[blackiris2009]

Epic of Gilgamesh
Summary by Michael McGoodwin, prepared 2001, revised 2006
Acknowledgement: This work has been summarized using The Epic of Gilgamesh, Penguin Classics 2000, translated from the original cuneiform by Andrew George. Quotations are for the most part taken from that work, as are paraphrases of his commentary. Some text drawn from a webpage by Richard Hooker (no longer available on the Web) and other Web sources are indicated in context. In 2006, I also read the new adaptation of Gilgamesh prepared by Stephen Mitchell (who does not read cuneiform or Akkadian, and therefore relied on the literal translations of others). While the Mitchell work is intended to be quite readable, it takes considerable liberties and poetic license with the source materials, and in general I prefer the more scholarly style and transparent presentation of the comprehensive Penguin edition.
Overall Impression: This is a primitive but interesting work of historical importance because of its very early position in world literature.
Notes Per Andrew George and various Web sources: The Gilgamesh epic is ostensibly about an actual Sumerian king Bilgamesh/Bilgames/Gilgamesh of Uruk/Erech in Sumer (SE Mesopotamia) who is said to have reigned c. 2750 BCE as the 5th ruler of the first dynasty of Uruk. He became a cult figure of worship during the Old Akkadian Empire c. 2350 BCE (somewhat analogous to King Arthur) and presumably there were oral versions of the poems in Sumerian and Akkadian predating the written ones.
Sumerian versions: There are 5 extant separate poems written in Sumerian cuneiform and lacking common themes but providing episodes about "Bilgames" (i.e., Gilgamesh). These include Bilgames and the Netherworld, which begins "In those days, in those far-off days..." as well as Bilgames and Akka, Bilgames and Huwawa, Bilgames and the Bull of Heaven, and The Death of Bilgames.
The oldest known copies of these Sumerian versions were written down as royal court entertainment c. 2100 in the reign of the Third dynasty of Ur and King Shulgi. This was during a "Sumerian renaissance" following the Old Akkadian Empire and occurred long after the invention of writing in cuneiform (the first Sumerian writing dates to c. 3000 BCE, the first recorded literature c. 2600 BCE). Many copies in Sumerian were created later in the Old Babylonian kingdom c. 1800 by Babylonian scribes at Ur and Nippur. Copying Gilgamesh in Sumerian in fact was a common scribal exercise in Old Babylonia (e.g., in the reign of King Hammurapi). A separate poem in Sumerian about Atramhasis, "When the gods were man", once mistakenly thought to be part of Gilgamesh, provides the basis for the Deluge tale incorporated into the Babylonian version of Gilgamesh. Compared to Akkadian, Sumerian was an older and linguistically unrelated language which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia. It arose by 3100 BCE and had its classical period from 2600 - 2300 BCE. Old Akkadian (which flourished c. 2800-2500 BCE) coexisted with Classical Sumerian. Sumerian had predominated in the urban south, whereas Akkadian initially predominated in the north. But by 1800 BCE, Sumerian had died out as a spoken language, though it retained prestige as a written literary language of learning (similar to the later literary roles of Greek and Latin).
Old Babylonian version: The fragmentary version of Gilgamesh in Old Babylonian (a dialect of Akkadian) beginning "Surpassing all other kings" dates to c. 1700 and shows there was already an integrated epic by then. Akkadian (i.e., Babylonian-Assyrian) is a family of Semitic dialects initially favored in the more provincial north of Mesopotamia, but eventually becoming the lingua franca of all of Mesopotamia. Dialects of Akkadian included Old Akkadian 2500 - 1950 BCE; Old Babylonian 1950 - 1530 BCE; Old Assyrian 1950 - 1750 BCE; Middle Babylonian 1530 - 1000 BCE; Middle Assyrian 1500 - 1000 BCE; New Babylonian 1000 - 625 BCE; New Assyrian 1000 - 600 BCE; and Late Babylonian 625 BCE to 0 (data taken from John Heise's Akkadian language).
Standard version: The standard version of Gilgamesh in Babylonia and Assyria is called "He who saw the Deep", and was compiled and given its final form by Sin-liqe-uninni c. 1200 BCE. It is written in a dialect of Akkadian termed Middle Babylonian (also called Standard Babylonian). It is a damaged masterpiece full of holes and missing parts and uncertain words and phrases. The author (George) fills in some of the missing text from other copies from various earlier times and even from other languages (e.g., a Hittite version). There are 11 "tablets" in the "Series of Gilgamesh" totaling originally c. 3000 lines. What was once thought to be tablet 12 is actually a line-by-line translation into Akkadian of the last 1/2 of the Sumerian-language Bilgames poem "Bilgames and the Netherworld."
The great royal libraries contributing cuneiform manuscripts included that of Ashurbanipal (who reigned 668 - 627 BCE during part of the Neo-Assyrian empire era) in Nineveh in Assyria. This library contained tablets written in the reign of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser I (1115 - 1077). Nineveh was sacked by the Medians and Neo-Babylonians in 612 BCE, destroying many of these tablets. By the era of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, spoken Akkadian began to die out in favor of Aramaic and other languages.
Themes of Gilgamesh include the fear of death, human longing for life and eternal renown, the path to wisdom, learning to face reality and growing up, youth versus age, life and death, the proper duties of kingship, man's responsibilities to his family, the benefits of civilization over savagery, the rewards of friendship, the nobility of heroic enterprise, the vanity of the hero's quest and the folly of the pursuit of immortality, the tale of the Deluge/Flood, and the gloomy realm of the dead. This is more a story about a human and the human condition than a mythology of the gods.
Gilgamesh (pron. "gil-GA-mesh"; Sumerian: Bilgames) is semi-divine but nonetheless mortal. The Babylonians believed that humans existed to serve the gods.
The principle deities involved in Gilgamesh are as follows [information partly taken from www.pantheon.org, and mixing the Sumerian and Babylonian pantheons somewhat; "~" signifies differing versions exist]:

• Adad (Wer; Sumerian: Ishkur): God of the storm, son of Anu.
• ANU (Sumerian: An="heaven"): God of the sky, father of the gods (particularly Enlil and Aruru); ~Ishtar's father by his first consort Antu/Anatum; son of Ansar and Kisar.
• ARURU, Belet-ili ("Lady of the Gods"), Mammitum, Mami, Ninhursanga, (Sumerian: Ninhursag "Queen of the Mountains", Ki, Ninmah "Exalted Lady", Nintu "Lady who gave birth"): the Mother Goddess who created man with Ea's help. That is, she gave birth to the first men, to take up the yoke imposed by Enlil, her brother [or ~spouse]. The clay she was given by Ea was accidentally mixed with a god's blood, thus imparting to man the divine elements of reason and self-consciousness. She and An were probably the progenitors of most of the gods.
• EA (Nudimmud="Man fashioner"; Sumerian: Enki): Clever god who lives in the freshwater Ocean Below (Babylonian: Apsu, the "Great Deep"), sent the Seven Sages to civilize mankind, and saved mankind from Enlil's wrath; son of Ansar and Kisar. Enki was god of intellect, creation, wisdom and medicine, etc.
• ENLIL ("Lord Wind"; Kur-gal; Ellil): the ruling god on earth and its humans; son of An (heaven) and Ki (earth). Consort is Ninlil. Father of Sin.
• Ereshkigal ("Mistress of the Great Earth"; Irkalla; Allatu): bitter queen of the Netherworld; ~sister of Ishtar; rules with consort Nergal; or [Sumerian] married to Gugalanna.
• ISHTAR (pron. "ISH-tar"; also Irnini; Sumerian: Inanna="Queen of Heaven"): goddess of sexual love and war; the Babylonian Venus; daughter [or consort of ] Anu and Antu (or for Sumerians of the Moon God Sin and Nanna).
• Namtar ("Doom"): her minister or vizier and the angel of death.
• SHAMASH (pron. "SHAM-ash"; Babbar; Sumerian: Utu): Sun god; son of Sin and Ningal; patron of travelers and Gilgamesh's special protector; believed to be brother of Ishtar in Ur; wife/consort is Aya/Aia goddess of Dawn.
• Sin (Namra-Sit, Sumerian: Nanna): Moon god, ~son of Enlil and the raped Ninlil; father of Utu/Shamash and (as believed in Ur) Ishtar; married to Ningal.

Other human and divine figures include:

• Ashur (A-sir, Arusar, A-shar, Assur): god of Assyria and war. He is a "King of the Igigi".
• Belet-seri (Beletseri): scribe to Ereshkigal in Netherworld.
• Dumuzi (Damuzi; Sumerian: Tammuz=Akkadian vegetation god; ~Adonis): former lover, ~brother, and husband of Ishtar, punished by annual death for 6 months in summer and descent to the underworld; son of Ea.
• ENKIDU (pron. "en-KI-du"; "Lord of the Pleasant Place", or "Enki's (i.e., Ea's) creation" ): wild man made by gods as Gilgamesh's equal in Babylonian tradition (or as his servant in Sumerian tradition). Stressed syllable is "ki".
• Errakal: a manifestation of Nergal as a god of wanton destruction.
• HUMBABA (pron. "hum-BA-ba"; Sumerian Huwawa): monstrous guardian of the Forest of Cedar.
• Lugalbanda ("Little Lord"): deified father of Gilgamesh.
• Marduk: son of Ea and Dumkina; eventually the central god of Babylon but minor in Gilgamesh. Bel ("Lord", Canaanite: Baal) may be the same god.
• Nergal (Erragal, Erra, Engidudu): god of plague and war, later husband of Ereshkigal; lover of Mami.
• Ninazu ("Lord Doctor"): Ereshkigal's son.
• Ningal ("Great lady"; Nikkal): wife of moon, mother of the sun Utu/Shamash.
• Ningishzida ("Lord of the True Tree"): chamberlain to Ereshkigal.
• NINSUN (pron. "NIN-sun"; "Lady/Queen of the Wild Cow"): Gilgamesh's mother; a minor goddess.
• Ninurta ("Lord Earth"): son of Enlil.
• Scorpion-man (aqrabuamelu; girtablilu): the guardians of the gates of the underworld.
• SHAMHAT (pron. "SHAM-hat", meaning "Well-endowed"; Shamkatum): cultic prostitute.
• SHIDURI (pron. "shi-DU-ri"; "She is my rampart"): goddess who runs alehouse at the edge of the world. ~ a manifestation of Ishtar.
• Shulpae ("Manifest hero"): husband of Mother Goddess.
• Thunderbird (Anzu).
• Ur-Shanabi (pron. "ur-shan-A-bi") Old Babylonian: Sursunabu): The boatman of Uta-Napishti who ferries daily across the waters of death which divide the garden of the sun from the paradise where Utnapishtim lives for ever (the Sumerian Dilmun). By accepting Gilgamesh as a passenger he forfeits this right, and accompanies Gilgamesh back to Uruk instead.
• UTA-NAPISHTI (pron. "U-ta-na-PISH-ti", meaning "I Found life"; Atra-napishti; Utnapishtim; Atram-hasis; Atrahasis; Sumerian: Ziusudra="Life of Distant Days"): King (or wiseman) of Shurappak who survived the Deluge and was made immortal; son of Ubar-Tutu. In the separate Sumerian work "Instructions of Shuruppak" 26C BC, [he or] his father is Utnapishtim of Shuruppak son of Ubar-Tutu/Ubaratutu.

