamesh, is the one who
must die.?? (Tablet III, ?1, ll. 2 ff.)
It is impossible to know whether in the Standard Version Anu as
well as Enlil is involved in the death sentence, and whether
Enkidu is condemned for killing both monsters or only Humbaba.
p. 44, like a woman who has lost her only child: For a literal
translation of this line, see note, p. 268.
p. 46,
?When you see the unborn: Here is a more literal version of
the Buddha?s statement: ?There is an unborn, unoriginated,
uncreated, unformed. If there were not this unborn, unoriginated,
uncreated, unformed, escape from what is born, originated,
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created, and formed would not be possible. But since there is an
unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed, escape is possible
from what is born, originated, created, and formed.? (Udana 8.3).
p. 46,
?the epic of the fear of death:
? See note, p. 202.
p. 48, Abu Yazid al-Bistami: Stephen Mitchell, ed., The
Enlightened Mind: An Anthology of Sacred Prose, HarperCollins,
1991, p. 76.
p. 49, Shiduri: ?This character is mysterious, and otherwise
unknown. She is a married woman, as is indicated by the ?veil?
that she wears; and she belongs to the supernatural world, since
her name is preceded, in cuneiform, by the sign that indicates a
god. She is a ?tavern keeper?: that is, according to a custom
current until the second half of the second millennium (afterward,
the role was taken over by men), she runs a sort of bar in which
she sells to the public beer-the country?s national drink?that she
has made (her professional apparatus is mentioned in verse 3).
Besides being a drinking establishment, the tavern also
represented the ?commerce of the crossroads,
? where many
commodities of primary necessity were sold, and whose managers
were better qualified than anyone else to give information, not
only about their clientele, but also about the country. Shiduri is
the model, projected into legend, of these ?business people of the
crossroads,
? even if it?s difficult to see who her clients could be,
here at the edge of the world ? The author needed her as a figure
who could give information to Gilgame?, and folklore can do
without logic? (Bott?ro, p. 165).
p. 52, the same questions Shiduri asked:Urshanabi asks them as
well, but I have omitted that part of the dialogue between him and
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Gilgamesh.
p. 52, Tell us how not to believe what we think: See Byron Katie,
with Stephen Mitchell, Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can
Change Your Life, Harmony Books, 2002.
p. 53, for St. Paul to tell the Thessalonians that they were not
going to die: Paul believed that the ?second coming? would
happen during his lifetime. ?For the Lord himself will descend
from heaven with a shout, with the archangel?s call, and with the
trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first, then we
who are alive and are left will be caught up together with them in
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air? (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
p. 53, tells him about the Great Flood: His speech has been
adapted from an older poem called Atrahasis. Most scholars (e.g.,
Tigay, pp. 238 ff.) think that the adaptor was S?n-l?qi-unninni, but
since no fragments of the Old Babylonian version of Book XI
have survived, we don?t know whether it too contained the long
Flood story.
p. 54, clustering around it like flies: This image, unlike many of
the others, was borrowed from the Atrahasis.
p. 54, abridge the Flood story: Here is one way it might be
abridged:
?You know Shuruppak, that ancient city. I was its king once, long
ago, when the great gods decided to send the Flood. Ea informed
me, and I built a large ship. I loaded onto her everything precious
that I owned. Very soon the Flood burst forth. For six days and
seven nights, the storm demolished the earth. On the seventh day,
the downpour stopped. The ocean grew calm. No land could be
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seen. There was no life at all. The human race had turned into
clay. When the waters had dried up and land appeared, the gods
assembled. Enlil blessed us, me and my wife. ?You gods, from
now on Utnapishtim and his wife shall be gods like us, they shall
live forever.? Then they brought us to this distant place at the
source of the rivers. Here we live.?
p. 55, to experience all that terror, and the death of almost every
living thing:Utnapishtim?s compassion and sorrow for the people
left behind are more explicit in the Atrahasis: ?He invited his
people [ ? ] / [ ? ] to a feast. / [ ? ] he put his family on board.
/ They were eating, they were drinking, / But he went in and out, /
Could not stay still or rest on his haunches, / His heart was
breaking and he was vomiting bile? (Dalley, p. 31).
p. 56, the
?
unsleeping, undying
?
gods: From Utnapishtim?s
speech:
?At night the moon travels across the sky, the gods of heaven stay
awake and watch us, unsleeping, undying. This is the way the
world is established, from ancient times.?
p. 56,
?
an animal [or a god] can?t know
?
: From Book I:
He [Enkidu] turned back to Shamhat, and as he walked he knew
that his mind had somehow grown larger, he knew things now
that an animal can?t know.
p. 59,
?At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, / at a thousand
miles they pitched their camp:
? See note, p. 283.
p. 60,
?satisfied with good things
? ? ?
youth is renewed like the
eagle?s:
? Psalm 103:5.
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p. 63, managed to
?
close the gate of sorrow:
? From the
conclusion of Gilgamesh?s first long speech to Utnapishtim in
Book X:
?Now let the gate of sorrow be closed behind me, and let it be
sealed shut with tar and pitch.?
p. 63,
?When I argue with reality, I lose:
? Byron Katie, Loving
What Is, p. 2.
ABOUT THIS VERSION
p. 65, literal translations: For the complexities of decipherment
and translation, see George, EG, pp. 209 ff.
p. 66,
?Sestina:
? Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems, 1927-
1979, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983, pp. 123-24.
PROLOGUE
p. 69, He had seen everything: Literally,
?He who saw the Deep?
or ?He who saw everything? (in Akkadian, Sha naqba ?muru). The
poem?s first line also served as its title. ?The word naqbu has two
meanings, (a) ?totality? and (b) the deep body of underground
water believed to supply springs and wells, that is, the cosmic
realm of Ea better known as the Aps?? (George, BGE, I, p. 444).
p. 69, had restored the holy Eanna Temple and the massive / wall
of Uruk: Literally,
?had built the wall of Uruk-of-the-Sheepfold
and the sacred storehouse of holy Eanna.? Here S?n-l?qi-unninni
seems to say, by the sequence of actions, that Gilgamesh built the
wall and the Eanna Temple after he returned from his journey to
Utnapishtim. But of course the wall and the temple are very much
present during the action of the poem, and Gilgamesh proudly
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points out the wall to Urshanabi on their return. In fact, the next
line asserts that the wall was founded by the Seven Sages long
before the Flood. (Literally,
?Isn?t its masonry made of kiln-fired
brick, and didn?t the Seven Sages themselves lay its foundations??
The Seven Sages were antediluvian kings who, themselves taught
by the god Ea, had taught humanity all the arts of civilization.)
Obviously there were other builders of the wall, though
Gilgamesh was considered the most famous. So I have said
?restored? rather than ?built.?
p. 69, gleam like copper: Following Kovacs.
p. 70, observe the land it encloses: the palm trees, the gardens, /
the orchards, the glorious palaces and temples, the shops / and
marketplaces, the houses, the public squares: Literally,
?One ??r
(1? square miles) is city, one ??r palm gardens, one ??r clay-pits,
half a ??r the Ishtar Temple?Uruk measures three and a half ??r
.?
BOOK I
p. 71, Surpassing all kings (in Akkadian, Sh?tur eli sharr?): The
first line of the Old Babylonian version, and its title.
p. 71, two-thirds divine and one-third human: My friend Philip
Ording points out that this is as mathematically impossible as
being two-thirds English and one-third French. I have moved the
line forward; it occurs a bit later in Tablet I.
p. 72, he brought back the ancient, forgotten rites, / restoring the
temples that the Flood had destroyed, / renewing the statutes and
sacraments / for the welfare of the people and the sacred land:
Literally,
?he restored the sanctuaries that the Flood had destroyed
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and reestablished the rituals for the human race.? I have added a
few clarifying phrases from the Sumerian poem ?The Death of
Gilgamesh? (version from Me-Turan, segment F, ll. 14 ff.).
Literally,
?establishing temples of the gods, reaching Ziusudra
(=Utnapishtim) in his abode, reestablishing the rites of Sumer,
forgotten since ancient times, the ordinances and rituals, you
carried out the rites of purification, you understood everything
that was needful for the land, from before the Flood.?
p. 72, The goddess Aruru, mother of creation, / had designed his
body, had made him the strongest / of men?huge, handsome,
radiant, perfect: Literally,
?B?let-il? (=Aruru) drew the image of
his body, Nudimmud (=Ea) brought his form to perfection. [ ? ]
was majestic [ ? ] stature [ ? ].? I have omitted a brief
fragmentary description of Gilgamesh as a giant: ?His feet were 3
cubits (4? feet) long, his legs 6 cubits (9 feet) tall, his stride 6
cubits, his thumb was [ ? ] cubits, his cheeks were bearded like [
? ], the hairs of his head were as thick as barley.? According to
the later Hittite version, he was 11 cubits, or more than 16? feet,
tall. (Interestingly enough, this is about the height of the
magnificent human-headed winged bull from the throne room of
Sargon II in Khorsabad, now at the Oriental Institute in Chicago,
http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI
/MUS/HIGH/OIM_A7369_72dpi.html.) By contrast, Goliath was 6
cubits and a span (93/4 feet) tall (1 Samuel 17:4).
p. 72 takes the son from his father and crushes him: The nature of
this oppression is unclear; it may be some kind of forced labor or
military service.
p. 73, But the people of Uruk cried out to heaven, / and their
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lamentation was heard, the gods / are not unfeeling, their hearts
were touched, / they went to Anu, father of them all, / protector of
the realm of sacred Uruk, / and spoke to him on the people?s
behalf: / ?Heavenly Father, Gilgamesh?/ noble as he is, splendid
as he is?/ has exceeded all bounds. The people suffer / from his
tyranny, the people cry out / that he takes the son from his father
and crushes him, / takes the girl from her mother and uses her, /
the warrior?s daughter, the young man?s bride, / he uses her, no
one dares to oppose him. / Is this how you want your king to rule?
/ Should a shepherd savage his own flock? Father, / do
something, quickly, before the people / overwhelm heaven with
their heartrending cries.?
: Literally,
?[The women (George?s
conjecture)] their [ ? ] soon, [ ? ] complaint [ ? ] before
[them]: ?Powerful, preeminent, expert, [ ? ] Gilgamesh does not
leave a girl to [her bridegroom], the warrior?s daughter, the young
man?s bride.? The goddesses kept hearing their complaints. The
gods of heaven, the lords who command, [to Anu],
?You have
created an arrogant wild bull in Uruk-the-Sheepfold, he has no
equal who can raise a weapon [against him], his companions are
always ready to obey his orders (or are kept on their feet by the
ball), he oppresses [the young men of Uruk], he does not leave a
son to his father, day and [night his violence grows] worse. Yet he
is the shepherd of Uruk-the-Sheepfold, Gilgamesh, [who guides
the] teeming [people], he is their shepherd and their [ ? ],
powerful, preeminent, expert, [ ? ]. Gilgamesh does not leave a
girl to her bride[groom]-the warrior?s daughter, the young [man?s]
bride.??
p. 74, Anu heard them, he nodded his head, / then to the goddess,
mother of creation, / he called out:
?Aruru, you are the one / who
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created humans. Now go and create / a double for Gilgamesh, his
second self, / a man who equals his strength and courage, / a man
who equals his stormy heart. / Create a new hero, let them
balance each other / perfectly, so that Uruk has peace.?
:
Literally,
?[Anu] listened to their complaints. They summoned the
great goddess Aruru: ?Aruru, you are the one who created
[mankind], now create one like him. Let him be equal to his
stormy heart, let them be a match for each other so that Uruk has
peace.??
p. 75, a trapper: ?The word is commonly translated ?hunter,
? but
?trapper? seems more accurate here because the animals are
captured in traps or pits, not killed by weapons? (Kovacs, p. 6).
p. 76, then follow his advice. He will know what to do: I have
omitted the father?s specific instructions about Shamhat, which
are repeated word for word in Gilgamesh?s speech. I have also
omitted, in the trapper?s speech to Gilgamesh, the description of
Enkidu, repeated word for word from his speech to his father.
pp. 76-77,
?Go to the temple of Ishtar, / ask them there for a
woman named Shamhat, / one of the priestesses who give their
bodies / to any man, in honor of the goddess. / Take her into the
wilderness. / When the animals are drinking at the waterhole, /
tell her to strip off her robe and lie there / naked, ready, with her
legs apart. / The wild man will approach. Let her use her lovearts.
