An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh EpicJastrow, Morris
General
An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic
Jastrow, Morris
Epic poetry, Assyro-Babylonian
Both tablets have peculiar knobs at the sides, the purpose of which
is evidently not to facilitate holding the tablet in one's hand while
writing or reading it, as Langdon assumed [26] (it would be quite
impracticable for this purpose), but simply to protect the tablet in
its position on a shelf, where it would naturally be placed on the
edge, just as we arrange books on a shelf. Finally be it noted that
these two tablets of the old Babylonian version do not belong to the
same edition as the Meissner tablet above described, for the latter
consists of two columns each on obverse and reverse, as against
three columns each in the case of our two tablets. We thus have
the interesting proof that as early as 2000 B.C. there were already
several editions of the Epic. As to the provenance of our two tablets,
there are no definite data, but it is likely that they were found by
natives in the mounds at Warka, from which about the year 1913, many
tablets came into the hands of dealers. It is likely that where two
tablets of a series were found, others of the series were also dug up,
and we may expect to find some further portions of this old Babylonian
version turning up in the hands of other dealers or in museums.
IV.
Coming to the contents of the two tablets, the Pennsylvania tablet
deals with the meeting of the two heroes, Gilgamesh and Enkidu,
their conflict, followed by their reconciliation, while the Yale
tablet in continuation takes up the preparations for the encounter of
the two heroes with the guardian of the cedar forest, Humbaba--but
probably pronounced Hubaba [27]--or, as the name appears in the old
Babylonian version, Huwawa. The two tablets correspond, therefore,
to portions of Tablets I to V of the Assyrian version; [28] but,
as will be shown in detail further on, the number of _completely_
parallel passages is not large, and the Assyrian version shows an
independence of the old Babylonian version that is larger than we
had reason to expect. In general, it may be said that the Assyrian
version is more elaborate, which points to its having received its
present form at a considerably later period than the old Babylonian
version. [29] On the other hand, we already find in the Babylonian
version the tendency towards repetition, which is characteristic
of Babylonian-Assyrian tales in general. Through the two Babylonian
tablets we are enabled to fill out certain details of the two episodes
with which they deal: (1) the meeting of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and
(2) the encounter with Huwawa; while their greatest value consists
in the light that they throw on the gradual growth of the Epic until
it reached its definite form in the text represented by the fragments
in Ashurbanapal's Library. Let us now take up the detailed analysis,
first of the Pennsylvania tablet and then of the Yale tablet. The
Pennsylvania tablet begins with two dreams recounted by Gilgamesh
to his mother, which the latter interprets as presaging the coming
of Enkidu to Erech.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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