Which god helps gilgamesh and enkidu kill humbaba the terrible, guardian of the cedar forest?

Uta-Napishti man who lives forever

Ur-Shanabi boatman

droit du seigneur have sex with marrying women

Shamhat temple prostitute

Humbaba forest beast

Ninsun gilgamesh's mother

Shamash sun god

Enlil created humbaba

Ea saves utanapishti from the flood

Ishtar rejected by gilgamesh

THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH

--dates to 2100 BCE

--epic is a Greek word ( epikos, from epos "a word; a tale, story; promise, prophecy, proverb; poetry in heroic verse," from PIE *wekw- "to speak" (see voice (n.)).

--also referred to as a “series” of clay tablets discovered in the 19th century.

--The standard version was discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh in 1853. It was written in a dialect of Akkadian This version was made by Sin-liqe-unninni sometime between 1300 and 1000 BC.

Old-Babylonian versions

This version of the epic, is called Surpassing all other kings. It remains incomplete with several tablets missing and big lacunae in those found. They are named after their current location or the place where they were found.

Pennsylvania tablet

Surpassing all other kings Tablet II, greatly correlates with tablets I-II of the Standard version. Gilgamesh tells his mother Ninsun about two dreams he had. His mother explains that they mean that a new companion will soon arrive at Uruk. In the meanwhile the wild Enkidu and the priestess (here called Shamkatum) are making love. She tames him in company of the shepherds by offering him bread and beer. Enkidu helps the shepherds by guarding the sheep. They travel to Uruk to confront Gilgamesh and stop his abuses. Enkidu and Gilgamesh battle but Gilgamesh breaks off the fight. Enkidu praises Gilgamesh.

Yale tablet

Surpassing all other kings Tablet III, partially matches tablets II-III of the Standard version. For reasons unknown (the tablet is partially broken) Enkidu is in a sad mood. In order to cheer him up Gilgamesh suggests going to the Pine Forest to cut down trees and kill Humbaba (known here as Huwawa). Enkidu protests, as he knows Huwawa and is aware of his power. Gilgamesh talks Enkidu into it with some words of encouragement, but Enkidu remains reluctant. They prepare, and call for the elders. The elders also protest, but after Gilgamesh talks to them, they agree to let him go. After Gilgamesh asks his god (Shamash) for protection and both equip, they leave with the elder's blessing and counsel.

Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known systems of writing,[1] distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The name cuneiform itself simply means "wedge shaped", from the Latin cuneus "wedge" and forma "shape," and came into English usage probably from Old French cunéiforme.

Emerging in Sumer in the late 4th millennium B.C.E. (the Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the third millennium, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use grew smaller, from about 1,000 in the Early Bronze Age to about 400 in Late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform). The system consists of a combination of logo-phonetic, consonantal alphabetic and syllabic signs.

Content of the standard version tablets

(Based on Andrew George 's translation)

Tablet one

Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, two-thirds god and one-third man, is hurting his people, who cry out to the gods for help. For the young women he does droit du seigneur — sleeping with brides on their wedding night. For the young men, Gilgamesh exhausts them through lots of physical work.

The gods respond to the people's pleas by creating Enkidu, who lives in the wild with the animals.

Enkidu breaks a hunter's traps, so the hunter tells Gilgamesh about enkidu.

Gilgamesh sends Shamhat, a prostitute to sleep with Enkidu for 6 days and 7 nights to turn him into a man. Then she takes him to a village to learn more about being a man

Gilgamesh dreams about having a friend. Enkidu will be this friend

Tablet two

Enkidu's first job is a watchman. After hearing about how Gilgamesh treats his people, he goes to Uruk to fight Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh wins the fight, but they become friends. Gilgamesh wants to go to the Cedar Forest to fight Humbaba to become famous

Enkidu says no, but they both go anyways

Tablet three

Gilgamesh visits his mother and the elders for advice to fight Humbaba

Ninsun, a goddess is his mother, and asks Shamash for help. Shamash is the sun god.

Ninsun adopts Enkidu as her son.

Tablet four

Gilgamesh and Enkidu journey to the Cedar Forest. Gilgamesh has five terrifying dreams about falling mountains, thunderstorms, wild bulls, and a thunderbird that breathes fire.

Enkidu says these dreams are good, but they are actually bad because he does not know that they describe humbaba.

When they get close to Humbaba, they get scared, but keep telling each other to go on.

Tablet five

Humbaba is the guardian of the Cedar forest. He insults both of them.

Gilgamesh is afraid, but with Enkidu cheers him on, and he starts to fight Humbaba.

Shamash sends 13 winds to bind Humbaba, and he is captured. He begs for his life, and Gilgamesh does not want him. Enkidu, however, is mad and asks Gilgamesh to kill the beast.

Humbaba curses them both and Gilgamesh cuts his head off. The two heroes cut down many cedars, including a gigantic tree that Enkidu plans to fashion into a gate for the temple of Enlil.

Enlil is Humbabas dad

They build a raft and return home along the Euphrates with the giant tree and the head of Humbaba.

Tablet six

A goddess named Ishtar falls in love with Gilgamesh but he rejects her. Ishtar because of her mistreatment of other boyfriends.

Ishtar asks her father Anu to send Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, to hurt gilgamesh.

Anu says no, but Ishtar threatens earth, so he decides send gugallanna to Uruk, and it destroys the city.

It lowers the level of the Euphrates river, and dries up the marshes. It opens up huge pits that swallow 300 men.

