An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic — John Shaqi
An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh EpicJastrow, Morris
General
An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic
Jastrow, Morris
Epic poetry, Assyro-Babylonian
The close association of Enkidu and Gilgamesh which becomes one of
the striking features in the combination of the tales of these two
heroes naturally recalls the "Heavenly Twins" _motif_, which has been
so fully and so suggestively treated by Professor J. Rendell Harris
in his _Cult of the Heavenly Twins_, (London, 1906). Professor Harris
has conclusively shown how widespread the tendency is to associate
two divine or semi-divine beings in myths and legends as inseparable
companions [125] or twins, like Castor and Pollux, Romulus and Remus,
[126] the Acvins in the Rig-Veda, [127] Cain and Abel, Jacob and
Esau in the Old Testament, the Kabiri of the Phoenicians, [128]
Herakles and Iphikles in Greek mythology, Ambrica and Fidelio in
Teutonic mythology, Patollo and Potrimpo in old Prussian mythology,
Cautes and Cautopates in Mithraism, Jesus and Thomas (according to
the Syriac Acts of Thomas), and the various illustrations of "Dioscuri
in Christian Legends," set forth by Dr. Harris in his work under this
title, which carries the _motif_ far down into the period of legends
about Christian Saints who appear in pairs, including the reference
to such a pair in Shakespeare's Henry V:
"And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by
From that day to the ending of the world."--(_Act, IV,
3, 57-58._)
There are indeed certain parallels which suggest that Enkidu-Gilgamesh
may represent a Babylonian counterpart to the "Heavenly Twins." In
the Indo-Iranian, Greek and Roman mythology, the twins almost
invariably act together. In unison they proceed on expeditions to
punish enemies. [129]
But after all, the parallels are of too general a character to be of
much moment; and moreover the parallels stop short at the critical
point, for Gilgamesh though worsted is _not_ killed by Enkidu,
whereas one of the "Heavenly Twins" is always killed by the brother,
as Abel is by Cain, and Iphikles by his twin brother Herakles. Even
the trait which is frequent in the earliest forms of the "Heavenly
Twins," according to which one is immortal and the other is mortal,
though applying in a measure to Enkidu who is killed by Ishtar, while
Gilgamesh the offspring of a divine pair is only smitten with disease,
is too unsubstantial to warrant more than a general comparison between
the Enkidu-Gilgamesh pair and the various forms of the "twin" _motif_
found throughout the ancient world. For all that, the point is of some
interest that in the Gilgamesh Epic we should encounter two figures who
are portrayed as possessing the same traits and accomplishing feats in
common, which suggest a partial parallel to the various forms in which
the twin-_motif_ appears in the mythologies, folk-lore and legends
of many nations; and it may be that in some of these instances the
duplication is due, as in the case of Enkidu and Gilgamesh, to an
actual transfer of the traits of one figure to another who usurped
his place.
X.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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