An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic
He had not been taught.
The woman opened her mouth and
Spoke to Enkidu:
"Eat food, O Enkidu,
The provender of life!
Drink wine, the custom of the land!"
Enkidu ate food
Till he was satiated.
Wine he drank,
Seven goblets.
His spirit was loosened, he became hilarious.
His heart became glad and
His face shone.
[The barber(?)] removed
The hair on his body.
He was anointed with oil.
He became manlike.
He put on a garment,
He was like a man.
He took his weapon;
Lions he attacked,
(so that) the night shepherds could rest.
He plunged the dagger;
Lions he overcame.
The great [shepherds] lay down;
Enkidu was their protector.
The strong man,
The unique hero,
To [the shepherds(?)] he speaks:
(About five lines missing.)
Col. IV.
(About eight lines missing.)
Making merry.
He lifted up his eyes,
He sees the man.
He spoke to the woman:
"O, courtesan, lure on the man.
Why has he come to me?
His name I will destroy."
The woman called to the man
Who approaches to him [144] and he beholds him.
"Away! why dost thou [quake(?)]
Evil is the course of thy activity." [145]
Then he [146] opened his mouth and
Spoke to Enkidu:
"[To have (?)] a family home
Is the destiny of men, and
The prerogative(?) of the nobles.
For the city(?) load the workbaskets!
Food supply for the city lay to one side!
For the King of Erech of the plazas,
Open the hymen(?), perform the marriage act!
For Gish, the King of Erech of the plazas,
Open the hymen(?),
Perform the marriage act!
With the legitimate wife one should cohabit.
So before,
As well as in the future. [147]
By the decree pronounced by a god,
From the cutting of his umbilical cord
(Such) is his fate."
At the speech of the hero
His face grew pale.
(About three lines missing.)
Col. V.
(About six lines missing.)
[Enkidu] went [in front],
And the courtesan behind him.
He entered into Erech of the plazas.
The people gathered about him.
As he stood in the streets
Of Erech of the plazas,
The men gathered,
Saying in regard to him:
"Like the form of Gish he has suddenly become;
shorter in stature.
[In his structure high(?)], powerful,
.......... overseeing(?)
In the land strong of power has he become.
Milk of cattle
He was accustomed to suck."
Steadily(?) in Erech .....
The heroes rejoiced.
He became a leader.
To the hero of fine appearance,
To Gish, like a god,
He became a rival to him. [148]
For Ishhara a couch
Was stretched, and
Gish [lay down, and afterwards(?)]
In the night he fled.
He approaches and
[Enkidu stood] in the streets.
He blocked the path
of Gish.
At the exhibit of his power,
(About three lines missing.)
Col. VI.
(About four lines missing.)
Strong(?) ...
Gish
Against him [Enkidu proceeded],
[His hair] luxuriant.
He started [to go]
Towards him.
They met in the plaza of the district.
Enkidu blocked the gate
With his foot,
Not permitting Gish to enter.
They seized (each other), like oxen,
They fought.
The threshold they demolished;
The wall they impaired.
Gish and Enkidu
Seized (each other).
Like oxen they fought.
The threshold they demolished;
The wall they impaired.
Gish bent
His foot to the ground, [149]
His wrath was appeased,
His breast was quieted.
When his breast was quieted,
Enkidu to him
Spoke, to Gish:
"As a unique one, thy mother
bore thee.
The wild cow of the stall, [150]
Ninsun,
Has exalted thy head above men.
Kingship over men
Enlil has decreed for thee.
Second tablet,
enlarged beyond [the original(?)].
240 lines.
COMMENTARY ON THE PENNSYLVANIA TABLET.
Line 1. The verb _tibû_ with _pasâru_ expresses the aim of Gish to
secure an interpretation for his dream. This disposes of Langdon's
note 1 on page 211 of his edition, in which he also erroneously speaks
of our text as "late." _Pasâru_ is not a variant of _zakâru_. Both
verbs occur just as here in the Assyrian version I, 5, 25.
