The Epic of Gilgamesh (8 page)

Much of this new material has been incorporated into the text of the third edition of
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament,
Princeton, New Jersey, 1969, or in the Supplement, pp. 503-7, translated by A. R. Grayson. A fragment of text from Tell Harmal gives the ‘first' dream of Gilgamesh on the mountain and there are additions to the conversation between Gilgamesh and Ishtar, and the episode of the Bull of Heaven. Important new light is thrown on Enkidu's sickness and dreams by R. Stefanini (1969) Hittite material and by C. J. Gadd,
loc. cit.
(1966) with Middle Babylonian or Cassite period texts from Ur, perhaps of the early 11th century, which give an alternative to the Ninevite version and add considerably to the exchange between Enkidu and Shamash. The problem of the ‘gate', whether it is still the ‘gate of the forest', or whether it is not rather of forest wood but raised in Uruk, is discussed by I. M. Diakonoff
(Bibliotheca Orientalis,
XVIII, 1961, 61-67). I have taken the second alternative as most probable. The Stone Things are again discussed by C. J. Gadd, and by A. R. Millard (1964) publishing an Old Babylonian fragment which overlaps with Meissner, also D. Wiseman in
Gilgames et sa legende
(1960). Minor additions to Tablet X are also taken from the new third edition of
Texts Relating to the Old Testament,
and I have followed suggestions in the article by L. Matouš
(BibliothecaOrientalis
, XXI, 1964, 3-10) as well as from the various contributors to the article ‘Gilgamesh' in the
Reallexikon der Assyriologie,
parts ¾, pp. 357-74. A clue to the nature of the plant of eternal youth comes from R. Campbell Thompson's
Dictionary of Assyrian Botany
(London, 1949); and the amended first line of the epic is given in the
Assyrian Dictionary of theOriental Institute of Chicago,
7, 33b.

I have referred in this introduction to the discovery of new evidence for the existence of an historical Gilgamesh. The question is discussed, in
Gilgameš et salégende,
by W. G. Lambert, S. N. Kramer and in a short note by E. O. Edzard; also M. Rowton,
Journal of Near Eastern
Studies, 19, 1960, 2, 156-62. The divergences, though important, are not very great, and whichever date is followed, Gilgamesh's lifetime will not be far from the date of the Royal Tombs of Ur with their refined wealth and barbaric ritual; thus the fragmentary Sumerian text of the ‘Death of Gilgamesh' can be used as a semi-historical document to throw light on the funeral rites of the royal house of Ur in the third millennium, as in fact was done by Prof. Kramer in an article in
Iraq,
22, 1960, 58. Prof. Mallowan has written on the subject of a flood or floods
(Iraq,
26, 1964, 62-82) and it is also discussed in
The Babylonian Story of the Flood
by W. G. Lambert and A. R. Millard (1969), with M. Civil on the Sumerian tradition of the flood. The possible indebtedness of Greek mythology to the Orient has been treated in several recent books since T. B. L. Webster's
From Mycenae to Homer
(London, 1958) : by P. Walcott, in
Hesiod andthe Near East
(Cardiff, 1966), G. S. Kirk,
Myth, its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures
(Cambridge, 1970), and M. L. West,
Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient
(Oxford, 1971).

The question of who the Sumerians were is still unsolved and may remain so. If they were new arrivals they may not have been very numerous, and the extent of their influence on language and literature may never be really known.

May 1972
N. K. s.

The matter relating to Gilgamesh still grows. New texts come to light which add to our knowledge of the
Epic
and of the historical Gilgamesh, while work on the existing texts increases our understanding of difficult passages. Two outstanding works have appeared within recent years. Thorkild Jacobsen's
The Treasures of Darkness
(Newhaven and London, 1976), contains a fresh analysis of the whole Epic in the light of the author's general view of Mesopotamian religion; and J. H. Tigay in
The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic
(Philadelphia, 1982), by comparing versions and distinguishing different sources, both chronological and geographical, has shown how theological and political changes shaped the poem, and how the various strands came together in the final compilation. Interesting new light on the poem comes from W. G. Lambert in
The Theology of Death
(ed. B. Alster, XXVI Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, 1980), and a new fragment from the fifth tablet is published by E. von Weiher in
Baghdader Mittheilungen
(1980, II, 90-105). R. A. Veenker has enlarged on the significance of the Magic Plant of Youth Restored as a separate myth in
Biblical Archaeologist
1981, 44/45, 199-205), and so it continues. I am grateful to Mrs Stephanie Dalley for her help with the references.

September 1987
N. K. S.

To name all the authorities to whom I am indebted would entail compiling a lengthy bibliography, but special mention must be made of a few. I have received most valuable help from Professor D. J. Wiseman, which has saved me from numerous pitfalls; all the errors which remain are therefore my own. I owe a large debt of gratitude to many friends who have criticized, made suggestions, and given encouragement at different stages, of the work; amongst these I thank particularly Ruth Harris, Katherine Watson, and my sister; and above all I am grateful to Dr E. V. Rieu for his patience, understanding, and encouragement. I am only too aware of the many inperfections which remain in this book, but without the help which has been given so generously there would have been many more.

