An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh EpicJastrow, Morris
General
An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic
Jastrow, Morris
Epic poetry, Assyro-Babylonian
Line 211 is clearly a description of Enkidu, as is shown by a
comparison with the Assyrian version I, 2, 37: _[pi]-ti-ik pi-ir-ti-sú
uh-tan-na-ba kima d_Nidaba, "The form of his hair sprouted like
wheat." We must therefore supply Enkidu in the preceding line. Tablet
IV, 4, 6, of the Assyrian version also contains a reference to the
flowing hair of Enkidu.
Line 212. For the completion of the line cf. Harper, _Assyrian and
Babylonian Letters_, No. 214.
Line 214. For _ribîtu mâti_ see the note above to line 28 of column 1.
Lines 215-217 correspond almost entirely to the Assyrian version IV, 2,
46-48. The variations _ki-ib-su_ in place of _sêpu_, and _kima lîm_,
"like oxen," instead of _ina bâb êmuti_ (repeated from line 46), _ana
surûbi_ for _êribam_, are slight though interesting. The Assyrian
version shows that the "gate" in line 215 is "the gate of the family
house" in which the goddess Ishhara lies.
Lines 218-228. The detailed description of the fight between the two
heroes is only partially preserved in the Assyrian version.
Line 218. _li-i-im_ is evidently to be taken as plural here as
in line 224, just as _su-ki-im_ (lines 27 and 175), _ri-bi-tim_
(lines 4, 28, etc.), _tarbasim_ (line 74), _assamim_ (line 98) are
plural forms. Our text furnishes, as does also the Yale tablet, an
interesting illustration of the vacillation in the Hammurabi period
in the twofold use of _im_: (a) as an indication of the plural (as in
Hebrew), and (b) as a mere emphatic ending (lines 63, 73, and 232),
which becomes predominant in the post-Hammurabi age.
Line 227. Gilgamesh is often represented on seal cylinders as kneeling,
e.g., Ward Seal Cylinders Nos. 159, 160, 165. Cf. also Assyrian version
V, 3, 6, where Gilgamesh is described as kneeling, though here in
prayer. See further the commentary to the Yale tablet, line 215.
Line 229. We must of course read _uz-za-sú_, "his anger," and not
_us-sa-sú_, "his javelin," as Langdon does, which gives no sense.
Line 231. Langdon's note is erroneous. He again misses the point. The
stem of the verb here as in line 230 (_i-ni-ih_) is the common _nâhu_,
used so constantly in connection with _pasâhu_, to designate the
cessation of anger.
Line 234. _istên_ applied to Gish designates him of course as "unique,"
not as "an ordinary man," as Langdon supposes.
Line 236. On this title "wild cow of the stall" for Ninsun, see Poebel
in _OLZ_ 1914, page 6, to whom we owe the correct view regarding the
name of Gilgamesh's mother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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