They, however, kill the Bull, but afterward Enkidu dies at the hands of the gods. This story reveals Mesopotamian views of gods, life and afterlife. Gilgamesh washed out his long locks and cleaned his weapons; he flung back his hair from his shoulders; he threw off his stained clothes and changed them for new. He put on his royal robes and made them fast. When Gilgamesh had put on the crown, glorious Ishtar lifted her eyes, seeing the beauty of Gilgamesh.
I will harness for you a chariot of lapis lazuli and of gold, with wheels of gold and horns of copper; and you shall have mighty demons of the storm for draft-mules.
When you enter our house in the fragrance of cedar-wood, threshold and throne will kiss your feet. Kings, rulers, and princes will bow down before you; they shall bring you tribute from the mountains and the plain.
Your ewes shall drops twins and your goats triplets; your pack-ass shall outrun mules; your oxen shall have no rivals, and your chariot horses shall be famous far-off for their swiftness. What ointments and clothing for your body, what bread for your eating? How can I give food to a god and drink to the Queen of Heaven? Moreover, if I take you in marriage how will it go with me? Which of your lovers did you ever love for ever? What shepherd of yours has pleased you for all time?
Listen to me while I tell the tale of your lovers. There was Tammus, the lover of your youth, for him you decreed wailing, year after year. You loved the many-coloured roller, but still you struck and broke his wing; now in the grove he sits and cries, "kappi, kappi, my wing, my wing. You have loved the stallion magnificent in battle, and for him you decreed whip and spur and a thong, to gallop seven leagues by force and to muddy the water before he drinks; and for his mother Silili lamentations.
You have loved the shepherd of the flock; he made meal-cake for you day after day, he killed kids for your sake. Curiously, in the available manuscripts of the Standard Babylonian version, Gilgamesh never addresses Enkidu by his name but calls him "my friend".
He starts pronouncing Enkidu's name repeatedly only after his friend's death. The Hittite version is too fragmentary to establish whether the same pattern is present there. It is not clear whether this is relevant to the decision of the gods.
Second, which gods are present in Enkidu's dream? They are Anu, father of the gods and Ishtar's father, Ea, the wisest of the gods, Enlil, "Lord Wind" and divine rules of Earth, and the sun god [Shamash]. Notably absent are Ishtar, whom both Gilgamesh and Enkidu had insulted, and Gilgamesh's mother Ninsun who is probably one of the lesser gods, as suggested by Tablet III, where she asks Shamash to protect Gilgamesh during his quest to the Cedar Forest.
Enlil had appointed Humbaba as guardian of the Cedar Forest, so he has a reason to be displeased, even though Gilgamesh and Enkidu had created a gigantic door for his temple in Nippur to placate him. It was Enkidu who had come up with this idea see end of Tablet V. Apparently, the door did not placate Enlil. Anu had allowed Ishtar to take the Bull of Heaven to earth to exact her personal revenge. After the death of the Bull of Heaven, he too has a good reason to be angry.
Shamash had always protected Gilgamesh and even helped both friends to kill Humbaba. It is only consistent for him to continue defending Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
None of the gods explicitly demands Gilgamesh's death, so letting Enkidu die comes down to a choice for the line of least resistance. However, neither Enkidu's social inferiority nor the decision of the gods provide an answer to the following two questions: 1 which of the two men most deserve to die and 2 whose death would most placate the gods? When we look at both killings they stand accused of, we can see an interesting pattern.
When Gilgamesh and Enkidu have managed to overpower Humbaba the guardian pleads for his life. Gilgamesh appears willing to spare him but Enkidu urges Gilgamesh to kill him, which Gilgamesh does. In the fight against the Bull of Heaven, it is Enkidu who advises Gilgamesh on how to kill the Bull: "Thrust your dagger between nape, horn, and kill-point! By executing the actual killings, Gilgamesh appears to heap more blame upon himself than Enkidu.
In addition, both victims weren't earthly creatures but were both associated with the realm of the gods. One would expect the gods to exact more than an ordinary sacrifice to placate them, and Gilgamesh, being two-thirds god, would constitute a much more valuable sacrifice than the orphan Enkidu.
Instead, it is Enkidu who has to take the fall. It is possible to find two reasons for this. First, it is possible to see a vague parallel with the custom of appointing a substitute king to divert danger from the real king. Eckart Frahm page writes :. There was Tammuz, the lover of your youth, for him you decreed wailing, year after year.
You have loved the stallion magnificent in battle, and for him you decreed whip and spur and a thong, to gallop seven leagues by force and to muddy the water before he drinks; and for his mother Silili lamentations.
You have loved the shepherd of the flock; he made meal-cake for you day after day, he killed kids for your sake. You struck and turned him into a wolf, now his own herd-boys chase him away, his own hounds worry his flanks. He brought you baskets filled with dates without end; every day he loaded your table. My mother has baked and I have eaten; why should I come to such as you for food that is tainted and rotten? For when was a screen of rushes sufficient protection from frosts?
He was changed to a blind mole deep in the earth, one whose desire is always beyond his reach. And if you and I should be lovers, should not I be served in the same fashion as all these others whom you loved once? When Ishtar heard this she fell into a bitter rage, she went up to high heaven.
Her tears poured down in front of her father Anu, and Antum her mother. Did not you quarrel with Gilgamesh the king, so now he has related your abominable behaviour, your foul and hideous acts. Fill Gilgamesh, I say, with arrogance to his destruction; but if you refuse to give me the Bull of Heaven I will break in the doors of hell and smash the bolts; there will be confusion of people, those above with those from the lower depths.
I shall bring up the dead to eat food like the living; and the hosts of dead will outnumber the living. Have you saved grain enough for the people and grass for the cattle?
Ishtar replied. When Anu heard what Ishtar had said he gave her the Bull of Heaven to lead by the halter down to Uruk: When they reached the gates of Uruk the Bull went to the river; with his first snort cracks opened in the earth and, a hundred young men fell down to death. With his second snort cracks opened and two hundred fell down to death. With his third snort cracks opened, Enkidu doubled over but instantly recovered, he dodged aside and leapt on the Bull and seized it by the horns.
The Bull of Heaven foamed in his face, it brushed him with the thick of its tail. Now thrust in your sword between the nape and the horns. When they had killed the Bull of Heaven they cut out its heart and gave it to Shamash, and the brothers rested. Over the thigh of the Bull of Heaven she set up lamentation. But Gilgamesh called the smiths and the armourers, all of them together. They admired the immensity of the horns. They were plated with lapis lazuli two fingers thick.
They were thirty pounds each in weight, and their capacity in oil was six measures, which he gave to his guardian god, Lugulbanda. But he carried the horns into the palace and hung them on the wall. Critically, it is Enkidu who says he wishes he could kill Ishtar like he did the bull.
The adolescent exuberance and celebration of Tablet VI comes to an abrupt halt as the two heroes face the stark horror of an agonizing, wasting death, unredeemed by battlefield heroics. The gods have spoken, and their verdict seems arbitrary: Enkidu must die. Gilgamesh begins his quest with Enkidu by traveling to the Cedar Forest to defeat Humbaba. He seeks out Utnapishtim to learn the secret of immortality.
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