Sir E. A. Wallis Budge

“ He next appealed to Ea, who, taking pity on him, ordered the warrior god Nergal to produce the spirit of Enkidu, and this god opened a hole in the ground through which the spirit of Enkidu passed up into this world "like a breath of wind." Gilgamish began to ask the spirit of Enkidu questions, but gained very little information or satisfaction. The last lines of the tablet seem to say that the spirit of the unburied man reposeth not in the earth, and that the spirit of the friendless man wandereth about the streets eating the remains of food which are cast out from the cooking pots. ”

“ Where Uta-Napishtim lived was unknown to Gilgamish, but he seems to have made up his mind that he would have to face danger in reaching the place, for he says, "I will set out and travel quickly. I shall reach the defiles in the mountains by night, and if I see lions, and am terrified at them, I shall lift up my head and appeal to the goddess Sin, and to Ishtar, the Lady of the Gods, who is wont to hearken to my prayers." ”

“ The princes of the earth kiss thy feet. He maketh the people of Erech to sigh for thee, and many folk to cry out for thee, and to serve thee. And for thy sake he putteth on coarse attire and arrayeth himself in the skin of the lion, and pursueth thee over the plain." When Enkidu heard these words his anxious heart had peace.
To the Third Tablet probably belongs the fragment in which Enkidu relates to Gilgamish a horrifying dream which he had had. ”

“ The gods hearkened to the prayer of the men of Erech, and they commanded the goddess Aruru to create a rival to Gilgamish. The goddess agreed to do their bidding, and having planned in her mind what manner of being she intended to make, she washed her hands, took a piece of clay and spat upon it, and made a male creature like the god Anu. ”

“ The Scorpion-man in answer told him that it was impossible for him to continue his journey through that country, for no man had ever succeeded in passing through the dark region of that mountain, which required twelve double-hours to traverse. Nothing dismayed, Gilgamish set out on the road through the mountains, and the darkness increased in density every hour, but he struggled on, and at the end of the twelfth hour he arrived at a region where there was bright daylight, and he entered a lovely garden, filled with trees loaded with luscious fruits, and he saw the "tree of the gods." ”

“ The approximate number of the inscribed baked clay tablets and fragments that have come from Kuyûnjik and are now in the British Museum is 25,073. It is impossible to over-estimate their importance and value from religious, historical and literary points of view; besides this, they have supplied the material for the decipherment of cuneiform inscriptions in the Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian languages, and form the foundation of the science of Assyriology which has been built up with such conspicuous success during the last 70 years. ”

“ Many authorities seeking to find a foundation of fact for the Legend of the Deluge in Mesopotamia have assumed that the rain flood was accompanied either by an earthquake or a tidal wave, or by both. There is no doubt page 28that the cities of Lower Babylonia were nearer the sea in the Sumerian Period than they are at the present time, and it is a generally accepted view that the head of the Persian Gulf lay further to the north at that time. A cyclone coupled with a tidal wave is a sufficient base for any of the forms of the Legend now known. ”

“ A summary of the contents of the other Tablets of the Gilgamish Series is given in the following section of this short monograph. It is therefore only necessary to state here that Gilgamish, who was horrified and almost beside himself when his bosom friend and companion Enkidu () , Eabâni) died, meditated deeply how he could escape death himself. He knew that his ancestor Uta-Napishtim () had become immortal, therefore he determined to set out for the place where Uta-Napishtim lived so that he might obtain from him the secret of immortality. ”

“ He refers to Tammuz, the lover of her youth, for whom year by year she arranges wailing commemorations. Every creature that falls under her sway suffers mutilation or death, the bird's wings are broken, the lion is destroyed, the horse is driven to death with whip and spur; and his speech concludes with the words: "Dost thou love me, and wouldst thou treat me as thou didst them?"
Extract from the text of the Sixth Tablet of the Gilgamish Series (lines 50–70) , containing a part of the speech which Gilgamish addressed to Ishtar in answer to her overtures to him. ”

