20 Instead of thy sending a deluge? Had a lion come and mankind lessened! 22 Instead of thy sending a deluge? 22a Had a wolf come and mankind lessened! 23 Instead of thy sending a deluge? .! 23a Had a famine come and the land 25 I have not divulged the decision of the great gods. I made Atrakhasis see a dream and so he discovered the secret of the gods. Now take counsel for him." Ea went up into the ship. He took my hand, [and] brought me forth, 30 He brought forth my wife, and made her kneel at my side, He turned us toward each other, he stood between us, he blessed us: "Formerly Ut-napishtim was only a man, but Now let Ut-napishtim and his wife be like the gods even us, 1 That is, pestilence. 20 am-ma-ki taš-kun a-bu-ba nêšu lit-ba-am-ma nišî li-ṣa-ah-hi-rum 22 am-ma-ki taš-kun a-bu-ba 22a barbarru lit-ba-am-ma nišê li-ṣa-[ab-bi-ir] 23 am-ma-ki taš-kun a-bu-ba 23a hu-šah-hu liš-ša-kin-ma mâta lis-[kip] 24 am-ma-ki taš-kun a-bu-ba 24a (ilu) Ur-ra lit-ba-am-ma mâta lim-[has] 25 ana-ku ul ap-ta-a pi-ris-ti ilâni rabûti At-ra-ha-sis šu-na-ta u-šab-ri-šum-ma pi-ris-ti ilâni iš-me i-lam-ma (ilu) E-a a-na lib-bi elippi 30 uš-te-li uš-tak-mi-is zin-niš-ti ina i-di-ia il-pu-ut pu-ut-ni-ma iz-za-az ina bi-ri-in-ni i-kar-ra-ban-na-ši i-na pa-na(m) Ut-napištim a-me-lu-tum-ma e-nin-na-ma(m) Ut-napištim u aššati-šu lu-u e-mu-u ki-i ilâni na-ši-ma Let Ut-napishtim dwell afar off at the mouth of the rivers." 35 They took me and afar off, at the mouth of the rivers they made me to dwell. With these words the long story of the deluge is ended, and Ut-napishtim takes thought for his earthly visitor and says: "Who of the gods, will now gather thee to himself That thou mayest find the life thou seekest? Come, lie not down to sleep six days and seven nights" The idea is that if he can master sleep, twin brother of death, he might thus learn to master death itself. But the test is too severe and the hero falls asleep. Utnapishtim mocks his weakness, but his wife, moved with pity for the helpless wanderer, desires her husband to make some provision for getting him back again. Her husband, moved by her appeal, calls to Gilgamesh to secure for himself a certain plant' which grew in the bottom of the ocean. Gilgamesh ties heavy stones to his feet and plunges into the sea, from which he brings up the needful plant. He is overjoyed and thinks that he has possessed himself of the plant of eternal life. So does he boast of it. Gilgamesh said to him, to Ur-shanabi, the sailor: 295 Ur-shanabi, this plant is a plant of renown, Whereby man obtains his longings (?) A very pretty dispute rages over the identification of this plant. Dr. Küchler has made the brilliant suggestion that it may be coral. Coral, however, grows in salt water, and it was from the ocean of sweet water (apsu) that Gilgamesh drew his plant. Perhaps this is not a valid argument against Küchler, as the Assyrians may not have known the habitat of coral. lu-u a-šib-ma(m)Ut-napištim ina ru-u-ki ina pi-i nârâti 35 il-ķu-in-ni-ma ina ru-u-ķi ina pi-i nârâti uš-te-ši-bu-in-ni. I will carry it to walled Uruk, there will I make to eat of it [...] Its name is: 'When old shall man become young again.' I myself will eat it, to return to my youth." Then they made the long journey, and when they had come to land, Gilgamesh went to bathe in a pool of fresh water. While thus employed a serpent stole the precious plant away, and left the hero disconsolate. Overland on foot to Uruk they made their weary way, and the tablet concludes with plans, announced to the sailor by Gilgamesh, for rebuilding the city walls-the very walls which had been the cause of all his troubles in the beginning. TWELFTH TABLET Gilgamesh had sadly failed in all his journeys; here