For suffering this ordeal, Uta-napishti and his wife were granted immortality, but, he suggests, no one but they can live forever. Then he relents and gives Gilgamesh some tests whereby he might cheat death. Gilgamesh fails. They are silly tests, and he fails in silly ways.
The poem is not perfect. Were its bricks not fired in an oven? Did the Seven Sages not lay its foundations? With the poem in its present state, however, such a case is hard to make. According to George, it is a fragment from an older poem, tacked on to supply an ending. Twelve tablets would have been nice. That is the form of the Aeneid, and the Iliad and the Odyssey are each twenty-four books long. I wonder, though. It is surely in Tablet 5, when he kills Humbaba, that Gilgamesh is shown at his noblest.
Whereas, in Tablet 6, we get his crudely worded rejection of the infatuated Ishtar and then the slaughter of the Bull of Heaven, which so displeases the gods that they punish Gilgamesh by killing off his beloved Enkidu. Schmidt, in his book, sort of moseys through the poem, addressing topics as they arise. When the characters are having sex, he discusses Assyrian sex.
Did Gilgamesh and Enkidu have a homosexual relationship? He also makes the important point that their friendship is the most tender relationship in the poem. Again and again, Schmidt discusses the translations. You might think that a poem that exists in a pile of broken pieces, in an extremely dead language, would be something that translators would run from in a hurry. The very opposite is the case. Often they are not, by profession, translators or Assyriologists but just poets.
Such a procedure should not scandalize anyone in our time. He is broadminded. Going through the poem tablet by tablet, he stops at his favorite parts and reads to us from various translations. How excited he gets when the men leave for the Forest of Cedar! Mother monkeys kept up their calls, baby monkeys chirruped. Sometimes Schmidt seems less a literary historian than just a friend, who has come over to our house for the evening, with a bottle, to read us a terrific poem.
He recommends specific translations. Sandars ; in the United States, Stephen Mitchell Next, we should move on to one of the Assyriologists, Foster or George, and find out what the surviving inscriptions actually say.
My own recommendation would be the same as his for the first two stops—Sandars, to get comfortable, and, after that, one of the Assyriologists, to get uncomfortable. It can be blunt. Its account of the murder of Humbaba is the nastiest I know. Yet her translation is also the most tender, the most tragic—the one, I think, that might be recommended by feminist scholars.
When Enkidu meets Shamhat at the water hole, there is no talk of love boxes. Enkidu strokes her thighs; he sings to her.
Likewise, when, as a result of his commerce with human beings, Enkidu loses his kinship with the animals, that melancholy fact is given its due:. Yes, it is a commentary, not an end-to-end translation, but it includes a lot of translated passages—the best ones, needless to say.
I read the book spellbound, in one sitting. Schmidt has emotions about these ancient tablets. The fine-grained river mud was rolled and patted into shape, sliced, lifted to the eye and, in dazzling sunlight of a scribal courtyard, under supervision, the cuneiform figures were incised. He sees the tablets again as, thousands of years later, various underpaid people sat in the British Museum, year after year, trying to figure out what they said.
The management was afraid of fire. Some of the higher-up staff had lanterns, but George Smith was not a higher-up. If it was a foggy day and the windows did not admit enough light to read by, he had to go home. On other days, though, he was at his post. By Daniel Mendelsohn.
Rizzo has been lighting the stages of Broadway for almost forty years. At the waters of death, they use the punting poles, and finally, with Gilgamesh using his shirt as a sail, they reach the land of Uta-napishti.
Gilgamesh tells Uta-napishti of his exploits, but receives the response that he is being foolish. As a king he should be taking care of his people, yet he seeks the impossible. Death is unavoidable; no-one sees the face of death or hears the voice of death, but it cuts each one down. The gods have assigned mortality to mankind, and it cannot be changed.
