Vast collections of clay tablets have been found in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), inscribed with texts recording everything from the simplest counting of sheep to the most arcane divination ritual. Many signs refer to everyday and administrative matters (eg product records, religious-divination rituals, etc.), but there are also several that are characterized as literary, i.e. they refer to stories, myths and legends that were texts very widespread in antiquity. Texts similar to the Homeric epics, but older. In the mid-19th century, the Akkadian language, the language in which most of the tablets were written, was deciphered. Since then, the reading of these texts and their various translations began. The largest literary text discovered so far is the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem inscribed on clay tablets in cuneiform in the Akkadian language. Most of the twelve chapters (tablets) of the Epic were found in the royal library of Assurbanipal 1 and in the ruins of the temple of the god Nabu 2, both at Nineveh, Assyria (present-day N. Iraq). We know today for certain that Gilgamesh was a historical figure and that in ancient times he was considered a historical character and not a mythical one. This results from the inscriptions with the "Sumerian King lists" found in archaeological excavations, dated to the period 2500 - 2800 BC. According to the above inscriptions Gilgamesh was king of the city of Uruk (note: it has been identified as modern Warka in central Iraq) during the first dynasty (around 2600 BC). His most important achievement was the building of the walls around Uruk, mentioned in the Epic and confirmed by a younger ruler of the city, Anam, who recorded his own reconstruction of the walls which he referred to as "the ancient work of Gilgamesh". In the "Sumerian king list" Gilgamesh is listed as the fifth king in a row to reign at Uruk after the great flood. Excavations in the city of Warka (formerly Uruk) carried out by German archaeologists in 1928-29 showed a magnificent temple architecture that existed even before the inhabitants of these parts learned writing. Of the approximately 3000 verses of the Akkadian version of the epic, I present below the texts in tablets 9 (IX), 10 (X) and 11 (XI). The first two are related to the journey of the hero Gilgamesh (and king of Uruk) in search of eternal life (immortality), a search that leads him to the hero Ut-napishtim who has survived a great flood, lives with his wife in a heavenly island of the ocean (a country called Dilmun) and had already acquired immortality. Tablet XI relates to Ut-napishtim's description of the flood. I HAVE removed all the repeats in the dialogs that are exclusive to the signs. [1] About the library of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal [2] A leading Semitic god of writing and wisdom worshiped in the Assyrians and Babylonians. In the Bible it is referred to as Nebo |
The clay Tablets IX and X of the Epic of Gilgamesh, called "the quest for eternal life" show a distraught Gilgamesh wandering in foreign lands before and after the Ocean, terrified and saddened by the death of his beloved friend Enkidu, who he considered his brother. Gilgamesh, after the death of his friend, fearing the imminent arrival of his own death, decides to leave the homeland where he reigns, Uruk (in Babylonian Sumeria), and go to see Utnapishtim, who together with his wife were the sole survivors of the cataclysm and the only one who knows the secrets of eternal life. Gilgamesh, after weeping bitterly for his friend Enkidu, wandered the wilderness like a hunter, roaming all the plains. Mourning the death of his beloved friend, he cried:
And so Gilgamesh roamed the deserts, walked green lands, and went on a long journey in search of Utnapishtim, whom the gods had taken after the deluge and settled in the land of Dilmun, in the gardens of the sun. And here they gave him eternal life. His journey overland was perilous: lions lurked, while the passes of the towering Masu mountains were guarded by scorpion-men whose: "Whose aura is frightful, and whose glance is death. At first Gilgamesh's reception is hostile, but as can be seen from a very damaged piece of the tablet, he manages to convince the scorpion-man and his wife that he must pass through their gate, even though the scorpion-man prevents him telling him: Gilgamesh, a mere mortal was not found to accomplish this But Gilgamesh advances through the darkness of Mount Masu:
After traversing the dark passages of Mount Masu, broken, hungry and despoiled, clad in animal skins, Gilgamesh reaches the sea and meets the seer Siduri, the woman who made wine and who sat in the garden by the sea with the gold cups and golden jars that the "gods" gave them. Gilgamesh said to her:
And Siduri, who makes the wine, said to him:
When Gilgamesh heard this he became angry. He took up an axe to his side, Drew the sword from his belt, and ran like an arrow across the sea. In his anger he broke the stones, entered the forest and sat down Stole up and drove them off, like an arrow he fell among them. Immediately Gilgamesh set out and found Urshanabi.
When Gilgamesh heard this, he went to the forest and cut poles, one hundred and twenty in number. And he cut them sixty cubits long. He painted them with tar, put a wreath on them and took them to Urshanabi in the ship. Gilgamesh and Urshanabi together invested the ship with them.
And so Ur-shanabi, the ferryman, carried Gilgamesh to Ut-napishtim, who was also called "Far Away", who lived in Dilmun, in the land where the sun passes east of the mountain. Only to him, of all people, did the gods grant eternal life. |
Tablet XI (the so-called flood tablet) begins with Gilgamesh wondering how it is that he and Utnapishtim look exactly alike when one is mortal and the other immortal. Ut-napishtim reveals to him the "secret of the gods" and tells him the story of the flood and how he was saved, and for anyone who knows the story of Noah's ark the similarities are too many. The account of the deluge in the eleventh tablet begins with a council of the gods. The gods decide to send a great flood on the people:Ut-napishtim spoke to him, to Gilgamesh:
Only Ea violates the agreement and warns Utnapishtim of the impending doom, sending a message through a thatched hut and a brick wall. Utnapishtim continues his narration to Gilgamesh:
The construction of the Ark of Ut-napishtimThen, Ut-napisthim builds the big boat (Ark), according to exact instructions and throws it into the water. He tells Gilgamesh how:
The terrible flood is coming:
Ut-napishtim sends out first a dove and then a swallow. Both go back. Finally he sends a raven that does not turn back, a sign that the waters have receded (in the Bible Noah first sends a raven and then two doves), then he makes a great sacrifice to the gods. The gods gathered around the sacrifice. Enlil saw my ship, became angry, raged and quarreled with the gods who dwell in the sky because mortals escaped the destruction. No one should!!! And Ea opened his mouth and said to warlike Enlil:
Enlil is finally convinced and makes Utnapishtim and his wife immortal and sends them to live far away in the land of Dilmun, in the gardens of the sun, where Gilgamesh met him, saying:
And so the Gods took me and placed me here, to live far away at the mouths of rivers.
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