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The Epic of Gilgamish

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Jennifer Murdoch
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« on: February 24, 2010, 11:08:33 pm »

   
The Epic of Gilgamish
tr. by R. Campbell Thompson
[1928]


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Jennifer Murdoch
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« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2010, 11:09:12 pm »

This is one of the first essentially complete academic translations of the epic of Gilgamesh. It includes all of the principal episodes of the epic: the wild man Enkidu; the battle with Humbaba, the cedar forest demon; the death of Enkidu, the journey of Gilgamesh to find the secret of eternal life, in the course of which he encounters the Babylonian Noah, Uta-Napishtim, and hears the story of the great flood.

Oxford trained Thompson (1876-1941), was an Assyriologist associated with the British Museum. He was a teacher both of T.E. Lawrence and Max Mallowan, husband of Agatha Cristie. He excavated at Ur, Ninevah and Carchemish.

While often cited, this book is almost never seen. This work is long out of print (in fact it has never been reprinted) and extremely rare, even in libraries. However, it has a huge significance because it is one of the baseline translations of Gilgamesh. Because of its date of publication, under US copyright law it is formally still under copyright. Since there was no copyright notice in the original, the US copyright lasts for 70 years following the death of the author (i.e., 2011). We have attempted to locate the current copyright holder with no success. If one comes forward and requests that this electronic text be removed, it will be taken down without notice.
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« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2010, 11:10:04 pm »

p. 4 p. 5
PREFACE.

THE Epic of Gilgamish, written in cuneiform on Assyrian and Babylonian clay tablets, is one of the most interesting poems in the world. It is of great antiquity, and, inasmuch as a fragment of a Sumerian Deluge text is extant, it would appear to have had its origin with the Sumerians at a remote period, perhaps the fourth millennium, or even earlier. Three tablets of it exist written in Semitic (Akkadian), which cannot be much later than 2,000 B.C.: half a millennium later come the remains of editions from Boghaz Keui, the Hittite capital in the heart of Asia Minor, written not only in Akkadian, but also in Hittite and another dialect. After these comes the tablet found at Ashur, the old Assyrian capital, which is anterior in date to the great editions now preserved in the British Museum, which were made in the seventh century B.C., for the Royal Library at Nineveh, one Sin-liqi-unni(n)ni being one of the editors. Finally there are small neo-Babylonian fragments representing still later editions.
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« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2010, 11:11:00 pm »

In the seventh century edition, which forms the main base of our knowledge of the poem, it was divided into twelve tablets, each containing about three hundred lines in metre. Its subject was the Legend of Gilgamish, a composite story made up probably of different myths which had grown up at various times round the hero's name. He was one of the earliest Kings of Erech in the South of Babylonia, and his name is found written on a tablet giving the rulers of Erech, following in order after that of Tammuz (the god of vegetation and one of the husbands of Ishtar) who in his turn follows Lugal-banda, the tutelary god of the House of Gilgamish. The mother of Gilgamish was Nin-sun. According to the Epic, long ago in the old days of Babylonia (perhaps 5,000 B.C.), when all the cities had their own kings, and each state rose and fell according to the ability of its ruler, Gilgamish is holding Erech in thrall, and the inhabitants appeal to the Gods to be relieved from his tyranny. To aid them the wild man Enkidu is created, and he, seduced by the wiles of one of the dancing girls of the Temple of Ishtar, is enticed into the great city, where at once (it would appear) by ancient right Gilgamish attempts to rob him of his love. A tremendous fight ensues, and mutual admiration of each other's prowess follows, to so great an extent that the two heroes become firm friends, and determine to make an expedition together to the Forest of Cedars which is guarded by an Ogre, Humbaba, to carry off the cedar wood for  the adornment of the city. They
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« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2010, 11:11:19 pm »

