EPIC OF GILGAMESH
Tablet 5
Gilgamesh and Enkidu enter the gloriously beautiful Cedar Forest and begin to cut down the trees.
Hearing the sound, Humbaba comes roaring up to them and warns them off. Enkidu shouts at
Humbaba that the two of them are much stronger than the demon, but Humbaba, who knows
Gilgamesh is a king, taunts the king for taking orders from a nobody like Enkidu. Turning his face
into a hideous mask, Humbaba begins to threaten the pair, and Gilgamesh runs and hides. Enkidu
shouts at Gilgamesh, inspiring him with courage, and Gilgamesh appears from hiding and the two
begin their epic battle with Humbaba. Shamash intrudes on the battle, helping the pair, and
Humbaba is defeated. On his knees, with Gilgamesh's sword at his throat, Humbaba begs for his life
and offers Gilgamesh all the tress in the forest and his eternal servitude. While Gilgamesh is thinking
this over, Enkidu intervenes, telling Gilgamesh to kill Humbaba before any of the gods arrive and
stop him from doing so. Should he kill Humbaba, he will achieve widespread fame for all the times
to come. Gilgamesh, with a great sweep of his sword, removes Humbaba's head. But before he
dies, Humbaba screams out a curse on Enkidu: "Of you two, may Enkidu not live the longer, may
Enkidu not find any peace in this world!"
Gilgamesh and Enkidu cut down the cedar forest and in particular the tallest of the cedar trees to
make a great cedar gate for the city of Uruk. They build a raft out of the cedar and float down the
Euphrates river to their city.
Tablet 6
After these events, Gilgamesh, his fame widespread and his frame resplendent in his wealthy
clothes, attracts the sexual attention of the goddess Ishtar, who comes to Gilgamesh and offers to
become his lover. Gilgamesh refuses with insults, listing all the mortal lovers that Ishtar has had and
recounting the dire fates they all met with at her hands. Deeply insulted, Ishtar returns to heaven and
begs her father, the sky-god Anu, to let her have the Bull of Heaven to wreak vengeance on Gilgamesh and his city:
Father, let me have the Bull of Heaven
To kill Gilgamesh and his city.
For if you do not grant me the Bull of Heaven,
I will pull down the Gates of Hell itself,
Crush the doorposts and flatten the door,
And I will let the dead leave
And let the dead roam the earth
And they shall eat the living.
The dead will overwhelm all the living!
Anu reluctantly gives in, and the Bull of Heaven is sent down into Uruk. Each time the bull
breathes, its breath is so powerful that enormous abysses are opened up in the earth and hundreds
of people fall through to their deaths. Working together again, Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the mighty
bull. Ishtar is enraged, but Enkidu begins to insult her, saying that she is next, that he and Gilgamesh
will kill her next, and he rips one of the thighs off the bull and hurls it into her face.
Tablet 7
Enkidu falls ill after having a set of ominous dreams; he finds out from the priests that he has been singled out for vengeance by the gods. The Chief Gods have met and have decided that someone
should be punished for the killing of Humbaba and the killing of the Bull of Heaven, so of the two
heroes, they decide Enkidu should pay the penalty. Enraged at the injustice of the decision, Enkidu
curses the great Cedar Gate built from the wood of the Cedar Forest, and he curses the temple
harlot, Shamhat, and the trapper, for introducing him to civilization. Shamhash reminds him that,
even though his life has been short, he has enjoyed the fruits of civilization and known great
happiness. Enkidu then blesses the harlot and the trapper. In a dream, a great demon comes to take
Enkidu and drags him to Hell, a House of Dust where all the dead end up; as he is dying, he
describes Hell: The house where the dead dwell in total darkness,
Where they drink dirt and eat stone,
Where they wear feathers like birds,
Where no light ever invades their everlasting darkness,
Where the door and the lock of Hell is coated with thick dust.
When I entered the House of Dust,
On every side the crowns of kings were heaped,
On every side the voices of the kings who wore those crowns,
Who now only served food to the gods Anu and Enlil,
Candy, meat, and water poured from skins.
I saw sitting in this House of Dust a priest and a servant,
I also saw a priest of purification and a priest of ecstasy,
I saw all the priests of the great gods.
There sat Etana and Sumukan,
There sat Ereshkigal, the queen of Hell,
Beletseri, the scribe of Hell, sitting before her.
Beletseri held a tablet and read it to Ereshkigal.
She slowly raised her head when she noticed me
She pointed at me: "Who has sent this man?"
Enkidu commends himself to Gilgamesh, and after suffering terribly for twelve days, he finally dies.
