Editing Epic of Gilgamesh (section)

==== Content of the Standard Babylonian version tablets ====
This summary is based on [[Andrew R. George|Andrew George]]'s translation.{{sfn|George|2003}}

===== Tablet one =====
The story introduces [[Gilgamesh]], king of [[Uruk]]. Gilgamesh, two-thirds god and one-third man, is oppressing his people, who cry out to the gods for help. For the young women of Uruk this oppression takes the form of Gilgamesh raping brides on their wedding night. For the young men (the tablet is damaged at this point) it is conjectured that Gilgamesh exhausts them through games, tests of strength, or perhaps forced labour on building projects. The gods respond to the people's pleas by creating an equal to Gilgamesh who will be able to stop his oppression. 

This is the invincibly strong [[Enkidu]], covered in hair, who lives in the wilderness with his herd of animal relatives. He is spotted by a trapper, whose livelihood is being ruined because Enkidu destroys all his traps. The trapper tells the sun god [[Shamash]] about the man, and it is arranged that Enkidu will be seduced by [[Shamhat]], a [[Sacred prostitution|temple prostitute]], as the first step in taming him. After six days and seven nights (or two weeks, according to more recent scholarship<ref name="10.5615">{{Cite journal |last1=Al-Rawi |first1=F. N. H. |last2=George |first2=A. R. |date=2014 |title=Back to the Cedar Forest: The Beginning and End of Tablet V of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgameš |url=http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18512/1/jcunestud.66.0069_w-footer.pdf |journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies |volume=66 |pages=69–90 |doi=10.5615/jcunestud.66.2014.0069 |jstor=10.5615/jcunestud.66.2014.0069 |s2cid=161833317 |access-date=22 February 2019 |archive-date=17 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211117000846/https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18512/1/jcunestud.66.0069_w-footer.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>) of lovemaking, Enkidu is 'weakened'; his herd flees in horror into the steppe. Enkidu is shocked by his loneliness, but Shamhat tries to comfort him: "Do not grieve, you now have knowledge, like the gods." Gilgamesh, meanwhile, has been having dreams about the imminent arrival of a beloved new companion and asks his mother, the goddess [[Ninsun]], to help interpret these dreams.

===== Tablet two =====
[[File:Fragment of Tablet II of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Old-Babylonian period, from southern Iraq. Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraqi Kurdistan.jpg|thumb|Fragment of Tablet II of the Epic of Gilgamesh, [[Sulaymaniyah Museum]], Iraq]]
Shamhat takes Enkidu to a shepherd's camp, teaching him to be civilised: his hair is cut, and he learns to eat human food and drink beer. In the shepherds' camp, to whose way of life he has become accustomed, Enkidu is appointed night watchman. Learning from a passing stranger about Gilgamesh's treatment of new brides, he is incensed and travels to Uruk to intervene at a wedding. When Gilgamesh attempts to visit the wedding chamber, Enkidu blocks his way, and they fight. After a fierce battle, Enkidu acknowledges Gilgamesh's superior strength and they become friends. Gilgamesh proposes a journey to the Cedar Forest to slay the monstrous demi-god [[Humbaba]] in order to gain fame and renown. Despite warnings from Enkidu and the council of elders, Gilgamesh is not deterred.

===== Tablet three =====
The elders give Gilgamesh advice for his journey. Gilgamesh visits his mother, Ninsun, who seeks the support and protection of the sun-god [[Shamash]] for their adventure. Ninsun adopts Enkidu as her son, and Gilgamesh leaves instructions for the governance of Uruk in his absence.

===== Tablet four =====
[[File:Clay tablet, Epic of Gilgamesh, from Hattusa, Turkey. 13th century BCE. Neues Museum, Germany.jpg|thumb|The second dream of Gilgamesh on the journey to the Forest of Cedar. Epic of Gilgamesh tablet from [[Hattusa]], Turkey. 13th century BCE. [[Neues Museum]], Germany]]
Gilgamesh and Enkidu journey to the [[Cedar Forest]]. Every few days they camp on a mountain, and perform a dream ritual. Gilgamesh has five terrifying dreams about falling mountains, thunderstorms, wild bulls, and a [[Thunderbird (mythology)|thunderbird]] that breathes fire. Despite similarities between his dream figures and earlier descriptions of Humbaba, Enkidu interprets these dreams as good omens, and denies that the frightening images represent the forest guardian. As they approach the cedar mountain, they hear Humbaba bellowing, and have to encourage each other not to be afraid.