Thus ends book X. As book XI starts, Uta-napishti reveals a secret to Gilgamesh. He tells him the story of the flood. The gods sent a flood to destroy the human race, but one god, Ea spoke to a reed fence giving instructions on how to build a suitable boat.
Uta-napishti heard the words of Ea, and saved himself, his family and all living things. The flood was upon the earth for six days and seven nights. On the seventh day the boat came to rest on a mountain, and he sent forth three birds in succession: a dove, a swallow, and a raven compare with the flood story in Genesis 8 where the three birds were raven, dove and dove, in that order. The first two came back, and finally the raven flew off. When Uta-napishti disembarked he made an offering to the gods, and when the mother goddess arrived she regretted the loss of human life, saying her necklace of flies would always remind her of this terrible event where humans lay on the surface of the water like flies compare the rainbow in Genesis 9.
However, the god Enlil, who originally sent the flood, was furious that anyone had survived, and it took the wise god Ea to persuade him that the ever-increasing multitude of people could be kept in check in various other ways. This suggests that the reason for sending the flood was the noise and clamour of human beings compare with the Biblical story in which it was the iniquity of mankind that caused God to destroy everyone but Noah and his family.
The noise of mankind is precisely the reason given in another ancient Mesopotamian story called Atrahasis The Supersage , telling of the creation of humans and the great flood in the Gilgamesh Epic, the Supersage is named Uta-napishti. When Uta-napishti has related this story, he tells Gilgamesh that if he seeks immortality he must first conquer sleep by staying awake for six days and seven nights.
Gilgamesh immediately falls asleep, and as he sleeps, Uta-napishti has his wife bake bread every day and set it in front of Gilgamesh. When Gilgamesh finally awakes, saying he barely fell asleep, Uta-napishti is able to show him how each loaf of bread has gone stale, one worse than the next, proving that he has slept for six days and seven nights.
Who is this who walks up the shore behind Urshanabi, for surely he is no man of mine? Where are you hurrying to now? For what reason have you made this great journey, crossing "the seas whose passage is difficult? Tell me the reason for your coming. I am from Uruk, from the house of Anu.
Yes, why is your face burned with heat and cold; and why do you come here, wandering over the wilderness in search of the wind? Despair is in my heart and my face is the face of one who has made a long journey. It was burned with heat and with cold. My friend, my younger brother who seized and killed the Bull of Heaven and overthrew Humbaba in the cedar forest, my friend who was very dear to me and endured dangers beside me, Enkidu, my brother whom I loved, the end of mortality has overtaken him.
Because of my brother I am afraid of death; because of my brother I stray through the wilderness. How can I be silent, how can I rest? He is dust and I shall die also and be laid in the. My clothes were worn out before I came to the house of Siduri. I have killed the bear and hyena, the lion and panther, the tiger, the stag and the ibex, all sorts of wild game and the small creatures of the pastures.
I ate their flesh and I wore their skins; and that was how I came to the gate of the young woman, the maker of wine, who barred her gate of pitch and bitumen against me. But from her I had news of the journey; so then I came to Urshanabi the ferryman, and with him I crossed over the waters of death.
Oh, father Utnapishtim, you who have entered the assembly of the gods, I wish to question you concerning the living and the dead, how shall I find the life for which I am searching? Do we build a house to stand for ever, do we seal a contract to hold for all time? Do brothers divide an inheritance to keep for ever, does the flood-time of rivers endure? It is only the nymph of the dragon-fly who sheds her larva and sees the sun in his glory. From the days of old there is no permanence. The sleeping and the dead, how alike they are, they are like a painted death.
What is there between the master and the servant when both have fulfilled their doom? When the Anunnaki, the judges, come together, and Mammetun the mother of destinies, together they decree the fates of men. Life and death they allot but the day of death they do not disclose. I thought I should find- you like a hero prepared for battle, but you he here taking your ease on your back. Tell me truly, how was it that you came to enter the company of the gods 18 The Epic Of Gilgamesh and to possess everlasting life?