he finds himself back again in Uruk, and none the wiser concerning the mysteries which he had hoped to solve. He now desires to make his way to the abode of the dead, there to learn what the dead might have to say concerning this life and its problems. He fails to meet the conditions laid upon him, and cannot find his way to the abode of the dead. He therefore determines to bring the spirit of Engidu to earth again, if the gods will permit. His appeals to Ellil to accomplish this object are in vain, and so also does Sin refuse, but Ea, on the other hand, commands Nergal to send up the longed-for spirit. COLUMN III: When the bold and noble Nergal [heard this] He opened a hole in the earth and Caused the spirit of Engidu, like a wind, to come out of the earth. Then began a dialogue between the reunited friends; but, alas! Engidu cannot lift the curtain of the great mysteries. The only comfort he can bring is that, though men must die, in the next world they find themselves among the friends they had on earth. The search for eternal life has ended in failure, yet there is a comfort and solace in the thought of the associations in the life after death. 2. ANOTHER RECENSION OF THE DELUGE STORY1 The story of the Deluge preserved in the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic was not the only form in which the Babylonian legends were preserved. It was not canonized, and men might write other forms, or alter the others, as did the Hebrews with their narratives, until canonization had crystallized them. This recension belonged also to Ashurbanipal's library. It elaborates somewhat the conversation between Ea and Ut-napishtim which appears in the Nimrod Epic xi, 1. 26f. Published by Friedrich Delitzsch, Assyrische Lesestücke, 3te Auf., p. 101; Paul Haupt, Das babylonische Nimrodepos, p. 131; IV R., 2d edition, Additions and Corrections, p. 9. Translated by Paul Haupt in Schrader, Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 2te Auf., p. 61; Jensen, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, vi, 1, pp. 254ff.; Winckler, Keilinschriftliches Textbuch zum Alten Testament, 3te Auf., p. 88; Dhorme, Choix de Textes religieux Assyro-Babyloniens, pp. 126, 127; Jeremias, Das Alte Testament im Lichte des Alten Orients, 2te Auf., p. 126f.; Ungnad, in Gressmann, Altorientalische Texte und Bilder, i, p. 57. like the ends of Hea[ven and Earth] .] may it be powerful above and [below] 5 [Behold] the time I will announce to thee. "Enter into the ship, close again the door of the ship. Bring within thy grain, thy live stock and thy possessions, Thy [wife], thy kinsfolk, and thy craftsmen, The cattle of the field, the beasts of the field, as 10 Will I send thee, that they may keep thy door." "I have never built a ship [. .] Mark out [for me] upon the earth, a plan of one. 15 [The plan] will I examine, and [build] the ship 1 The meaning seems to be to remain at thy door; that is, to abide with thee, so Jensen. 5 [. a-dan-na ša a-šap-pa-rak-[kum-ma] [ana elippi] e-ru-um-ma bâb elippí tir[-ra] [šûlî ana] lib-bi-ša šeat-ka bušû-ka u makkuru-[ka] 10 [a-šap-p]a-rak-kum-ma i-na-as-sa-ru bâbi-[ka] 15 [u-sur-]tu lu-mur-ma elippu [lupuš] Jina kak-ka-ri e-şir [. ša tak-ba-a [. .] 3. AN ANCIENT BABYLONIAN DELUGE FRAGMENT 1 This badly broken tablet has the distinction, among all others, of being exactly dated, for according to its colophon it was written on the twenty-eighth day of 1 The text was first published by Scheil, Recueil de Travaux, xx, pp. 55ff. See also Jensen, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, vi, 1, p. 288; P. Dhorme, Choix de Textes Religieux Assyro-Babyloniens, pp. 120ff.; Ungnad in Gressmann, Altorientalische Texte und Bilder, i, pp. 57, 58. |