/ Nature will take its course, and then / the animals who
knew him in the wilderness / will be bewildered, and will leave
him forever: Literally,
?Go, trapper, take Shamhat, the ?ar?mtu,
with you. When the animals are drinking at the waterhole, have
her take off her robe and expose her vagina. When he sees her he
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will approach, and his animals will be estranged from him, though
he grew up in their presence.?
p. 78, They looked in amazement. The man was huge / and
beautiful. Deep in Shamhat?s loins / desire stirred. Her breath
quickened / as she stared at this primordial being: Literally,
?Shamhat saw him?the primeval man, the savage from the midst
of the wilderness.?
p. 78, Stir up his lust when he approaches, / touch him, excite him,
take his breath / with your kisses, show him what a woman is:
Literally,
?Don?t hold back, take his vital force. When he sees you
he will approach you. Spread out your robe, let him lie on top of
you, and stir up his lust, the work of a woman.?
pp. 78-79, She stripped off her robe and lay there naked, / with
her legs apart, touching herself. / Enkidu saw her and warily
approached. / He sniffed the air. He gazed at her body. / He drew
close, Shamhat touched him on the thigh, / touched his penis, and
put him inside her. / She used her love-arts, she took his breath /
with her kisses, held nothing back, and showed him / what a
woman is. For seven days / he stayed erect and made love with
her, / until he had had enough: Literally,
?She took off her robe,
she exposed her vagina, and he took in her voluptuousness. She
didn?t hold back, she took his vital force. She spread out her robe
and let him lie upon her, she stirred up his lust, the work of a
woman. With passion he embraced and caressed her, for six days
and seven nights Enkidu remained erect, he made love with her
until he had had enough of her delights.?
p. 80,
?Now, Enkidu, you know what it is / to be with a woman, to
unite with her. / You are beautiful, you are like a god: Literally,
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?You are handsome, Enkidu, you are like a god.? The context
seems to indicate understanding rather than beauty. One can?t
help comparing the words of the serpent in the Garden of Eden:
?as soon as you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you
will be like gods, knowing good and evil? (Genesis 3:5).
p. 80, She finished, and Enkidu nodded his head. / Deep in his
heart he felt something stir, / a longing he had never known
before, / the longing for a true friend: Literally,
?She spoke, and
her words found favor. He became aware that he was longing for
a friend.?
p. 81,
?Come,?
said Shamhat, ?let us go to Uruk, / I will lead you
to Gilgamesh the mighty king. / You will see the great city with its
massive wall, / you will see the young men dressed in their
splendor, / in the finest linen and embroidered wool, / brilliantly
colored, with fringed shawls and wide belts: Literally,
?Let [him]
see your face, [I will lead you to Gilgamesh,] I know where he
will be. Come, Enkidu, to Uruk-the-Sheepfold, where the young
men are girt with waistbands.? I have taken the details of the
young men?s clothing from R. Turner Wilcox, The Mode in
Costume, Macmillan, 2nd edition, 1983; see
http://www.geocities.com/FashionAvenue/3105/costume1.html
and http:// handsofchange.org/costume.html. ?The costumes of
the Babylonians and the Assyrians consisted of two garments, a
straight tunic edged with fringe, either long or short, called the
candys, and a fringed shawl of varying dimensions?. The
addition of a wide belt worn about the waist was common?.
Linen was used, but the principal fabric seems to have been wool,
elaborately embroidered with separate motifs founded upon the
design of the rosette?. Garments were always trimmed with
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fringe and tassels. [The Babylonians] were fond of brilliant colors
in reds, greens, blues, and purples.?
p. 81, Every day is a festival in Uruk, / with people singing and
dancing in the streets, / musicians playing their lyres and drums, /
the lovely priestesses standing before / the temple of Ishtar,
chatting and laughing, / flushed with sexual joy, and ready / to
serve men?s pleasure, in honor of the goddess: Literally,
?Every
day [ ? ] a festival is held, the lyre and drum are played, the
?arim?ti stand around, lovely, laughing, filled with sexual joy.?
Gardner translates this last line ?radiating sexual prowess, filled
with sex-joy,
? and his coauthor John Maier explains,
?The sexual
prowess is kuzbu; sex-joy is ri?atum. ?Beauty? and kuzbu are not
restricted at all to women; both are attributes of Gilgamesh and of
gods as well as goddesses? (Maier, in Gardner and Maier, pp. 81
ff.).
p. 82, Shamash, the sun god: ??ama? was said to have surrounded
with his particular protection not only Gilgame? but his whole
dynasty, the founder of which, Meskiagga?er, was ??amaߒs son,
?
according to the Sumerian List of Kings. We find in this passage,
as very often throughout the poem, the great triad of supreme
gods who in Mesopotamia presided over the pantheon and the
universe: An or Anu, god of the sky and father and founder of the
reigning divine dynasty; Enlil, god of the earth, sovereign of the
gods and of men; and Ea or Enki, the most intelligent of the gods,
creator of men and of civilization? (Bott?ro, p. 78).
p. 82, you had come to Gilgamesh in a dream.? / And she told
Enkidu what she had heard. / ?He went to his mother, the goddess
Ninsun: Literally,
??Gilgamesh in Uruk dreamed about you.?
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Gilgamesh went to reveal the dream, saying to his mother.?
Following Ferry, I have omitted a second dream and
interpretation, which is almost exactly like the first one.
pp. 83-84, it stands for a dear friend, a mighty hero. / You will
take him in your arms, embrace and caress him / the way a man
caresses his wife. / He will be your double, your second self, / a
man who is loyal, who will stand at your side / through the
greatest dangers. Soon you will meet him, / the companion of your
heart. Your dream has said so: Literally,
?This means that a
strong man will come to you, someone who will rescue his friend.
He is the mightiest in the land, he has strength, his strength is as
powerful as a meteorite from the sky. You will love him like a
wife, caressing and embracing him. He will be strong and will
rescue you again and again. Your dream is excellent and
favorable.?
BOOK II
p. 85, Then Shamhat gave Enkidu one of her robes / and he put it
on: From OB II, ll. 69-70.
p. 85, she led him like a child: Literally,
?she led him as a god
[leads a supplicant].? ?This refers to so-called ?presentation
scenes? depicted on cylinder-seals, which show a god leading the
owner of the seal by the hand into the presence of a more
powerful god? (Bott?ro, p. 83). George has a different
interpretation; see BGE I, p. 167.
pp. 85-86, He had never seen human food through Enkidu went
out with sword and spear: From OB II, ll. 90 ff.
pp. 85-86,
?Go ahead, Enkidu. This is food, / we humans eat and
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drink this.? Warily / he tasted the bread. Then he ate a piece, / he
ate a whole loaf, then ate another, / he ate until he was full:
Literally,
??Eat the bread, Enkidu, the staff of life, drink the beer,
the custom of the land.? Enkidu ate the bread until he was full.?
pp. 86-88, One day, while he was making love through the guests
were eating, singing and laughing: From OB II, ll. 135 ff. (except
for ?like a little baby they kissed his feet,
? which is from the
Standard Version).
p. 87, The priest will bless the young couple, the guests / will
rejoice, the bridegroom will step aside, / and the virgin will wait
in the marriage bed / for Gilgamesh, king of great-walled Uruk:
Literally,
?For the king of Uruk of the Great Square, the (fence:
Tournay and Shaffer; veil: George) will open for (the people to
choose [a bride]: Tournay and Shaffer; the one who has first pick:
George)?; the two verses are repeated with a slight variation.
pp. 87-88,
?I will go to Uruk now, / to the palace of Gilgamesh
the mighty king. / I will challenge him. I will shout to his face: / ?I
am the mightiest! I am the man / who can make the world
tremble! I am supreme!?? // Together they went to great-walled
Uruk: There is a gap in the text here, and I have filled it in by
repeating Enkidu?s earlier speech.
p. 88, Gilgamesh truly has met his match. / This wild man can
rival the mightiest of kings: I have added these lines.
pp. 88-90, The wedding ritual had taken place through you are
destined to rule over men: From OB II, ll. 190 ff. The phrases
?With his feet Enkidu blocked the door (to the wedding house)
and didn?t allow Gilgamesh to enter,
? ?they seized each other (in
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the doorway of the wedding house),
? and ?the doorposts
trembled, the walls shook? also appear in the equivalent,
abbreviated passage from the Standard Version.
pp. 88-89, The wedding ritual had taken place, / the musicians
were playing their drums and lyres, / the guests were eating,
singing and laughing, / the bride was ready for Gilgamesh / as
though for a god, she was waiting in her bed / to open to him, in
honor of Ishtar, / to forget her husband and open to the king:
Literally,
?In Uruk the sacrifice was being performed, the young
men were celebrating for the hero [?]. For the handsome young
man, for Gilgamesh, the partner was made ready as for a god, the
bed was made for the goddess Ishara (=Ishtar), so that Gilgamesh
could join with the bride that night.? George interprets the
passage differently; see BGE, I, pp. 169-70, 190, 455-56.
p. 89, When Gilgamesh reached the marriage house, / Enkidu was
there. He stood like a boulder, / blocking the door. Gilgamesh,
raging, / stepped up and seized him, huge arms gripped / huge
arms, foreheads crashed like wild bulls, / the two men staggered,
they pitched against houses, / the doorposts trembled, the outer
walls shook, / they careened through the streets, they grappled
each other, / limbs intertwined, each huge body / straining to
break free from the other?s embrace: Literally,
?He came forward
and stood in the street, he blocked Gilgamesh?s path. [gap] [ ? ]
In front of him [ ? ] he was getting angry [ ? ] Enkidu moved
toward him, they faced each other in the great square. With his
feet Enkidu blocked the door, he didn?t allow Gilgamesh to enter.
They seized each other, bending their backs like bulls, they
shattered the doorposts, the walls shook. Gilgamesh and Enkidu
seized each other, bending their backs like bulls, they shattered
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the doorposts, the walls shook.?
p. 89, Finally, Gilgamesh threw the wild man / and with his right
knee pinned him to the ground: Literally,
?Gilgamesh knelt, his
foot on the ground.?
p. 90, They embraced and kissed. They held hands like brothers. /
They walked side by side. They became true friends: From OB III,
l. 18. Literally,
?They kissed each other and formed a friendship.?
The Standard Version continues with a fragmentary dialogue
between Ninsun and Gilgamesh, which I have omitted.
BOOK III
p. 91, Time passed quickly: I have added this phrase and have
begun Book III with the following passage from the Yale tablet
(OB III) because there is a natural break in the story at this point.
Tablet III begins with the following lines: ?Come back safely to
the haven of Uruk; do not trust in your strength alone.?
p. 91, Gilgamesh said, / ?Now we must travel to the Cedar Forest,
/ where the fierce monster Humbaba lives. / We must kill him and
drive out evil from the world.?
: This fragmentary passage is from
OB III, ll. 89-90, 97 ff. Literally,
?Gilgamesh opened his mouth,
saying to Enkidu, [gap] ?fierce Huwawa (=Humbaba). [ ? ] kill
him, destroy [ ? ].?? I have adopted Schott?s conjecture: ?[You
and I will] kill [him] / [so that we can] destroy [all the evil in the
land].?
p. 91, Cedar Forest: As opposed to the Sumerian poem
?Gilgamesh and Huwawa,
? in which the Cedar Forest lies to the
east, in southwestern Iran, the Standard Version locates it to the
west, in what is now Syria.
