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kingofallkings) wrote2015-07-04 02:45 pm
kingofallkings) wrote2015-07-04 02:45 pm
Epic VII: The Death of Enkidu❋
The Death of Enkidu
Enkidu rose to relate the dream, saying to his friend:
'My friend, why are the great gods consulting together?'
Enkidu began to speak to Gilgamesh:
'My brother, this night what a dream I dreamed!
The gods Anu, Enlil, Ea and celestial Shamash held assembly,
'And Anu spoke unto Enlil:
"These, because they slew the Bull of Heaven, and slew
Humbaba that guarded the mountains wooded with cedar,"
So said Anu, "between these two let one of them die!"
'And Enlil said: "Let Enkidu die, but let not Gilgamesh die!"
'Celestial Shamash began to reply to the hero Enlil:
"Was it not at your word that they slew him, the Bull of Heaven - and also Humbaba?
Now shall innocent Enkidu die?"
'Enlil was wroth at celestial Shamash:
"How like a comrade you marched with them daily!'"
Enkidu lay down before Gilgamesh,
His tears flowed down like streams:
'O my brother, dear to me is my brother!
They will never raise me up again for my brother.
Among the dead I shall sit, the threshold of the dead I shall cross,
Never again shall I set eyes on my dear brother.'
Enkidu lifted his eyes as though to the door,
He talked with the door as if with a man:
'O door of the woodland, that has no sense
I have understanding that you have not.
For twenty leagues I sought for you the finest timber,
until in the forest I found a tall cedar.
'Your tree had no rival in the Forest of Cedar:
Six rods is your height, two rods your breadth, one cubit your thickness,
Your pole and your pivots, top and bottom, are all of a piece.
I fashioned you, I lifted you, I hung you in Nippur.
But the king who shall arise after me shall go through you,
Gilgamesh shall go through your portals
And change my name, and put on his own name!'
Gilgamesh kept listening to the words of his friend Enkidu, and his tears flowed.
Gilgamesh made his voice heard and spoke; he said to Enkidu,
'To the one who survives the gods leave grieving:
The dream leaves sorrow to the one who survives.
The great gods I'll beseech in supplication,
Let me seek out Shamash, I'll appeal to your god.
'In your presence I will pray to Anu, father of the gods,
May great counselor Enlil hear my prayer in your presence,
May my entreaty find favor with Ea!
I will fashion your statue in gold without limit.'
[...]
'My friend, give no silver, give no gold!
What he commands, he doesn't erase,
What he sets down, he doesn't erase.'
At the very first glimmer of brightening dawn,
Enkidu lifted his head, lamenting to Shamash.
Under the rays of the sun his tears were flowing:
'My friend, fixed is my destiny,
people go to their doom before their time.
'I appeal to you, Shamash, for my life so precious:
As for the hunter, the trapper-man,
Who let me be not as great as my friend:
'May the hunter be not as great as his friend!
Destroy his profit, diminish his income!
May his share be cut in your presence!
The house where he enters, may its god leave by the window!'
After he had cursed the hunter to his heart's content,
He decided also to curse Shamhat the harlot:
'Come, Shamhat, I will fix your destiny,
A doom to endure for all eternity:
'I will curse you with a mighty curse,
My curse shall afflict you now and forthwith!
A household to delight in you shall not acquire,
Never to reside in the midst of a family!
'In the young women's chamber you shall not sit!
Your finest garment the ground shall defile!
Your festive gown the drunkard shall stain in the dirt!
Things of beauty you shall never acquire!
No table for a banquet, the people's abundance, shall be laid in your house!
The bed you delight in shall be a miserable bench!
'The junction of highways shall be where you sit!
A field of ruins shall be where you sleep!
The shadow of the rampart shall be where you stand!
Thorn and briar shall skin your feet!
'Drunk nd] sober shall strike your cheek!
Lords shall be plaintiff, and claim against you!
The roof of your house no builder shall plaster!
In your bedroom the owl shall roost!
At your table never shall banquet take place!
'Because you made me weak, who was undefiled!
Yes, in the wild you weakened me, who was undefiled!'
Shamash heard what he had spoken,
straight away from the sky there cried out a voice:
'O Enkidu, why curse Shamhat the harlot,
Who fed you bread that was fit for a god,
And poured you ale that was fit for a king,
Who clothed you in a splendid garment,
And gave you as companion the handsome Gilgamesh?
'And now Gilgamesh, your friend and your brother,
Will lay you out on a magnificent bed.
