1. Washed his armour, cleaned his weapons,
2. Dressed his hair and let it fall down on his back.
3. He cast off his dirty garments and put on clean ones
4. He arrayed himself in the [royal head-cloth], he bound on the
fillet,
5. He put on his crown, he bound on the fillet.
6. Then the eyes of the Majesty of the goddess Ishtar lighted on the
goodliness of Gilgamish [and she said],
7. "Go to, Gilgamish, thou shalt be my lover.
8. Give me thy [love]-fruit, give to me, I say.
9. Thou shalt be my man, I will be thy woman.
10. I will make to be harnessed for thee a chariot of lapis-lazuli
and gold.
11. The wheels thereof shall be of gold and the horns of precious
stones.
12. Thou shalt harness daily to it mighty horses.
13. Come into our house with the perfume of the cedar upon thee.
14. When thou enterest into our house
15. Those who sit upon thrones shall kiss thy feet.
16. Kings, lords and nobles shall bow their backs before thee.
17. The gifts of mountain and land they shall bring as tribute to thee.
18. Thy ... and thy sheep shall bring forth twins.
19. Baggage animals shall come laden with tribute.
20. The [horse] in thy chariot shall prance proudly,
21. There shall be none like unto the beast that is under thy yoke."
In answer to Ishtar's invitation Gilgamish makes a long speech, in
which he reviews the calamities and misfortunes of those who have
been unfortunate enough to become the lovers of the goddess. Her love
is like a door that lets in wind and storm, a fortress that destroys
the warriors inside it, an elephant that smashes his howdah, etc. He
says, "What lover didst thou love for long? Which of thy shepherds
flourished? Come now, I will describe the calamity [that goeth with
thee]." He refers to Tammuz, the lover of her youth, for whom year
by year she arranges wailing commemorations. Every creature that
falls under her sway suffers mutilation or death, the bird's wings
are broken, the lion is destroyed, the horse is driven to death with
whip and spur; and his speech concludes with the words: "Dost thou
love me, and wouldst thou treat me as thou didst them?"
When Ishtar heard these words she was filled with rage, and she went
up to heaven and complained to Anu, her father, and Antu, her mother,
that Gilgamish had cursed her and revealed all her iniquitous deeds
and actions. She followed up her complaint with the request that
Anu should create a mighty bull of heaven to destroy Gilgamish, and
she threatened her father that if he did not grant her request she
would do works of destruction, presumably in the world. Anu created
the fire-breathing (?) bull of heaven and sent him to the city of
Erech, where he destroyed large numbers of the people. At length
Enkidu and Gilgamish determined to go forth and slay the bull. When
they came to the place where he was, Enkidu seized him by the tail,
and Gilgamish delivered deadly blows between his neck and his horns,
and together they killed, him. As soon as Ishtar heard of the death
of the bull she rushed out on the battlements of the walls of Erech
and cursed Gilgamish for destroying her bull. When Enkidu heard what
Ishtar said, he went and tore off a portion of the bull's flesh from
his right side, and threw it at the goddess, saying, "Could I but
fight with thee I would serve thee as I have served him! I would
twine his entrails about thee." Then Ishtar gathered together all
her temple women and harlots, and with them made lamentation over
the portion of the bull which Enkidu had thrown at her.
And Gilgamish called together the artisans of Erech who came and
marvelled at the size of the bull's horns, for their bulk was equal
to 30 minas of lapis-lazuli, and their thickness to the length of
two fingers, and they could contain six Kur measures of oil. Then
Gilgamish took them to the temple of the god Lugalbanda and hung them
up there on the throne of his majesty, and having made his offering he
and Enkidu went to the Euphrates and washed their hands, and walked
back to the market-place of Erech. As they went through the streets
of the city the people thronged about them to get a sight of their
faces. When Gilgamish asked:
"Who is splendid among men?
Who is glorious among heroes?"
these questions were answered by the women of the palace who cried:
"Gilgamish is splendid among men.
