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Babylonian Texts of the Late Second Millennium BC, from outside Babylonia
The fragments from Hattusa
There have been three different discoveries of pieces of the Babylonian Gilgamesh at the Hittite capital Hattusa, now Boğazköy (or Boğazkale) in central Anatolia. The first, in 1906–7, was of a tablet of thirteenth-century date which is now in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin (VAT 12890, here Bo2). The obverse of this tablet relates the second dream of Gilgamesh on the journey to the Forest of Cedar, and part of the text of this passage has already been interpolated into the standard version of the epic at Tablet IV 55. It is given again below. The reverse holds a badly corrupted version of the episode of Ishtar and the Bull of Heaven, which is not given here.
The second discovery, in 1934, was of a tiny fragment from the dreams of Gilgamesh, now in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations at Ankara (Bo 284/d). It is too small to warrant translation. Then in 1983 there came to light several fragments of a library tablet that contained a version of the text similar to the Old Babylonian edition represented by the Pennsylvania and Yale tablets (Bo 83/614 etc., here Bo1). The text of two of these pieces, which date to about 1400 BC, is given here. Fragment (a) runs parallel with lines 51–102 of the Pennsylvania tablet, Fragment (d) with lines 183–95 of the Yale tablet.
Pieces found in 1983, 1: Bo1 fragment (a)
Enkidu has been seduced by the prostitute, who now urges him to leave the wild and take his place among men. She dresses him in part of her garment. They enter the shepherds’ camp, where the shepherds admire him. Enkidu learns to eat and drink like a man.
[The harlot opened her mouth,]
[saying to] Enkidu:
‘You are handsome, [Enkidu, you are like a god,]
[why do you wander] with the beasts of the wild?
…… you are like a god,
[who] among men [is as splendid as you?]’
[The harlot opened her mouth,]
Bo1 a 5 [saying] to Enkidu:
‘Come, Enkidu, [let me lead you]
[to the shepherds’ camp,] the site of the sheep-pen.’
One garment she stripped and he dressed himself,
[the other garment she put on herself.]
She [took him by the hand] and like a god [walked] before him,
[to the shepherds’ camp, the site] of the sheep-pen.
[The shepherds gathered about him,]
[the] crowd [was talking] among themselves:
‘[In build he is the image of Gilgamesh,]
Bo1 a 10 but shorter in stature and [bigger] of bone.
‘[For sure it’s he who was born] in the uplands,
the milk of the beasts [is what he was suckled on.]’
[They put bread before him,]
[he] looked at the bread, he was perturbed.
[They put ale before him,]
[he looked at the ale,] he was perturbed.
[The harlot opened her mouth,]
[saying to Enkidu:]
‘Eat the bread, Enkidu, [fit for a god,]
Bo1 a 15 [drink the ale,] fit for a king!’
[Enkidu ate the bread until he was sated,]
[he] drank [the] ale, seven [goblets full.]
Pieces found in 1983, 2: Bo1 fragment (d)
Gilgamesh announces his expedition to the elders of Uruk, who counsel him of the danger he courts.
‘[I would see the god, of whom men talk,]
[whose name] the earth [does constantly] repeat.
‘[I will conquer him in the Forest of Cedar,]
[I] will have the [land] learn [Uruk’s offshoot is mighty.]
[Let me start out, I will chop down the cedar!]
[A name] of eternity I [will establish forever!]’
[The elders of Uruk gave answer to Gilgamesh:]
Bo1 d 5 ‘Why do you desire [to do this thing?]
[An unwinnable battle] is Huwawa’s ambush,
[who is there can oppose his weapons?]
[For sixty] leagues [the forest] is [wilderness.]’
Tablet found in 1906–7: Bo2
On the way to the Forest of Cedar Gilgamesh has his second dream. Enkidu interprets it for him and reassures him of its good portent.
Beginning missing
Bo2 i 5′ They took each other by the hand and travelled on.
[They made] camp for the night …
Sleep, which spills forth at night, overcame [Gilgamesh.]
In the middle of the night [his] sleep abandoned him.
[He rose and] related the dream to Enkidu:
‘[My] friend, [I have had a dream!]
If you did not rouse me why [am I awake?]
Bo2 i 10′ Enkidu, my friend, I have had a dream!
[If] you did [not] rouse me why [am I awake?]
My second dream sur[passes] the first:
in my dream, my friend, a mountain …
It threw me down, it held me by my feet …
Bo2 i 15′ The brightness grew more intense. A man [appeared,]
the comeliest in the land, his beauty …
[From] beneath the mountain he pulled me out and …
He gave me water to drink and my heart grew [calm.]
[On] the ground he set [my] feet.’
Bo2 i 20′ Enkidu [spoke] to him,
[saying] to Gilgamesh:
‘My friend, we shall … he is different altogether.
Huwawa … is not the mountain,
he is different altogether …
Come, cast aside [your] fear …’
The fragments from Emar
Fragments of two tablets of Gilgamesh were found in 1974 at Tell Meskene on the middle Euphrates in Syria, the ancient city of Emar, and are now in the museum at Aleppo (Msk 74104z, etc.). They come from a scriptorium that flourished in the thirteenth and early twelfth centuries BC. The piece here translated as Fragment I (Emar1) is from a small tablet carrying material parallel with Tablet V of the standard version of the epic. The other pieces are from a tablet – here Tablet 2 (Emar2) – which relates the story of Ishtar and the Bull of Heaven, and thus runs parallel with Tablet VI of the standard version.
Fragment I
As the heroes approach the Forest of Cedar Gilgamesh emboldens Enkidu. To fail would shame them in front of the people of Uruk, and two together can conquer all.