encounter Humbaba, and by the help of the Sun-god who sends the winds to their aid, capture him and cut off his head; and then, with this exploit, the goddess Ishtar, letting her eye rest on the handsome Gilgamish, falls in love with him. But he rebuffs her proposal to wed him with contumely, and she, indignant at the insult, begs her father Anu to make a divine bull to destroy the two heroes. This bull, capable of killing three hundred men at one blast of his fiery breath, is overcome by Enkidu, who thus incurs the punishment of hybris at the hands of the gods, who decide that, although Gilgamish may be spared, Enkidu must die. With the death of his friend, Gilgamish in horror at the thought of similar extinction goes in search of eternal life, and after much adventuring, meets first with Siduri, a goddess who makes wine, whose philosophy of life, as she gives it him, however sensible, is evidently intended to smack of the hedonism of the bacchante. Then he meets with Ur-Shanabi (the boatman of Uta-Napishtim) who may perhaps have been introduced as a second philosopher to give his advice to the hero, which is now lost; conceivably he has been brought into the story because of the sails(?) which would have carried them over the waters of Death (by means of the winds, the Breath of Life?), if Gilgamish had not previously destroyed them with his own hand. Finally comes the meeting with Uta-Napishtim (Noah) who tells Gilgamish the story of the Flood, and how the gods gave him, the one man saved, the gift of eternal life. But who can do this for Gilgamish, who is so human as to be overcome by sleep? No, all Uta-Napishtim can do is to tell him of a plant at the bottom of the sea which will make him young again, and to obtain

p. 6
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« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2010, 11:11:52 pm »

this plant Gilgamish, tying stones on his feet in the manner of Bahrein pearl-divers, dives into the water. Successful, he sets off home with his plant, but, while he is washing at a chance pool, a snake snatches it from him, and he is again frustrated of his quest, and nothing now is left him save to seek a way of summoning Enkidu back from Hades, which he tries to do by transgressing every tabu known to those who mourn for the dead. Ultimately, at the bidding of the God of the Underworld Enkidu comes forth and pictures the sad fate of the dead in the Underworld to his friend: and on this sombre note the tragedy ends.
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« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2010, 11:13:07 pm »

Of the poetic beauty of the Epic there is no need to speak. Expressed in a language which has perhaps the simplicity, not devoid of cumbrousness, of Hebrew rather than the flexibility of Greek, it can nevertheless describe the whole range of human emotions in the aptest language, from the love of a mother for her son to the fear of death in the primitive mind of one who has just seen his friend die; or from the anger of a woman scorned to the humour of an editor laughing in his sleeve at the ignorance of a savage. Whether there is justification for taking the risk of turning it into ponderous English hexameter metre is an open question, but in so doing I have done my utmost to preserve an absolutely literal translation, duly enclosing in a round bracket, (), every amplification of the original phrasing which either sense or metre or particularly an appreciation of unproven Assyrian particles has demanded. Restorations, either probable from the context or certain from parallels, have been enclosed in square brackets [].
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« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2010, 11:13:21 pm »

To George Smith, one of the greatest geniuses Assyriology has produced, science owes much for the first arrangement and translations of the text of this extraordinary poem: indeed, it was for this Epic that he sacrificed his life, for actually it was the discovery of the Deluge Tablet in the British Museum Collections which led the Daily Telegraph to subscribe so generously for the re-opening of the diggings in the hope of further finds at Kouyunjik (Nineveh), in conducting which he died all too early in 1876. Sir Henry Rawlinson and Professor Pinches played no small part in the reconstruction and publication of at least two of the tablets, and to their labours in this field must be added the ingenuity of Professor Sayce, and the solid acumen of Dr. L. W King. In America to Professor Haupt is owed the first complete edition of the texts, very accurately copied, and later on the editions of two early Babylonian texts were edited by Langdon, Clay and Jastrow: among German publications must be mentioned the translations of Jensen and Ungnad, with the edition of an Old Babylonian tablet by Meissner. The Boghaz Keui texts have been edited by Weidner, Friedrich, and Ungnad. It would be superfluous to say how much I am indebted to the labours of all these scholars.
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« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2010, 11:14:33 pm »