Gilgamish is glorious among heroes."
When Gilgamish entered his palace he ordered a great festival to be
kept, and his guests were provided by him with beds to sleep on. On
the night of the festival Enkidu had a dream, and he rose up and
related it to Gilgamish.
The Seventh Tablet.
About the contents of the Seventh Tablet there is considerable doubt,
and the authorities differ in their opinions about them. A large
number of lines of text are wanting at the beginning of the Tablet,
but it is very probable that they contained a description of Enkidu's
dream. This may have been followed by an interpretation of the dream,
either by Gilgamish or some one else, but whether this be so or not,
it seems tolerably certain that the dream portended disaster for
Enkidu. A fragment, which seems to belong to this Tablet beyond doubt,
describes the sickness and death of Enkidu. The cause of his sickness
is unknown, and the fragment merely states that he took to his bed and
lay there for ten days, when his illness took a turn for the worse,
and on the twelfth day he died. He may have died of wounds received
in some fight, but it is more probable that he succumbed to an attack
of Mesopotamian fever. When Gilgamish was told that his brave friend
and companion in many fights was dead, he could not believe it, and
he thought that he must be asleep, but when he found that death had
really carried off Enkidu, he broke out into the lament which formed
the beginning of the text of the next Tablet.
The Eighth Tablet.
In this lament he calls Enkidu his brave friend and the "panther of
the desert," and refers to their hunts in the mountains, and to their
slaughter of the bull of heaven, and to the overthrow of Khumbaba in
the forest of cedar, and then he asks him:
"What kind of sleep is this which hath laid hold upon thee?
"Thou starest out blankly (?) and hearest me not!"
But Enkidu moved not, and when Gilgamish touched his breast his heart
was still. Then laying a covering over him as carefully as if he had
been his bride, he turned away from the dead body and in his grief
roared like a raging lion and like a lioness robbed of her whelps.
The Ninth Tablet.
In bitter grief Gilgamish wandered about the country uttering
lamentations for his beloved companion, Enkidu. As he went about he
thought to himself,
"I myself shall die, and shall not I then be as Enkidu?
"Sorrow hath entered into my soul,
"Because of the fear of death which hath got hold of me do I wander
over the country."
His fervent desire was to escape from death, and remembering that
his ancestor Uta-Napishtim, the son of Ubara-Tutu, had become deified
and immortal, Gilgamish determined to set out for the place where he
lived in order to obtain from him the secret of immortality. Where
Uta-Napishtim lived was unknown to Gilgamish, but he seems to have
made up his mind that he would have to face danger in reaching the
place, for he says, "I will set out and travel quickly. I shall
reach the defiles in the mountains by night, and if I see lions,
and am terrified at them, I shall lift up my head and appeal to the
goddess Sin, and to Ishtar, the Lady of the Gods, who is wont to
hearken to my prayers." After Gilgamish set out to go to the west he
was attacked either by men or animals, but he overcame them and went
on until he arrived at Mount Mashu, where it would seem the sun was
thought both to rise and to set. The approach to this mountain was
guarded by Scorpion-men, whose aspect was so terrible that the mere
sight of it was sufficient to kill the mortal who beheld them; even the
mountains collapsed under the glance of their eyes. When Gilgamish saw
the Scorpion-men he was smitten with fear, and under the influence of
his terror the colour of his face changed; but he plucked up courage
and bowed to them humbly. Then a Scorpion-man cried out to his wife,
saying, "The body of him that cometh to us is the flesh of the gods,"
and she replied, "Two-thirds of him is god, and the other third is
man." The Scorpion-man then received Gilgamish kindly, and warned
him that the way which he was about to travel was full of danger and
difficulty. Gilgamish told him that he was in search of his ancestor,
Uta-Napishtim, who had been deified and made immortal by the gods,
and that it was his intention to go to him to learn the secret of
immortality. The Scorpion-man in answer told him that it was impossible
for him to continue his journey through that country, for no man had
ever succeeded in passing through the dark region of that mountain,
which required twelve double-hours to traverse. Nothing dismayed,
Gilgamish set out on the road through the mountains, and the darkness
increased in density every hour, but he struggled on, and at the end
of the twelfth hour he arrived at a region where there was bright
daylight, and he entered a lovely garden, filled with trees loaded
with luscious fruits, and he saw the "tree of the gods."