===== Tablet five =====
[[File:Tablet V of the Epic of Gligamesh.JPG|thumb|Tablet V of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'']]
[[File:Reverse side of the newly discovered tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh. It dates back to the old Babylonian period, 2003-1595 BCE and is currently housed in the Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq.jpg|thumb|Reverse side of the newly discovered tablet V of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. It dates back to the old Babylonian period, 2003–1595 BC, and is currently housed in the [[Sulaymaniyah Museum]], Iraq.]]
The heroes enter the cedar forest. [[Humbaba]], the guardian of the Cedar Forest, insults and threatens them. He accuses Enkidu of betrayal, and vows to disembowel Gilgamesh and feed his flesh to the birds. Gilgamesh is afraid, but with some encouraging words from Enkidu the battle commences. The mountains quake with the tumult and the sky turns black. The god [[Shamash]] sends 13 winds to bind Humbaba, and he is captured. Humbaba pleads for his life, and Gilgamesh pities him. He offers to make Gilgamesh king of the forest, to cut the trees for him, and to be his slave. Enkidu, however, argues that Gilgamesh should kill Humbaba to establish his reputation forever. Humbaba curses them both and Gilgamesh dispatches him with a blow to the neck, as well as killing his seven sons.<ref name=10.5615 /> The two heroes cut down many cedars, including a gigantic tree that Enkidu plans to fashion into a door for the temple of [[Enlil]]. They build a raft and return home along the [[Euphrates]] with the giant tree and (possibly) the head of Humbaba.

===== Tablet six =====
Gilgamesh rejects the advances of the goddess [[Ishtar]] because of her mistreatment of previous lovers like [[Tammuz (deity)|Dumuzi]]. Ishtar becomes angry and denies Gilgamesh entry into E-Ana, interfering with his business. Ishtar asks her father [[Anu]] to send Gulaana- the [[Bull of Heaven]] to avenge her. When Anu rejects her complaints, Ishtar threatens to [[Undead|raise the dead]] who will "outnumber the living" and "devour them", as well as screaming loud enough to be heard by the heavens and earth. Anu states that if he gives her the Bull of Heaven, Uruk will face 7 years of famine. Ishtar provides him with provisions for 7 years in exchange for the bull. Ishtar leads the Bull of Heaven to Uruk, and he causes widespread devastation. Drinking continuously without being satisfied, the Bull lowers the level of the Euphrates river, and dries up the marshes. He opens up huge pits that swallow 300 men. Without any divine assistance, Enkidu and Gilgamesh kill him and offer up his heart to Shamash. When Ishtar cries out, Enkidu hurls one of the hindquarters of the bull at her. The city of Uruk celebrates, but Enkidu has an ominous dream about his future failure.

===== Tablet seven =====
In Enkidu's dream, the gods decide that one of the heroes must die because they killed Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven. Despite the protestations of Shamash, Enkidu is marked for death. Enkidu curses the great door he has fashioned for Enlil's temple. He also curses the trapper and Shamhat for removing him from the wild. Shamash reminds Enkidu of how Shamhat fed and clothed him, and introduced him to Gilgamesh. Shamash tells him that Gilgamesh will bestow great honors upon him at his funeral, and will wander into the wild consumed with grief. Enkidu regrets his curses and blesses Shamhat instead. In a second dream, however, he sees himself being taken captive to the [[Underworld|Netherworld]], a "house of dust" and darkness whose inhabitants eat clay, and are clothed in bird feathers, supervised by terrifying beings. For 12&nbsp;days, Enkidu's condition worsens. Finally, after a lament that he could not meet a heroic death in battle, he dies. In a famous line from the epic, Gilgamesh clings to Enkidu's body and denies that he has died until a maggot drops from the nose of the corpse.