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p. 91, Enkidu sighed. His eyes filled with tears through sticks in
my throat, my arms are limp: I have taken these lines from a
fragmentary passage omitted here, in which Gilgamesh introduces
Enkidu to his mother, the goddess Ninsun.
pp. 91-92, I knew that country when I roamed the hills through I
have to enter it, climb its slopes: From OB III, ll. 106 ff. I have left
out a few lines that are repeated in the Standard Version.
p. 91, it spreads far and wide for a thousand miles: Literally,
?The forest extends for 60 b?r in every direction.? Sixty b?r or
double leagues = 648 kilometers or about 400 miles. The
expression really means ?a large (indeterminate) number of
miles,
? which in a base-10 number system like ours (the
Mesopotamians? system was based on 60) would be 100 or 1,000
miles.
p. 92, cut down a cedar that is tall enough / to make a whirlwind
as it falls to earth: Following Foster?s restoration.
p. 92, cut down a cedar: ?The cedar was the luxury wood par
excellence?fragrant, solid, tall, and fine-grained?for the richest
public buildings, palaces, and temples? (Bott?ro, p. 123).
pp. 93-94, We are not gods, we cannot ascend through I will
stamp my fame on men?s minds forever: From OB III, ll. 140 ff.,
except for ?You are brave, your heart has been tested in combat,
?
which is from the Standard Version.
p. 93, If I die in the forest on this great adventure, / won?t you be
ashamed when people say, / ?Gilgamesh met a hero?s death /
battling the monster Humbaba. And where / was Enkidu? He was
safe at home!?: Literally,
?I will go in front of you, and you can
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call out,
?Go on, don?t be afraid!? If I die, I will have established
my fame. [People will say,] ?Gilgamesh battled with the fierce
Humbaba.??
p. 94, But whether you come along or not, / I will cut down the
tree, I will kill Humbaba, / I will make a lasting name for myself, /
I will stamp my fame on men?s minds forever
?
: Literally,
?I must
start work and cut down the cedar, I must establish my everlasting
fame.?
pp. 94-95, Gilgamesh bolted the seven gates through I will stamp
my fame on men?s minds forever: From OB III, ll. 172 ff. I have
moved the episode with the smiths to later in Book III.
p. 95, celebrate the New Year: ?One of the greatest festivals of the
annual liturgy: the ak?tu, for the ceremonies of which a particular
sanctuary outside the city walls was reserved, to which the people
walked in procession from the city? (Bott?ro, p. 90).
p. 96, he is horrible to look at: ?The ?mask of
Huwawa/Humbaba,
? grimacing and hideous, was well known, and
often reproduced as an amulet? (Bott?ro, p. 91).
p. 97, After he had listened to the elders? words, / Gilgamesh
laughed. He got up and said, / ?Dear friend, tell me, has your
courage returned? / Are you ready to leave? Or are you still /
afraid of dying a hero?s death?: From OB III, ll. 201 ff. Literally,
?He looked at Enkidu and laughed. ?Now, my friend [ ? ] Should
I be so afraid of him that I [ ? ].? I have omitted a speech of the
elders that is repeated word for word later in Tablet III and have
inserted the visit to the foundry here.
pp. 97-98, Enkidu, let us go to the forge through weighing more
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than six hundred pounds: From OB III, ll. 161 ff.
p. 97, and order the smiths to make us weapons / that only the
mightiest heroes could use.? // Enkidu listened gravely. He stood /
silent there for a long time. At last / he nodded. Gil-gamesh took
his hand: Literally,
??Let them cast [whatever axes] we will
need.? They took [each other by the hand] and went to the forge.?
p. 98, two hundred pounds: Literally,
?3 talents? = 87 kg. = 191
lbs.
p. 98, six hundred pounds: Literally,
?10 talents.?
p. 98, Gilgamesh said, ?Before we leave: I have omitted a speech
that begins ?The elders stood up and addressed the king: / ?Come
back safely ??? It is repeated word for word later in Book III.
p. 99, Dear mother, great goddess, help me in this: I have added
this line and omitted the last three lines of Gilgamesh?s speech,
which, like the rest of the passage, are repeated word for word
from the address to the young men.
p. 99, soapwort: ?This is the plant tullal; it has not been
identified, but its name (it means, in Akkadian,
?You purify?)
indicates its usage, in both personal hygiene and the operations of
?magic? and exorcism, as a detergent. Ninsun, by ?purifying?
herself, puts herself in a condition to address ?ama?, a god of
higher rank than she? (Bott?ro, p. 94).
p. 99, went up to the roof: ?In this hot country, in which rain is
quite rare, the roofs were, and still are, entirely flat, and serve as
terraces? (Bott?ro, p. 192).
p. 99,
?Lord of heaven, you have granted my son / beauty and
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strength and courage: I have added these lines.
p. 100, O Lord Shamash, glorious sun, / delight of the gods,
illuminator / of the world, who rise and the light is born, / it fills
the heavens, the whole earth takes shape, / the mountains form,
the valleys grow bright, / darkness vanishes, evil retreats, / all
creatures wake up and open their eyes, / they see you, they are
filled with joy-/ protect my son. On his dangerous journey:
Literally,
?O [Shamash], you opened [ ? ] for the animals of the
wilderness, you came out for the land to [ ? ], the mountains [ ?
], the heavens grow [bright], animals of the wilderness [ ? ] your
radiance. [ ? ] waited for [ ? ] them, the animals [ ? ] you. [ ?
] I am offering you, the dead man [ ? ] life. To the [ ? ] your
head, when [your light] rises crowds assemble, the great gods wait
for [your light], [may Aya your bride] not be afraid [to remind
you]: [Entrust] him to [the watchmen of the night]. The road that [
? ] touch and [ ? ]. Because [ ? ] the journey [ ? ] And [ ? ]
while Gilgamesh travels to the Cedar [Forest].?
p. 101, stir up strong winds: The Standard Version specifies
thirteen winds. Because there are so few relatively synonymous
nouns for ?wind? in English, I have reduced the number to eight,
as in the Hittite version.
p. 101, After she had prayed: I have omitted the following
passage, which comes from a different strand of the tradition and
whose irony seems an unfruitful contrast with Gilgamesh?s
awareness that ?we are not gods, we are mortal men?: ?Ninsun
made a second prayer to Shamash: ?O Shamash, won?t Gilgamesh
[ ? ] the gods? Won?t he share the heavens with you? Won?t he
share a scepter with the moon? Won?t he act in wisdom with Ea in
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the Great Deep? Won?t he rule the black-headed race with Irnina
(=Ishtar)? Won?t he dwell with Ningishzida in the Land of No
Return???
p. 102, Enkidu listened. Tears filled his eyes. / He and Gilgamesh
clasped hands like brothers. // They took their weapons: the
massive axes, / the massive knives, the quivers, the bows: There is
a large gap in the text here. I have omitted three fragmentary
passages and added these lines.
p. 102, Remember what the ancient proverb says: I have added
this line.
p. 103, May Shamash grant you your heart?s desire through and
remember Lugal-banda your father: From OB III, ll. 257 ff.
p. 103, who journeyed to far-off mountains himself: I have
followed a hint in one of Kovacs?s footnotes and added this line.
In two Sumerian poems,
?Lugalbanda and Enmerkar? and
?Lugalbanda and Mount Hurrum,
? Lugalbanda makes long
journeys across mountains.
pp. 103-4, The elders turned to Enkidu and said, / ?We leave the
king in your care. Protect him, / guide him through all the
treacherous passes, / show him where to find food and where / to
dig for fresh water, lead him to the Forest / and fight at his side:
Literally,
?In this our assembly [we leave the king in your care].
Make sure that he returns and bring [the king back into our care].?
p. 104, May Shamash help you, / may the gods grant you your
heart?s desire: From OB III, ll. 285-86.
p. 104, Enkidu said to Gilgamesh through to the Cedar Forest,
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where Humbaba lives
?
: From OB III, ll. 272 ff.
Book IV
p. 105, At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, / at a thousand
miles they pitched their camp. / They had traveled for just three
days and nights: Literally,
?At 20 b?r (=216 kilometers, or about
134 miles) they stopped to eat, at 30 b?r (=324 km., 201 mi.) they
pitched their camp, they had traveled 50 b?r (=540 km., 335 mi.)
in a single day.? There is some confusion in the text, which has
the heroes pitching camp after one day, yet describes the actual
camping and dream ritual as taking place every third evening,
after a three-day march. For clarity?s sake, I have inserted the
three-day rather than the one-day distances.
p. 105, Enkidu did the ritual for dreams: Here I have followed the
interpretation of Bott?ro. ?The ritual is one of incubation: of a
dream ?obtained,
? that is, asked of the gods and received in a
place determined and protected from evil influences that could
disturb or corrupt the process. Here, it is the top of the mountain,
which is a sacred place, nearer to heaven, the dwelling of ?ama?,
who will certainly send the dream. Hence the use of ma?atu,
scented flour or powder, which was burned in fumigating
offerings, the mantic ritual performed by Enkidu for Gilgame?
(we know nothing about it), and the enchanted circle in which he
encloses him at the moment when he is going to sleep and receive
the desired dream. These circles were standard practice in rituals
of magic and exorcism: drawn with flour, leaves, or branches,
even with improvised barriers of reeds, in order to isolate the
dreamer from all pernicious fluids. The gust of wind passing by is
the sign that heaven has given its consent that the dream should
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take place, in the ordinary conditions, and thus with divinatory
value, which of course the dreamer hopes will be favorable?
(Bott?ro, p. 99).
p. 106, We were walking in a gorge, / and when I looked up, a
huge mountain loomed, / so huge that we were as small as flies. /
Then the mountain fell down on top of us. / Dear friend, tell me,
what does this mean?: Literally,
?[in] a mountain valley, [the
mountain] fell on [ ? ], we, like [flies].?
p. 107, Gilgamesh, happy with his good dream, / smiled, and his
face lit up with pleas-ure: From OB Sch?yen2 , ll. 23-24. The
second line also occurs in OB II, l. 104, in the description of
Enkidu drunk; both lines occur in one of the Middle Babylonian
Bo?azk?y fragments, MB Bo?2, obverse, ll. 3?-4?.
p. 108, I looked up and a huge mountain loomed, / it threw me
down, it pinned me by the feet: From MB Bo?2, obverse, ll.
13?-14?.
p. 108, a terrifying brightness hurt my eyes, / suddenly a young
man appeared, / he was shining and handsome, he took me by the
arm / he pulled me out from under the moun-tain: From OB
Sch?yen2 , ll. 8 ff.
p. 108, he gave me water, my heart grew calm.: From MB Bo?2,
obverse, l. 18?.
p. 109, Again, the mountain stands for Humbaba. / He threw you
down, but he could not kill you: From OB Sch?yen2 , ll. 14 ff.
Literally (in George?s trans-lation),
?Now, my friend, the one to
whom we go, / is he not the mountain? He is something very
strange! / Now, ?uwawa to whom we go, / is he not the mountain?
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He is something very strange!?
p. 109, As for the handsome young man who appeared, / he stands
for Lord Shamash, who will rescue you / and grant you everything
you desire: From OB Sch?yen2 , ll. 21-22.
p. III, The fiery heavens stand for Humbaba, / who tried to kill
you with lightning and flames. / But in spite of the fire, he could
not harm you. / We will kill Humbaba. Success is ours. / However
he attacks us, we will prevail: Literally (in Foster?s transla-tion),
?Humbaba, like a god [ ? ] / [ ? ] the light flaring [ ? ] / We
will be [victorious] over him. / Humbaba aroused our fury [ ? ] /
[ ? ] we will prevail over him. / Further, at dawn the word of
Shamash will be in our favor.?
pp. 112-13, I have had a fourth dream through who came to your
rescue was our lord, Shamash: From the Old Babylonian excerpt
tablet from Nippur, OB Nippur, ll. 9 ff.
pp. 112-13, it grimaced at me, terrifying flames / shot from its
mouth, then beside me I saw / a young man with an unearthly
glow, / he seized the creature, he broke its wings, / he wrung its
neck and threw it to the ground ? The eagle that you saw, with a
lion?s head, / stands for Humbaba. Though it dived straight
toward you / and terrifying flames shot from its mouth, / nothing
could cause you harm. The young man / who came to your rescue
was our lord, Shamash. / He will stand beside us when the
monster attacks. / Whatever happens, we will prevail: Literally,
??It was [ ? ], its face was strange, its jaws were fire, its breath
was death. There was a strange-looking man [ ? ] he was
standing by me in my dream. [He ? ] its wings, he seized its
arms, [ ? ] then he threw it down [in front of] me. [ ? ]? [gap] ?[
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? ] it [descended upon us, like a] cloud, it was [ ? ], its face was
strange, its jaws were fire, its breath was death. Though you were
afraid of its terrifying aura, I will [ ? ] its foot, I will enable you
to get up. The man you saw was mighty Shamash.?
pp. 115-16, I was wrestling with a gigantic bull through we will
achieve a triumph / greater than any man has achieved: From one
of the Old Babylonian ?adup-p?m tablets, OB HarmalI, ll. 4 ff.
p. 116, They could hear Humbaba?s terrifying roar: From OB
Sch?yen2 , l. 57, where the line occurs after Gilgamesh?s second
dream.
pp. 116-17, Gilgamesh stopped. He was trembling. Tears / flowed
down his cheeks. ?O Shamash,? he cried, / ?
protect me on this
dangerous journey. / Remember me, help me, hear my prayer.? /
They stood and listened. A moment passed. / Then, from heaven,
the voice of the god / called to Gilgamesh:
?Hurry, attack, /
attack Humbaba while the time is right, / before he enters the
depths of the forest, / before he can hide there and wrap himself /
in his seven auras with their paralyzing glare. / He is wearing just
one now. Attack him! Now!?