The present version is based on a fresh collation of the original tablets in the British Museum, the results of which I propose to publish shortly in a critical edition of both text and translation. It will be seen that I have departed from the accepted order of several of the fragments of which the position in the Epic is problematical. An examination of numerous fragments of tablets of a religious nature has naturally led to the discovery of duplicates and joins, some of which will be apparent in the present text. For their great liberality in granting me facilities to copy and collate these valuable tablets I have to express my heartiest thanks to the Trustees of the British Museum, and the Director, Sir Frederick Kenyon. To my friends Dr. H. R. Hall, and Messrs. Sidney Smith and C. J. Gadd of the British Museum, I am greatly indebted for much help in forwarding the work: and to Sir John Miles, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, I owe many shrewd suggestions.

R. CAMPBELL THOMPSON.

NINEVEH,
      CHRISTMAS, 1927.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/eog/eog01.htm
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« Reply #9 on: February 24, 2010, 11:21:42 pm »

p. 7
ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.

P. 5 (Preface), l. 13, after "metre" add "except the twelfth which contains about half that number."

—, l. 15, read "name."

—, l. 36, and pp. 43—49, Siduri should perhaps be better described as "a seller of wine." Mr. Gadd suggests to me the old word "ale-wife."

P. 11, l. 48, read "(and)."

P. 15, add to note 1 "Or should the line be restored from Col. VI, ll. 16-17?"

—, l. 16, delete square bracket before "[all]."

P. 18, l. 14, delete dash at end of line.

P. 22, l. 5, add "(forsooth)," after the dash.

—, l. 21, read "friend."

P. 27, l. 46, read "Nippur."

P. 31, l. 3, read "seven mutilated."

P. 51, l. 87, for "2" read "3."
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« Reply #10 on: February 24, 2010, 11:22:09 pm »

p. 8p. 9
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH.
THE FIRST TABLET
OF THE TYRANNY OF GILGAMISH, AND THE CREATION OF ENKIDU.

Column I.
(The Argument).

 1He who (the heart of) all matters hath proven let him [teach] the nation,
[He who all] knowledge possesseth, therein shall he [school] all the people,
[He shall his wisdom impart (?)] and (so) shall they ]share it] together.
[Gilgamish(?)] 2—he was the [Master] of wisdom, with [knowledge of all things,
5.He ’twas discovered the secret concealed . . . . . . . . .
(Aye), handed down the tradition relating to (things) prediluvian,
Went on a journey afar, (all) aweary and [worn with his toiling(?)],
10.[Graved] on a table of stone all the travail.
                                          Of Erech, the high-wall’d,
He (it was) built up the ramparts; (and) he (it was) clamp’d the foundation,
Like unto brass, of [E]-Anna 3, the sacred, the treasury hallow’d,
[Strengthen’d] its base to grant wayleave to no [one] . . . . . .
. . . . . the threshold which from [of old (?)] . . . . . .
. . . . . [E]-Anna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15. . . . . to grant wayleave [to no one (?)] . . . . . . .

(About thirty lines wanting. The description of Gilgamish runs on to the beginning of the next Column).
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« Reply #11 on: February 24, 2010, 11:22:30 pm »

Column II.

Two-thirds of him are divine, and [one-third of him human,] 4 . . .