“ Anu created the fire-breathing (?) bull of heaven and sent him to the city of Erech, where he destroyed large numbers of the people. At length Enkidu and Gilgamish determined to go forth and slay the bull. When they came to the place where he was, Enkidu seized him by the tail, and Gilgamish delivered deadly blows between his neck and his horns, and together they killed, him. As soon as Ishtar heard of the death of the bull she rushed out on the battlements of the walls of Erech and cursed Gilgamish for destroying her bull. ”

“ When Enkidu saw how dense was the forest and how threatening, he tried to make Gilgamish turn back, but all his entreaties were in vain. As they were going through the forest to attack Khumbaba, Enkidu dreamed two or three dreams, and when he related them to Gilgamish, this hero interpreted them as auguries of their success and the slaughter of Khumbaba. The fragmentary character of the text here makes it very difficult to find out exactly what steps the two heroes took to overcome Khumbaba, but there is no doubt that they did overcome him, and that they returned to Erech in triumph. ”

“ But in the course of his search for stories of the campaigns of Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashur-bani-pal, he discovered among other important documents (1) a series of portions of tablets which give the adventures of Gilgamish, an ancient king of Erech; (2) An account of the Deluge, which is supplied by the Eleventh Tablet of the Legend of Gilgamish (in more than one version) ; (3) A detailed description of the Creation; (4) the Legend of the Descent of Ishtar into Hades in quest of Tammuz. ”

“ Who is glorious among heroes?"
these questions were answered by the women of the palace who cried:
"Gilgamish is splendid among men.
Gilgamish is glorious among heroes."
When Gilgamish entered his palace he ordered a great festival to be kept, and his guests were provided by him with page 49beds to sleep on. On the night of the festival Enkidu had a dream, and he rose up and related it to Gilgamish. ”

“ At the end of this period he returned to the beasts with which he had lived on friendly terms, but as soon as the gazelle winded him they took to flight, and the wild cattle disappeared into the woods. When Enkidu saw the beasts forsake him his knees gave way, and he swooned from sheer shame; but when he came to himself he returned to the harlot. She spoke to him page 43flattering words, and asked him why he wandered with the wild beasts in the desert, and then told him she wished to take him back with her to Erech, where Anu and Ishtar lived, and where the mighty Gilgamish reigned. ”

“ Go to, Gilgamish, thou shalt be my lover.
8. Give me thy [love] -fruit, give to me, I say.
9. Thou shalt be my man, I will be thy woman.
10. I will make to be harnessed for thee a chariot of lapis-lazuli and gold.
11. The wheels thereof shall be of gold and the horns of precious stones.
12. Thou shalt harness daily to it mighty horses.
13. Come into our house with the perfume of the cedar upon thee.
14. When thou enterest into our house
15. Those who sit upon thrones shall kiss thy feet. ”

“ The short colophon on the tablets of the King's Library reads:—"Palace of Ashur-bani-pal, king of hosts, king of the country of Assyria" , and that on the tablets of the Library of Nebo reads:—" [Country of ?] Ashur-bani-pal, king of hosts, king of the country of Assyria" . See on the Tablet of Astrological Omens, page 19 p. 22. The longer colophons are of considerable interest and renderings of two typical examples are here appended:—
Colophon of a tablet from the Palace Library of Ashur-bani-pal containing incantations in the Sumerian language, with interlinear translations in Assyrian. ”

“ A break in the text makes it impossible to give the opening lines of Uta-Napishtim's reply, but he mentions the father and mother of Gilgamish, and in the last twenty lines of the Tenth Tablet he warns Gilgamish that on earth there is nothing permanent, that Mammitum, the arranger of destinies, has settled the question of the death and life of man with the Anunnaki, and that none may find out the day of his death or escape from death. ”

“ Baked clay six-sided cylinder, inscribed with the Annals of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria from B.C. 681–668. B.M. No. 91,028. This cylinder was found in the ruins of the palace of Esarhaddon, under the mound of Nabi Yûnis, and had been "used as a candlestick by a respectable Turcoman family living in the village on the mound near the tomb of the prophet [Jonah] ." The grease marks from the candles are still visible on it. It was acquired by Sir Henry Layard and presented by him to the British Museum in 1848.
Specimens of Tablets from Nineveh. ”