: Literally,
?[ ? ] going [ ? ] Uruk?s
midst, [ ? ] stand there and [ ? ] O Gilgamesh, scion sprung
from Uruk [ ? ]. [Shamash] heard what [he] had said,
immediately a voice [called from the sky],
?Hurry, attack him,
don?t let him [escape into the forest], [don?t let him] go down into
the thicket or [ ? ]. He hasn?t yet wrapped himself in his seven
terrifying auras [ ? ], he is wrapped in only one, the six others
are off.?
p. 117, He is wearing just one now. Attack him! Now!: I have
moved the rest of Tablet IV to Book V, except for two
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fragmentary passages, which I have omitted, and the last two
lines, which remain as the conclusion of Book IV.
BOOK V
p. 118, Gripping their axes, their knives unsheathed, / they
entered the Forest and made their way through: These lines
actually occur slightly further on in Tablet V. Literally (in
Foster?s translation),
?Axes touched with [the whetstone], /
Daggers and swords [ ? ] / One by one [ ? ] / They crept
forward [ ? ] / Humbaba [ ? ].?
p. 118, the tangle of thorn bushes underfoot: This line is followed
by a fragmentary passage, which I have omitted. pp. 118-22,
Suddenly Enkidu was seized by terror through Dear friend, great
warrior, noble hero, / don?t lose courage: The text of the
Standard Version is so fragmentary here and so full of gaps that I
have borrowed at length from the Sumerian poem ?Gilgamesh
and Huwawa? (Version A). I have also added a few passages, as
specified in the following notes. The Standard Version of this
entire section reads literally,
?Gilgamesh [ ? ] Why [ ? ] [gap]
Enlil [ ? ] Enkidu [ ? ] his mouth [ ? ] of Humbaba [ ? ] one
by one [ ? ] garments [ ? ] On the treacherous path [ ? ] two [
? ] Two triplets [ ? ] A three-ply rope [ ? ], two cubs are [ ? ]
than a strong lion. [gap].?
p. 118, Suddenly Enkidu was seized by terror, / his face turned
pale like a severed head: From OB Sch?yen2 , ll. 63 ff., following
George?s restoration.
pp. 118-19, He said to Gilgamesh, ?Dear friend, I cannot /
continue, I am frightened, I cannot go on. / You go into the
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dreadful forest, / you kill Humbaba and win the fame. / I will
return now to great-walled Uruk, / and all men will know what a
coward I have been.?
: This passage is an expansion of a single
line (104) from ?Gil-gamesh and Huwawa?: ?Gilgamesh, you go
further up into the mountains, but I will go back to the city.?
p. 119, Gilgamesh answered, ?Dear friend, dear brother, / I
cannot kill Humbaba alone. / Please stay here with me. Stand at
my side: I have added these lines.
p. 119, ?Two boats lashed together will never sink. / A three-ply
rope is not easily broken.? / If we help each other and fight side by
side, / what harm can come to us? Let us go on / and attack the
monster. We have come so far. / Whatever you are feeling, let us
go on: From ?Gilgamesh and Huwawa,
? ll. 107 ff. Literally,
?Enkidu, two people together will not die. A man tied to his boat
will not drown. No one can tear apart a three-ply cloth. Water
can?t wash someone away from a city wall. Fire in a reed house
can?t be extinguished. If you help me and I help you, what can
anyone do against us? When a boat sinks, when a boat sinks,
when a boat headed for Magan sinks, when the magilum barge
sinks, the boat that is lashed tight to another boat holds steady.
Come now, let us go to him and see him face to face.?
p. 119, Two boats lashed together will never sink. / A three-ply
rope is not easily broken: These two expressions are proverbial.
The second was still proverbial more than fifteen hundred years
after ?Gilgamesh and Huwawa,
? as we can see from Ecclesiastes
4:9-12: ?Two are better than one, because they have a good
reward for their labor. For if one of them falls, the other will lift
him up; but how unfortunate is he who is alone when he falls and
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doesn?t have another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together,
they are warm; but how can one be warm alone? And though
someone might prevail against a man who is alone, two can
withstand him. A three-ply rope is not quickly broken.?
pp. 119-20, Enkidu said, ?You have never met him, / so you don?t
know the horror that lurks ahead. / But when I saw him, my blood
ran cold. / His teeth are knife-sharp, they stick out like tusks, / his
face, blood-smeared, is a lion?s face, / he charges ahead like a
raging torrent, / his forehead ablaze. Who can withstand him? / I
am terrified. I cannot go on.?
: From ?Gilgamesh and Huwawa,
?
ll. 98 ff. Literally,
?Since you haven?t seen him, he doesn?t
frighten you. But I have seen him and he terrified me. His teeth
are dragon?s teeth, his face is a lion?s face, his chest is a raging
torrent, his forehead is a fire that devours the reed thickets and no
one can escape it.?
pp. 120-21, Gilgamesh said, ?Courage, dear brother through we
will stamp our fame on men?s minds forever.?
: I have transferred
this passage here from the end of Tablet IV.
p. 121, They walked deep into the Cedar Forest, / gripping their
axes, their knives unsheathed, / following the trail that Humbaba
had made: I have added these lines.
p. 121, They came within sight of the monster?s den. / He was
waiting inside it. Their blood ran cold. / He saw the two friends,
he grimaced, he bared / his teeth, he let out a deafening roar. / He
glared at Gilgamesh. ?Young man,? he said, / ?
you will never go
home. Prepare to die.? / Dread surged through Gilgamesh, terror
flooded / his muscles, his heart froze, his mouth went dry, / his
legs shook, his feet were rooted to the ground: From ?Gil-gamesh
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and Huwawa,
? ll. 122 ff. Literally,
?Huwawa sat in his house
among the cedars. He glared at Gilgamesh and Enkidu, it was the
look of death. He shook his head at them, it was the sign of doom.
When he spoke, his words were few: ?You, young man, will never
return to the city where your mother gave birth to you.? Fear and
terror spread through Gilgamesh?s muscles and limbs, his feet
were rooted to the ground.?
pp. 121-22,
?Dear friend, great warrior, noble hero, / don?t lose
courage: From ?Gil-gamesh and Huwawa,
? ll. 130 ff. Literally,
?Powerful champion, noble hero, delight of the gods, strong bull
charging to battle, your mother knew well how to bear a son, your
wet nurse knew well how to nourish a child at her breast. Do not
be afraid, rest your hands on the ground.?
p. 122, remember this: / ?Two boats lashed together will never
sink. / A three-ply rope is not easily broken.? / If we help each
other and fight side by side, / what harm can come to us? Let us
go on: I have repeated this from an earlier passage.
p. 122, They advanced to the monster?s den. Humbaba / charged
out roaring at them and said: I have added these lines.
p. 122, I will tear you limb from limb, I will crush you / and leave
you bloody and mangled on the ground: I have added these lines.
p. 123, you both stand before me looking like a pair / of
frightened girls: Literally,
?You stand here a hostile stranger.?
p. 123, How dreadful Humbaba?s face has become! / It is
changing into a thousand nightmare / faces, more horrible than I
can bear. / I feel haunted. I am too afraid to go on: Literally,
?My
friend, Humbaba?s face has changed. We marched like heroes
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toward his [den] to defeat him, but the heart that grew frightened
doesn?t grow calm in a moment.?
pp. 123-24, We must not hesitate or retreat. / Two intimate friends
cannot be defeated. / Be courageous. Remember how strong you
are. / I will stand by you. Now let us attack: Literally (in George?s
translation),
?Now, my friend, there is a single ? / To gather up
the copper (ingots) from the channel moulds of the copper
founder? / To blow on the coals for a double hour, to ? what is
alight for a double hour? / To send the Deluge is to crack the
whip! / [Do not] pull back your foot, do not make a retreat! [ ? ]
? make your blow good and strong!?
p. 124, Gilgamesh felt his courage return: I have added this line.
p. 124, They charged at Humbaba like two wild bulls through his
roar boomed forth like a blast of thunder: I have transferred this
passage here from the end of Tablet IV.
p. 124, split the mountains of Lebanon: ?Lebanon and Hermon are
separated by a deep crevasse (the Rift Valley) which continues to
the Gulf of Aqaba and beyond. By a new imaginary etiology, the
authors of this passage seem to have put in terms of cause and
effect the struggle of the giants and this geological state of things?
(Bott?ro, p. 115).
p. 124, a sulfurous fog / descended on them and made their eyes
ache: Literally,
?death rained down on them like a mist.?
p. 125, Humbaba said, ?Gilgamesh, have mercy. / Let me live
here in the Cedar Forest. / If you spare my life, I will be your
slave, / I will give you as many cedars as you wish. / You are king
of Uruk by the grace of Shamash, / honor him with a cedar temple
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/ and a glorious cedar palace for yourself. / All this is yours, if
only you spare me.?
: Literally,
?Begging for his life, Humbaba
said to Gilgamesh,
?You are so young, Gilgamesh, your mother
gave birth to you and indeed you are the son of [Ninsun, the Lady
of the Wild Cows]. [ ? ] the command of Shamash, lord of the
mountain: ?Gilgamesh, the heir of Uruk, will be king.? [ ? ]
Gilgamesh, a dead man can?t [ ? ], a living [ ? ] his master.
Spare my life, Gilgamesh [ ? ] Let me dwell here for you in [ ?
] as many trees as you wish [ ? ], I will guard the myrtle for you,
the [ ? ], timber, the pride of a palace.??
pp. 125-26,
?If any mortal, / Enkidu, knows the rules of my forest,
/ it is you. You know that this is my place / and that I am the
forest?s guardian. Enlil / put me here to terrify men, / and I guard
the forest as Enlil ordains. / If you kill me, you will call down the
gods? / wrath, and their judgment will be severe: Literally,
?You
know the rules of my forest, the rules of [ ? ], so you understand
what has been ordained.?
p. 126, Shamash in Larsa: There is an alternate reading:
?Shamash in Sippar.?
p. 126, who killed Humbaba in the Cedar Forest: Here I have
omitted two brief fragmentary passages and a repetition of the
passage that begins ?Enkidu said,
?Dear friend, quickly?? and
ends with ??who killed Humbaba in the Cedar Forest.??
pp. 127-28, Knowing he was doomed, Humbaba cried out, / ?I
curse you both. Because you have done this, / may Enkidu die,
may he die in great pain, / may Gilgamesh be inconsolable, / may
his merciless heart be crushed with grief.? // Gilgamesh dropped
his axe, appalled. / Enkidu said, ?Courage, dear friend. / Close
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your ears to Humbaba?s curses. / Don?t listen to a word.