On a bed of honor he will lay you out,
He will place you on his left, on a seat of repose;
The rulers of the underworld will all kiss your feet.
'The people of Uruk he will have mourn and lament you,
The thriving people he will fill full of woe for you.
After you are gone his hair will be matted in mourning,
Clad in the skin of a lion, he will wander the wild.'
Enkidu heard the words of Shamash the hero,
His anger abated, his heart grew quiet.
'Come, Shamhat, I will fix your destiny!
'My mouth that cursed you shall bless you as well!
Governors shall love you and noblemen too!
At one league off men shall slap their thighs,
At two leagues off they shall shake out their hair!
'No soldier shall be slow to drop his belt for you,
Sbsidian he shall give you, lapis lazuli and gold!
Earrings and jewellery shall be what he gives you!
'Ishtar, the ablest of gods, shall gain you entrance
To the man whose home is established and wealth heaped high!
For you his wife shall be deserted, though mother of seven!'
As for Enkidu, his mind was troubled,
He lay on his own and began to ponder.
What was on his mind he told to his friend:
'My friend, in the course of the night I had such a dream!
'The heavens thundered, the earth gave echo,
And there was I, standing between them.
A man there was, grim his expression,
Just like a Thunderbird his features were frightening.
'His hands were a lion's paws, his claws an eagle's talons,
He seized me by the hair, he overpowered me.
I struck him, but back he sprang like a skipping rope,
He struck me, and like a raft capsized me.
'Underfoot he crushed me, like a mighty wild bull,
Drenching my body with poisonous slaver.
I cried out, "Save me, my friend! Do not desert me!"
You were afraid of him, but you [...].
He struck me and turned me into a dove.
'He bound my arms like the wings of a bird,
To lead me captive to the house of darkness, seat of Irkalla:
To the house which none who enters ever leaves,
On the path that allows no journey back,
'To the house whose residents are deprived of light,
Where soil is their sustenance and clay their food,
Where they are clad like birds in coats of feathers,
And see no light, but dwell in darkness.
'On door and bolt the dust lay thick,
On the House of Dust was poured a deathly quiet.
In the House of Dust that I entered,
'I looked around me, saw the "crowns" in a throng,
There were the crowned heads who'd ruled the land since days of yore,
Who'd served the roast at the tables of Anu and Enlil,
Who'd proffered baked bread, and poured them cool water from skins.
'In the House of Dust that I entered,
There were the en-priests and lagar-priests,
There were lustration-priests and lumahhu-priests,
There were the great gods' gudapsu-priests,
'There was Etana, there was Shakkan,
There was the queen of the Netherworld, the goddess Ereshkigal.
Before her sat Belet-eri, the scribe of the Netherworld,
Holding a tablet, reading aloud in her presence.
'She raised her head and she saw me:
"Who was it fetched this man here?
Who was it brought here this fellow?"'
[The rest of the vision is lost. Enkidu then asks Gilgamesh to remember him, and them.]
'I who endured all hardships with you,
Remember me, my friend, don't forget all I went through!'
Gilgamesh: 'My friend saw a vision which will never be equalled!'
The day he had the dream his strength was exhausted,
Enkidu was cast down, he lay one day sick and then a second.
Enkidu lay on his bed, his sickness worsened,
A third day and a fourth day, the sickness of Enkidu worsened.
A fifth day, a sixth and a seventh, an eighth, a ninth and a tenth, the sickness of Enkidu worsened.
An eleventh day and a twelfth, the sickness of Enkidu worsened.
Enkidu lay on the bed,
He called for Gilgamesh and spoke to his friend:
'My god has taken against me, my friend,
I do not die like one who falls in the midst of battle.
'My friend, one who falls in combat makes his name,
But I, I do not fall in combat, and shall make not my name.'
SYNOPSIS: Enkidu dreams that the gods have come into a meeting where it is decided that, because they slew Humbaba and Gugalanna the Bull, one or the other friend must die. Enlil insists that Enkidu should fall, and so it is decided despite Shamash's attempt to defend them as having done only what he told them to do. Gilgamesh swears to plead for Enkidu's life before the gods, but Enlil won't be swayed.
Angry, Enkidu curses the hunter and Shamat who weakened him and brought him out of the wild. However, Shamash points out to him that if he hadn't been brought from the wild, he would never have lived as he did or been with Gilgamesh as he has been, and that Gilgamesh will mourn and remember him. Enkidu replaces his curses with blessings, and then grows sicker. He dreams of the underworld, and dies regretting that he fell from illness instead of in battle and thus did not make his name.