This time Enkidu and Gilgamesh kill gugallana without the help of Shamash.

The give the bull's heart to Shamash. When Ishtar cries out, Enkidu throws one of the legs of the bull at her. The city of Uruk celebrates, but Enkidu has an scary dream about his future.

Tablet seven

In Enkidu's dream, the gods decide that one of the heroes must die because they killed Humbaba and Gugalanna.

Shamash does not want Gilagamesh or Enkidu to be hurt, but Enkidu is still marked for death. Enkidu curses the great door he has fashioned for Enlil's temple. He also curses the trapper and Shamhat for removing him from the wild.

Shamash reminds Enkidu of how Shamhat fed and clothed him, and introduced him to Gilgamesh. Enkidu regrets his curses and blesses Shamhat.

In a second dream however he sees himself being taken captive to the Netherworld by a terrifying Angel of Death. The underworld is a "house of dust" and darkness whose inhabitants eat clay, and are clothed in bird feathers, supervised by terrifying beings. For 12 days, Enkidu gets sick.

Finally, after a wishing to die in battle, he dies in his bed.

Tablet eight

Gilgamesh delivers a lamentation for Enkidu, in which he calls upon mountains, forests, fields, rivers, wild animals, and all of Uruk to mourn for his friend.

Gilgamesh is very sad and builds a funeral statue, and provides grave gifts from his treasury

Just before a break in the text there is a suggestion that a river is being dammed, indicating a burial in a river bed, as in the corresponding Sumerian poem, The Death of Gilgamesh.

Tablet nine

Tablet nine opens with Gilgamesh in the forests, still sad about Enkidu's death.

Now he is afraid of dying himself and goes to find A man named Utanapishtim, who lives forever so he can learn how to live forever.

Utnapishtim and his wife are the only humans to have been granted immortality by the gods and were some of the few people who lived through the great flood

Gilgamesh crosses a mountain pass at night and encounters a pride of lions. Before sleeping he prays for protection to the moon god Sin. He wakes up after a dream and kills the lions and uses their skins for clothing.

When Gilgamesh arrives at the twin peaks of Mount Mashu at the end of the earth. He comes across a tunnel, which no man has ever entered, guarded by two terrible scorpion-men. After questioning him and recognizing his reason for coming, they allow him to enter it, and he passes under the mountains along the Road of the Sun

In complete darkness he follows the road for 12 "double hours", managing to complete the trip before the Sun catches up with him. He arrives at the Garden of the gods, a paradise full of jewel-laden trees.

Tablet ten

Gilgamesh meets Siduri, who assumes that he is a murderer or thief because he is dirty after his long journey. Gilgamesh tells her about the purpose of his journey. She attempts to convince him to go back, but sends him to Urshanabi the ferryman, who will help him cross the sea to Utnapishtim

Gilgamesh, gets mad for no reason and destroys the stone-giants that live with Urshanabi. He tells him his story, but when he asks for his help, Urshanabi tells him that the giants he killed before were the only creatures who can cross the Waters of Death. Now Gilgamesh has to cut down 120 trees and fashion them into sticks to push a boat.

When they reach the island where Utnapishtim lives, Gilgamesh recounts his story, asking him for his help. Utnapishtim yells at Gilgamesh and says that fighting is bad.

Tablet eleven

Gilgamesh observes that Utnapishtim seems no different from himself, and asks him how he obtained his immortality. Utnapishtim explains that the gods decided to send a great flood. To save Utnapishtim the god Ea gave him instructions to build a boat with pitch and bitumen.

His entire family went aboard together with his craftsmen and "all the animals of the field". A violent storm then arose which was so big that even the gods got scared.

Ishtar and the other gods cried for destruction of humanity, and the other gods wept beside her. The storm lasted six days and nights, after which "all the human beings turned to clay".

Utnapishtim weeps when he sees the destruction. His boat is stuck on a mountain, and he releases a dove, a swallow, and a raven. When the raven fails to return, he opens the ark and frees its animals. Utnapishtim offers a sacrifice to the gods, who smell the food and gather around. Ishtar vows that just as she will never forget the brilliant necklace that hangs around her neck, she will always remember this time.

When Enlil arrives, he is angry that there are survivors. Ishtar curses him for instigating the flood. Ea also castigates him for sending a disproportionate punishment.

Enlil blesses Utnapishtim and his wife, and rewards them with eternal life.

Utnapishtim challenges Gilgamesh to stay awake for six days and seven nights. Gilgamesh falls asleep, and Utnapishtim instructs his wife to bake a loaf of bread on each of the days he is asleep, so that he cannot deny his failure to keep awake.

Gilgamesh, who is seeking to overcome death, cannot even conquer sleep. After instructing Urshanabi the ferryman to wash Gilgamesh, and clothe him in royal robes, they depart for Uruk.

As they are leaving, Utnapishtim's wife asks her husband to offer a parting gift. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that at the bottom of the sea there lives a boxthorn-like plant that will make him young again. Gilgamesh, by binding stones to his feet so he can walk on the bottom, manages to obtain the plant. Gilgamesh will test the plant on an old man when he returns to Uruk.

Unfortunately, when Gilgamesh stops to bathe, it is stolen by a serpent, who sheds its skin as it departs. Gilgamesh weeps at the futility of his efforts, because he has now lost all chance of immortality. He returns to Uruk, and sees what a great city it is. He dedicates the city to Urshanabi and becomes a good king.

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