I gratefully acknowledge my debt to the following for permission to use copyright material: Princeton University Press (Publishers) for quotations from
Ancient New Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament
edited by James B. Pritchard, 1950, 1955, 1969. Passages in my introduction are based on excerpts from the following translations:
The Fields of Paradise
and
The Good Fortune of the Dead
translated by John A. Wilson;
Gudea:
Ensi
of Lagash
translated by A. Leo Oppenheim ;
Enki and Ninhursag: A Paradise Myth
translated by S. N. Kramer;
Hymn to Ishtar
and
Prayer of Lamentation to Ishtar,
also
Prayer of Ashurbanipal to the Sun-God,
translated by Ferris J. Stephens;
Atra-
asīs,
Lambert and Millard; and A
Vision of the Nether World
translated by E. A. Speiser. I owe a more general indebtedness to S. N. Kramer's translations of
Gilgamesh and the Land of the Living
and
The Death of Gilgamesh;
and to E. A. Speiser for the first eleven tablets of the Assyrian recension of the Gilgamesh Epic, all published in
Ancient Near Eastern Texts.
I owe as much also to A. Heidel and the University Press of Chicago for permission to use and quote from The
Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels,
copyright 1946 and 1949by the University of Chicago. I thank Dr E. V. Rieu for permission to quote from his translation of The Odyssey, Penguin Classics, 1945, and the editors and publishers of the Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University, and William Heinemann, for quotations from H. G. Evelyn-White's
Hesiod,
1950; also Professor Gwyn Jones for quotations from the translation of
The Mabinogion
by Gwyn and Thomas Jones, in the Every-man Library, J. M. Dent, 1949.

N. K. S.

I WILL proclaim to the world the deeds of Gilgamesh. This was the man to whom all things were known; this was 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 on a long journey, was weary, worn-out with labour, returning he rested, he engraved on a stone the whole story.

When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body. Shamash the glorious sun endowed him with beauty, Adad the god of the storm endowed him with courage, the great gods made his beauty perfect, surpassing all others, terrifying like a great wild bull. Two thirds they made him god and one third man.

In Uruk he built walls, a great rampart, and the temple of blessed Eanna for the god of the firmament Anu, and for Ishtar the goddess of love. Look at it still today: the outer wall where the cornice runs, it shines with the brilliance of copper; and the inner wall, it has no equal. Touch the threshold, it is ancient. Approach Eanna the dwelling of Ishtar, our lady of love and war, the like of which no latter-day king, no man alive can equal. Climb upon the wall of Uruk; walk along it, I say; regard the foundation terrace and examine the masonry: is it not burnt brick and good? The seven sages laid the foundations.

GILGAMESH went abroad in the world, but he met with none who could withstand his arms till he came to Uruk. But the men of Uruk muttered in their houses, ‘Gilgamesh sounds the tocsin for his amusement, his arrogance has no bounds by day or night. No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh takes them all, even the children; yet the king should be a shepherd to his people. His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior's daughter nor the wife of the noble; yet this is the shepherd of the city, wise, comely, and resolute.'

The gods heard their lament, the gods of heaven cried to the Lord of Uruk, to Anu the god of Uruk : ‘A goddess made him, strong as a savage bull, none can withstand his arms. No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh takes them all; and is this the king, the shepherd of his people? His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior's daughter nor the wife of the noble.' When Anu had heard their lamentation the gods cried to Aruru, the goddess of creation, ‘You made him, O Aruru, now create his equal; let it be as like him as his own reflection, his second self, stormy heart for stormy heart. Let them contend together and leave Uruk in quiet.'

So the goddess conceived an image in her mind, and it was of the stuff of Anu of the firmament. She dipped her hands in water and pinched off clay, she let it fall in the wilderness, and noble Enkidu was created. There was virtue in him of the god of war, of Ninurta himself. His body was rough, he had long hair like a woman's; it waved like the hair of Nisaba, the goddess of corn. His body was covered with matted hair like Samuqan's, the god of cattle. He was innocent of mankind; he knew nothing of the cultivated land.

Enkidu ate grass in the hills with the gazelle and lurked with wild beasts at the water-holes; he had joy of the water with the herds of wild game. But there was a trapper who met him one day face to face at the drinking-hole, for the wild game had entered his territory. On three days he met him face to face, and the trapper was frozen with fear. He went back to his house with the game that he had caught, and he was dumb, benumbed with terror. His face was altered like that of one who has made a long journey. With awe in his heart he spoke to his father: ‘Father, there is a man, unlike any other, who comes down from the hills. He is the strongest in the world, he is like an immortal from heaven. He ranges over the hills with wild beasts and eats grass; he ranges through your land and comes down to the wells. I am afraid and dare not go near him. He fills in the pits which I dig and tears up my traps set for the game; he helps the beasts to escape and now they slip through my fingers.'

His father opened his mouth and said to the trapper, ‘My son, in Uruk lives Gilgamesh; no one has ever prevailed against him, he is strong as a star from heaven. Go to Uruk, find Gilgamesh, extol the strength of this wild man. Ask him to give you a harlot, a wanton from the temple of love; return with her, and let her woman's power overpower this man. When next he comes down to drink at the wells she will be there, stripped naked; and when he sees her beckoning he will embrace her, and then the wild beasts will reject him.'