Gilgamesh (25 page)
p. 158,
When all the offerings were set out:
There is one additional offering, of an alabaster flask to “[Dumuzi]-abzu, blame-bearer of the underworld,” which I have omitted, along with a short, fragmentary passage.
p. 158,
After the funeral, Gilgamesh went out / from Uruk, into the wilderness / with matted hair, in a lion skin:
There is a gap at the end of Tablet VIII. I have added these lines.
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p. 159,
How can I bear this sorrow / that gnaws at my belly, this fear of death / that restlessly drives me onward? If only / I could find the one man whom the gods made immortal, / I would ask him how to overcome death:
Literally, “Sorrow has entered my heart. I have become afraid of death, so I roam the wilderness. I am on the road and will travel quickly to Utnapishtim, son of Ubartutu.” I have
omitted the following passage: “âWhen I arrived at night at mountain passes, I saw some lions and was afraid, I looked up and prayed to the moon, to [ ⦠] lamp of the gods: “O [Sîn and â¦,] keep me safe.”' [Gil-gamesh] arose, he woke up from the dream. [ ⦠] presence of the moon he rejoiced to be alive. He lifted the axe, he drew [the dagger from] his belt, he fell on them like an arrow, he struck the [lions, he] killed and scattered them.” The rest of the passage is fragmentary.
p. 159,
So Gilgamesh roamed, his heart full of anguish, / wandering, always eastward, in search / of Utnapishtim, whom the gods made immortal:
I have added these lines.
p. 161,
“Gilgamesh is my name,” he answered, / “I am the king of great-walled Uruk / and
have come here to find my ancestor / Utnapishtim, who joined the assembly / of the gods, and was granted eternal life. / He is my last hope. I want to ask him / how he managed to overcome death.”:
Literally, “[ ⦠] the [ ⦠] of my ancestor, Utnapishtim, who joined the assembly of the gods and [ ⦠], of death and life [ ⦠].”
pp. 161-63,
“No one is able / to cross the Twin Peaks, nor has anyone ever / entered the tunnel into which the sun / plunges when it sets and moves through the earth. / Inside the tunnel there is total darkness: / deep is the darkness, with no light at all.” // The scorpion woman said, “This brave man, / driven by despair, his body frost-chilled, / exhausted, and burnt by the desert sun-/ show him the way to Utnapishtim.” // The scorpion man said, “Ever downward / through the deep darkness the tunnel leads. / All will be pitch black before and behind you, / all will be pitch black to either side. / You must run through the tunnel faster than the wind. / You have just twelve hours. If you don't emerge / from the tunnel before the sun sets and enters, / you will find no refuge from its deadly fire. / Penetrate into the mountains' depths, / may the Twin Peaks lead you safely to your goal, / may they safely take you to the edge of the world. / The gate to the tunnel lies here before
you. / Go now in peace, and return in peace.”:
Literally, “âNever, Gilgamesh, has anyone [ ⦠], never has anyone [ ⦠] the mountain. Its interior [ ⦠] for twelve double hours (
or
twelve double leagues = 80 miles), the darkness is dense, there is no [light]. At the rising of the sun [ ⦠], at the setting of the [ ⦠]. At the setting of the [ ⦠] they sent forth [ ⦠] And you, how [ ⦠] Will you go [ ⦠]?'
[long gap]
âThrough sorrow [ ⦠], by cold and sunshine [ ⦠], through exhaustion [ ⦠]. Now you [ ⦠].' The scorpion-man [opened his mouth and said] to Gilgamesh [ ⦠], âGo, Gilgamesh [ ⦠] May the Twin Peaks [ ⦠] The mountain ranges [ ⦠] In safety may [ ⦠].'”
p. 162,
This brave man:
Following Foster, I have assigned this speech to the scorpion woman.
p. 163,
For a second and a third hour Gilgamesh ran, / deep was the darkness, with no light at all / before and behind him and to either side:
Literally, “For a second hour [he ran], deep was the darkness, [with no light at all], he could see [nothing in front and behind him]. For a third hour [he ran], [deep was the darkness, with no light at all, he could see nothing in front and behind him].” The same phrases are repeated for each of the twelve hours.
