EPIC OF GILGAMESH
Gilgamesh was a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in Iraq. He lived about 2700 B.C. along the Tigris-Euphrates area, among the first civilizations.
The EPIC of Gilgamesh
Tablet 1
The one who saw all [Sha nagba imuru ]I will declare to the world, The one who knew all I will tell about
[line missing]
He saw the great Mystery, he knew the Hidden:
He recovered the knowledge of all the times before the Flood.
He journeyed beyond the distant, he journeyed beyond exhaustion,
And then carved his story on stone. [naru : stone tablets ]
This great hero who had all knowledge [nemequ ], Gilgamesh, built the great city of Uruk; the
tablet invites us to look around and view the greatness of this city, its high walls, its masonwork, and here at the base of its gates, as the foundation of the city walls, a stone of lapis lazuli on which is carved Gilgamesh's account of his exploits, the story you are about to hear.
The account begins: Gilgamesh, two-thirds god and one-third human, is the great-est king on
earth and the strongest super-human that ever existed; however, he is young and oppresses his
people harshly. The people call out to the sky-god Anu, the chief god of the city, to help them. In
response, Anu creates a wild man, Enkidu, out in the harsh and wild forests surrounding Gilgamesh's
lands. This brute, Enkidu, has the strength of dozens of wild animals; he is to serve as the subhuman
rival to the superhuman Gilgamesh.
A trapper's son, while checking on traps in the forest, discovers Enkidu running naked with the
wild animals; he rushes to his father with the news. The father advises him to go into the city and
take one of the temple harlots, Shamhat, with him to the forest; 1 when she sees Enkidu, she is to
offer herself sexually to the wild man. If he submits to her, the trapper says, he will lose his strength
and his wildness.
Shamhat meets Enkidu at the watering-hole where all the wild animals gather; she offers herself to
him and he submits, instantly losing his strength and wildness, but he gains understanding and
knowledge. He laments for his lost state, but the har-lot offers to take him into the city where all the
joys of civilization shine in their re-splendence; she offers to show him Gilgamesh, the only man
worthy of Enkidu's friendship.
Gilgamesh meanwhile has two dreams; in the first a meteorite falls to earth which is so great that
Gilgamesh can neither lift it nor turn it. The people gather and celebrate around the meteorite, and
Gilgamesh embraces it as he would a wife, but his mother, the goddess Rimat-Ninsun, forces him to
compete with the meteorite. In the second, Gilgamesh dreams that an axe appears at his door, so
great that he can neither lift it nor turn it. The people gather and celebrate around the axe, and
Gilgamesh embraces it as he would a wife, but his mother, again, forces him to compete with the
axe. Gilgamesh asks his mother what these dreams might mean; she tells him a man of great force
and strength will come into Uruk. Gilgamesh will embrace this man as he would a wife, and this man
will help Gilgamesh perform great deeds.