That city grew old and the gods that were in it were old. There was Anu,-lord of the firmament, their father, and warrior Enlil their counsellor, Ninurta the helper, and Ennugi watcher over canals; and with them also was Ea.
In those days the world teemed, the people multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great god was aroused by the clamour. Enlil heard the clamour and he said to the gods in council, "The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel. Enlil did this, but Ea because of his oath warned me in a dream. He whispered their words to my house of reeds, "Reed-house, reed-house! Wall, O wall, hearken reed-house, wall reflect; O man of Shurrupak, son of Ubara-Tutu; tear down your house and build a boat, abandon possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save your soul alive.
Tear down your house, I say, and build a boat. These are the measurements of the barque as you shall build her: let hex beam equal her length, let her deck be roofed like the vault that covers the abyss; then take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures. But on you he will rain down abundance, rare fish and shy wild-fowl, a rich harvest-tide.
In the evening the rider of the storm will bring you wheat in torrents. On the fifth day I laid the keel and the ribs, then I made fast the planking. The ground-space was one acre, each side of the deck measured one hundred and twenty cubits, making a square. I built six decks below, seven in all, I divided them into nine sections with bulkheads between. I drove in wedges where needed, I saw to the punt poles, and laid in supplies.
The carriers brought oil in baskets, I poured pitch into the furnace and asphalt and oil; more oil was consumed in caulking, and more again the master of the boat took into his stores. I slaughtered bullocks for the people and every day I killed sheep. I gave the shipwrights wine to drink as though it were river water, raw wine and red wine and oil and white wine.
There was feasting then as -there is at the time of the New Year's festival; I myself anointed my head. On the seventh day the boat was complete. I loaded into her all that 1 had of gold and of living things, my family, my kin, the beast of the field both wild and tame, and all the craftsmen.
I sent them on board, for the time that Shamash had ordained was already fulfilled when he said, "in the evening, when the rider of the storm sends down the destroying rain, enter the boat and batten her down.
I looked out at the weather and it was terrible, so I too boarded the boat and battened her down. All was now complete, the battening and the caulking; so I handed the tiller to Puzur-Amurri the steersman, with the navigation and the care of the whole boat. In front over hill and plain Shullat and Hanish, heralds of the storm, led on.
Then the gods of the abyss rose up; Nergal pulled out the dams of the nether waters, Ninurta the war-lord threw down the dykes, and the seven judges of hell, the Annunaki, raised their torches, lighting the land with their livid flame. A stupor of despair went up to heaven when the god of the storm turned daylight to darkness, when he smashed the land like a cup. One whole day the tempest raged, gathering fury as.
Even the gods were terrified at the flood, they fled to the highest heaven, the firmament of Ann; they crouched against the walls, cowering like curs. Then Ishtar the sweet-voiced Queen of Heaven cried out like a woman in travail: "Alas the days -of old are turned to dust because I commanded evil; why did I command thus evil in the council of all the gods? I commanded wars to destroy the people, but are they not my people, for I brought them forth?
Now like the spawn of fish they float in the ocean. When the seventh day dawned the storm from the south subsided, the sea grew calm, the, flood was stilled; I looked at the face of the world and there was silence, all mankind was turned to clay. The surface of the sea stretched as flat as a roof-top; 1 opened a hatch and the light fell on my face.
Then I bowed low, I sat down and I wept, the tears streamed down my face, for on every side was the waste of water. I looked for land in vain, but fourteen leagues distant there appeared a mountain, and there the boat grounded; on the mountain of Nisir the boat held fast, she held fast and did not budge.
One day she held, and -a second day on the mountain of Nisir she held fast and did not budge. A third day, and a fourth day she held fast on the mountain and did not budge; a fifth day and a sixth day she held fast on the mountain. When the seventh day dawned I loosed a dove and let her go. She flew away, but finding no resting-place she returned. Then I loosed a swallow, and she flew away but finding no resting-place she returned.
