An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic
affecting the organs of reproduction. This would confirm the position
here taken that the myth symbolizes the loss of the sun's vigor. The
sun's rays are no longer strong enough to fertilize the earth. In
accord with this, Gilgamesh's search for healing leads him to the
dark regions [118] in which the scorpion-men dwell. The terrors of
the region symbolize the gloom of the winter season. At last Gilgamesh
reaches a region of light again, described as a landscape situated at
the sea. The maiden in control of this region bolts the gate against
Gilgamesh's approach, but the latter forces his entrance. It is the
picture of the sun-god bursting through the darkness, to emerge as
the youthful reinvigorated sun-god of the spring.
Now with the tendency to attach to popular tales and nature myths
lessons illustrative of current beliefs and aspirations, Gilgamesh's
search for renewal of life is viewed as man's longing for eternal
life. The sun-god's waning power after midsummer is past suggests
man's growing weakness after the meridian of life has been left
behind. Winter is death, and man longs to escape it. Gilgamesh's
wanderings are used as illustration of this longing, and accordingly
the search for life becomes also the quest for immortality. Can the
precious boon of eternal life be achieved? Popular fancy created
the figure of a favorite of the gods who had escaped a destructive
deluge in which all mankind had perished. [119] Gilgamesh hears of
this favorite and determines to seek him out and learn from him the
secret of eternal life. The deluge story, again a pure nature myth,
symbolical of the rainy season which destroys all life in nature,
is thus attached to the Epic. Gilgamesh after many adventures finds
himself in the presence of the survivor of the Deluge who, although
human, enjoys immortal life among the gods. He asks the survivor
how he came to escape the common fate of mankind, and in reply
Utnapishtim tells the story of the catastrophe that brought about
universal destruction. The moral of the tale is obvious. Only those
singled out by the special favor of the gods can hope to be removed
to the distant "source of the streams" and live forever. The rest of
mankind must face death as the end of life.
That the story of the Deluge is told in the eleventh tablet of the
series, corresponding to the eleventh month, known as the month of
"rain curse" [120] and marking the height of the rainy season, may
be intentional, just as it may not be accidental that Gilgamesh's
rejection of Ishtar is recounted in the sixth tablet, corresponding to
the sixth month, [121] which marks the end of the summer season. The
two tales may have formed part of a cycle of myths, distributed
among the months of the year. The Gilgamesh Epic, however, does
not form such a cycle. Both myths have been artificially attached
to the adventures of the hero. For the deluge story we now have the
definite proof for its independent existence, through Dr. Poebel's
publication of a Sumerian text which embodies the tale, [122] and
without any reference to Gilgamesh. Similarly, Scheil and Hilprecht
have published fragments of deluge stories written in Akkadian and
likewise without any connection with the Gilgamesh Epic. [123]
In the Epic the story leads to another episode attached to Gilgamesh,
namely, the search for a magic plant growing in deep water, which has
the power of restoring old age to youth. Utnapishtim, the survivor of
the deluge, is moved through pity for Gilgamesh, worn out by his long
wanderings. At the request of his wife, Utnapishtim decides to tell
Gilgamesh of this plant, and he succeeds in finding it. He plucks it
and decides to take it back to Erech so that all may enjoy the benefit,
but on his way stops to bathe in a cool cistern. A serpent comes along
and snatches the plant from him, and he is forced to return to Erech
with his purpose unachieved. Man cannot hope, when old age comes on,
to escape death as the end of everything.
Lastly, the twelfth tablet of the Assyrian version of the Gilgamesh
Epic is of a purely didactic character, bearing evidence of having
been added as a further illustration of the current belief that there
is no escape from the nether world to which all must go after life has
come to an end. Proper burial and suitable care of the dead represent
all that can be done in order to secure a fairly comfortable rest for
those who have passed out of this world. Enkidu is once more introduced
into this episode. His shade is invoked by Gilgamesh and rises up out
of the lower world to give a discouraging reply to Gilgamesh's request,
"Tell me, my friend, tell me, my friend,
The law of the earth which thou hast
experienced, tell me,"
The mournful message comes back:
"I cannot tell thee, my friend, I cannot tell."
Death is a mystery and must always remain such. The historical
Gilgamesh has clearly no connection with the figure introduced into
this twelfth tablet. Indeed, as already suggested, the Gilgamesh Epic
must have ended with the return to Erech, as related at the close of
the eleventh tablet. The twelfth tablet was added by some school-men of
Babylonia (or perhaps of Assyria), purely for the purpose of conveying
a summary of the teachings in regard to the fate of the dead. Whether
these six episodes covering the sixth to the twelfth tablets, (1) the
nature myth, (2) the killing of the divine bull, (3) the punishment
of Gilgamesh and the death of Enkidu, (4) Gilgamesh's wanderings,
(5) the Deluge, (6) the search for immortality, were all included
at the time that the old Babylonian version was compiled cannot, of
course, be determined until we have that version in a more complete
form. Since the two tablets thus far recovered show that as early as
2000 B.C. the Enkidu tale had already been amalgamated with the current
stories about Gilgamesh, and the endeavor made to transfer the traits
of the former to the latter, it is eminently likely that the story of
Ishtar's unhappy love adventure with Gilgamesh was included, as well
as Gilgamesh's punishment and the death of Enkidu. With the evidence
furnished by Meissner's fragment of a version of the old Babylonian
revision and by our two tablets, of the early disposition to make
popular tales the medium of illustrating current beliefs and the
teachings of the temple schools, it may furthermore be concluded that
the death of Enkidu and the punishment of Gilgamesh were utilized for
didactic purposes in the old Babylonian version. On the other hand,
the proof for the existence of the deluge story in the Hammurabi
period and some centuries later, _independent_ of any connection
with the Gilgamesh Epic, raises the question whether in the old
Babylonian version, of which our two tablets form a part, the deluge
tale was already woven into the pattern of the Epic. At all events,
till proof to the contrary is forthcoming, we may assume that the
twelfth tablet of the Assyrian version, though also reverting to a
Babylonian original, dates as the _latest_ addition to the Epic from
a period subsequent to 2000 B.C.; and that the same is probably the
case with the eleventh tablet.