Gilgamesh took [his hand]
[and] opened his mouth to speak, [saying:]
‘… what, my friend,
[how] shall we answer the thronging [people?]
5′ [Shamash] indeed may be lord of the heavens,
… shod twofold,
… even a glacis-slope, two […]’
Enkidu [opened] his mouth
[to speak, saying:] …
Tablet 2
The goddess Ishtar has proposed to Gilgamesh, and describes the life of power and plenty that she has in store for him. Gilgamesh scorns her, and relates the fates suffered by her former lovers. Infuriated by his insults Ishtar asks her father for the Bull of Heaven. He gives it to her, and she takes it down to Uruk.
‘[As you enter our house]
[doorway and footstool shall] kiss [your] hands!
[Kings shall kneel before you,] lords will come [up to you,]
[produce of mountain and lowland they shall] bring you as tribute!
[Your nanny-goats] shall bear [triplets, your ewes shall bear twins,]
a 5′ [no] ox shall [match yours at the yoke!]’
[Gilgamesh opened his mouth] to speak,
[saying to the lady] Ishtar:
‘And if indeed [I take] you [in marriage,]
… body [and clothing,]
…… sustenance and food,
a 10′ … [rings] to decorate [your] hands?’
* * *
‘[You, a frost that congeals no] ice,
[a louvre-door] that stays not breeze [nor draught,]
b 5′ [an elephant that] … its hoods,
bitumen [that stains the hands] of its bearer,
a waterskin [that] cuts [the hands of its bearer,]
[a battering]-ram that destroys a wall of stone,
[a shoe that bites the foot when] walking the street!
[What bridegroom of yours] did ever grow old?’
* * *
‘[Dumuzi, the lover of your] youth,
[year upon year, to lamenting] you doomed him.
[You] loved the [speckled] allallu-bird,
very soon [you were sated with] his [delights!]
ci 5′ [You] struck him down and broke [his wing:]
now he stands in [the woods] crying “My wing!”
You loved the … Sutean,
your house … your … you …
in a tent you made him spend every night,
ci 10′ [in] battle you did not ……
You loved, [when] you dwelt [in the] fold,
[the shepherd, the herdsman, who] always killed a sheep for you,
[who every day gave] you piles of loaves baked in embers,
[you struck him and] turned [him into a] wolf.’
* * *
[Anu opened his mouth] to [speak,]
[saying to the] Lady Ishtar:
‘Ah, [but did you not provoke King] Gilgamesh,
so he [told slanders] about you and insults too?’
d 5′ [Ishtar] opened her mouth to speak,
‘Father, [give me, please, the Bull of Heaven,]
[so I] may slay [Gilgamesh.]’
* * *
Anu [heard] what she had to say,
he placed in her [hands the nose-rope of the Bull of Heaven.]
…………
in Uruk it did not
and a reed. It went [down to the river …]
c ii 10′ [the river] dropped [a full seven cubits.]
The Megiddo tablet
The Megiddo tablet is a fragment found by chance in the 1950s at the site of the ancient Palestinian town of Megiddo (Tell al-Mutasallim), near the dump of the pre-war excavations. It is now in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (accession number 55-2). The piece dates to about the fourteenth century BC and preserves two passages of text similar to the latter part of Tablet VII of the standard version of the epic. The obverse of the tablet deals with the doomed Enkidu’s second dream, in which he is taken captive by Death and led to the Netherworld. The reverse describes his final decline and death, and the grief of Gilgamesh.
Beginning missing
obverse
Enkidu [lifted his head ……]
[he was] speaking to [Gilgamesh ……]
‘[I] cut down ……
5′ you. When [we …… to the Cedar Forest, we went up]
its mountains, and we [destroyed Humbaba, who in]
the Cedar Forest dwelt, [we seized the Bull of Heaven and]
[we] slew it. At the shout of ……
… this ………’ ‘[The dream]
10′ was fine and favourable ……
[it was] precious, it was fine and it was ……
… it was difficult.’ ‘In [my] dream [there was a man,]
short of stature, large of … [Like a roaring Thunderbird]
was the set of his face. [His hands were] a lion’s [paws,]
15′ [his claws] an eagle’s talons … [Grim was]
his face, all ………
[of an] eagle, [his] hand ……
* * *
reverse
[He seized me by] my hair, [he overpowered me …]
to my friend ………
Take hold, Gilgamesh, …… [My friend]
had no [fear,] he did not desert me …
5′ You enabled me to roam …
May [they offer] pure water [to commemorate] my name …
My friend, who rescued me …’ [Enkidu lay sick for one day and]
a second day. On his bed …… [a third]
and a fourth day on his bed. On him ……
10′ the sickness worsened, his flesh ……
Enkidu was lying on his bed ……
He called for Gilgamesh ……
with his cry he roused … [Gilgamesh sobbed]
like a dove. His … was darkened …
15′ … in the night ……
the foremost of men …… [Gilgamesh sobbed]
for his friend ………
‘I will mourn ………
at his side I myself ………’
Remainder lost
The Ugarit tablet
A complete tablet of a Gilgamesh text, reportedly very fine, was excavated in 1994 at Ras Shamra on the Syrian coast, the site of ancient Ugarit, in a building identified as the House of Urtenu. It dates to the twelfth century at latest and is likely to derive from the hand of a student scribe or his teacher. The tablet is yet to be published and no details of it are available beyond the fact that the text it holds is an original composition utilizing selected episodes from the story of Gilgamesh. That being so, it would appear not to be a primary source for the Babylonian epic, but instead a derivative text of local, Syrian origin.