Slaughter him! Now!? // Gilgamesh, hearing his beloved friend, /
came to himself. He yelled, he lifted / his massive axe, he swung
it, it tore / into Humbaba?s neck, the blood / shot out, again the
axe bit flesh / and bone, the monster staggered, his eyes / rolled,
and at the axe?s third stroke / he toppled like a cedar and crashed
to the ground. / At his death-roar the mountains of Lebanon
shook, / the valleys ran with his blood, for ten miles / the forest
resounded. Then the two friends / sliced him open, pulled out his
intestines, / cut off his head with its knife-sharp teeth / and
horrible bloodshot staring eyes. / A gentle rain fell onto the
mountains. / A gentle rain fell onto the mountains: Literally
??May they never [ ? ] May the two of them not grow old, and,
like his friend Gilgamesh, may Enkidu have no one to bury him.?
Enkidu opened his mouth and said to Gilgamesh,
?My friend, I
speak to you, but you don?t listen to me. Until the curse [ ? ] to
his mouth.? [ ? ] of his friend, he drew the knife at his side,
Gilgamesh [struck him] in the neck, Enkidu [ ? ] until he pulled
out the lungs. [ ? ] jumping up, [from] the head he took the tusks
as a prize. [ ? ] in abundance fell on the mountain, [ ? ] in
abundance fell on the mountain.? To the Standard Version of this
passage I have added a passage from the Old Babylonian excerpt
tablet from N?rebtum, OB Ishchali, reverse, ll. 25? ff.: ?the
valleys ran with his blood, he struck Huwawa the guardian to the
ground, for two leagues [ ? ] in the distance. With him he struck
[ ? ], the forests [ ? ], he killed the monster, the forest?s
guardian, at whose shout Sirion and Lebanon were split apart, [ ?
] the mountains [ ? ] all the highlands trembled.?
p. 128, A gentle rain fell onto the mountains: ?Rain? is a
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conjecture of Tournay and Shaffer.
p. 128, They took their axes and penetrated / deeper into the
forest: From OB Ishchali, reverse, l. 37?.
p. 128, they went / chopping down cedars, the woods chips flew, /
Gilgamesh chopped down the mighty trees, / Enkidu hewed the
trunks into timbers: Literally,
?[ ? ] one-fifth of a cubit was the [
? ] of their (cedar) shavings. Gilgamesh cut down the trees,
Enkidu chose the best timber.?
pp. 128-29, Enkidu said, ?By your great strength through may it
be a joy to the people of Nippur.?
: From the Old Babylonian
tablet at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, OB IM, ll. 19 ff.
Book VI
p. 130, he took off his filthy, blood-spattered clothes, / put on a
tunic of the finest wool, / wrapped himself in a glorious goldtrimmed
/ purple robe and fastened it with / a wide fringed belt,
then put on his crown: Literally,
?He took off his filthy clothes, he
put on clean ones, he wrapped himself in a royal robe, tied on a
wide belt. Gilgamesh put on his crown.? ?The purple candys
embroidered with gold was reserved for the king? (Wilcox, The
Mode in Costume).
p. 130, The goddess Ishtar caught sight of him, / she saw how
splendid a man he was, / her heart was smitten, her loins caught
fire: Literally,
?The princess Ishtar looked with desire on
Gilgamesh?s beauty.?
p. 130, marry me: ?Probably as a ruse, and to attract him to her
bed, since she has never been either a wife or a mother in the
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proper sense of the word, Ishtar proposes a real marriage. Thus,
before referring to all the claims of gifts that she will demand, he
will later ironically bring up the question of the compensatory
payment (called ter?atu) that the future husband or his family has
to make to the family of the future wife? (Bott?ro, p. 123).
p. 131, I will give you abundance beyond your dreams: / marble
and alabaster, ivory and jade: I have added these lines.
p. 131, servants with blue-green eyes: I have followed Tournay
and Shaffer in adding this phrase from MB Bo?2, reverse, l. 7.
p. 131, guide-horns of amber: ?The ?horns? of a chariot are
probably the yoke terminals, which are made of alabaster on
Egyptian New Kingdom chariots, and in Middle Bronze Age
tablets from Mari. elm??u-stone: a lustrous, precious, semimythical
stone, possibly amber, often used with rock crystal?
(Dalley, p. 129).
p. 131, storm-demons: ?The ?mu ? is the lion-headed monster
that pulls the chariots of the storm god Adad, the sun, the warriors
Ninurta and Mar-duk and the warlike I?tar? (George, BGE, II, p.
830).
p. 131, And I will bless everything that you own ? These are the
least of the gifts I will shower / upon you. Come here. Be my sweet
man: I have added these lines.
p. 132, Gilgamesh said, ?Your price is too high, / such riches are
far beyond my means. / Tell me, how could I ever repay you, /
even if I give you jewels, perfumes, / rich robes? And what will
happen to me / when your heart turns elsewhere and your lust
burns out?: Literally (in Foster?s translation),
?[What shall I give
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you] if I take you to wife? / [Shall I give you] a headdress (?) for
your person, or clothing? / [Shall I give you] bread or drink? /
[Shall I give you] food worthy of divinity? / [Shall I give you]
drink, worthy of queenship? / Shall I bind [ ? ]? / Shall I heap up
[ ? ]? / [ ? ] for a garment??
p. 132, a mouse that gnaws through its thin reed shelter:
Following Tournay and Shaffer.
p. 132, limestone that crumbles and undermines / a solid stone
wall: ?The image is of a friable element built into a wall made of
heavier stones? (Bott?ro, p. 125).
p. 132, a battering ram / that knocks down the rampart of an
allied city: I have followed Bott?ro?s interpretation here.
p. 133, Which could satisfy your endless desires?: Literally
(following Speiser),
?Which of your lovers pleased you for all
time??
p. 133, Let me remind you of how they suffered, / how each one
came to a bitter end: Literally,
?Come, let me count your lovers.?
p. 133, sent him to the underworld: In the Sumerian poem ?The
Descent of Inanna,
? after Inanna?s (=Ishtar?s) ascent from hell,
demons demand a substitute for her; she gives them Dumuzi
(=Tammuz), and they carry him down to hell in her place.
p. 133, the bright-speckled roller bird: ?We know nothing about
the love affair of Ishtar with the ?roller bird,
? or of her love affairs
with the two animals that follow? (Bott?ro, p. 125).
p. 133, Ow-ee! Ow-ee!: ?In Akkadian, the cry of the bird is ?
kapp? (?My wings!?), which evokes a sort of plaintive whining.
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The story is etiologi-cal? (Bott?ro, p. 126).
p. 133, you dug seven pits for him, / and when he fell, you left him
to die: Literally,
?You dug seven and seven pits for him.?
p. 133, endlessly: Literally,
?7 double leagues? = about 45 miles;
in other words, a great distance.
p. 133, to muddy his own water: ?Horses put their front feet in the
water when drinking, churning up mud? (Kovacs, p. 52).
p. 134, the goddess Silili: The myth is unknown, as are the myths
of the shepherd and of Ishullanu.
p. 134, ?Sweet Ishullanu, let me suck your rod, / touch my vagina,
caress my jewel?: Literally,
?O my Ishullanu, let me eat your
vigor, reach out your hand [or penis] and touch my vulva.?
pp. 134-35, But you kept up your sweet-talk and at last he gave in,
/ then you changed, you turned him into: Literally,
?When he had
finished speaking, you struck him, you turned him into ?? I have
changed the story here for the sake of consistency, since all the
other examples are of men who became Ishtar?s lovers and
suffered as a result.
p. 135, toad: I have followed Bott?ro here. Other scholars have
translated this hapax legomenon as ?dwarf,
? ?mole,
? ?spider,
? or
?scarecrow.?
p. 135, her father, Anu: In other Mesopotamian traditions, Ishtar
is the daughter of S?n and granddaughter of Anu, and/or she is
Anu?s consort.
p. 136, ghouls will ascend to devour the living, / and the living
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will be outnumbered by the dead: ?These two verses are found
also in the Akkadian myth of ?The Descent of Ishtar to the
Underworld? and in ?Nergal and Ereshkigal,
? and there is no way
of knowing which of the three is the model or source? (Bott?ro, p.
129).
p. 136, Uruk will have famine for seven long years. / Have you
provided the people with grain / for seven years, and the cattle
with fodder?: Literally,
?for seven years let the widow of Uruk
gather chaff, [and the farmer of Uruk] grow hay.?
p. 137, ten feet: Literally,
?7 cubits.?
p. 137, Gilgamesh rushed in and shouted, ?Dear friend, / keep
fighting, together we are sure to win.?
: I have added these lines
and omitted the following passage: ?Enkidu opened his mouth [to
speak] and said to Gilgamesh,
?My friend, we boasted [ ? ] city,
how should we answer the crowds of people? My friend, I have
observed the strength of the Bull of Heaven, so knowing its
strength [I know] that our strength is sufficient. I will [circle]
behind it, I will seize [it by its tail], I will set [my foot on its
haunch], in [ ? ]. Then [you,] like a [brave,] skilled [butcher,]
thrust your dagger between its shoulders and the base of its
horns.??
p. 139, her priestesses, / those who offer themselves to all men / in
her honor: Literally,
?her kezertu-, ?ar?mtu-, and ?am??tuwomen?:
three classes of cultic prostitute-priestesses.
p. 139, thirty pounds: 30 mina = 15 kg.= 33 lbs.
p. 139, four hundred gallons: 6 kor = 1,500 l. = 396 gal.
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p. 139, in the chapel / dedicated to Lugalbanda: Literally,
?in the
room of the head of the family.? ?Rather than a bedroom in the
palace of Uruk, this was probably a chapel in the temple,
consecrated to Lugalbanda. The votive horns, filled with
ointments with a base of fragrant oil, were supposed to serve in
some ceremonial rite of dressing and anointing the image of
Gilgameߒs deified father? (Bott?ro, p. 133).
p. 140, The two friends washed themselves in the river: ?In
ancient times the Euphrates flowed through Uruk. It is possible
that the washing had a religious sense and that the two heroes
intended to purify themselves of the defilement contracted by the
killing of the supernatural Bull? (Bot-t?ro,p. 133).
p. 140, singing girls: Following Speiser.
p. 140, Enkidu?he is?: Following Bott?ro.
Book VII
pp. 141-42,
?Beloved brother,? Enkidu said through and never
will I see my dear brother again.?
: From the Hittite version,
Tablet III, ? 1, ll. 2 ff. The Standard Version begins with Enkidu?s
long, rather silly speech to the door, which I have omitted.
p. 141, Then Enlil said to him, ?Enkidu, / not Gilgamesh, is the
one who must die.?: I have omitted the following lines from the
Hittite version: ?Then the sun god of heaven said to heroic Enlil,
?Wasn?t it at my command that they killed the Bull of Heaven and
also Humbaba? Enkidu is innocent?should he then die?? Enlil
grew angry at the sun god of heaven and said,
?You are speaking
like that because you accompanied them every day like a friend.??
?The Standard Version seems to originate from a different
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tradition, in which ?ama? as well is squarely opposed to the
killing of Humbaba? (Bott?ro, p. 287). See p. 126,
?before the
great gods can get enraged, / Enlil in Nippur, Shamash in Larsa.?
p. 142, Enkidu said, ?Beloved brother, / last night I had a second
bad dream: This passage occurs later in Tablet VII; I have
inserted it here and divided Gilgamesh?s response to the first
dream into two speeches.
p. 144, Etana ? Sumuqan ? Ereshkigal ? Belet-seri: See
glossary.
p. 144, so it is a healthy man who has dreamed this: ?In order to
reassure his friend, Gilgame? sees (or pretends to see) the dream
as an excellent omen, interpreting it by the principle of ?inversion?
? Further on in this passage, it is obvious that in fact Gilgame?
had no doubt about the fatal character of the dream? (Bott?ro, p.
138).
p. 145, and to Ea the wise: Literally (according to George?s
restoration),
?
may [my entreaty???to Ea] .? ?It is difficult to
avoid the conclusion that these three lines report Gilgame??s
intentions to solicit the aid not of Enlil alone but of the great
divine triad, Anu, Enlil and Ea? (George, BGE, II, p. 846).
p. 145, a gold statue made in your image: ?The image of a person
? placed in the sanctuary was ?, by its very presence, supposed
to perpetually ?pray? on behalf of that person to the god it was
dedicated to? (Bott?ro, p. 138).
p. 145, Don?t worry, dear friend, you will soon get better, / this
votive image will restore you to health: I have added these lines
following Bott?ro?s interpretation.
