An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic Part 2

Gilgamesh is sufficiently impressed by this warning to invite Enkidu to accompany him on a visit to his mother, Ninsun, for the purpose of receiving her counsel. [86]

It is only after Enkidu, who himself hesitates and tries to dissuade Gish, decides to accompany the latter that the elders of Erech are reconciled and encourage Gish for the fray. The two in concert proceed against Huwawa. Gilgamesh alone cannot carry out the plan. Now when a tale thus a.s.sociates two figures in one deed, one of the two has been added to the original tale. In the present case there can be little doubt that Enkidu, without whom Gish cannot proceed, who is specifically described as "acquainted with the way ... to the entrance of the forest" [87] in which Huwawa dwells is the _original_ vanquisher. Naturally, the Epic aims to conceal this fact as much as possible _ad majorem gloriam_ of Gilgamesh. It tries to put the one who became the favorite hero into the foreground. Therefore, in both the Babylonian and the a.s.syrian version Enkidu is represented as hesitating, and Gilgamesh as determined to go ahead. Gilgamesh, in fact, accuses Enkidu of cowardice and boldly declares that he will proceed even though failure stare him in the face. [88] Traces of the older view, however, in which Gilgamesh is the one for whom one fears the outcome, crop out; as, for example, in the complaint of Gilgamesh's mother to Shamash that the latter has stirred the heart of her son to take the distant way to Hu(m)baba,

"To a fight unknown to him, he advances, An expedition unknown to him he undertakes." [89]

Ninsun evidently fears the consequences when her son informs her of his intention and asks her counsel. The answer of Shamash is not preserved, but no doubt it was of a rea.s.suring character, as was the answer of the Sun-G.o.d to Gish's appeal and prayer as set forth in the Yale tablet. [90]

Again, as a further indication that Enkidu is the real conqueror of Huwawa, we find the coming contest revealed to Enkidu no less than three times in dreams, which Gilgamesh interprets. [91] Since the person who dreams is always the one to whom the dream applies, we may see in these dreams a further trace of the primary role originally a.s.signed to Enkidu.

Another exploit which, according to the a.s.syrian version, the two heroes perform in concert is the killing of a bull, sent by Anu at the instance of Ishtar to avenge an insult offered to the G.o.ddess by Gilgamesh, who rejects her offer of marriage. In the fragmentary description of the contest with the bull, we find Enkidu "seizing"

the monster by "its tail." [92]

That Enkidu originally played the part of the slayer is also shown by the statement that it is he who insults Ishtar by throwing a piece of the carca.s.s into the G.o.ddess' face, [93] adding also an insulting speech; and this despite the fact that Ishtar in her rage accuses Gilgamesh of killing the bull. [94] It is thus evident that the Epic alters the original character of the episodes in order to find a place for Gilgamesh, with the further desire to a.s.sign to the latter the _chief_ role. Be it noted also that Enkidu, not Gilgamesh, is punished for the insult to Ishtar. Enkidu must therefore in the original form of the episode have been the guilty party, who is stricken with mortal disease as a punishment to which after twelve days he succ.u.mbs. [95] In view of this, we may supply the name of Enkidu in the little song introduced at the close of the encounter with the bull, and not Gilgamesh as has. .h.i.therto been done.

"Who is distinguished among the heroes?

Who is glorious among men?

[Enkidu] is distinguished among heroes, [Enkidu] is glorious among men." [96]

Finally, the killing of lions is directly ascribed to Enkidu in the Pennsylvania tablet:

"Lions he attacked * * * * *

Lions he overcame" [97]

whereas Gilgamesh appears to be afraid of lions. On his long search for Utnapishtim he says:

"On reaching the entrance of the mountain at night I saw lions and was afraid." [98]

He prays to Sin and Ishtar to protect and save him. When, therefore, in another pa.s.sage some one celebrates Gilgamesh as the one who overcame the "guardian," who dispatched Hu(m)baba in the cedar forest, who killed lions and overthrew the bull, [99] we have the completion of the process which transferred to Gilgamesh exploits and powers which originally belonged to Enkidu, though ordinarily the process stops short at making Gilgamesh a _sharer_ in the exploits; with the natural tendency, to be sure, to enlarge the share of the favorite.