'My friend, why are the great gods consulting together?'
Enkidu began to speak to Gilgamesh:
'My brother, this night what a dream I dreamed!
The gods Anu, Enlil, Ea and celestial Shamash held assembly,
'And Anu spoke unto Enlil:
"These, because they slew the Bull of Heaven, and slew
Humbaba that guarded the mountains wooded with cedar,"
So said Anu, "between these two let one of them die!"
'And Enlil said: "Let Enkidu die, but let not Gilgamesh die!"
'Celestial Shamash began to reply to the hero Enlil:
"Was it not at your word that they slew him, the Bull of Heaven - and also Humbaba?
Now shall innocent Enkidu die?"
'Enlil was wroth at celestial Shamash:
"How like a comrade you marched with them daily!'"
Enkidu lay down before Gilgamesh,
His tears flowed down like streams:
'O my brother, dear to me is my brother!
They will never raise me up again for my brother.
Among the dead I shall sit, the threshold of the dead I shall cross,
Never again shall I set eyes on my dear brother.'
Enkidu lifted his eyes as though to the door,
He talked with the door as if with a man:
'O door of the woodland, that has no sense
I have understanding that you have not.
For twenty leagues I sought for you the finest timber,
until in the forest I found a tall cedar.
'Your tree had no rival in the Forest of Cedar:
Six rods is your height, two rods your breadth, one cubit your thickness,
Your pole and your pivots, top and bottom, are all of a piece.
I fashioned you, I lifted you, I hung you in Nippur.
But the king who shall arise after me shall go through you,
Gilgamesh shall go through your portals
And change my name, and put on his own name!'
Gilgamesh kept listening to the words of his friend Enkidu, and his tears flowed.
Gilgamesh made his voice heard and spoke; he said to Enkidu,
'To the one who survives the gods leave grieving:
The dream leaves sorrow to the one who survives.
The great gods I'll beseech in supplication,
Let me seek out Shamash, I'll appeal to your god.
'In your presence I will pray to Anu, father of the gods,
May great counselor Enlil hear my prayer in your presence,
May my entreaty find favor with Ea!
I will fashion your statue in gold without limit.'
[...]
'My friend, give no silver, give no gold!
What he commands, he doesn't erase,
What he sets down, he doesn't erase.'
At the very first glimmer of brightening dawn,
Enkidu lifted his head, lamenting to Shamash.
Under the rays of the sun his tears were flowing:
'My friend, fixed is my destiny,
people go to their doom before their time.
'I appeal to you, Shamash, for my life so precious:
As for the hunter, the trapper-man,
Who let me be not as great as my friend:
'May the hunter be not as great as his friend!
Destroy his profit, diminish his income!
May his share be cut in your presence!
The house where he enters, may its god leave by the window!'
After he had cursed the hunter to his heart's content,
He decided also to curse Shamhat the harlot:
'Come, Shamhat, I will fix your destiny,
A doom to endure for all eternity:
'I will curse you with a mighty curse,
My curse shall afflict you now and forthwith!
A household to delight in you shall not acquire,
Never to reside in the midst of a family!
'In the young women's chamber you shall not sit!
Your finest garment the ground shall defile!
Your festive gown the drunkard shall stain in the dirt!
Things of beauty you shall never acquire!
No table for a banquet, the people's abundance, shall be laid in your house!
The bed you delight in shall be a miserable bench!
'The junction of highways shall be where you sit!
A field of ruins shall be where you sleep!
The shadow of the rampart shall be where you stand!
Thorn and briar shall skin your feet!
'Drunk nd] sober shall strike your cheek!
Lords shall be plaintiff, and claim against you!
The roof of your house no builder shall plaster!
In your bedroom the owl shall roost!
At your table never shall banquet take place!
'Because you made me weak, who was undefiled!
Yes, in the wild you weakened me, who was undefiled!'
Shamash heard what he had spoken,
straight away from the sky there cried out a voice:
'O Enkidu, why curse Shamhat the harlot,
Who fed you bread that was fit for a god,
And poured you ale that was fit for a king,
Who clothed you in a splendid garment,
And gave you as companion the handsome Gilgamesh?
'And now Gilgamesh, your friend and your brother,
Will lay you out on a magnificent bed.
On a bed of honor he will lay you out,
He will place you on his left, on a seat of repose;
The rulers of the underworld will all kiss your feet.