The Tenth Tablet.
In the region to which Gilgamish had come stood the palace or fortress
of the goddess Siduri-Sabîtu, and to this he directed his steps with
the view of obtaining help to continue his journey. The goddess
wore a girdle and sat upon a throne by the side of the sea, and
when she saw him coming towards her palace, travel-stained and clad
in the ragged skin of some animal, she thought that he might prove
an undesirable visitor and so ordered the door of her palace to be
closed against him. But Gilgamish managed to obtain speech with her,
and having asked her what ailed her, and why she had closed her door,
he threatened to smash the bolt and break down the door. In answer
Siduri-Sabitu said to him:--
33. "Why are thy cheeks wasted? Thy face is bowed down,
34. "Thine heart is sad, thy form is dejected.
35. "Why is there lamentation in thy heart?"
And she went on to tell him that he had the appearance of one who
had travelled far, that he was a painful sight to look upon, that
his face was burnt, and finally seems to have suggested that he was
a runaway trying to escape trom the country. To this Gilgamish replied:
39. "Why should not my cheeks be wasted, my face bowed down,
40. "My heart sad, my form dejected?"
And then he told the goddess that his ill-looks and miserable
appearance were due to the fact that death had carried off his dear
friend Enkidu, the "panther of the desert," who had traversed the
mountains with him and had helped him to overcome Khumbaba in the
cedar forest, and to slay the bull of heaven, Enkidu his dear friend
who had fought with lions and killed them, and who had been with him
in all his difficulties; and, he added, "I wept over him for six
days and nights ... before I would let him be buried." Continuing
his narrative, Gilgamish said to Sabîtu-Siduri:
57. "I was horribly afraid....
58. "I was afraid of death, and therefore I fled through the
country. The fate of my friend lieth heavily upon me,
59. "Therefore am I travelling on a long journey through the country.
"The fate of my friend lieth heavily upon me,
60. "Therefore am I travelling on a long journey through the country.
61. "How is it possible for me to keep silence about it?
How is it possible for me to cry out [the story of] it?
62. "My friend whom I loved hath become like the dust.
"Enkidu, my friend whom I loved hath become like the dust.
63. "Shall not I myself also be obliged to lay me down
64. "And never again rise up to all eternity?"
65. Gilgamish [continued] to speak unto Sabîtu [saying]:
66. "[O] Sabîtu, which is the way to Uta-Napishtim?
67. "What is the description thereof? Give me, give me the description
thereof.
68. "If it be possible I will cross the sea,
69. "If it be impossible I will travel by land."
70. Then Sabîtu answered and said unto Gilgamish:
71. "There is no passage most assuredly, O Gilgamish.
72. "And no one, from the earliest times, hath been able to cross
the sea.
73. "The hero Shamash (the Sun-god) hath indeed crossed the sea,
but who besides him could do so?
74. "The passage is hard, and the way is difficult.
75. "And the Waters of Death which block the other end of it are deep.
76. "How then, Gilgamish, wilt thou be able to cross the sea?
77. "When thou arrivest at the Waters of Death what wilt thou do?"
Sabîtu then told Gilgamish that Ur-Shanabi, the boatman of
Uta-Napishtim, was in the place, and that he should see him, and added:
81. "If it be possible cross with him, and if it be impossible
come back."