Line 3. _ina sât musitia_, "in this my night," i.e., in the course of
this night of mine. A curious way of putting it, but the expression
occurs also in the Assyrian version, e.g., I, 5, 26 (parallel passage
to ours) and II, 4a, 14. In the Yale tablet we find, similarly,
_mu-si-it-ka_ (l. 262), "thy night," i.e., "at night to thee."
Line 5. Before Langdon put down the strange statement of Gish
"wandering about in the midst of omens" (misreading _id-da-tim _
for _it-lu-tim_), he might have asked himself the question, what it
could possibly mean. How can one walk among omens?
Line 6. _ka-ka-bu sá-ma-i_ must be taken as a compound term for
"starry heaven." The parallel passage in the Assyrian version (Tablet
I, 5, 27) has the ideograph for star, with the plural sign as a
variant. Literally, therefore, "The starry heaven (or "the stars in
heaven") was there," etc. Langdon's note 2 on page 211 rests on an
erroneous reading.
Line 7. _kisru sá Anim_, "mass of Anu," appears to be the designation
of a meteor, which might well be described as a "mass" coming from Anu,
i.e., from the god of heaven who becomes the personification of the
heavens in general. In the Assyrian version (I, 5, 28) we have _kima
ki-is-rù_, i.e., "something like a mass of heaven." Note also I, 3,
16, where in a description of Gilgamesh, his strength is said to be
"strong like a mass (i.e., a meteor) of heaven."
Line 9. For _nussasu ûl iltê_ we have a parallel in the Hebrew phrase
NLE'ETIY NS' (Isaiah 1, 14).
Line 10. _Uruk mâtum_, as the designation for the district of Erech,
occurs in the Assyrian version, e.g., I, 5, 31, and IV, 2, 38; also
to be supplied, I, 6, 23.
For _pahir_ the parallel in the Assyrian version has _iz-za-az_
(I, 5, 31), but VI, 197, we find _pah-ru_ and _pah-ra_.
Line 17. _mi-in-di_ does not mean "truly" as Langdon translates,
but "some one." It occurs also in the Assyrian version X, 1, 13,
_mi-in-di-e ma-an-nu-u_, "this is some one who," etc.
Line 18. Cf. Assyrian version I, 5, 3, and IV, 4, 7, _ina siri
âlid_--both passages referring to Enkidu.
Line 21. Cf. Assyrian version II, 3b, 38, with _malkê_, "kings,"
as a synonym of _itlutum_.
Line 23. _ta-tar-ra-as-sú_ from _tarâsu_, "direct," "guide," etc.
Line 24. I take _us-ti-nim-ma_ as III, 2, from _isênu_ (YOSEN),
the verb underlying _sittu_, "sleep," and _suttu_, "dream."
Line 26. Cf. Assyrian version I, 6, 21--a complete parallel.