'The people of Uruk he will have mourn and lament you,
The thriving people he will fill full of woe for you.
After you are gone his hair will be matted in mourning,
Clad in the skin of a lion, he will wander the wild.'
Enkidu heard the words of Shamash the hero,
His anger abated, his heart grew quiet.
'Come, Shamhat, I will fix your destiny!
'My mouth that cursed you shall bless you as well!
Governors shall love you and noblemen too!
At one league off men shall slap their thighs,
At two leagues off they shall shake out their hair!
'No soldier shall be slow to drop his belt for you,
Sbsidian he shall give you, lapis lazuli and gold!
Earrings and jewellery shall be what he gives you!
'Ishtar, the ablest of gods, shall gain you entrance
To the man whose home is established and wealth heaped high!
For you his wife shall be deserted, though mother of seven!'
As for Enkidu, his mind was troubled,
He lay on his own and began to ponder.
What was on his mind he told to his friend:
'My friend, in the course of the night I had such a dream!
'The heavens thundered, the earth gave echo,
And there was I, standing between them.
A man there was, grim his expression,
Just like a Thunderbird his features were frightening.
'His hands were a lion's paws, his claws an eagle's talons,
He seized me by the hair, he overpowered me.
I struck him, but back he sprang like a skipping rope,
He struck me, and like a raft capsized me.
'Underfoot he crushed me, like a mighty wild bull,
Drenching my body with poisonous slaver.
I cried out, "Save me, my friend! Do not desert me!"
You were afraid of him, but you [...].
He struck me and turned me into a dove.
'He bound my arms like the wings of a bird,
To lead me captive to the house of darkness, seat of Irkalla:
To the house which none who enters ever leaves,
On the path that allows no journey back,
'To the house whose residents are deprived of light,
Where soil is their sustenance and clay their food,
Where they are clad like birds in coats of feathers,
And see no light, but dwell in darkness.
'On door and bolt the dust lay thick,
On the House of Dust was poured a deathly quiet.
In the House of Dust that I entered,
'I looked around me, saw the "crowns" in a throng,
There were the crowned heads who'd ruled the land since days of yore,
Who'd served the roast at the tables of Anu and Enlil,
Who'd proffered baked bread, and poured them cool water from skins.
'In the House of Dust that I entered,
There were the en-priests and lagar-priests,
There were lustration-priests and lumahhu-priests,
There were the great gods' gudapsu-priests,
'There was Etana, there was Shakkan,
There was the queen of the Netherworld, the goddess Ereshkigal.
Before her sat Belet-eri, the scribe of the Netherworld,
Holding a tablet, reading aloud in her presence.
'She raised her head and she saw me:
"Who was it fetched this man here?
Who was it brought here this fellow?"'
[The rest of the vision is lost. Enkidu then asks Gilgamesh to remember him, and them.]
'I who endured all hardships with you,
Remember me, my friend, don't forget all I went through!'
Gilgamesh: 'My friend saw a vision which will never be equalled!'
The day he had the dream his strength was exhausted,
Enkidu was cast down, he lay one day sick and then a second.
Enkidu lay on his bed, his sickness worsened,
A third day and a fourth day, the sickness of Enkidu worsened.
A fifth day, a sixth and a seventh, an eighth, a ninth and a tenth, the sickness of Enkidu worsened.
An eleventh day and a twelfth, the sickness of Enkidu worsened.
Enkidu lay on the bed,
He called for Gilgamesh and spoke to his friend:
'My god has taken against me, my friend,
I do not die like one who falls in the midst of battle.
'My friend, one who falls in combat makes his name,
But I, I do not fall in combat, and shall make not my name.'
SYNOPSIS: Enkidu dreams that the gods have come into a meeting where it is decided that, because they slew Humbaba and Gugalanna the Bull, one or the other friend must die. Enlil insists that Enkidu should fall, and so it is decided despite Shamash's attempt to defend them as having done only what he told them to do. Gilgamesh swears to plead for Enkidu's life before the gods, but Enlil won't be swayed.
Angry, Enkidu curses the hunter and Shamat who weakened him and brought him out of the wild. However, Shamash points out to him that if he hadn't been brought from the wild, he would never have lived as he did or been with Gilgamesh as he has been, and that Gilgamesh will mourn and remember him. Enkidu replaces his curses with blessings, and then grows sicker. He dreams of the underworld, and dies regretting that he fell from illness instead of in battle and thus did not make his name.