An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic
appear to have been "Sumerianized" by an artificial process, [19]
and if this view turns out to be correct, we would have a further
ground for assuming the tale to have originated among the Akkadian
settlers and to have been taken over from them by the Sumerians.
III.
New light on the earliest Babylonian version of the Epic, as well
as on the Assyrian version, has been shed by the recovery of two
substantial fragments of the form which the Epic had assumed in
Babylonia in the Hammurabi period. The study of this important new
material also enables us to advance the interpretation of the Epic
and to perfect the analysis into its component parts. In the spring
of 1914, the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania acquired by
purchase a large tablet, the writing of which as well as the style
and the manner of spelling verbal forms and substantives pointed
distinctly to the time of the first Babylonian dynasty. The tablet
was identified by Dr. Arno Poebel as part of the Gilgamesh Epic; and,
as the colophon showed, it formed the second tablet of the series. He
copied it with a view to publication, but the outbreak of the war which
found him in Germany--his native country--prevented him from carrying
out this intention. [20] He, however, utilized some of its contents in
his discussion of the historical or semi-historical traditions about
Gilgamesh, as revealed by the important list of partly mythical and
partly historical dynasties, found among the tablets of the Nippur
collection, in which Gilgamesh occurs [21] as a King of an Erech
dynasty, whose father was Â, a priest of Kulab. [22]
The publication of the tablet was then undertaken by Dr. Stephen
Langdon in monograph form under the title, "The Epic of
Gilgamish." [23] In a preliminary article on the tablet in the
_Museum Journal_, Vol. VIII, pages 29-38, Dr. Langdon took the
tablet to be of the late Persian period (i.e., between the sixth
and third century B. C.), but his attention having been called to
this error of some _1500 years_, he corrected it in his introduction
to his edition of the text, though he neglected to change some of
his notes in which he still refers to the text as "late." [24] In
addition to a copy of the text, accompanied by a good photograph,
Dr. Langdon furnished a transliteration and translation with some
notes and a brief introduction. The text is unfortunately badly
copied, being full of errors; and the translation is likewise very
defective. A careful collation with the original tablet was made with
the assistance of Dr. Edward Chiera, and as a consequence we are in a
position to offer to scholars a correct text. We beg to acknowledge
our obligations to Dr. Gordon, the Director of the Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania, for kindly placing the tablet at our
disposal. Instead of republishing the text, I content myself with
giving a full list of corrections in the appendix to this volume
which will enable scholars to control our readings, and which will,
I believe, justify the translation in the numerous passages in which
it deviates from Dr. Langdon's rendering. While credit should be given
to Dr. Langdon for having made this important tablet accessible, the
interests of science demand that attention be called to his failure to
grasp the many important data furnished by the tablet, which escaped
him because of his erroneous readings and faulty translations.
The tablet, consisting of six columns (three on the obverse and three
on the reverse), comprised, according to the colophon, 240 lines
[25] and formed the second tablet of the series. Of the total, 204
lines are preserved in full or in part, and of the missing thirty-six
quite a number can be restored, so that we have a fairly complete
tablet. The most serious break occurs at the top of the reverse, where
about eight lines are missing. In consequence of this the connection
between the end of the obverse (where about five lines are missing)
and the beginning of the reverse is obscured, though not to the extent
of our entirely losing the thread of the narrative.
About the same time that the University of Pennsylvania Museum
purchased this second tablet of the Gilgamesh Series, Yale University
obtained a tablet from the same dealer, which turned out to be a
continuation of the University of Pennsylvania tablet. That the two
belong to the same edition of the Epic is shown by their agreement
in the dark brown color of the clay, in the writing as well as in
the size of the tablet, though the characters on the Yale tablet
are somewhat cramped and in consequence more difficult to read. Both
tablets consist of six columns, three on the obverse and three on the
reverse. The measurements of both are about the same, the Pennsylvania
tablet being estimated at about 7 inches high, as against 7 2/16 inches
for the Yale tablet, while the width of both is 6 1/2 inches. The
Yale tablet is, however, more closely written and therefore has a
larger number of lines than the Pennsylvania tablet. The colophon to
the Yale tablet is unfortunately missing, but from internal evidence
it is quite certain that the Yale tablet follows immediately upon
the Pennsylvania tablet and, therefore, may be set down as the third
of the series. The obverse is very badly preserved, so that only a
general view of its contents can be secured. The reverse contains
serious gaps in the first and second columns. The scribe evidently
had a copy before him which he tried to follow exactly, but finding
that he could not get all of the copy before him in the six columns,
he continued the last column on the edge. In this way we obtain for the
sixth column 64 lines as against 45 for column IV, and 47 for column V,
and a total of 292 lines for the six columns. Subtracting the 16 lines
written on the edge leaves us 276 lines for our tablet as against 240
for its companion. The width of each column being the same on both
tablets, the difference of 36 lines is made up by the closer writing.