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p. 145,
?I turn to you, Lord, / since suddenly fate has turned
against me: Literally,
?I appeal to you, Shamash, on account of
my precious life.?
pp. 145-146, As for that wretched trapper who found me / when I
was free in the wilderness?/ because he destroyed my life,
destroy / his livelihood, may he go home empty, / may no animals
ever enter his traps, / or if they do, may they vanish like mist, /
and may he starve for bringing me here: Literally (in Foster?s
translation),
?As for that hunter, the entrapping-man, / Who did
not let me get as much life as my friend, / May that hunter not get
enough to make him a living. / Make his profit loss, cut down his
take, / May his income, his portion evaporate before you, / Any
wildlife that enters [his traps], make it go out the win-dow!?
p. 146, may your man prefer younger, prettier girls: Following
Foster?s conjecture.
p. 146, may he beat you as a housewife beats a rug: Literally,
?[
? ] of the potter.? I have gone in the same direction (though with
a different image) as Foster?s conjecture ?[may he pinch you] like
potter?s clay.?
pp. 146-47, may your roof keep leaking and no carpenter fix it
through and the rabble mock you as you walk the streets: I have
changed the order of the images here.
p. 146, may wild dogs camp in your bedroom: From the Middle
Babylonian Ur tablet, MB Ur, l. 32.
p. 147, a bed of honor: ?The ?bed? is the catafalque where the
corpse is laid out before the funeral. The next lines recall the
place of honor that the king of Uruk had given him during his
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lifetime. We don?t know why the seat of repose is ?on his left??
(Bott?ro, p. 142).
p. 149, Then Enkidu said to Gilgamesh: I have added this line.
There are several gaps and fragments that precede Enkidu?s
speech, and it is followed by another fragmentary line:
?Gilgamesh said,
?My friend saw a dream that [will] not ???
p. 149, For twelve long days / he was deathly sick, he lay in his
bed / in agony, unable to rest, / and every day he grew worse:
Literally,
?One day, a second day, Enkidu was sick, he lay in his
bed. A third and a fourth day Enkidu [ ? ]. A fifth, a sixth and a
seventh, an eighth, a ninth [and tenth day] Enkidu was sick [ ? ],
an eleventh and a twelfth day [ ? ] Enkidu [ ? ] in his bed.?
p. 149,
?Have you abandoned me now, dear friend? / You told me
that you would come to help me / when I was afraid. But I cannot
see you, / you have not come to fight off this danger. / Yet weren?t
we to remain forever / inseparable, you and I??
: In this speech I
have followed the interpretation of Bott?ro. Literally (in George?s
translation): ?[My god] has spurned me, my friend, [ ?,] / like
one who in the midst of battle [ ? ] / I was afraid of combat [ ?,]
/ my friend, he who in combat [ ? ] / I, in [combat,? ] .?
p. 150, When he heard the death rattle, Gilgamesh moaned / like
a dove. His face grew dark. ?Beloved, / wait, don?t leave me.
Dearest of men, / don?t die, don?t let them take you from me
?
:
From the Middle Babylonian Megiddo tablet, MB Megiddo,
reverse, ll. 14? ff. Literally (in Kovacs?s translation): ?At his
noises Gilgamesh was roused [ ? ] / Like a dove he moaned [ ?
] / ?May he not be held, in death [ ? ] / O preeminent among men
[ ? ] / To his friend [ ? ] / ?I will mourn him (?) / I at his side [
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? ]??
BOOK VIII
p. 152, Ulaya: Literally,
?May the holy River Ulaya mourn you,
along whose banks we once proudly walked.? This line seems to
refer to an episode that has not survived in the extant tablets.
pp. 152-53, my beloved friend is dead, he is dead, / my beloved
brother is dead, I will mourn / as long as I breathe, I will sob for
him / like a woman who has lost her only child: Literally,
?I will
mourn Enkidu, my friend, I will sob for him like a hired mourning
woman.? (Professional mourners were valued for their loud and
passionate laments.)
p. 153, swift stallion, wild deer: Literally,
?swift mule, quick wild
ass of the mountains.?
pp. 154-55, Let obsidian and all other beautiful stones?/ a
thousand jewels of every color?/ be piled along with the silver
and gold / and sent on a barge, down the Euphrates / to greatwalled
Uruk, for Enkidu?s statue: Added from the apocryphal
?Letter of Gilgamesh? (seventh century BCE?), which helps to
flesh out the description of the statue. I have also made the next
lines in the Standard Version (?I will lay him down ? in a lion
skin?) part of the proclamation, changing the second-person to
third-person pronouns.
p. 155, surveyed his riches: I have omitted a fragmentary passage
here.
p. 156, He closed his eyes, in his mind he formed through he
spread out each one in front of Shamash: I have moved this
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passage forward from the end of Tablet VIII.
p. 156, precious yew wood: ?The precious wood called elammaku,
not identified, came from the northwest (Syria) and was used
primarily for furniture? (Bott?ro, p. 154).
p. 156, a carnelian bowl ? a lapis lazuli bowl: ?Red was the
color of mourning ? Red and blue are found together more than
once in the ancient Mesopotamian texts, particularly in the
context of the hereafter and of mourning? (Bott?ro, p. 154).
p. 156, a polished javelin of pure cedar: Literally,
?[a throw]stick
of ?, the pure wood.?
p. 156,
?Let Ishtar accept this: This respectful passage, along
with VII 160 (?May Ishtar, [the ablest] of the gods, introduce you
to a man?), is another indication that Book VI was added to the
main body of the poem, perhaps by S?n-l?qi-unninni.
p. 157, a golden necklace ? a mirror: Schrott?s conjectures.
p. 158, When all the offerings were set out: There is one
additional offering, of an alabaster flask to ?[Dumuzi]-abzu,
blame-bearer of the underworld,
? which I have omitted, along
with a short, fragmentary passage.
p. 158, After the funeral, Gilgamesh went out / from Uruk, into the
wilderness / with matted hair, in a lion skin: There is a gap at the
end of Tablet VIII. I have added these lines.
BOOK IX
p. 159, How can I bear this sorrow / that gnaws at my belly, this
fear of death / that restlessly drives me onward? If only / I could
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find the one man whom the gods made immortal, / I would ask
him how to overcome death: Literally,
?Sorrow has entered my
heart. I have become afraid of death, so I roam the wilderness. I
am on the road and will travel quickly to Utnapishtim, son of
Ubartutu.? I have omitted the following passage: ??When I arrived
at night at mountain passes, I saw some lions and was afraid, I
looked up and prayed to the moon, to [ ? ] lamp of the gods: ?O
[S?n and ?,] keep me safe.?? [Gil-gamesh] arose, he woke up
from the dream. [ ? ] presence of the moon he rejoiced to be
alive. He lifted the axe, he drew [the dagger from] his belt, he fell
on them like an arrow, he struck the [lions, he] killed and
scattered them.? The rest of the passage is fragmentary.
p. 159, So Gilgamesh roamed, his heart full of anguish, /
wandering, always eastward, in search / of Utnapishtim, whom
the gods made immortal: I have added these lines.
p. 161,
?Gilgamesh is my name,? he answered, / ?I am the king of
great-walled Uruk / and have come here to find my ancestor /
Utnapishtim, who joined the assembly / of the gods, and was
granted eternal life. / He is my last hope. I want to ask him / how
he managed to overcome death.?
: Literally,
?[ ? ] the [ ? ] of
my ancestor, Utnapishtim, who joined the assembly of the gods
and [ ? ], of death and life [ ? ].?
pp. 161-63,
?No one is able / to cross the Twin Peaks, nor has
anyone ever / entered the tunnel into which the sun / plunges
when it sets and moves through the earth. / Inside the tunnel there
is total darkness: / deep is the darkness, with no light at all.? //
The scorpion woman said, ?This brave man, / driven by despair,
his body frost-chilled, / exhausted, and burnt by the desert sun-/
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show him the way to Utnapishtim.? // The scorpion man said,
?Ever downward / through the deep darkness the tunnel leads. /
All will be pitch black before and behind you, / all will be pitch
black to either side. / You must run through the tunnel faster than
the wind. / You have just twelve hours. If you don?t emerge / from
the tunnel before the sun sets and enters, / you will find no refuge
from its deadly fire. / Penetrate into the mountains? depths, / may
the Twin Peaks lead you safely to your goal, / may they safely take
you to the edge of the world. / The gate to the tunnel lies here
before you. / Go now in peace, and return in peace.?
: Literally,
??Never, Gilgamesh, has anyone [ ? ], never has anyone [ ? ]
the mountain. Its interior [ ? ] for twelve double hours (or twelve
double leagues = 80 miles), the darkness is dense, there is no
[light]. At the rising of the sun [ ? ], at the setting of the [ ? ].
At the setting of the [ ? ] they sent forth [ ? ] And you, how [ ?
] Will you go [ ? ]?? [long gap] ?Through sorrow [ ? ], by cold
and sunshine [ ? ], through exhaustion [ ? ]. Now you [ ? ].?
The scorpion-man [opened his mouth and said] to Gilgamesh [ ?
],
?Go, Gilgamesh [ ? ] May the Twin Peaks [ ? ] The mountain
ranges [ ? ] In safety may [ ? ].??
p. 162, This brave man: Following Foster, I have assigned this
speech to the scorpion woman.
p. 163, For a second and a third hour Gilgamesh ran, / deep was
the darkness, with no light at all / before and behind him and to
either side: Literally,
?For a second hour [he ran], deep was the
darkness, [with no light at all], he could see [nothing in front and
behind him]. For a third hour [he ran], [deep was the darkness,
with no light at all, he could see nothing in front and behind
him].? The same phrases are repeated for each of the twelve
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hours.
BOOK X
p. 165, her golden pot-stand and brewing vat: Literally,
?She had
pot-stands, she had [ ? ].? ?It is conventional to restore the end
of this line after the Hittite version, which states that ?iduri
had??a vat of gold?? (George, BGE, II, p. 868). ?Some
Mesopotamian drinking cups were conical, with pointed bottoms,
so they were set in a wooden rack to hold them up when they
were full of liquid? (Foster, p. 72).
p. 166,
?Gilgamesh is my name,? he said. / ?I am the king of
great-walled Uruk. / I am the man who killed Humbaba / in the
Cedar Forest, I am the man / who triumphed over the Bull of
Heaven.? // Shiduri said, ?Why are your cheeks so hollow:
Literally,
?Gilgamesh spoke to her, to the tavern keeper: ?[ ? ]
who killed the guardian, who seized the Bull of Heaven and killed
the Bull of Heaven, who destroyed Humbaba in the Cedar Forest,
who killed lions in the mountain passes.? The tavern keeper spoke
to him, to Gilgamesh: ?[If? ] who killed the guardian, who seized
the Bull of Heaven and killed the Bull of Heaven, who destroyed
Humbaba in the Cedar Forest, who killed lions in the mountain
passes, why are your cheeks hollow?.??
p. 167, thinking, ?If my grief is violent enough, / perhaps he will
come back to life again.?: From the Old Babylonian tablet
reportedly from Sippar, OB VA+BM, l. ii 7.
pp. 168-69, Shiduri said, ?Gilgamesh, where are you roaming?
through when my heart is sick for Enkidu who died?: From OB
VA+BM, ll. iii 1 ff.
