Gilgamesh (23 page)
pp. 118-19,
He said to Gilgamesh, “Dear friend, I cannot / continue, I am frightened, I cannot go on. / You go into the dreadful forest, /
you
kill Humbaba and win the fame. / I will return now to great-walled Uruk, / and all men will know what a coward I have been.”:
This passage is an expansion of a single line (104) from “Gil-gamesh and Huwawa”: “Gilgamesh, you go further up into the mountains, but I will go back to the city.”
p. 119,
Gilgamesh answered, “Dear friend, dear brother, / I cannot kill Humbaba alone. / Please stay here with me. Stand at my side:
I have added these lines.
p. 119,
âTwo boats lashed together will never sink. / A three-ply rope is not easily broken.' / If we help each other and fight side by side, / what harm can come to us? Let us go on / and attack the monster. We have come so far. / Whatever you are feeling, let us go on:
From “Gilgamesh and Huwawa,” ll. 107 ff. Literally, “Enkidu, two people together will not die. A man tied to his boat will not drown. No one can tear apart a three-ply cloth. Water can't wash someone away from a city wall. Fire in a reed house can't be extinguished. If you help me and I help you, what can anyone do against us? When a boat sinks, when a boat sinks, when a boat headed for Magan sinks, when the
magilum
barge
sinks, the boat that is lashed tight to another boat holds steady. Come now, let us go to him and see him face to face.”
p. 119,
Two boats lashed together will never sink. / A three-ply rope is not easily broken:
These two expressions are proverbial. The second was still proverbial more than fifteen hundred years after “Gilgamesh and Huwawa,” as we can see from Ecclesiastes 4:9-12: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if one of them falls, the other will lift him up; but how unfortunate is he who is alone when he falls and doesn't have another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they are warm; but how can one be warm alone? And though someone might prevail against a man who is alone, two can withstand him. A three-ply rope is not quickly broken.”
pp. 119-20,
Enkidu said, “You have never met him, / so you don't know the horror that lurks ahead. / But when I saw him, my blood ran cold. / His teeth are knife-sharp, they stick out like tusks, / his face, blood-smeared, is a lion's face, / he charges ahead like a raging torrent, / his forehead ablaze. Who can withstand him? / I am terrified. I cannot go on.”:
From “Gilgamesh and Huwawa,” ll. 98 ff. Literally, “Since you haven't seen him, he doesn't frighten you. But I have seen him and he terrified me. His teeth are dragon's teeth, his face is a lion's face, his chest is a raging torrent, his forehead is a fire that devours the reed thickets and no one can escape it.”
pp. 120-21,
Gilgamesh said, “Courage, dear brother
through
we will stamp our fame on men's minds forever.”:
I have transferred this passage here from the end of Tablet IV.
p. 121,
They walked deep into the Cedar Forest, / gripping their axes, their knives unsheathed, / following the trail that Humbaba had made:
I have added these lines.
p. 121,
They came within sight of the monster's den. / He was waiting inside it. Their blood ran cold. / He saw the two friends, he grimaced, he bared / his teeth, he let out a deafening roar. / He glared at Gilgamesh. “Young man,” he said, / “you will never go home. Prepare to die.” / Dread surged through Gilgamesh, terror flooded / his muscles, his heart froze, his mouth went dry, / his legs shook, his feet were rooted to the ground:
From “Gil-gamesh and Huwawa,” ll. 122 ff. Literally, “Huwawa sat in his house among the cedars. He glared at Gilgamesh and Enkidu, it was the look of death. He shook his head at them, it was the sign of doom. When he spoke, his words were few: âYou, young man, will never return to the city where your mother gave birth to you.' Fear and terror spread through Gilgamesh's muscles and limbs, his feet were rooted to the ground.”
pp. 121-22,
“Dear friend, great warrior, noble hero, / don't lose courage:
From “Gil-gamesh and Huwawa,” ll. 130 ff. Literally, “Powerful champion, noble hero, delight of the gods, strong bull charging to battle, your mother knew well how to bear a son, your wet nurse knew well how to nourish a child at her breast. Do not be afraid, rest your hands on the ground.”
p. 122,
remember this: / âTwo boats lashed together will never sink. / A three-ply rope is not easily broken.' / If we help each other and fight side by side, / what harm can come to us? Let us go on:
I have repeated this from an earlier passage.
p. 122,
They advanced to the monster's den. Humbaba / charged out roaring at them and said:
I have added these lines.
p. 122,
I will tear you limb from limb, I will crush you / and leave you bloody and mangled on the ground:
I have added these lines.