I loosed a raven, she saw that the waters had retreated, she ate, she flew around, she cawed, and she did not come back. Then I threw everything open to the four winds, I made a sacrifice and poured out a libation on the mountain top. Seven and again seven cauldrons I set up on their stands, I heaped up wood and cane and cedar and myrtle.
When the gods smelled the sweet savour, they gathered like flies over the sacrifice. Then, at last, Ishtar also came, she lifted her necklace with the jewels of heaven that once Anu had made to please her. Let all the gods gather round the sacrifice, except Enlil. He shall not approach this offering, for without reflection he brought the flood; he consigned my people to destruction.
Not one was to have survived the destruction. It is Ea alone who knows all things. Lay upon the sinner his sin, Lay upon the transgressor his transgression, Punish him a little when he breaks loose, Do not drive him too hard or he perishes, Would that a lion had ravaged mankind Rather than the f loud, Would that a wolf had ravaged mankind Rather than the flood, Would that famine had wasted the world Rather than the flood, Would that pestilence had wasted mankind Rather than the flood.
It was not I that revealed the secret of the gods; the wise man learned it in a dream. Now take your counsel what shall be done with him. He touched our foreheads to bless us saying, "In time past Utnapishtim was a mortal man; henceforth he and his wife shall live in the distance at the mouth of the rivers. But if you wish, come and put into the test: only prevail against sleep for six days and seven nights.
Then Utnapishtim touched him and he woke. Gilgamesh said to Utnapishtim the Faraway, T hardly slept when you touched and roused me.
Already the thief in the night has hold of my limbs, death inhabits my room; wherever my foot rests, there I find death.
Go now, banished from the shore. But this man before whom you walked, bringing him here, whose body is covered with foulness and the grace of whose limbs has been spoiled by wild skins, take him to the washing-place. There he shall wash his long hair clean as snow in the water, he shall throve off his skins and let the sea carry them away, and the beauty of his body shall be shown, the fillet on his forehead shall be renewed, and he shall be given clothes to cover his nakedness.
Till he reaches his own city and his journey is accomplished, these clothes will show no sign of age, they will wear like a new garment. He renewed the fillet on his forehead, and to cover his nakedness gave him clothes which would show no sign of age, but would war like a new garment till he reached his own city, and his journey was accomplished. Then Gilgamesh and Urshanabi launched the boat on to the water and boarded it, and they made ready to sail away; but the wife of Utnapishtim the Faraway said to him, 'Gilgamesh came here wearied out, he is worn out; what will you give him to carry him back to his own country?
So Utnapishtim spoke, and Gilgamesh took a pole and brought the boat in to the bank. Gilgamesh, I shall reveal a secret thing, it is a mystery of the gods that I am telling you. There is a plant that grows under the water, it has a prickle like a thorn, like a rose; it will wound your hands, but if you succeed in taking it, then your hands will hold that which restores his lost youth to a man: When Gilgamesh heard this he opened the sluices so that a sweet water current might carry him out to the deepest channel; he tied heavy stones to his feet and they dragged him down to the water-bed.
There he saw the plant growing;; although it pricked him he took it in his hands; then he cut the heavy stones from his feet, and the sea carried him and threw him on to the shore. Gilgamesh said to Urshanabi the ferryman, 'Come here, and see this marvellous plant. By its virtue a man may win back all his former strength. I will take it to Uruk of the strong walls; there I will give it to the old men to eat.
They travelled their twenty leagues and then they broke their fast; after thirty leagues they stopped for the night. Gilgamesh saw a well of cool water and he went down and bathed; but deep in the pool there was lying a serpent, and the serpent sensed the sweetness of the flower.
It rose out of the water and snatched it away, and immediately it sloughed its skin and returned to the well. For myself I have gained nothing; not I, but the beast of the earth has joy of it now. Already the stream has carried 22 The Epic Of Gilgamesh it twenty leagues back to the channels where I found it. I found a sign and now I have lost it. Let us leave the boat on the bank and go.