IX.
To sum up, there are four main currents that flow together in the
Gilgamesh Epic even in its old Babylonian form: (1) the adventures of
a mighty warrior Enkidu, resting perhaps on a faint tradition of the
conquest of Amurru by the hero; (2) the more definite recollection
of the exploits of a foreign invader of Babylonia by the name of
Gilgamesh, whose home appears likewise to have been in the West; [124]
(3) nature myths and didactic tales transferred to Enkidu and Gilgamesh
as popular figures; and (4) the process of weaving the traditions,
exploits, myths and didactic tales together, in the course of which
process Gilgamesh becomes the main hero, and Enkidu his companion.
Furthermore, our investigation has shown that to Enkidu belongs the
episode with the woman, used to illustrate the evolution of primitive
man to the ways and conditions of civilized life, the conquest of
Huwawa in the land of Amurru, the killing of lions and also of the
bull, while Gilgamesh is the hero who conquers Erech. Identified with
the sun-god, the nature myth of the union of the sun with the earth and
the subsequent separation of the two is also transferred to him. The
wanderings of the hero, smitten with disease, are a continuation of
the nature myth, symbolizing the waning vigor of the sun with the
approach of the wintry season.
The details of the process which led to making Gilgamesh the favorite
figure, to whom the traits and exploits of Enkidu and of the sun-god
are transferred, escape us, but of the fact that Enkidu is the _older_
figure, of whom certain adventures were set forth in a tale that
once had an independent existence, there can now be little doubt in
the face of the evidence furnished by the two tablets of the old
Babylonian version; just as the study of these tablets shows that
in the combination of the tales of Enkidu and Gilgamesh, the former
is the prototype of which Gilgamesh is the copy. If the two are
regarded as brothers, as born in the same place, even resembling one
another in appearance and carrying out their adventures in common,
it is because in the process of combination Gilgamesh becomes the
_reflex_ of Enkidu. That Enkidu is not the figure created by Aruru to
relieve Erech of its tyrannical ruler is also shown by the fact that
Gilgamesh remains in control of Erech. It is to Erech that he returns
when he fails of his purpose to learn the secret of escape from old
age and death. Erech is, therefore, not relieved of the presence of
the ruthless ruler through Enkidu. The "Man of Anu" formed by Aruru
as a deliverer is confused in the course of the growth of the Epic
with Enkidu, the offspring of Ninib, and in this way we obtain the
strange contradiction of Enkidu and Gilgamesh appearing first as bitter
rivals and then as close and inseparable friends. It is of the nature
of Epic compositions everywhere to eliminate unnecessary figures by
concentrating on one favorite the traits belonging to another or to
several others.
The close association of Enkidu and Gilgamesh which becomes one of
the striking features in the combination of the tales of these two
heroes naturally recalls the "Heavenly Twins" _motif_, which has been
so fully and so suggestively treated by Professor J. Rendell Harris
in his _Cult of the Heavenly Twins_, (London, 1906). Professor Harris
has conclusively shown how widespread the tendency is to associate
two divine or semi-divine beings in myths and legends as inseparable
companions [125] or twins, like Castor and Pollux, Romulus and Remus,
[126] the Acvins in the Rig-Veda, [127] Cain and Abel, Jacob and
Esau in the Old Testament, the Kabiri of the Phoenicians, [128]
Herakles and Iphikles in Greek mythology, Ambrica and Fidelio in
Teutonic mythology, Patollo and Potrimpo in old Prussian mythology,
Cautes and Cautopates in Mithraism, Jesus and Thomas (according to
the Syriac Acts of Thomas), and the various illustrations of "Dioscuri
in Christian Legends," set forth by Dr. Harris in his work under this
title, which carries the _motif_ far down into the period of legends
about Christian Saints who appear in pairs, including the reference
to such a pair in Shakespeare's Henry V:
"And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by
From that day to the ending of the world."--(_Act, IV,
3, 57-58._)
There are indeed certain parallels which suggest that Enkidu-Gilgamesh
may represent a Babylonian counterpart to the "Heavenly Twins." In
the Indo-Iranian, Greek and Roman mythology, the twins almost
invariably act together. In unison they proceed on expeditions to
punish enemies. [129]