An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh EpicJastrow, Morris
General
An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic
Jastrow, Morris
Epic poetry, Assyro-Babylonian
grasp the many important data furnished by the tablet, which escaped
him because of his erroneous readings and faulty translations.
The tablet, consisting of six columns (three on the obverse and three
on the reverse), comprised, according to the colophon, 240 lines
[25] and formed the second tablet of the series. Of the total, 204
lines are preserved in full or in part, and of the missing thirty-six
quite a number can be restored, so that we have a fairly complete
tablet. The most serious break occurs at the top of the reverse, where
about eight lines are missing. In consequence of this the connection
between the end of the obverse (where about five lines are missing)
and the beginning of the reverse is obscured, though not to the extent
of our entirely losing the thread of the narrative.
About the same time that the University of Pennsylvania Museum
purchased this second tablet of the Gilgamesh Series, Yale University
obtained a tablet from the same dealer, which turned out to be a
continuation of the University of Pennsylvania tablet. That the two
belong to the same edition of the Epic is shown by their agreement
in the dark brown color of the clay, in the writing as well as in
the size of the tablet, though the characters on the Yale tablet
are somewhat cramped and in consequence more difficult to read. Both
tablets consist of six columns, three on the obverse and three on the
reverse. The measurements of both are about the same, the Pennsylvania
tablet being estimated at about 7 inches high, as against 7 2/16 inches
for the Yale tablet, while the width of both is 6 1/2 inches. The
Yale tablet is, however, more closely written and therefore has a
larger number of lines than the Pennsylvania tablet. The colophon to
the Yale tablet is unfortunately missing, but from internal evidence
it is quite certain that the Yale tablet follows immediately upon
the Pennsylvania tablet and, therefore, may be set down as the third
of the series. The obverse is very badly preserved, so that only a
general view of its contents can be secured. The reverse contains
serious gaps in the first and second columns. The scribe evidently
had a copy before him which he tried to follow exactly, but finding
that he could not get all of the copy before him in the six columns,
he continued the last column on the edge. In this way we obtain for the
sixth column 64 lines as against 45 for column IV, and 47 for column V,
and a total of 292 lines for the six columns. Subtracting the 16 lines
written on the edge leaves us 276 lines for our tablet as against 240
for its companion. The width of each column being the same on both
tablets, the difference of 36 lines is made up by the closer writing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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