Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh was an historical
king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in modern Iraq; he lived
about 2700 B.C. Although historians (and your textbook) tend to emphasize
Hammurabi and his code of law, the civilizations of the Tigris-Euphrates
area, among the first civilizations, focus rather 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; the Sumerian language, as far as we know, bears no relation to
any other human language we know about. These Sumerian Gilgamesh stories
were integrated into a longer poem, versions of which survive not only in
Akkadian (the Semitic language, related to Hebrew, spoken by the
Babylonians) but also on tablets written in Hurrian and Hittite (an
Indo-European language, a family of languages which includes Greek and
English, spoken in Asia Minor). 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!
This summary is derived from several sources: translations, commentaries,
and academic scholarship on the Shin-eqi-unninni tablets. Verses are
derived from several English and French translations in consultation with
the English and German language commentaries and with the Babylonian text.
For the entire text, you should turn to The Epic of Gilgamesh , trans. by
Maureen Gallery Kovacs (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), or
Gilgamesh , translated by John Maier and John Gardner (New York: Vintage,
1981)
As you read this short summary, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Themes. The first things you want to sort out are the ideas which seem
to animate the work. One of the problems with literature, art, mythology,
etc., is that you can never be quite sure that you've correctly identified
the central ideas or philosophy of the work, but you should take a stab at
it anyway. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as one and only one
idea in a work of literature, and that in most art and literature, like
life, there is no one correct answer concerning any single issue. To
identify an idea, question, or theme that the work seems to treat, look
for specific places where that idea seems to be a concern; mark these
passages and combine and contrast them when you begin to try to resolve
what the work seems to be about. The questions I provide in these reading
notes are meant to organize the families of questions you can bring to
these texts.
2. Structure. Try to define for yourself the overall structure of the
story. This narrative has two distinct parts; what are these parts and how
are they separated? How do events in the second part of the narrative
repeat or develop ideas in the first part of the narrative? Do these
events contrast with or develop themes and values articulated in the first
part of the narrative?
3. The Nature of the Heroic. When you read the myth, notice how Gilgamesh
is presented as superhuman, so powerful that the gods create a counterpart
to moderate his desires and actions. Do you get the sense that Gilgamesh
and Enkidu should have spared the demon of the cedar forest? Despite all
of Gilgamesh's power, he is unable to prevent Enkidu's death, and the
narrative changes direction. How can one describe Gilgamesh as a hero in
the last half of the work? What has he achieved at the end of the poem?
Why is this important?
4. The Gods. The gods in Gilgamesh are a bit problematic. How do the gods
behave? What is their relation to humans? How much freedom do humans have,
or are they merely subject to the will of these gods?
6. The Flood. The story
of the Flood is a familiar one, as we shall see in Genesis and Popol Vuh
(Plato also gives an account of the Flood and the city of Atlantis in the
dialogue, Critias ; the Nez Perce of the Palouse also have a flood story
in which the only humans that survived did so by climbing the mountain,
Yamustus, that is, Steptoe Butte). The earliest surviving reference to the
Flood goes back to 1900 B.C. Why is it brought in here? Why do the gods
bring on the Flood? Is any reason given? (Later compare the reasons for
the floods in Genesis and Popol Vuh.) What does it tell us about the
nature of history and the relation of the gods to humanity?
Tablet 1
The one who saw all [Sha nagba imuru
]I will declare to the world,
The one who knew all I will tell about
[line missing]
He saw the great Mystery, he knew the Hidden:
He recovered the knowledge of all the times before the Flood.
He journeyed beyond the distant, he journeyed beyond exhaustion,
And then carved his story on stone. [naru : stone tablets ]
This great hero who had all knowledge [nemequ
], 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 sexually 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.
Gilgamesh meanwhile has two dreams; in
the first a meteorite falls to earth which is so great that Gilgamesh can
neither lift it nor turn it. The people gather and celebrate around the
meteorite, and Gilgamesh embraces it as he would a wife, but his mother,
the goddess Rimat-Ninsun, forces him to compete with the meteorite. In the
second, Gilgamesh dreams that an axe appears at his door, so great that he
can neither lift it nor turn it. The people gather and celebrate around
the axe, and Gilgamesh embraces it as he would a wife, but his mother,
again, forces him to compete with the axe. Gilgamesh asks his mother what
these dreams might mean; she tells him a man of great force and strength
will come into Uruk. Gilgamesh will embrace this man as he would a wife,
and this man will help Gilgamesh perform great deeds.
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.