Both tablets have peculiar knobs at the sides, the purpose of which
is evidently not to facilitate holding the tablet in one's hand while
writing or reading it, as Langdon assumed [26] (it would be quite
impracticable for this purpose), but simply to protect the tablet in
its position on a shelf, where it would naturally be placed on the
edge, just as we arrange books on a shelf. Finally be it noted that
these two tablets of the old Babylonian version do not belong to the
same edition as the Meissner tablet above described, for the latter
consists of two columns each on obverse and reverse, as against
three columns each in the case of our two tablets. We thus have
the interesting proof that as early as 2000 B.C. there were already
several editions of the Epic. As to the provenance of our two tablets,
there are no definite data, but it is likely that they were found by
natives in the mounds at Warka, from which about the year 1913, many
tablets came into the hands of dealers. It is likely that where two
tablets of a series were found, others of the series were also dug up,
and we may expect to find some further portions of this old Babylonian
version turning up in the hands of other dealers or in museums.
IV.
Coming to the contents of the two tablets, the Pennsylvania tablet
deals with the meeting of the two heroes, Gilgamesh and Enkidu,
their conflict, followed by their reconciliation, while the Yale
tablet in continuation takes up the preparations for the encounter of
the two heroes with the guardian of the cedar forest, Humbaba--but
probably pronounced Hubaba [27]--or, as the name appears in the old
Babylonian version, Huwawa. The two tablets correspond, therefore,
to portions of Tablets I to V of the Assyrian version; [28] but,
as will be shown in detail further on, the number of _completely_
parallel passages is not large, and the Assyrian version shows an
independence of the old Babylonian version that is larger than we
had reason to expect. In general, it may be said that the Assyrian
version is more elaborate, which points to its having received its
present form at a considerably later period than the old Babylonian
version. [29] On the other hand, we already find in the Babylonian
version the tendency towards repetition, which is characteristic
of Babylonian-Assyrian tales in general. Through the two Babylonian
tablets we are enabled to fill out certain details of the two episodes
with which they deal: (1) the meeting of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and
(2) the encounter with Huwawa; while their greatest value consists
in the light that they throw on the gradual growth of the Epic until
it reached its definite form in the text represented by the fragments
in Ashurbanapal's Library. Let us now take up the detailed analysis,
first of the Pennsylvania tablet and then of the Yale tablet. The
Pennsylvania tablet begins with two dreams recounted by Gilgamesh
to his mother, which the latter interprets as presaging the coming
of Enkidu to Erech. In the one, something like a heavy meteor falls
from heaven upon Gilgamesh and almost crushes him. With the help of
the heroes of Erech, Gilgamesh carries the heavy burden to his mother
Ninsun. The burden, his mother explains, symbolizes some one who,
like Gilgamesh, is born in the mountains, to whom all will pay homage
and of whom Gilgamesh will become enamoured with a love as strong as
that for a woman. In a second dream, Gilgamesh sees some one who is
like him, who brandishes an axe, and with whom he falls in love. This
personage, the mother explains, is again Enkidu.
Langdon is of the opinion that these dreams are recounted to
Enkidu by a woman with whom Enkidu cohabits for six days and seven
nights and who weans Enkidu from association with animals. This,
however, cannot be correct. The scene between Enkidu and the woman
must have been recounted in detail in the first tablet, as in the
Assyrian version, [30] whereas here in the second tablet we have the
continuation of the tale with Gilgamesh recounting his dreams directly
to his mother. The story then continues with the description of the
coming of Enkidu, conducted by the woman to the outskirts of Erech,
where food is given him. The main feature of the incident is the
conversion of Enkidu to civilized life. Enkidu, who hitherto had
gone about naked, is clothed by the woman. Instead of sucking milk
and drinking from a trough like an animal, food and strong drink are
placed before him, and he is taught how to eat and drink in human
fashion. In human fashion he also becomes drunk, and his "spree" is
naïvely described: "His heart became glad and his face shone." [31]
Like an animal, Enkidu's body had hitherto been covered with hair,
which is now shaved off. He is anointed with oil, and clothed "like
a man." Enkidu becomes a shepherd, protecting the fold against wild
beasts, and his exploit in dispatching lions is briefly told. At this
point--the end of column 3 (on the obverse), i.e., line 117, and the
beginning of column 4 (on the reverse), i.e., line 131--a gap of 13
lines--the tablet is obscure, but apparently the story of Enkidu's
gradual transformation from savagery to civilized life is continued,
with stress upon his introduction to domestic ways with the wife
chosen or decreed for him, and with work as part of his fate. All
this has no connection with Gilgamesh, and it is evident that the
tale of Enkidu was originally an _independent_ tale to illustrate the
evolution of man's career and destiny, how through intercourse with
a woman he awakens to the sense of human dignity, how he becomes
accustomed to the ways of civilization, how he passes through the
pastoral stage to higher walks of life, how the family is instituted,
and how men come to be engaged in the labors associated with human