===== Tablet eight =====
Gilgamesh delivers a lament for Enkidu, in which he calls upon mountains, forests, fields, rivers, wild animals, and all of Uruk to mourn for his friend. Recalling their adventures together, Gilgamesh tears at his hair and clothes in grief. He commissions a funerary statue, and provides grave gifts from his treasury to ensure that Enkidu has a favourable reception in the realm of the dead. A great banquet is held where the treasures are offered to the gods of the Netherworld. Just before a break in the text there is a suggestion that a river is being dammed, indicating a burial in a river bed, as in the corresponding Sumerian poem, ''[[Death of Gilgamesh|The Death of Gilgamesh]]''.

===== Tablet nine =====
[[File:Baylonianmaps.JPG|thumb|300px|Babylon's world map. The more vertical lines indicate the [[Euphrates]], and the triangles mountains at the world's edge, including the [[Mount Ararat|Ararat]], on which Utnapishtim ''Noah'' stranded. The small circles show city-states such as Uruk, and the belt the goddess salt sea serpent [[Tiamat]].<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUxFzh8r384 |title=The Babylonian Map of the World with Irving Finkel {{!}} Curator's Corner S9 Ep5 |date=2024-10-11 |last=The British Museum |access-date=2024-09-01 |via=YouTube}}</ref> She, the [[Abzu]] and the Flood are probably sources of the [[Leviathan]], a human-consuming cosmic sea monster.]] Tablet nine opens with Gilgamesh roaming the wild wearing skins, grieving for Enkidu. Having now become fearful of his own death, he decides to seek [[Utnapishtim]] ("the Faraway"), and learn the secret of eternal life. Utnapishtim and his wife are the only couple of humans artificially created by the gods who were allowed to survive the great flood and even endowed with divine immortality in gratitude for food sacrifices to the gods, so Utnapishtim seems to be identical to the pious priest [[Atra-Hasis]]. 

Gilgamesh crosses a mountain pass at night and encounters a pride of lions. Before sleeping he prays for protection to the moon god [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]]. Then, waking from an encouraging dream, he kills the lions and uses their skins for clothing. After a long and perilous journey, Gilgamesh arrives at the twin peaks of Mount [[Mashu]] at the western end of the earth. He comes across the tunnel of the sun god [[Shamash]], which no man has ever entered, guarded by two [[Scorpion man|scorpion monsters]], who appear to be a married couple. The husband tries to dissuade Gilgamesh from passing, but the wife intervenes, expresses sympathy for Gilgamesh, and (according to the poem's editor Benjamin Foster) allows his passage.{{sfn|Foster|2003}} Entering the tunnel's gate, he follows the path of Shamash in total darkness and actually manages to reach the eastern exit within 12 ‘double hours’, just before he would have been caught up by the sun god, burning him alive. Astonished, he enters the marvellous Garden of the Gods, a paradise in which trees full of delicious jewels grow.

===== Tablet ten =====
Gilgamesh meets [[Alewife (trade)|alewife]] [[Siduri]] in her pub. First she assumes that he would be a murderer or thief because of his disheveled appearance, but Gilgamesh tells her about the purpose of his journey. She attempts to dissuade him from his quest, but sends him to [[Urshanabi]] the ferryman, who will help him cross the sea to Utnapishtim. Gilgamesh, out of spontaneous rage, destroys the stone charms that Urshanabi keeps with him. Gilgamesh tells his story, but when he asks for help, Urshanabi informs him that he has just destroyed the objects that can help them cross the Waters of Death, which are deadly to the touch. Urshanabi instructs Gilgamesh to cut down 120 trees and fashion them into [[Punt (boat)|punting]] poles. When they reach the island where Utnapishtim lives, Gilgamesh recounts his story, asking him for his help. Utnapishtim reprimands him, declaring that fighting the common fate of humans is futile and diminishes life's joys.