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p. 168, Humans are born, they live, then they die, / this is the
order that the gods have decreed. / But until the end comes, enjoy
your life, / spend it in happiness, not despair: I have added these
lines.
p. 168, make each of your days / a delight: A common theme in
ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature. The most famous
example is Ecclesiastes 9:7-10: ?Go your way, eat your bread
with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has
already accepted what you do. At all times let your garments be
white, and let there be oil on your head. Live joyfully with the
wife you love, all the days of your insubstantial life that he has
given you under the sun, all your insubstantial days, for that is
your portion in life and in the work you work at under the sun.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for
there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in the grave
to which you are going.?
p. 170, Stone Men: I have followed the interpretation of Bott?ro
(the Akkadian word is often translated ?Stone Things?). ?This
word remains a crux of The Epic of Gilgame?. It is not attested
elsewhere. There is hardly any doubt that it refers to human
beings or humanoids, since they accompany Urshanabi into the
forest ? The famous myth called Lugal-e? deals at length (but
differently from here) with ?stone men? = men changed into stone
[more accurately, stones turned into servants?S. M.]?The
?Stone Ones? are thus, in one way or another, like animated
statues; that is also what the Hittite Version calls them ? We will
see ? that they were indispensable for the crossing of the Waters
of Death, undoubtedly because, being able, by their substance, to
enter the deadly water with impunity, it was possible for them to
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push or pull the boat ? People have tried in various ways to
rationalize these mysterious beings, by inferring, for example, that
they are instruments or procedures of navigation: this is perhaps
to forget that the story is pure myth!? (Bott?ro, p. 170).
p. 170, saw the axe flash, and he stood there, dazed. / Fear
gripped the Stone Men who crewed the boat: Literally,
?he took
his axe, he [ ? ] him. But he, Gilgame?, hit his (Urshanabi?s)
head [ ?,] / he seized his arm and [ ? ] his chest. And the Stone
Men [George: would seal] the boat, who did not fear the Waters
of Death.?
p. 171, Gilgamesh came back and stood before him through
through the underworld, where the sun comes forth: From OB
VA+BM, ll. iv 2 ff. I have omitted the Standard Version?s
continuation, which is a word-for-word repetition of the portion of
Gilgamesh?s dialogue with Shiduri that begins ?Why are your
cheeks so hollow? and ends ?And won?t I have to lie down in the
dirt / like him, and never arise again?? It is repeated a third time
in the dialogue with Utnapishtim.
pp. 171-72, since in your fury / you have smashed the Stone Men,
who crewed my boat / and could not be injured by the Waters of
Death: From OB VA+BM, ll. iv 24-25.
p. 172, But don?t despair. There is one more way / we can cross
the vast ocean: I have added these lines.
p. 172, a hundred feet: Literally,
?5 ninda
? (1 ninda = 12 cubits),
or 90 feet. ?This was the maximum depth of the ocean bottom
[beneath the Waters of Death]. Since he is stronger and more
vigorous, Gilgame?? will handle the poles when the time comes,
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plunging each one in turn into the Waters to propel the boat, up to
the moment when it is almost entirely immersed and, in order not
to have any contact with the water it is drenched in, he will have
to drop it and take another. In other words, the Waters of Death
were neither very deep nor very extensive? (Bott?ro, p. 174).
p. 172, grips: ?A point of metal resembling a nipple and meant to
give the pole a firmer grip on the ocean bottom, without risk of
slipping? (Bott?ro, p. 174).
pp. 172-73, Now be careful, / take up the first pole, push us
forward, / and do not touch the Waters of Death. / When you
come to the end of the first pole, drop it, / take up a second and a
third one, until / you come to the end of the three-hundredth pole /
and the Waters of Death are well behind us: Literally,
?[Stand
back], Gilgamesh. Take [the first pole], don?t let your hand be
touched by the Waters of Death. Take a second, a third, and a
fourth pole, Gilgamesh, take a fifth, a sixth, and a seventh pole,
Gilgamesh, take an eighth, a ninth, and a tenth pole, Gilgamesh,
take an eleventh and a twelfth pole, Gilgamesh.?
pp. 173-74,
?Where are the Stone Men who crew the boat? / Why
is there a stranger on board? / I have never seen him. Who can he
be?? // Gilgamesh landed. When he saw the old man, / he said to
him, ?Tell me, where can I find / Utnapishtim, who joined the
assembly / of the gods and was granted eternal life??
: Literally,
??Why have the boat?s [ ? ] been broken, and why is someone
who is not its master aboard it? He who comes is no man of mine,
and on the right [ ? ]. I look, but he is no [man of] mine, I look,
but he is no [ ? ] I look, [ ? ] me [ ? ]. No [ ? ] of mine [ ? ].
The boatman [ ? ] the man whom I [ ? ], whom I watch is not [
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? ] maybe the wilderness [ ? ] the pine [ ? ]? Gilgamesh
approached the quay [ ? ] he sent down [ ? ] and he, he came up
and he [ ? ] Gilgamesh said to him,
?[ ? ] live Utnapishtim, son
of Ubar[tutu]. [ ? ] after the Flood which for [ ? ] the Flood,
what for [ ? ].??
p. 176, let it be sealed shut with tar and pitch: I have omitted two
fragmentary lines that follow: ?Because of me [they] shall not [
? ] the dancing, / because of me, happy and carefree, they will ?
[ ? ]? (tr. George).
p. 177, an old rope: George?s conjecture.
p. 177, and a frantic, senseless, dissatisfied mind: Literally (in
George?s translation): ?Because he has no advisors [ ?,] /
(because) he has no words of counsel [ ?? ].?
p. 177, At night the moon travels across the sky through the world
is established, from ancient times: I have moved these lines to a
bit later in Utnapishtim?s speech and have omitted a fragmentary
passage.
BOOK XI
p. 181, when the great gods decided to send the Flood: Two lines
that occur later in Tablet XI imply that the Enlil?s motivation was
to punish men?s evildoing: ?do not allow all men / to die because
of the sins of some? (?i.e., punish the guilty but not the innocent,
?
George, BGE II, p. 891). In this it resembles the Noah stories,
both in the J version:
Now when the Lord saw how great the evil of humans was, and
how every impulse in their hearts was nothing but evil all the
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time, he was sorry that he had made humans on the earth, and he
was pained in his heart. And he said,
?I will destroy all
humankind from the earth: I am sorry I ever made them? (Genesis
6:5-7, from Stephen Mitchell, Genesis: A New Translation of the
Classic Biblical Stories, HarperCollins, 1996, p. 13).
and in the P version:
And the earth was exceedingly corrupt and filled with violence.
And when God saw how corrupt the earth was and how corrupt
humankind had become on the earth, God said to Noah,
?I am
going to put an end to humankind, for the earth is filled with
violence because of them: I am going to blot them out from the
earth? (Genesis 6:11-13; ibid., p. 15).
The Atrahasis, however, in its sublimely ridiculous way, provides
the following motivation:
The earth was too full, the people too numerous, the land was
bellowing like a wild bull. Enlil said to the other great gods,
?The
noise of humans has become too loud, their constant uproar is
keeping me awake.?
p. 181, the Great Deep: The vast, sweet-water, subterranean
ocean (aps? in Akkadian) that was the domain of Ea; heaven and
earth served as its roof.
p. 182, They will all have all that they want, and more: Literally,
?a wealth of birds, a profusion of fish, he will pour upon you a
rich harvest, in the morning he will rain bread cakes down on you,
in the evening a torrent of wheat.?
p. 182,
?I laid out the structure, I drafted plans: This line actually
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occurs a dozen lines later; I have moved it forward.
p. 183, rope makers brought their ropes, and children / carried
the tar. The poor helped also, / however they could-some carried
timber, / some hammered nails, some cut wood: Literally,
?[ ? ]
heavy axe. The young men were [ ? ], the old men carried palmfiber
rope, the rich men carried pitch, the poor brought the [ ? ]
tackle.?
p. 183, an acre: Literally,
?1 ik?? = 3,600 m2 = .89 acres.
p. 183, two hundred feet: Literally,
?120 cubits? = 180 feet.
p. 183, the ship?s height was divided in seven: ?The boat as
described is clearly a cube, not at all like ordinary Mesopotamian
boats, and is probably a theological allusion to the dimensions of
a ziggurat, the Mesopotamian stepped temple tower. The ziggurat
was a massive solid structure with a square base and four to seven
levels, the maximum height being the same as the length and
width; it served as a monumental platform for a temple that stood
on top? (Kovacs, p. 99). ?The ship?s ? volume (about 7,600 tons)
is condensed in the extreme ? The Biblical account (Gen. 6)
speaks of three storeys; the Ark measured 300 cubits in length, 50
cubits in breadth, and 30 cubits in height (about 20,000 tons)?
(translated from Tournay and Shaffer, pp. 228-29).
p. 183, three thousand gallons: Literally,
?3 ??r,?
which,
according to Bott?ro, equals 10,800 l. (2,808 gal.).
p. 184, I gave my palace: Utnapishtim?s generosity is, of course,
pointless: if his faith in Ea?s words is justified, both the gift and
the gifted will soon be underwater.
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p. 185, No one could see through the rain, it fell / harder and
harder, so thick that you couldn?t / see your own hand before your
eyes: Literally,
?One couldn?t see another, people couldn?t
recognize one another in the downpour.?
p. 186, Anu?s palace in the highest heaven: ?[The
Mesopotamians] imagined at least three superposed celestial
vaults: the highest was the dwelling of the sovereign and founder
of the divine dynasty? (Bott?ro, p. 191).
p. 186, Aruru: Literally,
?the goddess.? ?It is customary to take
di?tar as a proper noun. However, the following line, which
develops the idea further, shows that the mother goddess is the
subject here ? I?tar is quite out of place as the lamenting goddess
on this occasion. The parallel passage of OB Atram-?as?s has a
similar couplet with il-tum in the first line and dma-mi in the
second ? thus I take di?tar as a common noun, anticipating
b?letil? ( ? for another example in SB Gilgame? see SB I 274,
where di?tari umm??u, ?the goddess, his mother,
? is Ninsun)?
(George, BGE, II, p. 886).
p. 186, when I spoke up for evil in the council of the gods!: In the
first passage about the gods? decision, p. 181, Aruru is not
involved, and no mention is made of a council of the gods.
p. 186, Their lips were parched, crusted with scabs: ?Not having
human beings to provide them with offerings, they are dying of
thirst and hunger. (Thus they later swoop down onto the final
banquet)? (Bott?ro, p. 192).
p. 187, as flat as a roof: ?In this hot country, in which rain is quite
rare, the roofs were, and still are, entirely flat, and serve as
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terraces? (Bott?ro, p. 192).
p. 187, a half mile away: 14 ? 10 ninda = 1,680 cubits = 2,520
feet.
p. 187, For six days and seven nights, the mountain / would not
release it: Literally,
?One day, a second day, Mount Nimush held
the ship and would not release it. A third day, a fourth day, Mount
Nimush held the ship and would not release it. A fifth day, a sixth
day, Mount Nimush held the ship and would not release it.?
p. 188, her necklace of lapis lazuli: ?A necklace with carved lapis
lazuli fly beads, representing the dead offspring of the mother
goddess Beletili/ Aruru? (Kovacs, p. 102).
p. 189, how did it happen that you so recklessly / sent the Great
Flood: Here Ea, like Aruru a few lines above, seems to have
forgotten that he and three other great gods collaborated in Enlil?s
decision. Perhaps S?n-l?qi-unninni has used two different and
conflicting traditions about Ea?s involvement and Enlil?s sole
responsibility.
p. 190, but be merciful, do not allow all men / to die because of
the sins of some. / Instead of a flood, you should have sent / lions
to decimate the human race, / or wolves, or a famine, or a deadly
plague: Literally,
?Be lenient, lest he be destroyed; bear with him,
lest [ ? ]. Instead of sending the Flood, let a lion arise to diminish
the human race. Instead of sending the Flood, let a wolf arise to
diminish the human race. Instead of sending the Flood, let famine
arise to destroy the land. Instead of sending the Flood, let
pestilence arise to destroy the land.?
p. 190, I only whispered it to a fence / and Utnapishtim happened
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to hear: Literally,
?I made a dream appear to Atrahasis, and thus
he heard the secret of the gods.? ?The poet betrays his source by
calling his hero Atrahasis here [instead of Utnapishtim]? (Tournay
and Shaffer, p. 239). ?Ea defends himself against the charge that
he broke the solemn oath not to speak to any human about the
flood decided upon by Enlil: he did not ?speak? to Utnapishtim,
since he only ?made a dream appear?; and if he did ?speak,
? it was
to ?his reed fence? and not to any human. Ea is the cleverest of the
gods and, as such, is Jesuitical well avant la lettre
? (Bott?ro, p.
