 Gilgamesh
was an historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in
modern Iraq; he lived about 2700 B.C. Although historians tend to emphasize
Hammurabi and his code of law, the civilizations of the Tigris-Euphrates
area focus on Gilgamesh and the legends accruing around him to explain,
as it were, themselves. Many stories and myths were written about Gilgamesh,
some of which were written down about 2000 B.C. in the Sumerian language
on clay tablets which still survive. All the above languages were written
in the script known as cuneiform, which means "wedge-shaped." The fullest
surviving version, from which the summary here is taken, is derived from
twelve stone tablets, in the Akkadian language, found in the ruins of the
library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria 669-633 B.C., at Nineveh. The
library was destroyed by the Persians in 612 B.C., and all the tablets
are damaged. The tablets actually name an author, which is extremely rare
in the ancient world, for this particular version of the story: Shin-eqi-unninni.
You are being introduced here to the oldest known human author we can name
by name!
Tablet 1The one who saw all I will declare to the world,This great hero who had all knowledge, Gilgamesh, built the great city of Uruk; the tablet invites us to look around and view the greatness of this city, its high walls, its masonwork, and here at the base of its gates, as the foundation of the city walls, a stone of lapis lazuli on which is carved Gilgamesh's account of his exploits, the story you are about to hear. The account begins: Gilgamesh, two-thirds god and one-third human, is the greatest king on earth and the strongest super-human that ever existed; however, he is young and oppresses his people harshly. The people call out to the sky-god Anu, the chief god of the city, to help them. In response, Anu creates a wild man, Enkidu, out in the harsh and wild forests surrounding Gilgamesh's lands. This brute, Enkidu, has the strength of dozens of wild animals; he is to serve as the subhuman rival to the superhuman Gilgamesh. A trapper's son, while checking on traps in the forest, discovers Enkidu running naked with the wild animals; he rushes to his father with the news. The father advises him to go into the city and take one of the temple harlots, Shamhat, with him to the forest; when she sees Enkidu, she is to offer herself to the wild man. If he submits to her, the trapper says, he will lose his strength and his wildness. Shamhat meets Enkidu at the watering-hole where all the wild animals gather; she offers herself to him and he submits, instantly losing his strength and wildness, but he gains understanding and knowledge. He laments for his lost state, but the harlot offers to take him into the city where all the joys of civilization shine in their resplendence; she offers to show him Gilgamesh, the only man worthy of Enkidu's friendship. Tablet 2 Enkidu
is gradually introduced to civilization by living for a time with a group
of shepherds, who teach him how to tend flocks, how to eat, how to speak
properly, and how to wear clothes. Enkidu then enters the city of Uruk
during a great celebration. They fight furiously until Gilgamesh wins the
upper hand; Enkidu concedes Gilgamesh's superiority and the two embrace
and become devoted friends.
Both Enkidu and Gilgamesh gradually weaken and grow lazy living in the city, so Gilgamesh proposes a great adventure: they are to journey to the great Cedar Forest in southern Iran and cut down all the cedar trees. To do this, they will need to kill the Guardian of the Cedar Forest, the great demon, Humbaba the Terrible. Enkidu knows about Humbaba from his days running wild in the forest; he tries in vain to convince Gilgamesh not to undertake this folly. Tablet 3[Most of tablet three doesn't exist]Tablet 4Tablet four tells the story of the journey to the cedar forest.Tablet 5Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill Humbaba and cut down the cedar forest – they want to use the tallest of the cedar trees to make a great gate for the city of Uruk. They build a raft out of the cedar and float down the Euphrates river to their city.Tablet 6After these events, Gilgamesh, his fame widespread and his frame resplendent in his wealthy clothes, attracts the attention of the goddess Ishtar, who comes to Gilgamesh and offers to become his lover. Gilgamesh refuses with insults, listing all the mortal lovers that Ishtar has had and recounting the dire fates they all met with at her hands. Deeply insulted, Ishtar returns to heaven and begs her father, the sky-god Anu, to let her have the Bull of Heaven to wreak vengeance on Gilgamesh and his city:Father, let me have the Bull of HeavenAnu reluctantly gives in, and the Bull of Heaven is sent down into Uruk. Each time the bull breathes, its breath is so powerful that enormous abysses are opened up in the earth and hundreds of people fall through to their deaths. Working together again, Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the mighty bull. Ishtar is enraged, but Enkidu begins to insult her, saying that she is next, that he and Gilgamesh will kill her next, and he rips one of the thighs off the bull and hurls it into her face. Tablet 7Enkidu falls ill after having a set of ominous dreams; he finds out from the priests that he has been singled out for revenge by the gods. The Chief Gods have met and have decided that someone should be punished for the killing of Humbaba, the killing of the Bull of Heaven, and the insult to Ishtar. Of the two heroes, they decide Enkidu should pay the penalty. Enraged at the injustice of the decision, Enkidu curses the great Cedar Gate built from the wood of the Cedar Forest, and he curses the temple harlot, Shamhat, and the trapper, for introducing him to civilization. After suffering terribly for twelve days, Enkidu finally dies.Tablet 8 Gilgamesh
is torn apart by the death of his friend, and utters a long lament, ordering
all of creation to never fall silent in mourning his dead friend. Most
of this tablet is missing, but the second half seems to be a description
of the monument he builds for Enkidu.