We can now understand why the two heroes are described in the Pennsylvania tablet as alike, as born in the same place, aye, as brothers. Gilgamesh in the Epic is merely a reflex of Enkidu. The latter is the real hero and presumably, therefore, the older figure. [100] Gilgamesh resembles Enkidu, because he _is_ originally Enkidu. The "resemblance" _motif_ is merely the manner in which in the course of the partly popular, partly literary transfer, the recollection is preserved that Enkidu is the original, and Gilgamesh the copy.

The artificiality of the process which brings the two heroes together is apparent in the dreams of Gilgamesh which are interpreted by his mother as portending the coming of Enkidu. Not the conflict is foreseen, but the subsequent close a.s.sociation, navely described as due to the personal charm which Enkidu exercises, which will lead Gilgamesh to fall in love with the one whom he is to meet. The two will become one, like man and wife.

On the basis of our investigations, we are now in a position to reconstruct in part the cycle of episodes that once formed part of an Enkidu Epic. The fight between Enkidu and Gilgamesh, in which the former is the victor, is typical of the kind of tales told of Enkidu. He is the real prototype of the Greek Hercules. He slays lions, he overcomes a powerful opponent dwelling in the forests of Lebanon, he kills the bull, and he finally succ.u.mbs to disease sent as a punishment by an angry G.o.ddess. The death of Enkidu naturally formed the close of the Enkidu Epic, which in its original form may, of course, have included other exploits besides those taken over into the Gilgamesh Epic.

VII.

There is another aspect of the figure of Enkidu which is brought forward in the Pennsylvania tablet more clearly than had hitherto been the case. Many years ago attention was called to certain striking resemblances between Enkidu and the figure of the first man as described in the early chapters of Genesis. [101] At that time we had merely the a.s.syrian version of the Gilgamesh Epic at our disposal, and the main point of contact was the description of Enkidu living with the animals, drinking and feeding like an animal, until a woman is brought to him with whom he engages in s.e.xual intercourse. This suggested that Enkidu was a picture of primeval man, while the woman reminded one of Eve, who when she is brought to Adam becomes his helpmate and inseparable companion. The Biblical tale stands, of course, on a much higher level, and is introduced, as are other traditions and tales of primitive times, in the style of a parable to convey certain religious teachings. For all that, suggestions of earlier conceptions crop out in the picture of Adam surrounded by animals to which he a.s.signs names. Such a phrase as "there was no helpmate corresponding to him" becomes intelligible on the supposition of an existing tradition or belief, that man once lived and, indeed, cohabited with animals. The tales in the early chapters of Genesis must rest on very early popular traditions, which have been cleared of mythological and other objectionable features in order to adapt them to the purpose of the Hebrew compilers, to serve as a medium for ill.u.s.trating certain religious teachings regarding man's place in nature and his higher destiny. From the resemblance between Enkidu and Adam it does not, of course, follow that the latter is modelled upon the former, but only that both rest on similar traditions of the condition under which men lived in primeval days prior to the beginnings of human culture.

We may now pa.s.s beyond these general indications and recognize in the story of Enkidu as revealed by the Pennsylvania tablet an attempt to trace the evolution of primitive man from low beginnings to the regular and orderly family life a.s.sociated with advanced culture. The new tablet furnishes a further ill.u.s.tration for the surprisingly early tendency among the Babylonian _literati_ to connect with popular tales teachings of a religious or ethical character. Just as the episode between Gilgamesh and the maiden Sabitum is made the occasion for introducing reflections on the inevitable fate of man to encounter death, so the meeting of Enkidu with the woman becomes the medium of impressing the lesson of human progress through the subst.i.tution of bread and wine for milk and water, through the inst.i.tution of the family, and through work and the laying up of resources. This is the significance of the address to Enkidu in column 4 of the Pennsylvania tablet, even though certain expressions in it are somewhat obscure. The connection of the entire episode of Enkidu and the woman with Gilgamesh is very artificial; and it becomes much more intelligible if we disa.s.sociate it from its present entanglement in the Epic. In Gilgamesh's dream, portending the meeting with Enkidu, nothing is said of the woman who is the companion of the latter. The pa.s.sage in which Enkidu is created by Aruru to oppose Gilgamesh [102]

betrays evidence of having been worked over in order to bring Enkidu into a.s.sociation with the longing of the people of Erech to get rid of a tyrannical character. The people in their distress appeal to Aruru to create a rival to Gilgamesh. In response,

"Aruru upon hearing this created a man of Anu in her heart."

