The Epic of Gilgameš

The Gilgameš epic tells the deeds of Gilgameš, the legendary king of Uruk, the man who sought immortality. He is the main character of many stories and legends found all over the Middle East, even after the end of the cuneiform culture.

Narratives relating to Gilgameš are known from at least the late third millennium BC. However, the most complete version of the Gilgameš epic that has come down to us is mostly known in seventh-century manuscripts from Nineveh. It is now usually called the Standard Babylonian Epic, and it was divided into eleven Tablets. About ten sources, some quite idiosyncratic, are known from the three CAMS/GKAB libraries.

At the beginning of the Epic, after a lavish description of the city of Uruk and its walls, Gilgameš is introduced as a super hero, the son of a man and a goddess (see CTN 4, 199 [/cams/gkab/P363613/], Tablet 1). He is the king of Uruk, but rules like a tyrant; in despair, the citizens of Uruk turn to the gods for help. They create Enkidu (see SpTU 4, 122 [/cams/gkab/P348716/]), a primitive man, who lives like an animal in the steppe.
Thanks to the intervention of a courtisan, Enkidu is led to civilised life in Uruk (see SpTU 2, 30 [/cams/gkab/P348635/], Tablet 2), where he meets Gilgameš and they finally become friends. The two men decide to gain fame by great deeds: the first being the slaughter of Humbaba, the terrifying keeper of the remote Cedar Forest (see SpTU 4, 123 [/cams/gkab/P348717/]).
The two friends undertake the long journey to the Forest (SpTU 4, 124 [/cams/gkab/P348718/], Tablet 3); fight and kill the formidable Humbaba and cut down the cedars (Tablet 4); and finally return triumphantly to Uruk. A manuscript from Uruk provides the best preserved account of this episode (SpTU 3, 59 [/cams/gkab/P348662/], Tablet 5).

No more of the Gilgameš story is known from the Uruk manuscripts. However, the end of the story is provided by Neo-Assyrian manuscripts, notably from Nineveh, but some passages are also known from Kalhu and Huzirina.

In Tablet 6 the goddess Ištar, astounded by Gilgameš's achievements, falls in love with him. But he repels her advances, recalling the misfortune of her former lovers. The goddess, mad with anger, releases the Bull of Heaven who provokes the death of hundreds of citizens of Uruk. Finally, Gilgameš and Enkidu slaughter the Bull, provoking the wrath of the gods,who in turn kill Enkidu. Gilgameš is distraught by the long agony and death of his friend.
Both the Huzirina manuscripts deal with this episode: STT 1, 14 [/cams/gkab/P338330/] (Tablet 7) narrates Enkidu's agony while STT 1, 15 [/cams/gkab/P338332/] (Tablet 8) describes the mourning after Enkidu's death.

The latter manuscript shows many particularities compared with the version of the Epic known in Nineveh, both in its language and content. The numerous erasures and badly formed signs may suggest that it was written by an apprentice, perhaps under dictation. It is also characterized by many Aramaic features, that are common in other texts from Huzirina. Finally, the content itself differs so much from Tablet 8 of the so-called Standard Babylonian Epic, that the epic's most recent editor, Andrew George, suggested that the Huzirina manuscript should be considered a witness of "an older edition once current in Assyria and its provinces", thus different from the version known from Nineveh.

After the death of his friend, Gilgameš suddenly realises he himself is mortal. He then desperately seeks for a way to escape death, and goes searching for Uta-Napištim, who was granted immortality by the gods, after having survived the Flood. Gilgameš's harsh and long journey, following the path of the sun, takes him to the end of the world in Tablet 9, on the shore of the encircling ocean in a fantastic garden, planted with trees made of gold and precious stones.

There are in all only few surviving manuscripts of this passage, none from either Huzirina or Kalhu. However, CTN 4, 153 [/cams/gkab/P363567/] from Kalhu relates the end of the Epic, recounted on Tablets 10-11 according to the Nineveh recension, but offering significant variants from it. The manuscript probably dates from the beginning of the Neo-Assyrian period and would thus be one of the oldest in the Kalhu "library". It is a unique example of an Assyrian manuscript that contains more than one Tablet of the Epic.

It starts with Gilgameš's encountering Siduri, the woman innkeeper, at the end of the world. She explains how to reach Uta-Napištim, who receives Gilgameš, and tells him the story of the Flood. Gilgameš finally understands that Uta-Napištim and his wife are exceptional and that he has no chance of ever becoming immortal. But Uta-Napištim gives Gilgameš a fabulous plant that will allow him to remain young when he grows old. Unfortunately, on the way back to Uruk, a snake steals the plant and eats it. The Epic ends as it started, with praise for the beauty of Uruk: Gilgameš sees there another way to gain immortality, through others' memories of his good works.

It is clear, then, that one manuscript from Kalhu and the two from Huzirina witness alternative traditions of the Epic in Assyria, either regional or older than the version known in Nineveh. They mostly belong to the second part of the Epic. The six manuscripts from Uruk are all excerpts of the first five Tablets, thus confirming they were used for teaching and learning. The situation is similar in other Late Babylonian archives, by contrast with Nineveh where the known manuscripts are distributed relatively evenly across all Tablets.

The Epic of Gilgameš

Further Reading