Editing Epic of Gilgamesh (section)

===== Tablet twelve =====
This tablet is mainly an Akkadian translation of an earlier Sumerian poem, "Gilgamesh and the Netherworld" (also known as "[[Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld]]" and variants), although it has been suggested that it is derived from an unknown version of that story.{{sfn|Dalley|2000|p=42}} The contents of this last tablet are inconsistent with previous ones: Enkidu is still alive, despite having died earlier in the epic. Because of this, its lack of integration with the other tablets, and the fact that it is almost a copy of an earlier version, it has been referred to as an 'inorganic appendage' to the epic.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maier |first=John R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Ok5WbdWi3QC&q=tablet+XII++++++the+Netherworld&pg=PA136 |title=Gilgamesh: A reader |date=1997 |publisher=Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers |isbn=978-0-86516-339-3 |page=136 |access-date=10 November 2020 |archive-date=12 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712074633/https://books.google.com/books?id=0Ok5WbdWi3QC&q=tablet+XII++++++the+Netherworld&pg=PA136 |url-status=live}}</ref> Alternatively, it has been suggested that "its purpose, though crudely handled, is to explain to Gilgamesh (and the reader) the various fates of the dead in the Afterlife" and in "an awkward attempt to bring closure",<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Patton |first1=Laurie L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgsTmeRHpeUC&q=tablet+XII++++++the+Netherworld&pg=PA306 |title=Myth and Method |last2=Doniger |first2=Wendy |date=1996 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=978-0-8139-1657-6 |page=306 |access-date=10 November 2020 |archive-date=12 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712074626/https://books.google.com/books?id=OgsTmeRHpeUC&q=tablet+XII++++++the+Netherworld&pg=PA306 |url-status=live}}</ref> it both connects the Gilgamesh of the epic with the Gilgamesh who is the King of the Netherworld,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kovacs |first=Maureen |title=The Epic of Gilgamesh |date=1989 |publisher=University of Stanford Press |isbn=978-0-8047-1711-3 |page=117}}</ref> and is "a dramatic capstone whereby the twelve-tablet epic ends on one and the same theme, that of "seeing" (= understanding, discovery, etc.), with which it began."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Zikir Šumim: Assyriological Studies Presented to F.R. Kraus on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday |date=1982 |isbn=978-90-6258-126-9 |editor-last=van Driel |editor-first=G. |page=131 |publisher=Brill Archive |editor-last2=Krispijn |editor-first2=Th. J. H. |editor-last3=Stol |editor-first3=M. |editor-last4=Veenhof |editor-first4=K. R.}}</ref>

Gilgamesh complains to Enkidu that various of his possessions (the tablet is unclear exactly what{{snd}} different translations include a drum and a ball) have fallen into the underworld. Enkidu offers to bring them back. Delighted, Gilgamesh tells Enkidu what he must and must not do in the underworld if he is to return. Enkidu does everything which he was told not to do. The underworld keeps him. Gilgamesh prays to the gods to give him back his friend. Enlil and [[Suen]] do not reply, but Enki and Shamash decide to help. Shamash makes a crack in the earth, and Enkidu's ghost jumps out of it. The tablet ends with Gilgamesh questioning Enkidu about what he has seen in the underworld.