Line 28. _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_. The former term suggests the "broad space"
outside of the city or the "common" in a village community,
while _supûri_, "enclosed," would refer to the city within the
walls. Dr. W. F. Albright (in a private communication) suggests "Erech
of the plazas" as a suitable translation for _Uruk ribîtim_. A third
term, _Uruk mâtum_ (see above, note to line 10), though designating
rather the district of which Erech was the capital, appears to be
used as a synonym to _Uruk ribîtim_, as may be concluded from the
phrase _i-na ri-bi-tum ma-ti_ (l. 214 of the Pennsylvania tablet),
which clearly means the "plaza" of the city. One naturally thinks of
REHOBOT `IYR in Genesis 10, 11--the equivalent of Babylonian _ri-bi-tu
âli_--which can hardly be the name of a city. It appears to be a
gloss, as is HIY' HO`IYR HAGEDOLOH at the end of v. 12. The latter
gloss is misplaced, since it clearly describes "Nineveh," mentioned
in v. 11. Inasmuch as REHOBOT `IYR immediately follows the mention
of Nineveh, it seems simplest to take the phrase as designating the
"outside" or "suburbs" of the city, a complete parallel, therefore,
to _ri-bi-tu mâti_ in our text. Nineveh, together with the "suburbs,"
forms the "great city." _Uruk ribîtim_ is, therefore, a designation
for "greater Erech," proper to a capital city, which by its gradual
growth would take in more than its original confines. "Erech of the
plazas" must have come to be used as a honorific designation of this
important center as early as 2000 B. C., whereas later, perhaps
because of its decline, the epithet no longer seemed appropriate
and was replaced by the more modest designation of "walled Erech,"
with an allusion to the tradition which ascribed the building of the
wall of the city to Gilgamesh. At all events, all three expressions,
"Erech of the plazas," "Erech walled" and "Erech land," are to be
regarded as synonymous. The position once held by Erech follows also
from its ideographic designation (Brünnow No. 4796) by the sign "house"
with a "gunufied" extension, which conveys the idea of Unu = _subtu_,
or "dwelling" _par excellence_. The pronunciation Unug or Unuk (see
the gloss _u-nu-uk_, VR 23, 8a), composed of _unu_, "dwelling," and
_ki_, "place," is hardly to be regarded as older than Uruk, which is
to be resolved into _uru_, "city," and _ki_, "place," but rather as
a play upon the name, both Unu + ki and Uru + ki conveying the same
idea of _the_ city or _the_ dwelling place _par excellence_. As the
seat of the second oldest dynasty according to Babylonian traditions
(see Poebel's list in _Historical and Grammatical Texts_ No. 2),
Erech no doubt was regarded as having been at one time "the city,"
i.e., the capital of the entire Euphrates Valley.
Line 31. A difficult line for which Langdon proposes the translation:
"Another axe seemed his visage"!!--which may be picturesque, but
hardly a description befitting a hero. How can a man's face seem
to be an axe? Langdon attaches _sá-ni_ in the sense of "second"
to the preceding word "axe," whereas _sanî bunusu_, "change of his
countenance" or "his countenance being changed," is to be taken as
a phrase to convey the idea of "being disturbed," "displeased" or
"angry." The phrase is of the same kind as the well-known _sunnu
têmu_, "changing of reason," to denote "insanity." See the passages
in Muss-Arnolt, _Assyrian Dictionary_, pp. 355 and 1068. In Hebrew,
too, we have the same two phrases, e.g., VAYESANOV 'ETTA`EMOV
(I Sam. 21, 14 = Ps. 34, 1), "and he changed his reason," i.e.,
feigned insanity and MESANEH PONOYV (Job 14, 20), "changing his
face," to indicate a radical alteration in the frame of mind. There
is a still closer parallel in Biblical Aramaic: Dan. 3, 19, "The form
of his visage was changed," meaning "he was enraged." Fortunately,
the same phrase occurs also in the Yale tablet (l. 192), _sá-nu-ú
bu-nu-sú_, in a connection which leaves no doubt that the aroused
fury of the tyrant Huwawa is described by it:
"Huwawa heard and his face was changed"
precisely, therefore, as we should say--following Biblical usage--"his
countenance fell." Cf. also the phrase _pânusu arpu_, "his countenance
was darkened" (Assyrian version I, 2, 48), to express "anger." The
line, therefore, in the Pennsylvania tablet must describe Enkidu's
anger. With the brandishing of the axe the hero's anger was also
stirred up. 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. May perhaps the emphatic form _hasinumma_ (line 31) against
_hasinu_ (line 29) have been used to indicate "The axe it was," or
"because of the axe?" It would be worth while to examine other texts
of the Hammurabi period with a view of determining the scope in the
use and meaning of the emphatic _ma_ when added to a substantive.
Line 32. The combination _amur ù ahtadu_ occurs also in the El-Amarna
Letters, No. 18, 12.
Line 34. In view of the common Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic Hobab "to
love," it seems preferable to read here, as in the other passages in