“ But Enkidu moved not, and when Gilgamish touched his breast his heart was still. Then laying a covering over him page 50as carefully as if he had been his bride, he turned away from the dead body and in his grief roared like a raging lion and like a lioness robbed of her whelps.
The Ninth Tablet. In bitter grief Gilgamish wandered about the country uttering lamentations for his beloved companion, Enkidu. As he went about he thought to himself,
"I myself shall die, and shall not I then be as Enkidu? ”

“ Then Gilgamish took them to the temple of the god Lugalbanda and hung them up there on the throne of his majesty, and having made his offering he and Enkidu went to the Euphrates and washed their hands, and walked back to the market-place of Erech. As they went through the streets of the city the people thronged about them to get a sight of their faces. When Gilgamish asked:
"Who is splendid among men? ”

“ The Epic of Gilgamish.1 The narrative of the life, exploits and travels of Gilgamish, king of Erech, filled Twelve Tablets which formed the Series called from the first three words of the First Tablet, Sha Nagbu Imuru, i.e., "He who hath seen all things." The exact period of the reign of this king is unknown, but there is page 41no doubt that he lived and ruled at Erech before the conquest of Mesopotamia by the Semites. According to a tablet from Niffar he was the fifth of a line of Sumerian rulers at Erech, and he reigned 126 years ”

“ The site of Erech is well-known, and is marked by the vast ruins which the Arabs call "Warkah," or Al-Warkah. These lie in 31° 19′ N. Lat. and 45° 40′ E. Long., and are about four miles from the Euphrates, on the left or east bank of the river. Sir W. K. Loftus carried out excavations on the site in 1849–52, and says that the external walls page 56nof sun-dried brick enclosing the main portion of the ruins form an irregular circle five and a half miles in circumference; in places they are from 40 to 50 feet in height, and they seem to have been about 20 feet thick. ”

“ The immortal came down to the shore and asked the newcomer the object of his visit, and Gilgamish told him of the death of his great friend Enkidu, and of his desire to escape from death and to find immortality. Uta-Napishtim having made to Gilgamish some remarks which seem to indicate that in his opinion death was inevitable, page 31
1. Gilgamish1 said unto Uta-Napishtim, to Uta-Napishtim the remote:
2. "I am looking at thee, Uta-Napishtim.
3. Thy person is not altered; even as am I so art thou. ”

“ Its name was "Shîbu issahir amelu," , i.e., "The old man becometh young [again] ," and Gilgamish declared that he would "eat of it in order to recover his lost youth," and that he would take it home to his fortified city of Erech. Misfortune, however, dogged his steps, and the plant never reached Erech, for whilst Gilgamish and Ur-Shanabi were on their way back to Erech they passed a pool the water of which was very cold, and Gilgamish dived into it and took a bath. ”

“ These words suggest that Ashur-bani-pal could not only read cuneiform texts, but could write like a skilled scribe, and that he also understood all the details connected with the page 17craft of making and baking tablets. Having determined to form a Library in his palace he set to work in a systematic manner to collect literary works. ”

“ Thy ... and thy sheep shall bring forth twins.
19. Baggage animals shall come laden with tribute.
20. The [horse] in thy chariot shall prance proudly,
21. There shall be none like unto the beast that is under thy yoke. ”

“ The Babylonian Story of the Deluge as Told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh. The Discovery of the Tablets at Nineveh by Layard, Rassam and Smith. In 1845–47 and again in 1849–51 Mr. (later Sir) A. H. Layard carried out a series of excavations among the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh, "that great city, wherein are more than sixteen thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left; and also much cattle" (Jonah iv, II) . ”

“ George Smith's Discovery of the Epic of Gilgamish and the Story of the Deluge. The mass of tablets which had been discovered by Layard and Rassam at Nineveh came to the British Museum in page 22 page 23 page 241854–5, and their examination by Rawlinson and Norris began very soon after. Mr. ”