When the journey was accomplished they arrived at Umk, the strong-walled city. One third of the whole is city, one third is garden, and one third is field, with the precinct of the goddess Ishtar. These parts and the precinct are all Umk' This too was the work of Gilgamesh, the king, who knew the countries of the world. He was wise,, he saw mysteries and knew secret things, he brought us a tale of the days before the flood.
He went a long journey, was weary, worn out with labour, and returning engraved on a stone the whole story. The heroes, the wise men, like the new moon have their waxing and waning. Men will say, "Who has ever ruled with might and with power like him? O Gilgamesh, this was the meaning of your dream. You were given the kingship, such was your destiny, everlasting life was not your destiny. Because of this do not be sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed; he has given you power to bind and to loose, to be the darkness and the light of mankind.
He has given unexampled supremacy over the people, victory in battle from which no fugitive returns, in forays and assaults from which there is no going back. But do not abuse this power, deal justly with your servants in the palace, deal justly before the face of the Sun. The people of the city, great and small, are not silent; they lift up, the lament, all men of flesh and blood lift up the lament.
Fate has spoken; like a hooked fish he lies stretched on the bed, like a gazelle that is caught in a noose. Inhuman Namtar is heavy upon him, Namtar that has neither hand nor foot, that drinks no water and eats no meat.
For Gilgamesh, son of Ninsun, they weighed out their offerings; his dear wife, his son, his concubine, his mu- sicians, his jester, and all his household; his servants, his stewards, all who lived in the palace weighed out their offerings for Gilgamesh the son of Ninsun, the heart of Uruk.
They weighed out their offerings to Ereshkigal, the Queen of Death, and to all the gods of the dead. To Namtar, who is fate, they weighed out the offering. Bread for Ned the Keeper of the Gate, bread for Ningizzida the god of the serpent, the lord of the Tree of Life; for Dumuzi also, the young shepherd, for Enki and Ninki, for Endukugga and Nindukugga, for Enmul and Nimnul, all the ancestral gods, forbears of Enlil.
A feast for Shulpae the god of feasting. For Samuqan, god of the herds, for die mother Ninhursag, and the gods of creation in the place of creation, for the host of heaven, priest and priestess weighed out the offering of the dead. Gilgamesh, the son of Ninsun, lies in the tomb. At the place of offerings he weighed the bread-offering, at the place of libation he poured out the wine. In those days the lord Gilgamesh departed, the son of Ninsun, the kung, peerless, without an equal among men, who did not neglect Enlil his master.
O Gilgamesh, lord of Kullab, great is thy praise. The gods were credited at different times with a variety of attributes and characteristics, sometimes contradictory; only such as are relevant to the material of the Gilgamesh Epic are given here. The small number of gods and other characters who play a more important part in the story are described in the introduction; in their case a page reference to this description is given at the end of the Glossary note. Cross-references to other entries in the Glossary are indicated by means of italics.
AD AD: Storm-, rain-, and weather-god. Gilgamesh has a bow of Anshan'. ANU: Sumerian An; father of gods, and god of the firmament, the 'great above'. In the Sumerian cosmogony there was, first of all, the primeval sea, from which was born the cosmic mountain consisting of heaven, 'An', and earth, 'Ki'; they were separated by Enlil, then An carried off the heavens, and Enlil the earth.
Ann later retreated more and more into the background; he had an important temple in Umk. APSU: The Abyss; the primeval waters under the earth; in the later mythology of the Enuma Elish, more particularly the sweet water which mingled with the bitter waters of the sea and with a third watery element, perhaps cloud, from which the first gods were engendered. See p. EA: Sumerian Enki; god of the sweet waters, also of wisdom, a patron of arts and one of the creators of mankind, towards whom he is usually well-disposed.