The form of his body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

He hath forced to take . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(Gap of about three lines).

p. 10

(The Plaint of Erech(?) to the gods against the tyrant Gilgamish)

7.". . . . . . . . of Erech ’tis he who hath [taken],
. . . . . . . . . (while) tow’reth [his] crest like an aurochs,
10.Ne’er hath the shock of [his] weapons (its) [peer]; are driven [his] fellows
Into the toils 1, while cow’d are the heroes of Erech un- . . . . .
Gilgamish leaveth no son to [his] father, [his] arrogance swelling
(Each) day and [night]; [aye, he] is the shepherd of Erech, the high-[wall’d],
15.He is [our(?)] shepherd . . . . [masterful, dominant, subtle] . . .
[Gilgamish] leaveth no [maid to her mother, nor] daughter to [hero],
[(Nay), nor a spouse to a husband]"
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« Reply #12 on: February 24, 2010, 11:22:45 pm »

 (And so), to (th’ appeal of) their wailing
[Gave ear th’ Immortals]: the gods of high heaven address’d the god Anu], 2
20.(Him who was) Seigneur of Erech: "’Tis thou a son hast begotten,
(Aye, in sooth, all) tyrannous, [while tow’reth his crest like an aurochs],
Ne’er hath [the shock of his weapons] (its) peer; are driven [his fellows]
Into the toils, awhile cow’d are the heroes of Erech un- . . . .] 2.
Gilgamish leaveth no son to his father, [his arrogance swelling]
(Each) day and night; aye, he is the shepherd of Erech, [the high-wall’d],
25.He is their shepherd . . . masterful, dominant, subtle . . .
Gilgamish leaveth no maid to [her mother], nor daughter to hero,
(Nay), nor a spouse to a [husband]."
                                      (And so), to (th’ appeal of) their wailing
30. [Anu] 2 gave ear, call’d the lady Aruru 3: "’Twas thou, O Aruru,
Madest [(primeval seed of) mankind(?)]: do now make its fellow,
So that he [happen on Gilgamish], yea, on the day of his pleasure,
So that they strive with each other, and he unto Erech give [surcease]."
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« Reply #13 on: February 24, 2010, 11:23:02 pm »

(The Creation of Enkidu).

So when the goddess Aruru heard this, in her mind she imagined
(Straightway, this) Concept of Anu, and, washing her hands, (then) Aruru
Finger’d some clay, on the desert she moulded 4 (it): [(thus) on the desert]
35.Enkidu made she, a warrior, (as he were) born (and) begotten,
(Yea), of Ninurta 5 the double, [and put forth] the whole of his body
Hair: in the way of a woman he snooded his locks (in a fillet);
Sprouted luxuriant growth of his hair-like (the awns of) the barley,
Nor knew he people nor land; he was clad in a garb like Sumuqan 6.

p. 11

40.E’en with gazelles did he pasture on herbage, along with the cattle
Drank he his fill, with the beasts did his heart delight at the water.
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« Reply #14 on: February 24, 2010, 11:23:17 pm »

(The Encounter of Enkidu with the Hunter).

(Then) did a hunter, a trapper, come face to face with this (fellow),
Came on him [one], two, three days, at the place where (the beasts) drank (their) water 1;
45.(Sooth), when the hunter espied him, his face o’ermantled with terror,
He and his cattle went unto his steading, [dismay’d] (and) affrighted,
Crying aloud, [distress’d in, his heart, and) his face overclouded,
. . . . woe in his belly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
50.(Aye, and) his face was the same as of one [who hath gone] a far [journey].

Column III.

Open’d [his mouth (then)] the hunter, and spake, addressing [his father]:
"Father, there is [a] great fellow come [forth from out of the mountains],
(O, but) [his] strength is the greatest [(the length and breadth) of the country],
[like to a double] of Anu's own self [his strength] is enormous,
5.Ever (?) [he rangeth at large] o’er the mountains, [(and) ever] with cattle
[Grazeth on herbage (and) ever he setteth] his foot to the water,
[So that I fear] to approach him. The pits which I [myself] hollow’d
10.[(With mine own hands) 2 hath he fill’d in (again)], (and) the traps of my [setting]
[Torn up, (and) out of my clutches hath holpen escape] (all) the cattle,
Beasts of the desert: to work at my fieldcraft [he will not allow] me."
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