p. 123,
you both stand before me looking like a pair / of frightened girls:
Literally, “You stand here a hostile stranger.”
p. 123,
How dreadful Humbaba's face has become! / It is changing into a thousand nightmare / faces, more horrible than I can bear. / I feel haunted. I am too afraid to go on:
Literally, “My friend, Humbaba's face has changed. We marched like heroes toward his [den] to defeat him, but the heart that grew frightened doesn't grow calm in a moment.”
pp. 123-24,
We must not hesitate or retreat. / Two intimate friends cannot be defeated. / Be courageous. Remember how strong you are. / I will stand by you. Now let us attack:
Literally (in George's translation), “Now, my friend, there is a single ⦠/ To gather up the copper (ingots) from the channel moulds of the copper founder? / To blow on the coals for a double hour, to ⦠what is alight for a double hour? / To send the Deluge is to crack the whip! / [Do not] pull back your foot, do not make a retreat! [ ⦠] ⦠make your blow good and strong!”
p. 124,
Gilgamesh felt his courage return:
I have added this line.
p. 124,
They charged at Humbaba like two wild bulls
through
his roar boomed forth
like a blast of thunder:
I have transferred this passage here from the end of Tablet IV.
p. 124,
split the mountains of Lebanon:
“Lebanon and Hermon are separated by a deep crevasse (the Rift Valley) which continues to the Gulf of Aqaba and beyond. By a new imaginary etiology, the authors of this passage seem to have put in terms of cause and effect the struggle of the giants and this geological state of things” (Bottéro, p. 115).
p. 124,
a sulfurous fog / descended on them and made their eyes ache:
Literally, “death rained down on them like a mist.”
p. 125,
Humbaba said, “Gilgamesh, have mercy. / Let me live here in the Cedar Forest. / If you spare my life, I will be your slave, / I will give you as many cedars as you wish. / You are king of Uruk by the grace of Shamash, / honor him with a cedar temple / and a glorious cedar palace for yourself. / All this is yours, if only you spare me.”:
Literally, “Begging for his life, Humbaba said to Gilgamesh, âYou are so young, Gilgamesh, your mother gave birth to you and indeed you are the son of [Ninsun, the Lady of the Wild Cows]. [ ⦠] the command of Shamash, lord of the mountain: “Gilgamesh, the heir of Uruk, will be king.” [ ⦠] Gilgamesh, a dead man can't [ ⦠], a living [ ⦠] his master. Spare my life, Gilgamesh [ ⦠] Let me dwell here for you in [ ⦠] as many trees as you wish [ ⦠], I will guard the myrtle for you, the [ ⦠], timber, the pride of a palace.'”
pp. 125-26,
“If any mortal, / Enkidu, knows the rules of my forest, / it is you. You know that this is my place / and that I am the forest's guardian. Enlil / put me here to terrify men, / and I guard the forest as Enlil ordains. / If you kill me, you will call down the gods' / wrath, and their judgment will be severe:
Literally, “You know the rules of my forest, the rules of [ ⦠], so you understand what has been ordained.”
p. 126,
Shamash in Larsa:
There is an alternate reading: “Shamash in Sippar.”
p. 126,
who killed Humbaba in the Cedar Forest:
Here I have omitted two brief fragmentary passages and a repetition of the passage that begins “Enkidu said, âDear friend, quickly'” and ends with “âwho killed Humbaba in the Cedar Forest.'”
pp. 127-28,
Knowing he was doomed, Humbaba cried out, / “I curse you both. Because you have done this, / may Enkidu die, may he die in great pain, / may Gilgamesh be inconsolable, / may his merciless heart be crushed with grief.” // Gilgamesh dropped his axe, appalled. / Enkidu said, “Courage, dear friend. / Close your ears to Humbaba's curses. / Don't listen to a word. Slaughter him! Now!” // Gilgamesh, hearing his beloved friend, / came to himself. He yelled, he lifted / his massive axe, he swung it, it tore / into Humbaba's neck, the blood / shot out, again the axe bit flesh / and bone, the monster staggered, his eyes / rolled, and at the axe's third stroke / he toppled like a cedar and crashed to the ground. / At his death-roar the mountains of Lebanon shook, / the valleys ran with his blood, for ten miles / the forest resounded. Then the two friends / sliced him open, pulled out his intestines, / cut off his head with its knife-sharp teeth / and horrible bloodshot staring eyes. / A gentle rain fell onto the mountains. / A gentle rain fell onto the mountains:
Literally “âMay they never [ ⦠] May the two of them not grow old, and, like his friend Gilgamesh, may Enkidu have no one to bury him.' Enkidu opened his mouth and said to Gilgamesh, âMy friend, I speak to you, but you don't listen to me. Until the curse [ ⦠] to his mouth.' [ ⦠] of his friend, he drew the knife at his side, Gilgamesh [struck him] in the neck, Enkidu [ ⦠] until he pulled out the lungs. [ ⦠] jumping up, [from] the head he took the tusks as a prize. [ ⦠] in abundance fell on the mountain, [ ⦠] in abundance fell on the mountain.” To the Standard Version of this passage I have added a passage from the Old Babylonian excerpt tablet from
Nërebtum, OB Ishchali, reverse, ll. 25' ff.: “the valleys ran with his blood, he struck Huwawa the guardian to the ground, for two leagues [ ⦠] in the distance. With him he struck [ ⦠], the forests [ ⦠], he killed the monster, the forest's guardian, at whose shout Sirion and Lebanon were split apart, [ ⦠] the mountains [ ⦠] all the highlands trembled.”