The companion of Gilgamesh, he is wild or natural reran; he was later considered a patron or god of anima b and may have been the hero of another cycle. See P. In the Sumerian cosmogony he was born of the union of An heaven, and Ki earth. These he separated, and he then carried off earth as his portion. In later times he supplanted Anu as chief god. He was the patron of the city of Nippur. In the Sumerian cosmogony she was carried off to the underworld after the separation of heaven and earth.
ETANA: Legendary king of Kish who reigned after the flood; in the epic which bears his name he was carried to heaven on the back of an eagle. A cycle of epic poems has collected round his name. A nature divinity, perhaps an Anatolian, Elamite, or Syrian god. She is the daughter of Anu and patroness of Uruk, where she has a temple. KI: The earth. Shown on sealings and ivory inlays as a figure with the upper part of the body human and the lower part ending in a scorpion's mil.
See an article by Jastrow in ZA , Vol. See Jastrow, A Gentle Cynic , p. The fragment was published by Dr. Poebel in his Historical and Grammatical Texts No. See also Poebel in the Museum Journal , Vol. IV, p. Langdon in the same Journal, Vol. VII, pp. Poebel with the discovery and publication of the important tablet. Philadelphia, Poebel published an article on the tablet in OLZ , , pp.
See the discussion in Historical and Grammatical Texts , p. X, No. It is to be regretted that Dr. Langdon should not have given full credit to Dr. Poebel for his discovery of the tablet. He merely refers in an obscure footnote to Dr. See the Commentary to the colophon, p. VIII, p. It does not follow, however, that all the copies date from originals of the same period.
Bezold reaches the conclusion on the basis of various forms for verbal suffixes, that the fragments from the Ashurbanapal Library actually date from three distinct periods ranging from before c. See Meissner, OLZ , I, 14, etc. Document upon the names of the twelve sons of Jacob, which are brought forward either as tribal characteristics, or as suggested by some incident or utterance by the mother at the birth of each son.
His explanation of the name is set forth in his recent work on The Empire of the Amorites , page 89, and is also referred to in his work on Amurru , page 79, and in his volume of Miscellaneous Inscriptions in the Yale Babylonian Collection , page 3, note.
It is only proper to add that Professor Jastrow assumes the responsibility for the explanation of the form and etymology of the name Gilgamesh proposed in this volume. The question is one in regard to which legitimate differences of opinion will prevail among scholars until through some chance a definite decision, one way or the other, can be reached. I, 3, 2 and The clothed one is probably Gilgamesh, though not infrequently Gilgamesh is also represented as nude, or merely with a girdle around his waist.
I, 13—27, which now enables us to complete Jensen III, 1 a , 12— We have to assume that in line 13 of column 4 Jensen, p. These words are put into the mouth of Gilgamesh lines — It is, therefore, unlikely that he would sing his own praise.
Both Jensen and Ungnad admit that Enkidu is to be supplied in at least one of the lines. Before that she is merely ishsha , i. In line 8 of the hymn in question, Gilgamesh is in fact addressed as Shamash. The Deluge is an annual occurrence in the Euphrates Valley through the overflow [ 50n ] of the two rivers. Only the canal system, directing the overflow into the fields, changed the curse into a blessing. In contrast to the Deluge, we have in the Assyrian creation story the drying up of the primeval waters so that the earth makes its appearance with the change from the rainy to the dry season.
The world is created in the spring, according to the Akkadian view which is reflected in the Biblical creation story, as related in the P. King, Legends of Babylon and Egypt , p. Hence such examples as Abraham and Lot, David and Jonathan, Achilles and Patroclus, Eteokles and Polyneikes, are not parallels to Gilgamesh-Enkidu, but belong to the enlargement of the motif so as to include companions who are not regarded as brothers. See Rendell Harris, l.
Rendell Harris, l. If this be correct, then there is lacking after line 31 of column 5, the interpretation of the dream given in the Pennsylvania tablet in lines 17— Langdon Gilgamesh Epic , p. See also above, p. The word ullanum , l. See the commentary to the line. The lines of the six columns of the text are enumerated in succession, with an indication on the margin where a new column begins.