Now this "man of Anu" cannot possibly be Enkidu, for the sufficient reason that a few lines further on Enkidu is described as an offspring of Ninib. Moreover, the being created is not a "counterpart"

of Gilgamesh, but an animal-man, as the description that follows shows. We must separate lines 30-33 in which the creation of the "Anu man" is described from lines 34-41 in which the creation of Enkidu is narrated. Indeed, these lines strike one as the proper _beginning_ of the original Enkidu story, which would naturally start out with his birth and end with his death. The description is clearly an account of the creation of the first man, in which capacity Enkidu is brought forward.

"Aruru washed her hands, broke off clay, threw it on the field [103]

... created Enkidu, the hero, a lofty offspring of the host of Ninib." [104]

The description of Enkidu follows, with his body covered with hair like an animal, and eating and drinking with the animals. There follows an episode [105] which has no connection whatsoever with the Gilgamesh Epic, but which is clearly intended to ill.u.s.trate how Enkidu came to abandon the life with the animals. A hunter sees Enkidu and is amazed at the strange sight--an animal and yet a man. Enkidu, as though resenting his condition, becomes enraged at the sight of the hunter, and the latter goes to his father and tells him of the strange creature whom he is unable to catch. In reply, the father advises his son to take a woman with him when next he goes out on his pursuit, and to have the woman remove her dress in the presence of Enkidu, who will then approach her, and after intercourse with her will abandon the animals among whom he lives. By this device he will catch the strange creature. Lines 14-18 of column 3 in the first tablet in which the father of the hunter refers to Gilgamesh must be regarded as a later insertion, a part of the reconstruction of the tale to connect the episode with Gilgamesh. The advice of the father to his son, the hunter, begins, line 19,

"Go my hunter, take with thee a woman."

In the reconstructed tale, the father tells his son to go to Gilgamesh to relate to him the strange appearance of the animal-man; but there is clearly no purpose in this, as is shown by the fact that when the hunter does so, Gilgamesh makes _precisely the same speech_ as does the father of the hunter. Lines 40-44 of column 3, in which Gilgamesh is represented as speaking to the hunter form a complete _doublet_ to lines 19-24, beginning

"Go, my hunter, take with thee a woman, etc."

and similarly the description of Enkidu appears twice, lines 2-12 in an address of the hunter to his father, and lines 29-39 in the address of the hunter to Gilgamesh.

The artificiality of the process of introducing Gilgamesh into the episode is revealed by this awkward and entirely meaningless repet.i.tion. We may therefore reconstruct the first two scenes in the Enkidu Epic as follows: [106]

Tablet I, col. 2, 34-35: Creation of Enkidu by Aruru.

36-41: Description of Enkidu's hairy body and of his life with the animals.

42-50: The hunter sees Enkidu, who shows his anger, as also his woe, at his condition.

3, 1-12: The hunter tells his father of the strange being who pulls up the traps which the hunter digs, and who tears the nets so that the hunter is unable to catch him or the animals.

19-24: The father of the hunter advises his son on his next expedition to take a woman with him in order to lure the strange being from his life with the animals.

Line 25, beginning "On the advice of his father," must have set forth, in the original form of the episode, how the hunter procured the woman and took her with him to meet Enkidu.

Column 4 gives in detail the meeting between the two, and navely describes how the woman exposes her charms to Enkidu, who is captivated by her and stays with her six days and seven nights. The animals see the change in Enkidu and run away from him. He has been transformed through the woman. So far the episode. In the a.s.syrian version there follows an address of the woman to Enkidu beginning (col. 4, 34):

"Beautiful art thou, Enkidu, like a G.o.d art thou."