p. 128,
A gentle rain fell onto the mountains:
“Rain” is a conjecture of Tournay and Shaffer.
p. 128,
They took their axes and penetrated / deeper into the forest:
From OB Ishchali, reverse, l. 37'.
p. 128,
they went / chopping down cedars, the woods chips flew, / Gilgamesh chopped down the mighty trees, / Enkidu hewed the trunks into timbers:
Literally, “[ ⦠] one-fifth of a cubit was the [ ⦠] of their (cedar) shavings. Gilgamesh cut down the trees, Enkidu chose the best timber.”
pp. 128-29,
Enkidu said, “By your great strength through may it be a joy to the people of Nippur.”:
From the Old Babylonian tablet at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, OB IM, ll. 19 ff.
Book VI
p. 130,
he took off his filthy, blood-spattered clothes, / put on a tunic of the finest wool, / wrapped himself in a glorious gold-trimmed / purple robe and fastened it with / a wide fringed belt, then put on his crown:
Literally, “He took off his filthy clothes, he put on clean ones, he wrapped himself in a royal robe, tied on a wide
belt. Gilgamesh put on his crown.” “The purple candys embroidered with gold was reserved for the king” (Wilcox,
The Mode in Costume
).
p. 130,
The goddess Ishtar caught sight of him, / she saw how splendid a man he was, / her heart was smitten, her loins caught fire:
Literally, “The princess Ishtar looked with desire on Gilgamesh's beauty.”
p. 130,
marry me:
“Probably as a ruse, and to attract him to her bed, since she has never been either a wife or a mother in the proper sense of the word, Ishtar proposes a real marriage. Thus, before referring to all the claims of gifts that she will demand, he will later ironically bring up the question of the compensatory payment (called ter£atu) that the future husband or his family has to make to the family of the future wife” (Bottéro, p. 123).
p. 131,
I will give you abundance beyond your dreams: / marble and alabaster, ivory and jade:
I have added these lines.
p. 131,
servants with blue-green eyes:
I have followed Tournay and Shaffer in adding this phrase from MB Bo¢2, reverse, l. 7.
p. 131,
guide-horns of amber:
“The âhorns' of a chariot are probably the yoke terminals, which are made of alabaster on Egyptian New Kingdom chariots, and in Middle Bronze Age tablets from Mari. elmëÃu-stone: a lustrous, precious, semi-mythical stone, possibly amber, often used with rock crystal” (Dalley, p. 129).
p. 131,
storm-demons:
“The
ümu â¦
is the lion-headed monster that pulls the chariots of the storm god Adad, the sun, the warriors Ninurta and Mar-duk and the warlike IÃtar” (George,
BGE,
II, p. 830).
p. 131,
And I will bless everything that you own ⦠These are the least of the gifts I will shower / upon you. Come here. Be my sweet man:
I have added these lines.
p. 132,
Gilgamesh said, “Your price is too high, / such riches are far beyond my means. / Tell me, how could I ever repay you, / even if I give you jewels, perfumes, / rich robes? And what will happen to me / when your heart turns elsewhere and your lust burns out?:
Literally (in Foster's translation), “[What shall I give you] if I take you to wife? / [Shall I give you] a headdress (?) for your person, or clothing? / [Shall I give you] bread or drink? / [Shall I give you] food worthy of divinity? / [Shall I give you] drink, worthy of queenship? / Shall I bind [ ⦠]? / Shall I heap up [ ⦠]? / [ ⦠] for a garment?”