About three lines missing. Line 1. Both verbs occur just as here in the Assyrian version I, 5, Line 3. A curious way of putting it, but the expression occurs also in the Assyrian version, e. Line 5. How can one walk among omens? Line 6. Line 7. Line 9. Line Uruk ri-bi-tim , the standing phrase in both tablets of the old Babylonian version, for which in the Assyrian version we have Uruk su-pu-ri.
In Hebrew, too, we have the same two phrases, e. There is a still closer parallel in Biblical Aramaic: Dan. The touch was added to prepare us for the continuation in which Gish describes how, despite this or perhaps just because of it , Enkidu seemed so attractive that Gish instantly fell in love with him.
Lines 38 —40, completing the column, may be supplied from the Assyrian version I, 6, 30—32, in conjunction with lines 33—34 of our text. The restoration of this line is largely conjectural, based on the supposition that its contents correspond in a general way to I, 4, 16, of the Assyrian version. Lines 46 —47 form a parallel to I, 4, 21, of the Assyrian version. Meissner, Altbabylonisches Privatrecht , page , note 2, and more particularly Chiera, List of Personal Names , page The former is the better reading, as our tablet shows.
Lines 49 —59 run parallel to the Assyrian version I, 4, 33—38, with slight variations which have been discussed above, p. Line 64 corresponds to I, 4, 40, of the Assyrian version, which has an additional line, leading to the answer of Enkidu. From here on, our tablet furnishes material not represented in the Assyrian version, but which was no doubt included in the second tablet of that version of which we have only a few fragments. Line 70 must be interpreted as indicating that the woman kept one garment for herself.
The break at the end of the second column is not serious. Evidently Enkidu, still accustomed to live like an animal, is first led to the sheepfolds, and this suggests a repetition of the description of his former life. Of the four or five lines missing, we may conjecturally restore four, on the basis of the Assyrian version, Tablet I, 4, 2—5, or I, 2, 39— This would then join on well to the beginning of column 3. Both here and in l. Glossar , p.
Delitzsch, Sumer. MVAG , p. Lexikon , p. The Babylonian phrase is like the Hebrew one to be interpreted as a euphemism for the hair around the male or female organ. The passage in Isaiah being a reference to Assyria, the prophet might be tempted to use a foreign word to make his point more emphatic.
To convert him into a civilized man, the hair is removed. See the corrections in the Appendix. See Muss-Arnolt, Assyrian Dictionary , page a. The continuation of line 2 of the fragment would then correspond to line of the Pennsylvania tablet, while line 1 of the fragment might be completed [re-e]-u-ti?
The break at the close of column 3 about 5 lines and the top of column 4 about 8 lines is a most serious interruption in the narrative, and makes it difficult to pick up the thread where the tablet again becomes readable. Assuming this, whom does he address?
Perhaps the shepherds? In either case he receives an answer that rejoices him. This pleases Gish, but Enkidu when he sees Gish?
The contrast between Enkidu and Gish or the third party is that between the primitive [ 79 ] savage and the civilized being. The contrast is put in the form of an opposition between the two. The primitive man is the stronger and wishes to destroy the one whom he regards as a natural foe and rival.
On the other hand, the one who stands on a higher plane wants to lift his fellow up. The verb occurs also in the Yale tablet, ll. The form is II. Since the man whom the woman calls approaches Enkidu, the subject of both verbs is the man, and the object is Enkidu; i.
The subject of the verb cannot be the woman, as Langdon supposes, for the text in that case, e. The long speech, detailing the function and destiny of civilized man, is placed in the mouth of the man who meets Enkidu.
In the Introduction it has been pointed out that lines and of the speech appear to be due to later modifications of the speech designed to connect the episode with Gish. The end of the line is lost beyond recovery, but the general sense is clear.