Tablet 9Gilgamesh allows his life to fall apart; he does not bathe, does not shave, does not take care of himself, not so much out of grief for his friend, but because he now realizes that he too must die and the thought sends him into a panic. He decides that he can't live unless granted eternal life; he decides to undertake the most perilous journey of all: the journey to Utnapishtim and his wife, the only mortals on whom the gods had granted eternal life. Utnapishtim is the Far-Away, living at the mouth of all rivers, at the ends of the world.Tablet 10After a long and dangerous journey, Gilgamesh arrives at a shore and encounters another man. He tells this man that he is looking for Utnapishtim and the secret of eternal life; the old man advises Gilgamesh that death is a necessary fact because of the will of the gods; all human effort is only temporary, not permanent.Tablet 11 At
this point, Gilgamesh realizes that he is talking to Utnapishtim, the Far-Away;
he hadn't expected an immortal human to be ordinary and aged. He asks Utnapishtim
how he received immortality, and Utnapishtim tells him the great secret
hidden from humans:
In the time before the Flood, there was a city, Shuruppak, on the banks of the Euphrates. There, the gods held a secret meeting; they all resolved to destroy the world in a great flood. All the gods were under oath not to reveal this secret to any living thing, but Ea (one of the gods that created humanity) came to Utnapishtim's house and told the secret to the walls of the house, thus not technically violating his oath to the rest of the gods (guess who was listening while he talked!). He advised the walls to build a great boat, its length as great as its breadth, to cover the boat, and to bring all living things into the boat. Utnapishtim gets straight to work and finishes the great boat by the new year. He then loads the boat with gold, silver, and all the living things of the earth, and launches the boat. Ea orders him into the boat and commands him to close the door behind him. The black clouds arrive, with the thunder god Adad rumbling within them; the earth splits like an earthenware pot, and all the light turns to darkness. The Flood is so great that even the gods are frightened: The gods shook like beaten dogs, hiding
in the far corners of heaven,
"The days of old have turned to stone:  The
Flood lasts for seven days and seven nights, and finally light returns
to the earth. Utnapishtim opens a window and the entire earth has been
turned into a flat ocean; all humans have been turned to stone. He then
falls to his knees and weeps. The boat comes to rest on the top of Mount
Nimush; it lodges firmly on the mountain peak just below the surface of
the ocean and remains there for seven days. On the seventh day:
I [Utnapishtim] released a dove from the boat,The gods smell the odor of the sacrifice and begin to gather around Utnapishtim. Enlil, who had originally proposed to destroy all humans, then arrives, furious that one of the humans had survived, since they had agreed to wipe out all humans. He accuses Ea of treachery, but Ea convinces Enlil to be merciful. Enlil then seizes Utnapishtim and his wife and blesses them with immortality. At the end of his story, Utnapishtim offers Gilgamesh a chance at immortality. If Gilgamesh can stay awake for six days and seven nights, he, too, will become immortal. Gilgamesh accepts these conditions and sits down on the shore; the instant he sits down he falls asleep. Utnapishtim tells his wife that all men are liars, that Gilgamesh will deny having fallen asleep, so he asks his wife to bake a loaf of bread every day and lay the loaf at Gilgamesh's feet. Gilgamesh sleeps without ever waking up for six days and seven nights, at which point Utnapishtim wakes him up. Startled, Gilgamesh says, "I only just dozed off for half a second here." Utnapishtim points out the loaves of bread, showing their states of decay from the most recent, fresh bread, to the oldest, moldy, stale bread that had been laid at his feet on the very first day. Gilgamesh is distraught. Utnapishtim's wife convinces the old man to have mercy on him; he offers Gilgamesh in place of immortality a secret plant that will make Gilgamesh young again. The plant is at the bottom of the ocean surrounding the Far-Away; Gilgamesh ties stones to his feet, sinks to the bottom, and plucks the magic plant. But he doesn't use it because he doesn't trust it; rather he decides to take it back to Uruk and test it out on an old man first, to make sure it works. On the way, they stop to eat and sleep; while they're sleeping, a snake slithers up and eats the magic plant (which is why snakes shed their skin) and crawls away. Gilgamesh awakens to find the plant gone; he falls to his knees and weeps: Tablet 12The tale ends with Gilgamesh, at the end of his journey standing before the gates of Uruk, inviting Urshanabi to look around and view the greatness of this city, its high walls, its masonwork, and here at the base of its gates, as the foundation of the city walls, a stone of lapis lazuli on which is carved Gilgamesh's account of his exploits. |