Gilgamesh, as the king, claims the right to have sexual intercourse first
with every new bride on the day of her wedding; as Enkidu enters the city,
Gilgamesh is about to claim that right. Infuriated at this abuse, Enkidu
stands in front of the door of the marital chamber and blocks Gilgamesh's
way. 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]
The elders of the city protest
Gilgamesh's endeavor, but agree reluctantly. They place the life of the
king in the hands of Enkidu, whom they insist shall take the forward
position in the battle with Humbaba. Gilgamesh's mother laments her son's
fate in a prayer to the sun-god, Shamash, asking that god why he put a
restless heart in the breast of her son. Shamash promises her that he will
watch out for Gilgamesh's life. Ramat-Ninsun, too, commands Enkidu to
guard the life of the king and to take the forward position in the battle
with Humbaba. In panic, Enkidu again tries to convince Gilgamesh not to
undertake this journey, but Gilgamesh is confident of success.
Tablet 4
Tablet four tells the story of the
journey to the cedar forest. On each day of the six day journey, Gilgamesh
prays to Shamash; in response to these prayers, Shamash sends Gilgamesh
oracular dreams during the night. These dreams are all ominous: The first
is not preserved. In the second, Gilgamesh dreams that he wrestles a great
bull that splits the ground with his breath. Enkidu interprets the dream
for Gilgamesh; the dream means that Shamash, the bull, will protect
Gilgamesh. In the third, Gilgamesh dreams:
The skies roared with thunder and the
earth heaved,
Then came darkness and a stillness like death.
Lightening smashed the ground and fires blazed out;
Death flooded from the skies.
When the heat died and the fires went out,
The plains had turned to ash.
Enkidu's interpretation is missing
here, but like the other dreams, it is assumed he puts a positive spin on
the dream. The fourth dream is missing, but Enkidu again tells Gilgamesh
that the dream portends success in the upcoming battle. The fifth dream is
also missing.
At the entrance to the Cedar Forest,
Gilgamesh begins to quake with fear; he prays to Shamash, reminding him
that he had promised Ninsun that he would be safe. Shamash calls down from
heaven, ordering him to enter the forest because Humbaba is not wearing
all his armor. The demon Humbaba wears seven coats of armor, but now he is
only wearing one so he is particularly vulnerable. Enkidu loses his
courage and turns back; Gilgamesh falls on him and they have a great
fight. Hearing the crash of their fighting, Humbaba comes stalking out of
the Cedar Forest to challenge the intruders. A large part of the tablet is
missing here. On the one part of the tablet still remaining, Gilgamesh
convinces Enkidu that they should stand to gether against the demon.
Tablet 5
Gilgamesh and Enkidu enter the
gloriously beautiful Cedar Forest and begin to cut down the trees. Hearing
the sound, Humbaba comes roaring up to them and warns them off. Enkidu
shouts at Humbaba that the two of them are much stronger than the demon,
but Humbaba, who knows Gilgamesh is a king, taunts the king for taking
orders from a nobody like Enkidu. Turning his face into a hideous mask,
Humbaba begins to threaten the pair, and Gilgamesh runs and hides. Enkidu
shouts at Gilgamesh, inspiring him with courage, and Gilgamesh appears
from hiding and the two begin their epic battle with Humbaba. Shamash
intrudes on the battle, helping the pair, and Humbaba is defeated. On his
knees, with Gilgamesh's sword at his throat, Humbaba begs for his life and
offers Gilgamesh all the tress in the forest and his eternal servitude.
While Gilgamesh is thinking this over, Enkidu intervenes, telling
Gilgamesh to kill Humbaba before any of the gods arrive and stop him from
doing so. Should he kill Humbaba, he will achieve widespread fame for all
the times to come. Gilgamesh, with a great sweep of his sword, removes
Humbaba's head. But before he dies, Humbaba screams out a curse on Enkidu:
"Of you two, may Enkidu not live the longer, may Enkidu not find any peace
in this world!"
Gilgamesh and Enkidu cut down the cedar
forest and in particular the tallest of the cedar trees to make a great
cedar gate for the city of Uruk. They build a raft out of the cedar and
float down the Euphrates river to their city.
Tablet 6
After these events, Gilgamesh, his fame
widespread and his frame resplendent in his wealthy clothes, attracts the
sexual 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 Heaven
To kill Gilgamesh and his city.
For if you do not grant me the Bull of Heaven,
I will pull down the Gates of Hell itself,
Crush the doorposts and flatten the door,
And I will let the dead leave
And let the dead roam the earth
And they shall eat the living.
The dead will overwhelm all the living!