196). In Atrahasis, by contrast, he is completely straightforward:
?Enki (=Ea) made his voice heard / And spoke to the great gods, /
?I did it, in defiance of you! / I made sure life was preserved?? (tr.
Dalley).
p. 191, at the source of the rivers: In an earthly paradise
reminiscent of Eden, which was at the source of four rivers
(Genesis 2:10-14). ?This distant place? has a Greek echo as well,
in Works and Days, ll. 168 ff. (Hesiod is speaking of the fourth
age, the age of heroes or demigods):
But to other heroes Zeus gave a home and sent them far from all
men, to the end of the earth. And there, untouched by sorrow, they
live in the isles of the blessed along the shore of the fathomless,
deep-swirling ocean, blissful heroes for whom the luxuriant earth
three times a year bears fruit that is sweet as honey.
p. 191, How would they know that you deserve it? / First pass this
test: Just stay awake / for seven days. Prevail against sleep, / and
perhaps you will prevail against death: Literally,
?Come, don?t
sleep for six days and seven nights.?
p. 193, Look down, friend, / count these loaves that my wife baked
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and put here / while you sat sleeping. This first one, rock-hard, /
was baked seven days ago, this leathery one / was baked six days
ago, and so on for all / the rest of the days you sat here sleeping. /
Look. They are marked on the wall behind you: Literally,
?[Come,] Gilgamesh, count your loaves, and may [the days you
slept] be made known to you. Your [first] loaf [is dried hard], the
second is leathery, the third is soggy, the fourth has turned white,
the fifth is spotted with mold, the sixth is fresh, the seventh was
still baking on the coals when I touched you and you woke up.?
p. 196, If you find this plant: ?These instructions are clearly
abbreviated, since they omit most of the information that
Gilgamesh needed in order to act as he did? (Dalley, p. 134).
p. 196, Gilgamesh dug a pit on the shore / that led down into the
Great Deep: ?Gilgame? digs a shallow pit in the beach and soon
reaches the water table. The fact that he makes the hole on land,
not at sea, becomes clearer later, when he complains that he
cannot rediscover it because the tide will have washed away any
trace. The water table is the uppermost level of the cosmic domain
of Ea, which in ?ta-napi?ti?s realm is particularly accessible.
Consequently the pit gives him immediate access to the
subterranean Aps?. He dives down into the water, finds the plant
but does not return the way he came. Instead he rises from the
Aps? by way of the sea and, emerging just offshore from Ur-
?anabi, is carried back to land by the surf? (George, BGE, I, pp.
523-24).
p. 197, If that succeeds: I have followed an alternative reading of
George?s, ?um-ma, ?if,
? rather than ?um?u, ?its (or his) name?:
?If the old man grows young (again), / I will eat some myself?
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(George, BGE, I, p. 723).
p. 197, At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, / at a thousand
miles they pitched their camp: Literally,
?At 20 b?r (= 216
kilometers, or about 134 miles) they stopped to eat, at 30 b?r (=
324 km., 201 mi.) they pitched their camp.? Even though this is
not explicitly a three-day march, the lines are a verbatim
repetition of the march to the Cedar Forest, and I have kept the
same distances.
p. 197, it cast off its skin: ?This sudden sloughing is a symbol of
immortality. The serpent was considered in the ancient Near East
an animal of prolonged life, beneficent and healing, whence the
emblem of the caduceus? (Tournay and Shaffer, p. 245).
p. 198, a reptile: Literally,
?the lion of the ground,
? an epithet for
the snake.
p. 198, I plucked it from the depths, and how could I ever /
manage to find that place again? / And our little boat?we left it
on the shore: Literally,
?Now the tide has been rising for twenty
leagues. When I opened the channel, I left the tools there: how
could I find a landmark? I left the boat on the shore, and I have
come too far to go back (or, in George?s interpretation: Had I only
turned away and left the boat on the shore!).?
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bott?ro, Jean, L??pop?e de Gilgame?: Le grand homme qui ne
voulait pas mourir, Gallimard, 1992.
Dalley, Stephanie, Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the
Flood, Gilgamesh and Others, Oxford University Press, 1989,
revised edition 2000.
Ferry, David, Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse,
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992.
Foster, Benjamin R., The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation,
Analogues, Criticism, Norton, 2001.
Gardner, John, and John Maier, with the assistance of Richard A.
Henshaw, Gilgamesh: Translated from the S?n-leqi-unninn?
version, Knopf, 1984.
George, A. R., The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction,
Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts, 2 vols., Oxford University
Press, 2003.
George, Andrew, The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic
Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian, Penguin, 1999.
Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Stanford,
1989.
Sandars, N. K., The Epic of Gilgamesh: An English Version with
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an Introduction, Penguin, 1960, second revised edition 1972.
Schott, Albert, Das Gilgamesch-Epos, neu herausgegeben von
Wolfram von Soden, 5th edition, Reclam, 1989.
Schrott, Raoul, Gilgamesh: Epos, Carl Hanser Verlag, 2001.
Speiser, E. A., in James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts
Relating to the Old Testament, third edition, Princeton University
Press, 1969.
Tigay, Jeffrey H., The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic,
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
Tournay, Raymond Jacques, O.P., and Aaron Shaffer, L??pop?e
de Gilgamesh, Les ?ditions du Cerf, 1998.
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GLOSSARY
ADAD
God of the storm.
ANTU
Anu?s wife, mother of Ishtar (in one tradition).
ANU
(Sumerian: An,
?Sky?) Son of the first pair of gods, Ansar and
Kisar; god of the sky and father of the gods, specifically father of
Enlil and Aruru.
ARURU
(?Seed-loosener?; according to some scholars, the meaning of the
name is unknown; also called Belet-ili,
?Lady of the Gods?) The
mother goddess who created mankind with Ea?s help. Sister (or
wife) of Enlil; in some traditions, Anu?s lover.
AYA
Goddess of dawn, Shamash?s bride.
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BELET-SERI
(?Lady of the Desert?) Ereshkigal?s scribe in the underworld, who
holds the tablet recording life and death.
EA
(Sumerian: Enki) The cleverest of the gods, god of intellect,
creation, wisdom, magic, and medicine; son of Ansar and Kisar.
He was also god of the freshwater subterranean ocean, aps?, the
?Great Deep.? He sent the Seven Sages to civilize mankind.
Among other gifts, he created order in the cosmos, invented the
plough, and filled the rivers with fish.
EANNA
(?House of the Sky?) The temple of Anu and Ishtar in Uruk.
ENKIDU
(The name may mean ?Lord of the Good Place? or, alternatively,
?Enki?s [=Ea?s] creation,
? or ?The Wild One.?) A wild man made
by gods, to be Gilgamesh?s equal, in the Babylonian tradition (or,
in the Sumerian tradition, to be his servant).
ENLIL
(The name may mean ?Lord of the Winds.?) Son of Anu, father of
S?n, grandfather (in one tradition) of Shamash and Ishtar. With the
help of Anu, Ea, and Aruru he governs the universe. He is
sometimes friendly toward mankind, but can also be an irritable
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and capricious god who sends forth disasters such as the Great
Flood. His cult center was at Nippur.
ENNUGI
Sheriff or constable of the gods.
ERESHKIGAL
(?Lady of the Great Earth?) Ishtar?s sister, queen of the
underworld, which she rules with her consort, Nergal.
ETANA
The thirteenth god-king of the Sumerian dynasty ruling the city of
Kish (an ancient city-state of northern Babylonia), and the third
king after the Flood. After his death he was a ruler in the
underworld.
GILGAMESH
(Sumerian: Bilgamesh; the Sumerian form of the name may mean
?The Old Man Is a Young Man? or ?The Ancestor Was a Hero.?)
A historical king of Uruk (ca. 2750 BCE; some scholars place him
a century or so earlier). He was the fifth king of the First Dynasty
of Uruk; according to legend, son of Lugalbanda and of the
goddess Ninsun.
HUMBABA
(Sumerian and Old Babylonian: Huwawa) The monstrous
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guardian of the Cedar Forest, appointed by Enlil to protect it by
terrifying men away.
ISHTAR
(Sumerian: Inanna,
?Queen of Heaven?) Patron deity of Uruk,
goddess of sexual love and war; daughter of Anu, according to the
tradition of Uruk; in other traditions, she is Anu?s consort and
daughter of S?n.
LUGALBANDA
(?Little Lord?) King of Uruk, later deified. In one tradition he was
the father of Gilgamesh, in another he was Uruk?s guardian deity.
NAMTAR
(?Decider of Fate?) The minister or vizier of Ereshkigal and
gatekeeper of the underworld.
NERGAL
(?Lord of Erkalla?) God of plague and war, later the husband of
Ereshkigal.
NINSUN
(?Lady of the Wild Cows?) A minor Sumerian goddess known for
her wisdom; Gilgamesh?s mother.
NINURTA
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(?Lord of the Earth?) Son of Enlil, chamberlain of the gods, god
of agriculture, also honored as a war god.
NIPPUR
Enlil?s cult center, modern Nuffar, near ?Afaq in central
Mesopotamia.
PUZUR-AMURRI
(?Secret of the Western God?) Utnapishtim?s shipwright.
SHAMASH
(Sumerian: Utu) The sun god, god of justice and patron of
travelers and dream interpreters, and Gilgamesh?s special
protector. His cult centers were at Sippar and Larsa.
SHAMHAT
(According to Bott?ro, the name means ?The Joyous One?;
according to George,
?something between ?Good-looking? and
?Well-endowed.??) Priestess of Ishtar from Uruk, whose job was
to civilize Enkidu.
SHIDURI
(or Siduri; ?She Is My Rampart?; some scholars says that the
meaning is unknown.) Goddess of brewing and wisdom, who
keeps a tavern at the edge of the world.
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SHURUPPAK
Utnaphistim?s city in central southern Mesopotamia, between
Nippur and Uruk. Modern Tell Fara.
S?n
(Sumerian: Nanna) The moon god, god of fertility, son of Enlil;
according to some traditions, father of Shamash and Ishtar.
S?N-L?QI-UNNINNI
(?S?n Is the One Who Accepts a Prayer?) The author/editor of the
Standard Version of Gilgamesh. He lived sometime in the
thirteenth to eleventh centuries BCE .
SUMUQAN
(Sumerian: Shakkan) A god of the wilderness, the protector of
wild animals.
TAMMUZ
(Sumerian: Dumuzi,
?Faithful Son?) Lover and husband of Ishtar,
sent by her to the underworld.
URSHANABI
(?Servant of Two-Thirds?; Old Babylonian: Sursunabu) The
boatman of Utnapishtim, who sails across the Waters of Death,
which divide the garden of the gods from the paradise where
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Utnapishtim lives forever. (?Two-thirds? refers to Ea, whose
symbolic numerical value was 40, two-thirds of Anu?s 60.)
URUK
An ancient city in southern Mesopotamia. Modern Warka.
UTNAPISHTIM
(?He Who Found Life?; Sumerian: Ziusudra,
?Life of Long
Days?) King of Shuruppak who survived the Great Flood and was
made immortal. He is called Atrahasis (?Supremely Wise?) in the
poem of that name.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am deeply grateful to Michael Katz, my dear friend and agent,
and to my excellent editor, Leslie Meredith. I am also grateful to
Chana Bloch and John Tarrant for their many useful suggestions;
to Benjamin R. Foster for generously pointing out some mistakes
and misunderstandings on my part; to Martha Levin, Carissa
Hays, Cassie Dendurent Nelson, Paul O?Halloran, and Phil
Metcalf of Free Press for taking good care of the book; to Eric
Fuentecilla, Joel Avirom, and Jason Snyder, the designers who
made it so beautiful; and to Katie, for everything.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen Mitchell?s many books include the bestselling Tao Te
Ching, The Gospel According to Jesus, Bhagavad Gita, The Book
of Job, Meetings with the Archangel, The Frog Prince, The
Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, and Loving What Is
(written with his wife, Byron Katie). His website is
www.stephenmitchellbooks.com.
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