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p. 165,
her golden pot-stand and brewing vat:
Literally, “She had pot-stands, she had [ ⦠].” “It is conventional to restore the end of this line after the Hittite version, which states that Å iduri hadâ¦âa vat of gold'” (George,
BGE,
II, p. 868). “Some Mesopotamian drinking cups were conical, with
pointed bottoms, so they were set in a wooden rack to hold them up when they were full of liquid” (Foster, p. 72).
p. 166,
“Gilgamesh is my name,” he said. / “I am the king of great-walled Uruk. / I am the man who killed Humbaba / in the Cedar Forest, I am the man / who triumphed over the Bull of Heaven.” // Shiduri said, “Why are your cheeks so hollow:
Literally, “Gilgamesh spoke to her, to the tavern keeper: â[ ⦠] who killed the guardian, who seized the Bull of Heaven and killed the Bull of Heaven, who destroyed Humbaba in the Cedar Forest, who killed lions in the mountain passes.' The tavern keeper spoke to him, to Gilgamesh: â[If⦠] who killed the guardian, who seized the Bull of Heaven and killed the Bull of Heaven, who destroyed Humbaba in the Cedar Forest, who killed lions in the mountain passes, why are your cheeks hollowâ¦.'”
p. 167,
thinking, âIf my grief is violent enough, / perhaps he will come back to life again.':
From the Old Babylonian tablet reportedly from Sippar, OB VA+BM, l. ii 7.
pp. 168-69,
Shiduri said, “Gilgamesh, where are you roaming?
through
when my heart is sick for Enkidu who died?:
From OB VA+BM, ll. iii 1 ff.
p. 168,
Humans are born, they live, then they die, / this is the order that the gods have decreed. / But until the end comes, enjoy your life, / spend it in happiness, not despair:
I have added these lines.
p. 168,
make each of your days / a delight:
A common theme in ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature. The most famous example is Ecclesiastes 9:7-10: “Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with
a merry heart, for God has already accepted what you do. At all times let your garments be white, and let there be oil on your head. Live joyfully with the wife you love, all the days of your insubstantial life that he has given you under the sun, all your insubstantial days, for that is your portion in life and in the work you work at under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in the grave to which you are going.”
p. 170,
Stone Men:
I have followed the interpretation of Bottéro (the Akkadian word is often translated “Stone Things”). “This word remains a
crux
of
The Epic of Gilgameš.
It is not attested elsewhere. There is hardly any doubt that it refers to human beings or humanoids, since they accompany Urshanabi into the forest ⦠The famous myth called
Lugal-eâ¦
deals at length (but differently from here) with âstone men' = men changed into stone [more accurately, stones turned into servantsâS. M.]â¦The
âStone Ones'
are thus, in one way or another, like animated statues; that is also what the Hittite Version calls them ⦠We will see ⦠that they were indispensable for the crossing of the Waters of Death, undoubtedly because, being able, by their substance, to enter the deadly water with impunity, it was possible for them to push or pull the boat ⦠People have tried in various ways to rationalize these mysterious beings, by inferring, for example, that they are instruments or procedures of navigation: this is perhaps to forget that the story is pure myth!” (Bottéro, p. 170).
p. 170,
saw the axe flash, and he stood there, dazed. / Fear gripped the Stone Men who crewed the boat:
Literally, “he took his axe, he [ ⦠] him. But he, GilgameÅ , hit his (Urshanabi's) head [ â¦,] / he seized his arm and [ ⦠] his chest.
And the Stone Men [George: would seal] the boat, who did not fear the Waters of Death.”
p. 171,
Gilgamesh came back and stood before him
through
through the underworld, where the sun comes forth:
From OB VA+BM, ll. iv 2 ff. I have omitted the Standard Version's continuation, which is a word-for-word repetition of the portion of Gilgamesh's dialogue with Shiduri that begins “Why are your cheeks so hollow” and ends “And won't I have to lie down in the dirt / like him, and never arise again?” It is repeated a third time in the dialogue with Utnapishtim.
pp. 171-72,
since in your fury / you have smashed the Stone Men, who crewed my boat / and could not be injured by the Waters of Death:
From OB VA+BM, ll. iv 24-25.
p. 172,
But don't despair. There is one more way / we can cross the vast ocean:
I have added these lines.
p. 172,
a hundred feet:
Literally,
“5 ninda” (1 ninda
= 12 cubits), or 90 feet. “This was the maximum depth of the ocean bottom [beneath the Waters of Death]. Since he is stronger and more vigorous, Gilgameý⦠will handle the poles when the time comes, plunging each one in turn into the Waters to propel the boat, up to the moment when it is almost entirely immersed and, in order not to have any contact with the water it is drenched in, he will have to drop it and take another. In other words, the Waters of Death were neither very deep nor very extensive” (Bottéro, p. 174).