The Annunaki (Sumerian: Anunna) were the gods [mostly] of the Netherworld taken together; the Igigi were the gods [mostly] of the heavens.
"In Babylonian myths, Tiamat [primitive chaos] is a huge, bloated female dragon that personifies the saltwater ocean, the water of Chaos. She is also the primordial mother of all that exists, including the gods themselves. Her consort is Apsu, the personification of the freshwater abyss that lies beneath the Earth. From their union, saltwater with freshwater, the first pair of gods were born. They are Lachmu [Lahmu] and Lachamu [Lahamu] > parents of Ansar [Anshar] and Kisar [Kishar] > parents of Anu and Ea." [modified from www.pantheon.org]
Summary of the standard version of Gilgamesh
by Sin-liqe-uninni c. 1200 BCE:
"He who saw the Deep"


Tablet 1: Gilgamesh's reign, his prowess and tyranny; Creation of his rival Enkidu

The story begins as if by a narrator of a later era. Gilgamesh had all knowledge and wisdom, he was "he who saw the Deep" [Deep=nagbu, the cosmic domain of the god of wisdom, Ea], "surpassing all other kings". He built the walls of the great city of Uruk/Erech (in Sumeria, near Ur and modern Basra), and the temple Eanna within dedicated to Ishtar and Anu. He had all his labors and exploits carved in a lapis lazuli tablet. The tablet invites us to view the greatness of this city, its high walls, the foundations laid by the Seven Sages, etc. The story begins when Gilgamesh is a young king:
He is the son of [the now deified] King Lugalbanda and Ninsun ("Lady/Queen of the Wild Cow", a minor goddess), "2/3 of him god", with human form given by Lady of the Gods (Aruru, Belet-ili, Mother Goddess) and perfected by Nudimmud (Ea). He is a man of great beauty and physical prowess. He dug wells [oases] and restored the cult worship centers destroyed by the Flood.
However, he is young and oppresses his people harshly with tyranny, claiming the jus primae noctis with each bride, and constantly staging contests that apparently harass or humiliate the young men. The people call out to the sky-god Anu, the chief god of the city (and Father of the gods), to help them. In response, Anu tells the people to summon Aruru (Belet-ili, the Mother Goddess) to create a wild man, Enkidu, out in the harsh and wild forests surrounding Gilgamesh's lands. This brute Enkidu is equal in strength to Gilgamesh and is to serve as his rival to give Uruk some rest.
A hunter/trapper soon discovers Enkidu running naked roaming, grazing, and gathering at the water hole with the wild animals. The hunter's father advises him to go into the city and take the temple harlot 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 and the animals will abandon him.
The hunter goes to Uruk and tells this story to Gilgamesh--he gives him the same advice as his father had, to take Shamhat to entice Enkidu.
Shamhat, encouraged by the hunter, meets Enkidu at the watering-hole where all the wild animals gather; she offers herself to him and he partakes nonstop for 6 days and 7 nights. The animals then shun him and he feels weakened and defiled, but he has gained reason and understanding. She offers to take him to Uruk and its temple to see all the joys of civilization--she offers to show him Gilgamesh, whom divine Shamash (the sun god) loves.
Shamhat tells Enkidu of Gilgamesh's two dreams which anticipated the arrival of Enkidu-Gilgamesh related these to his mother Ninsun: In the first a meteorite falls to earth which is so great that Gilgamesh can neither lift it nor turn it. The people gather around the meteorite, and Gilgamesh embraces it as he would a wife. His mother interprets that a comrade will come to him who will save him and whom she will make his equal. In the second, Gilgamesh dreams that an axe appears in a street. The people gather around the axe, and Gilgamesh embraces it as he would a wife. His mother again prophesies that a comrade will come to him who will save him and whom she will make his equal. Gilgamesh welcomes receiving the man who will counsel him.

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