An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh EpicJastrow, Morris
General
An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic
Jastrow, Morris
Epic poetry, Assyro-Babylonian
We may now pass beyond these general indications and recognize in the
story of Enkidu as revealed by the Pennsylvania tablet an attempt
to trace the evolution of primitive man from low beginnings to the
regular and orderly family life associated with advanced culture. The
new tablet furnishes a further illustration for the surprisingly early
tendency among the Babylonian _literati_ to connect with popular tales
teachings of a religious or ethical character. Just as the episode
between Gilgamesh and the maiden Sabitum is made the occasion for
introducing reflections on the inevitable fate of man to encounter
death, so the meeting of Enkidu with the woman becomes the medium
of impressing the lesson of human progress through the substitution
of bread and wine for milk and water, through the institution of
the family, and through work and the laying up of resources. This
is the significance of the address to Enkidu in column 4 of the
Pennsylvania tablet, even though certain expressions in it are
somewhat obscure. The connection of the entire episode of Enkidu and
the woman with Gilgamesh is very artificial; and it becomes much more
intelligible if we disassociate it from its present entanglement in
the Epic. In Gilgamesh's dream, portending the meeting with Enkidu,
nothing is said of the woman who is the companion of the latter. The
passage in which Enkidu is created by Aruru to oppose Gilgamesh [102]
betrays evidence of having been worked over in order to bring Enkidu
into association with the longing of the people of Erech to get rid
of a tyrannical character. The people in their distress appeal to
Aruru to create a rival to Gilgamesh. In response,
"Aruru upon hearing this created a man of Anu in her heart."
Now this "man of Anu" cannot possibly be Enkidu, for the sufficient
reason that a few lines further on Enkidu is described as an offspring
of Ninib. Moreover, the being created is not a "counterpart"
of Gilgamesh, but an animal-man, as the description that follows
shows. We must separate lines 30-33 in which the creation of the "Anu
man" is described from lines 34-41 in which the creation of Enkidu is
narrated. Indeed, these lines strike one as the proper _beginning_
of the original Enkidu story, which would naturally start out with
his birth and end with his death. The description is clearly an
account of the creation of the first man, in which capacity Enkidu
is brought forward.
"Aruru washed her hands, broke off clay,
threw it on the field [103]
... created Enkidu, the hero, a lofty
offspring of the host of Ninib." [104]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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