p. 172,
grips:
“A point of metal resembling a nipple and meant to give the pole a firmer grip on the ocean bottom, without risk of slipping” (Bottéro, p. 174).
pp. 172-73,
Now be careful, / take up the first pole, push us forward, / and do not touch the Waters of Death. / When you come to the end of the first pole, drop it, / take up a second and a third one, until / you come to the end of the three-hundredth pole / and the Waters of Death are well behind us:
Literally, “[Stand back], Gilgamesh. Take [the first pole], don't let your hand be touched by the Waters of Death. Take a second, a third, and a fourth pole, Gilgamesh, take a fifth, a sixth, and a seventh pole, Gilgamesh, take an eighth, a ninth, and a tenth pole, Gilgamesh, take an eleventh and a twelfth pole, Gilgamesh.”
pp. 173-74,
“Where are the Stone Men who crew the boat? / Why is there a stranger on board? / I have never seen him. Who can he be?” // Gilgamesh landed. When he saw the old man, / he said to him, “Tell me, where can I find / Utnapishtim, who joined the assembly / of the gods and was granted eternal life?”:
Literally, “âWhy have the boat's [ ⦠] been broken, and why is someone who is not its master aboard it? He who comes is no man of mine, and on the right [ ⦠]. I look, but he is no [man of] mine, I look, but he is no [ ⦠] I look, [ ⦠] me [ ⦠]. No [ ⦠] of mine [ ⦠]. The boatman [ ⦠] the man whom I [ ⦠], whom I watch is not [ ⦠] maybe the wilderness [ ⦠] the pine [ ⦠]' Gilgamesh approached the quay [ ⦠] he sent down [ ⦠] and he, he came up and he [ ⦠] Gilgamesh said to him, â[ ⦠] live Utnapishtim, son of Ubar[tutu]. [ ⦠] after the Flood which for [ ⦠] the Flood, what for [ ⦠].'”
p. 176,
let it be sealed shut with tar and pitch:
I have omitted two fragmentary lines that follow: “Because of me
[they] shall
not [ ⦠] the dancing, / because of me, happy and carefree,
they will â¦[ ⦠]”
(tr. George).
p. 177,
an old rope:
George's conjecture.
p. 177,
and a frantic, senseless, dissatisfied mind:
Literally (in George's translation): “Because he has no
advisors
[ â¦,] / (because) he has no words of counsel [ â¦â¦ ].”
p. 177,
At night the moon travels across the sky
through
the world is established, from ancient times:
I have moved these lines to a bit later in Utnapishtim's speech and have omitted a fragmentary passage.
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XI
p. 181,
when the great gods decided to send the Flood:
Two lines that occur later in Tablet XI imply that the Enlil's motivation was to punish men's evildoing: “do not allow all men / to die because of the sins of some” (“i.e., punish the guilty but not the innocent,” George,
BGE
II, p. 891). In this it resembles the Noah stories, both in the J version:
Now when the Lord saw how great the evil of humans was, and how every impulse in their hearts was nothing but evil all the time, he was sorry that he had made humans on the earth, and he was pained in his heart. And he said, “I will destroy all humankind from the earth: I am sorry I ever made them” (Genesis 6:5-7, from
Stephen Mitchell,
Genesis: A New Translation of the Classic Biblical Stories,
HarperCollins, 1996, p. 13).
and in the P version:
And the earth was exceedingly corrupt and filled with violence. And when God saw how corrupt the earth was and how corrupt humankind had become on the earth, God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to humankind, for the earth is filled with violence because of them: I am going to blot them out from the earth” (Genesis 6:11-13; ibid., p. 15).
The
Atrahasis,
however, in its sublimely ridiculous way, provides the following motivation:
The earth was too full, the people too numerous, the land was bellowing like a wild bull. Enlil said to the other great gods, “The noise of humans has become too loud, their constant uproar is keeping me awake.”
p. 181,
the Great Deep:
The vast, sweet-water, subterranean ocean (
apsû
in Akkadian) that was the domain of Ea; heaven and earth served as its roof.
p. 182,
They will all have all that they want, and more:
Literally, “a wealth of birds, a profusion of fish, he will pour upon you a rich harvest, in the morning he will rain bread cakes down on you, in the evening a torrent of wheat.”