Gilgamesh

Prologue

Gilgamesh was made by gifts of Shamash (beauty) and Adad (courage), a combination of sun and storm. His other third is mortality.

Emphasis in the Prologue is laid on Gilgamesh as builder as well as a man of faith, courage, and beauty. He is an insuperable model.

The Coming of Enkidu

The people want a king who is like a shepherd.

The second paragraph already shows evidence of an oral tradition.

Enkidu serves as a doppelganger of Gilgamesh.

Enkidu is compared to the attributes of Ninurta (god of war), Nisaba (goddess of corn), and Samuqan (god of cattle). The latter two are pastoral. He is an innocent and ignorant of even agriculture.

Enkidu aids the wild animals, foiling human aggression.

Enkidu’s epithets include “who ate grass with the gazelle” and “born in the hills.”

Civilization appears to have a weakening effect on the natural man.

The harlot depicts urban life as festive and glorious in contrast with the wild and untamed.

Note the image of the “star of heaven” used to describe both Enkidu and Gilgamesh.

The dreams of Gilgamesh, told to his mother Ninsun, foreshadow the strongest of companionships.

The axe is another image for Enkidu.

Enkidu must have been naked since the harlot had to use half her clothes to cover him.

Eating bread, drinking wine, merrymaking, and wearing clothing are emblems of humanity (manhood?).

The Forest Journey

Gilgamesh’s dreams all point toward the theme that “everlasting life is not your destiny.”

Enkidu advised Gilgamesh to be happy in all the gods have granted him, but Gilgamesh wants more.

Gilgamesh proposes going to the Land of Cedars as a way of augmenting his glory.

He has not yet established his name stamped on bricks.

Humbaba means “Hugeness”; he is like storm, fire, volcano, and earthquake; he has supernatural hearing and he never sleeps.

Shamash hesitates but eventually blesses Gilgamesh’s expedition and sets the winds in the mountain caves as his allies.

Gilgamesh’s axe is called “Might of Heroes,” his bow “Anshan.”

The citizens do not want him to go.

Ninsun fears for his life but foreshadows his success; she suggests he is not her son but a foundling.

The counselors entrust Gilgamesh’s safety to Enkidu; they advise Gilgamesh to be reverent.

Their journey is made in fantastically progressive distances in multiples of thirty leagues.

Gilgamesh’s first dream prophesies the help of Shamash and Lugulbanda.

Lugulbanda is Gilgamesh’s personal god – perhaps his deified father.

Gilgamesh’s second dream prophesies the defeat of Humbaba.

The Cedar Forest is like an enchanted wood, full of spells and terrors.

Gilgamesh’s breastplate is called “The Voice of Heroes.”

Humbaba begs for mercy; Gilgamesh almost relents, but Enkidu convinces him he must kill Humbaba; Enlil is outraged.

Ishtar and Gilgamesh, and the Death of Enkidu

Ishtar desires Gilgamesh and offers rich enticements; Gilgamesh refuses because Ishtar’s lovers come to miserable ends.

She offers him a kind of immortality.

She begs for the Bull of Heaven as a tool for wreaking vengeance on Gilgamesh but gets her way by threatening to open wide the Underworld.

The Bull of Heaven is a seven-year drought.

Anu agrees only when he is assured food has been set aside for men and cattle.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the Bull and offer its heart to Shamash.

Enkidu threatens Ishtar when she stands on Uruk’s walls to taunt Gilgamesh and mourn the death of the Bull.

Enkidu sees his death (in a dream) as the judgment of the gods for their killing Humbaba and the Bull.

Gilgamesh knows the remorse of regret.

Enkidu prays to Shamash to curse the Trapper who first saw him and to curse the harlot who tamed him.

Shamash reminds Enkidu of the harlot’s role in introducing him to Gilgamesh and to the glory of their friendship; and Enkidu calls back his curse in exchange for a blessing.

Enkidu hints that he had had a wife and seven children.

Enkidu’s dreams of the Underworld give a bleak picture of the Sumerians’ afterlife: pessimistic, dark, and miserable.

Enkidu feels he dies in shame because he does not die in battle.

Enkidu lingers for twelve days.

Gilgamesh sings a beautiful lament.

Gilgamesh rages at Enkidu’s death; he mourns for seven days.

He orders a statue of Enkidu made and offers it to the Sun.

The Search for Everlasting Life

Gilgamesh goes to seek Utnapishtim because he fears his own death now.

Utnapishtim is the only man ever to be granted immortality by the gods; he is the Sumerian Noah.

The Man-Scorpions allow Gilgamesh to pass into Mashu apparently because of his audacity, but perhaps because of his sincerity too.

Shamash warns him of the futility of his quest, but Gilgamesh claims the right of every man to try.

Siduri also warns him of the futility of daring to challenge destiny and advises a policy of “eat, drink, and be merry.”

Gilgamesh’s own anger causes him unnecessary hardship; in it he destroys the tackle of Urshanabi’s ferry.

The crossing becomes a test of physical stamina and skill.

Each person who sees Gilgamesh repeats the litany of questions that marvel at his haggard appearance, each time he responds with a litany about Enkidu and his newfound fear of death.

Utnapishtim replies that nothing is permanent, that death is the destiny of man.

Gilgamesh asks Utnapishtim to tell the story of how he came to be there.

The Story of the Flood

The gods – at Enlil’s urging – destroy the earth because mankind has become too noisy.

Ea, however, warns Utnapishtim while he sleeps in Shurrupak, telling him to build an ark.

Ea does not offer salvation to anyone else, but advises Utnapishtim to lie to them instead.

The boat requires only seven days to complete despite its monumental size and its builders’ festivity.

Utnapishtim fills it with gold, living things, his family and kin, the wild and tame beasts, and craftsmen.

The storm is created by all the more violent and terrifying gods and lasts six days.

The ark comes to rest on Mt. Nisir.

After seven days Utnapishtim lets go a dove that returns; next he lets go a swallow that returns; last he lets go a raven that does not return.

The gods gather “like flies” over Utnapishtim’s sacrifice.

Ishtar speaks for the gods, saying she will remember this destruction but, cursing Enlil for his rashness, she makes no covenant with mankind.

Ea deceives Enlil about how Utnapishtim learned of the coming flood.

Enlil then blesses Utnapishtim and his wife, granting them immortality but moving them to the “mouth of the rivers.”

The Return

Utnapishtim sets a test for Gilgamesh: “prevail against sleep for six days and seven nights.”

Gilgamesh immediately goes to sleep; in order to teach Gilgamesh an object lesson Utnapishtim refuses to wake him.

Utnapishtim’s wife bakes a loaf of bread each day to lay beside Gilgamesh’s head.

Utnapishtim wakes Gilgamesh on the seventh day.

Utnapishtim curses Urshanabi but instructs him to bathe to renew Gilgamesh.

At his wife’s urging Utnapishtim reveals to Gilgamesh the secret of the plant of rejuvenation.

Gilgamesh gets the plant from beneath the sea and vows to deliver it to the old men of Uruk, partaking of it himself only after they have eaten it.

A serpent steals the plant, eats it, and immediately sloughs its skin – a symbolic rejuvenation.

Urshanabi accompanies Gilgamesh to Uruk.

The Death of Gilgamesh

Enlil pronounces again the formula of man’s destiny of death but his lot of life, in Gilgamesh’s case kingship, and he bids Gilgamesh to be just.

The lament of the people is not hopeful, but it is one of praise.

They speak of Namar – fate in its evil aspect.

Gilgamesh is praised for his greatness and accomplishments.