===== Tablet eleven =====
{{See also|Gilgamesh flood myth}}
[[File:Babylon's world view.jpg|thumb|300px|The Sumerian Genesis describes the [[Abzu]] as a cosmic freshwater ocean surrounding our planet created in its midst, so the sketch shows the same as Babylon's map, now in sideview. A breathable bubble of air clings to earth's surface; the mountains of Lebanon and Zagros serve as pillars of the freshwater sky; and the tunnel enables the [[Shamash|sun god]] to rush at night from west to east. There, close to sunrise and [[Siduri|Siduris]] pub, lies [[Dilmun]], Utnahpishtim's island, where Gilgamesh dived into the depths, founding the herb of eternal life. The sluice gates set into sky are an important detail: through them, the gods with their skills at building irrigation systems were able to fertilise Mesopotamia with rain, but also to unleash the great flood.]] Gilgamesh observes that Utnapishtim seems no different from himself, and asks him how he obtained his immortality. Utnapishtim explains that the gods decided to send a great flood. To save Utnapishtim the god [[Enki]] told him to build a boat. He gave him precise dimensions, and it was sealed with [[Pitch (resin)|pitch]] and [[bitumen]]. His entire family went aboard together with his craftsmen and "all the animals of the field". A violent storm then arose which caused the terrified gods to retreat to the heavens. Ishtar lamented the wholesale destruction of humanity, and the other gods wept beside her. The storm lasted six days and nights, after which "all the human beings turned to clay". Utnapishtim weeps when he sees the destruction. His boat lodges on the [[Mount Nisir|Mt. Nimush]], and he releases a dove, a swallow, and a raven. When the raven fails to return, he opens the ark and frees its inhabitants. Utnapishtim offers a sacrifice to the gods, who smell the sweet savor and gather around. Ishtar vows that just as she will never forget the brilliant necklace that hangs around her neck, she will always remember this time. When Enlil arrives, angry that there are survivors, she condemns him for instigating the flood. Enki also castigates him for sending a disproportionate punishment. Enlil blesses Utnapishtim and his wife, and rewards them with eternal life. This account largely matches the flood story that concludes the ''Epic of {{nowrap|[[Atra-Hasis]]}}''.{{sfn|George|2003|p=xxx}}{{Sfn|Brandão|2015|p=106}}

The main point seems to be that when Enlil granted eternal life it was a unique gift. As if to demonstrate this point, Utnapishtim challenges Gilgamesh to stay awake for six days and seven nights. Gilgamesh falls asleep, and Utnapishtim instructs his wife to bake a loaf of bread on each of the days he is asleep, so that he cannot deny his failure to keep awake. Gilgamesh, who is seeking to overcome death, cannot even conquer sleep. After instructing Urshanabi, the ferryman, to wash Gilgamesh and clothe him in royal robes, they depart for Uruk.
As they are leaving, Utnapishtim's wife asks her husband to offer a parting gift. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that at the bottom of the sea there lives a [[boxthorn]]-like plant that will make him young again. Gilgamesh, by binding stones to his feet so he can walk on the bottom, manages to obtain the plant. Gilgamesh proposes to investigate if the plant has the hypothesized rejuvenation ability by testing it on an old man once he returns to Uruk.{{sfn|George|2003|p=98|ps=. "'There is a plant that looks like a box-thorn, it has prickles like a dogrose, and will prick one who plucks it. But if you can possess this plant, you'll be again as you were in your youth.' ... Said Gilgamesh to him: 'This plant, Ur-shanabi, is the "Plant of Heartbeat", with it a man can regain his vigour. To Uruk-the-Sheepfold I will take it, to an ancient I will feed some and put the plant to the test!'"}}
When Gilgamesh stops to bathe, it is stolen by a [[serpent (symbolism)|serpent]], who sheds its skin as it departs. Gilgamesh weeps at the futility of his efforts, because he has now lost all chance of immortality. He returns to Uruk, where the sight of its massive walls prompts him to praise this enduring work to Urshanabi.

===== 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.