Anu 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 7
Enkidu falls ill after having a set of
ominous dreams; he finds out from the priests that he has been singled out
for vengeance by the gods. The Chief Gods have met and have decided that
someone should be punished for the killing of Humbaba and the killing of
the Bull of Heaven, so 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. Shamhash reminds him that, even though his life has been
short, he has enjoyed the fruits of civilization and known great
happiness. Enkidu then blesses the harlot and the trapper. In a dream, a
great demon comes to take Enkidu and drags him to Hell, a House of Dust
where all the dead end up; as he is dying, he describes Hell:
The house where the dead dwell in total
darkness,
Where they drink dirt and eat stone,
Where they wear feathers like birds,
Where no light ever invades their everlasting darkness,
Where the door and the lock of Hell is coated with thick dust.
When I entered the House of Dust,
On every side the crowns of kings were heaped,
On every side the voices of the kings who wore those crowns,
Who now only served food to the gods Anu and Enlil,
Candy, meat, and water poured from skins.
I saw sitting in this House of Dust a priest and a servant,
I also saw a priest of purification and a priest of ecstasy,
I saw all the priests of the great gods.
There sat Etana and Sumukan,
There sat Ereshkigal, the queen of Hell,
Beletseri, the scribe of Hell, sitting before her.
Beletseri held a tablet and read it to Ereshkigal.
She slowly raised her head when she noticed me
She pointed at me:
"Who has sent this man?"
Enkidu commends himself to Gilgamesh,
and after suffering terribly for twelve days, he 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 9
Gilgamesh 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.
Utnapishtim was the great king of the world before the Flood and, with his
wife, was the only mortal preserved by the gods during the Flood. After an
ominous dream, Gilgamesh sets out. He arrives at Mount Mashu, which guards
the rising and the setting of the sun, and encounters two large scorpions
who guard the way past Mount Mashu. They try to convince him that his
journey is futile and fraught with danger, but still they allow him to
pass. Past Mount Mashu is the land of Night, where no light ever appears.
Gilgamesh journeys eleven leagues before the light begins to glimmer,
after twelve leagues he has emerged into day. He enters into a brilliant
garden of gems, where every tree bears precious stones.
Tablet 10
Gilgamesh comes to a tavern by the
ocean shore; the tavern is kept by Siduri. Frightened by Gilgamesh's
ragged appearance, Siduri locks the tavern door and refuses to let
Gilgamesh in. Gilgamesh proves his identity and asks Siduri how to find
Utnapishtim. Like the giant scorpions, she tells him that his journey is
futile and fraught with dangers. However, she directs him to Urshanabi,
the ferryman, who works for Utnapishtim. Gilgamesh approaches Urshanabi
with great arrogance and violence and in the process destroys the "stone
things" that are somehow critical for the journey to Utnapishtim. When
Gilgamesh demands to be taken to Utnapishtim, the ferryman tells him that
it is now impossible, since the "stone things" have been destroyed.
Nevertheless, he advises Gilgamesh to cut several trees down to serve as
punting poles; the waters they are to cross are the Waters of Death,
should any mortal touch the waters, that man will instantly die. With the
punting poles, Gilgamesh can push the boat and never touch the dangerous
waters.
After 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 counsel of 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 Utnapishtim's house, thus not technically
violating his oath to the rest of the gods. He advised the walls of
Utnapishtim's house 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. Utnapishtim 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,
Ishtar screamed and wailed:
"The days of old have turned to stone:
We have decided evil things in our Assembly!
Why did we decide those evil things in our Assembly?
Why did we decide to destroy our people?
We have only just now created our beloved humans;
We now destroy them in the sea!"
All the gods wept and wailed along with her,
All the gods sat trembling, and wept.
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. Utnapishtim then falls to his knees and weeps.
Utnapishtim's boat comes to rest on the
top of Mount Nimush; the boat 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,
It flew off, but circled around and returned,
For it could find no perch.
I then released a swallow from the boat,
It flew off, but circled around and returned,
For it could find no perch.
I then released a raven from the boat,
It flew off, and the waters had receded:
It eats, it scratches the ground, but it does not circle around and
return.
I then sent out all the living things in every direction and sacrificed
a sheep on that very spot.
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:
At one time Utnapishtim was mortal.
At this time let him be a god and immortal;
Let him live in the far away at the source of all the rivers.
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:
O woe! What do I do now, where do I go
now?
Death has devoured my body,
Death dwells in my body,
Wherever I go, wherever I look, there stands Death!
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.
Urshanabi takes him across the Waters
of Death. Several leagues inland, Gilgamesh and Urshanabi 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:
For whom have I labored? For whom have I
journeyed?
For whom have I suffered?
I have gained absolutely nothing for myself,
I have only profited the snake, the ground lion!
The 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.
Richard Hooker