It fits in with the Babylonian outlook on life to regard work and wealth as the fruits of work and as a proper purpose in life. Line repeated lines — is a puzzling line. While the general meaning is thus clear, the introduction of Gish is puzzling, except on the supposition that lines and represent later additions to connect the speech, detailing the advance to civilized life, with the hero. See above, p. We know that monogamy was the rule in Babylonia, though a man could in addition to the wife recognized as the legalized spouse take a concubine, or his wife could give her husband a slave as a concubine.
In the break of about three lines at the bottom of column 4, and of about six at the beginning of column 5, there must have been set forth the effect of the address on Enkidu and the indication of his readiness to accept the advice; as in a former passage line 64 , Enkidu showed himself willing to follow the woman.
At all events the two now proceed to the heart of the city. Enkidu is in front [ 83 ] and the woman behind him. The scene up to this point must have taken place outside of Erech—in the suburbs or approaches to the city, where the meadows and the sheepfolds were situated. See the corrections Appendix for a suggested reading for the end of line Lines — Lines — are again entirely misunderstood by Langdon, owing to erroneous readings.
With this line a new episode begins which, owing to the gap at the beginning of column 6, is somewhat obscure. The episode leads to the hostile encounter between Gish and Enkidu. It is referred to in column 2 of the fourth tablet of the Assyrian version.
Lines 38—40 of [ 84 ] column 2 of the Assyrian version correspond to lines — of the Pennsylvania tablet, and lines 44—50 to lines — Thereupon the two have a fierce encounter in which Gish is worsted. The meaning of the episode itself is not clear. Does Enkidu propose to deprive Gish, here viewed as a god cf. Or are the two heroes, the one a counterpart of the other, contesting for the possession of a goddess?
We must content ourself with having obtained through the Pennsylvania tablet a clearer indication of the occasion of the fight between the two heroes, and leave the further explanation of the episode till a fortunate chance may throw additional light upon it.
There is perhaps a reference to the episode in the Assyrian version, Tablet II, 3 b , 35— Muss-Arnolt, Assyrian Dictionary , page a. Lines — appear to correspond to Tablet IV, 2, 35—37, of the Assyrian version, though not forming a complete parallel. We may therefore supply at the beginning of line 35 of the Assyrian version [ittaziz] Enkidu , corresponding to line of the Pennsylvania tablet.
Tablet IV, 4, 6, of the Assyrian version also contains a reference to the flowing hair of Enkidu. For the completion of the line cf. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters , No. Lines — correspond almost entirely to the Assyrian version IV, 2, 46— The detailed description of the fight between the two heroes is only partially preserved in the Assyrian version.
Our text furnishes, as does also the Yale tablet, an interesting illustration of the vacillation in the Hammurabi period in the twofold use of im : a as an indication of the plural as in Hebrew , and b as a mere emphatic ending lines 63, 73, and , which becomes predominant in the post-Hammurabi age.
Gilgamesh is often represented on seal cylinders as kneeling, e. See further the commentary to the Yale tablet, line He again misses the point. See above note to line He is to be more than a mere prize fighter; he is to be a king, and no doubt in the ancient sense, as the representative of the deity. This is indicated by the statement that the kingship is decreed for him by Enlil. This position accorded to Enlil is an important index for the origin of the Epic, which is thus shown to date from a period when the patron deity of Nippur was acknowledged as the general head of the pantheon.
This justifies us in going back several centuries at least before Hammurabi for the beginning of the Gilgamesh story. If it had originated in the Hammurabi period, we should have had Marduk introduced instead of Enlil. All this, however, is purely conjectural, and we must patiently hope for more tablets of the Old Babylonian version to turn up.
The chances are that some portions of the same edition as the Yale and Pennsylvania tablets are in the hands of dealers at present or have been sold to European museums. The war has seriously interfered with the possibility of tracing the whereabouts of groups of tablets that ought never to have been separated. Uruk ki ] ri-bi-tim. Uruk ki ri]-bi-tim.
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