Gilgamish left the goddess and succeeded in finding Ur-Shanabi,
the boatman, who addressed to him words similar to those of Sabîtu
quoted above. Gilgamish answered him as he had answered Sabîtu, and
then asked him for news about the road to Uta-Napishtim. In reply
Ur-Shanabi told him to take his axe and to go down into the forest
and cut a number of poles 60 cubits long; Gilgamish did so, and when
he returned with them he went up into the boat with Ur-Shanabi, and
they made a voyage of one month and fifteen days; on the third day
they reached the [limit of the] Waters of Death, which Ur-Shanabi
told Gilgamish not to touch with his hand. Meanwhile, Uta-Napishtim
had seen the boat coming and, as something in its appearance seemed
strange to him, he went down to the shore to see who the newcomers
were. When he saw Gilgamish he asked him the same questions that
Sabîtu and Ur-Shanabi had asked him, and Gilgamish answered as he
had answered them, and then went on to tell him the reason for his
coming. He said that he had determined to go to visit Uta-Napishtim,
the remote, and had therefore journeyed far and that in the course of
his travels he had passed over difficult mountains and crossed the
sea. He had not succeeded in entering the house of Sabîtu, for she
had caused him to be driven from her door on account of his dirty,
ragged, and travel-stained apparel. He had eaten birds and beasts of
many kinds, the lion, the panther, the jackal, the antelope, mountain
goat, etc., and, apparently, had dressed himself in their skins.
A break in the text makes it impossible to give the opening lines
of Uta-Napishtim's reply, but he mentions the father and mother of
Gilgamish, and in the last twenty lines of the Tenth Tablet he warns
Gilgamish that on earth there is nothing permanent, that Mammitum,
the arranger of destinies, has settled the question of the death and
life of man with the Anunnaki, and that none may find out the day of
his death or escape from death.
The Eleventh Tablet.
The story of the Deluge as told by Uta-Napishtim to Gilgamish has
already been given on pp. 31-40, and we therefore pass on to the
remaining contents of this Tablet. When Uta-Napishtim had finished the
story of the Deluge, he said to Gilgamish, "Now as touching thyself;
which of the gods will gather thee to himself so that thou mayest
find the life which thou seekest? Come now, do not lay thyself down to
sleep for six days and seven nights." But in spite of this admonition
as soon as Gilgamish had sat down, drowsiness overpowered him and
he fell fast asleep. Uta-Napishtim, seeing that even the mighty hero
Gilgamish could not resist falling asleep, with some amusement drew
the attention of his wife to the fact, but she felt sorry for the
tired man, and suggested that he should take steps to help him to
return to his home. In reply Uta-Napishtim told her to bake bread for
him and she did so, and each day for six days she carried a loaf to
the ship and laid it on the deck where Gilgamish lay sleeping. On the
seventh day when she took the loaf Uta-Napishtim touched Gilgamish,
and the hero woke up with a start, and admitted that he had been
overcome with sleep, and made incapable of movement thereby.
Still vexed with the thought of death and filled with anxiety to
escape from it, Gilgamish asked his host what he should do and where he
should go to effect his object. By Uta-Napishtim's advice, he made an
agreement with Ur-Shanabi the boatman, and prepared to re-cross the sea
on his way home. But before he set out on his way Uta-Napishtim told
him of the existence of a plant which grew at the bottom of the sea,
and apparently led Gilgamish to believe that the possession of it would
confer upon him immortality. Thereupon Gilgamish tied heavy stones
[to his feet], and let himself down into the sea through an opening in
the floor of the boat. When he reached the bottom of the sea, he saw
the plant and plucked it, and ascended into the boat with it. Showing
it to Ur-Shanabi, he told him that it was a most marvellous plant, and
that it would enable a man to obtain his heart's desire. Its name was
"Shîbu issahir amelu," i.e., "The old man becometh young [again],"
and Gilgamish declared that he would "eat of it in order to recover
his lost youth," and that he would take it home to his fortified city
of Erech. Misfortune, however, dogged his steps, and the plant never
reached Erech, for whilst Gilgamish and Ur-Shanabi were on their way
back to Erech they passed a pool the water of which was very cold,
and Gilgamish dived into it and took a bath. Whilst there a serpent
discovered the whereabouts of the plant through its smell and swallowed
it. When Gilgamish saw what had happened he cursed aloud, and sat down
and wept, and the tears coursed down his cheeks as he lamented over
the waste of his toil, and the vain expenditure of his heart's blood,
and his failure to do any good for himself. Disheartened and weary he
struggled on his way with his friend, and at length they arrived at
the fortified city of Erech. [19] Then Gilgamish told Ur-Shanabi to
jump up on the wall and examine the bricks from the foundations to
the battlements, and see if the plans which he had made concerning
them had been carried out during his absence.
