Gilgamesh did not reveal all his secrets!

15 October 2015

The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the most famous texts in Mesopotamian literature, is well known to secondary school students because it was included in the syllabus devised for first year pupils, in 2008, as part of a selection of cornerstone texts, such as the Bible, the Iliad and the Odyssey. A cuneiform tablet newly discovered in Iraq now makes it possible to shed more light on one of the episodes which takes place in the epic.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, the most complete version of which originates from the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (seventh century BCE), recounts the heroic adventures of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk. A demigod, Gilgamesh ruled through tyranny. To come to the aid of the people of Uruk, the gods created Enkidu, a wild man who lived with the animals of the steppes and became civilised upon meeting a courtesan. Enkidu goes to Uruk, where he engages in a wrestling match with Gilgamesh, but neither of them prevails. The two men become friends and set out on a journey together, eventually arriving at the Cedar Forest guarded by the giant Humbaba. The pair slay the giant and fell the trees. The goddess Ishtar becomes infatuated with the hero upon his return to the city where there is a temple dedicated to her, but Gilgamesh rejects her advances. Infuriated, the goddess despatches the Bull of Heaven to destroy Uruk, but the two friends slay him. In order to satisfy Ishtar, the gods condemn Enkidu, who dies before Gilgamesh’s eyes. Thus Gilgamesh realises that he is mortal and seeks to elude his fate. He goes in search of Utnapishtim and his wife, the sole survivors of the Great Flood who were bestowed with eternal life as a gift of the gods. They give Gilgamesh a rejuvenating plant, but a snake steals it as he makes his way to Uruk.

The version of the Epic of Gilgamesh kept at Nineveh is composed of twelve tablets. Tablet V describes the meeting of Gilgamesh and Enkidu with Humbaba: they enter his kingdom, fell the cedar trees and return to Uruk with the head of the giant as a trophy. Up till now, this episode has been recounted through two manuscripts; one discovered at Nineveh and written up in Neo-Assyrian; the other written in Neo-Babylonian and originating from Uruk. The manuscripts start differently; this was previously thought to be because they stem from two different traditions. A recently published newly discovered tablet,[1] T 1447, demonstrates that this is not in fact the case.

The said Neo-Babylonian tablet (or more precisely, fragment of a tablet) was acquired from traffickers in 2011 by the Sulaymaniyah Museum (Iraqi Kurdistan), as part of a batch of 90 tablets originating from southern Iraq. (An effort was made to intercept antiquities before they were sold overseas, in exchange for the anonymity of sellers and secrecy around the origin of the objects.)

This fragment, which represents the left half of a tablet laid out in six columns (three on each side), makes it possible to create a link between the two already known manuscripts, to arrange the episodes in sequential order, and to add twenty new lines of text to the Epic of Gilgamesh. When they arrived at the Cedar Forest, the two friends marvelled at its luxuriant growth and inhaled the fragrance of the cedars. The forest is described as a dense jungle inhabited by clamorous wildlife; monkeys that chatter, cicadas that chirp, and birds that sing to please the forest’s keeper. We also learn that, in his childhood, Enkidu spent some time with Humbaba, and that the latter initially rejoiced at his return, but at the same time felt betrayed. We also come to realise that Gilgamesh and Enkidu, after having decapitated Humbaba, feared the wrath of the gods. They hastily slay the witnesses to the murder they have committed, the ‘Seven Sons of Humbaba’, in accordance with a well-known motif in Mesopotamian literature. The twenty new lines of the Epic of Gilgamesh therefore offer a different view of Humbaba: he is no longer a barbarous ogre, but rather a foreign sovereign surrounded by an entourage and sweet music. In addition, we perceive the heroes’ sense of guilt, conscious of their reprehensible conduct.

The thousands of tablets illegally excavated at archaeological sites in Iraq and sold all over the world certainly harbour additional passages from this tale, one of the most ancient pieces of writing in the history of mankind.

For those who wish to hear extracts of this ancient epic recited in its original language, a British researcher has assembled some recordings of Assyriologists reading some poems and literature from ancient Assyria and Babylon. It is possible to listen to a few chapters of the Epic of Gilgamesh, in the version dating from the second millennium BCE, or from that of the seventh century BCE; for example, more than 160 lines from Tablet XI are recited by Karl Hecker.

[1] Al-Rawi, Farouk N.H. and George, Andrew (2014), ‘Back to the Cedar Forest: The beginning and end of Tablet V of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgameš’, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 66, 69-90.