The Twelfth Tablet.
The text of the Twelfth Tablet is very fragmentary, and contains large
gaps, but it seems certain that Gilgamish did not abandon his hope
of finding the secret of immortality. He had failed to find it upon
earth, and he made arrangements with the view of trying to find it in
the kingdom of the dead. The priests whom he consulted described to
him the conditions under which he might hope to enter the Underworld,
but he was unable to fulfil the obligations which they laid upon him,
and he could not go there. Gilgamish then thought that if he could
have a conversation with Enkidu, his dead friend, he might learn
from him what he wanted to know. He appealed to Bêl and asked him
to raise up the spirit of Enkidu for him, but Bêl made no answer;
he then appealed to Sin, and this god also made no answer. He next
appealed to Ea, who, taking pity on him, ordered the warrior god Nergal
to produce the spirit of Enkidu, and this god opened a hole in the
ground through which the spirit of Enkidu passed up into this world
"like a breath of wind." Gilgamish began to ask the spirit of Enkidu
questions, but gained very little information or satisfaction. The
last lines of the tablet seem to say that the spirit of the unburied
man reposeth not in the earth, and that the spirit of the friendless
man wandereth about the streets eating the remains of food which are
cast out from the cooking pots.
E. A. Wallis Budge.
Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum,
July 24th, 1920.
Note.
The Trustees of the British Museum have published large selections of
cuneiform texts from the cylinders, tablets, etc., that were found
in the ruins of Nineveh by Layard, Rassam, Smith and others, in the
following works:--
CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS OF WESTERN ASIA. Vol. I. 1861. Fol. Il. (Out
of print.)
---- Vol. II. 1866. Fol. Il. (Out of print.)
---- Vol. III. 1870. Fol. Il.
---- Vol. IV. Second edition. 1891. Fol. Il. (Out of print.)
---- Vol. V. Plates I.-XXXV. 1880. Fol. 10S. 6d. (Out of print.)
---- Vol. V. Plates XXXVI-LXX. 1884. Fol. 10S. 6d. (Out of print.)
---- Vol. V. Plates I.-LXX. Lithographed reprint. 1909. Fol. Il. 7s.
INSCRIPTIONS FROM ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 1851. Fol. I1. 1s. CUNEIFORM
TEXTS FROM BABYLONIAN TABLETS, &C., IN THE BRITISH
MUSEUM. Parts I.-V., VII.-XXIII., XXV., XXVII.-XXXIV. 50 plates
each. 1896-1914.7s.6d. each.
---- Part VI. 49 plates. 1898. 7s. 6d.
---- Part XXIV. 50 plates. 1908. Fol. 10s.
---- Part XXVI. 54 plates. 1909. Fol. 12s.
ANNALS OF THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA. Cuneiform texts with transliterations
and translations. Vol. I. 1903. 4to. 1l.
CATALOGUE OF THE CUNEIFORM TABLETS IN THE KOUYUNJIK
COLLECTION. Vol. I. 8vo. 1889. 15s.
---- Vol. II. 1891. 15s.
---- Vol. III. 1894. 15s.
---- Vol. IV. 1896. 1l.
---- Vol. V. 1899. 1l. 3s.
---- Supplement. 8vo. I914. 1l.