The Epic of Gilgamesh (15 page)

The people of the city, great and small, are not silent; they lift up the lament, all men of flesh and blood lift up the lament. Fate has spoken; like a hooked fish he lies stretched on the bed, like a gazelle that is caught in a noose. Inhuman Namtar is heavy upon him, Namtar that has neither hand nor foot, that drinks no water and eats no meat.

For Gilgamesh, son of Ninsun, they weighed out their offerings; his dear wife, his son, his concubine, his musicians, his jester, and all his household; his servants, his stewards, all who lived in the palace weighed out their offerings for Gilgamesh the son of Ninsun, the heart of Uruk. They weighed out their offerings to Ereshkigal, the Queen of Death, and to all the gods of the dead. To Namtar, who is fate, they weighed out the offering. Bread for Neti the Keeper of the Gate, bread for Ningizzida the god of the serpent, the lord of the Tree of Life; for Dumuzi also, the young shepherd, for Enki and Ninki, for Endukugga and Nindukugga, for Enmul and Ninmul, all the ancestral gods, forbears of Enlil. A feast for Simlpae the god of feasting. For Samuqan, god of the herds, for the mother Ninhursag, and the gods of creation in the place of creation, for the host of heaven, priest and priestess weighed out the offering of the dead.

Gilgamesh, the son of Ninsun, lies in the tomb. At the place of offerings he weighed the bread-offering, at the place of libation he poured out the wine. In those days the lord Gilgamesh departed, the son of Ninsun, the king, peerless, without an equal among men, who did not neglect Enlil his master. O Gilgamesh, lord of Kullab, great is thy praise.

A SHORT description of the gods and of other persons and places mentioned in the Epic will be found in this Glossary. The gods were credited at different times with a variety of attributes and characteristics, sometimes contradictory; only such as are relevant to the material of the Gilgamesh Epic are given here. The small number of gods and other characters who play a more important part in the story are described in the Introduction; in their case a page reference to this description is given at the end of the Glossary note. Cross-references to other entries in the Glossary are indicated by means of italics.

 

ADAD: Storm-, rain-, and weather-god.

ANUNNAKI: Usually gods of the underworld, judges of the dead and offspring of
Anu.
See p. 28.

ANSHAN: A district of Elam in south-west Persia; probably the source of supplies of wood for making bows. Gilgamesh has a ‘bow of Anshan'.

ANTUM: Wife of
Anu.

ANU: Sumerian An; father of gods, and god of the firmament, the ‘great above'. In the Sumerian cosmogony there was, first of all, the primeval sea, from which was born the cosmic mountain consisting of heaven, ‘An', and earth, ‘Ki'; they were separated by
Enlil
, then An carried off the heavens, and Enlil the earth. Anu later retreated more and more into the background; he had an important temple in Uruk. See p. 23.

APSU: The Abyss; the primeval waters under the earth; in the later mythology of the
Enuma Elish
, more particularly the sweet water which mingled with the bitter waters of the sea and with a third watery element, perhaps cloud, from which the first gods were engendered. The waters of Apsu were thought of as held immobile underground by the ‘spell' of
Ea
in a death-like sleep.

ARURU: A goddess of creation, she created
Enkidu
from clay in the image of
Anu.

AYA: The dawn, the bride of the Sun God
Shamash.

BELIT-SHERI: Scribe and recorder of the underworld gods.

BULL OF HEAVEN: A personification of drought created by
Anu
for
Ishtar.

DILMUN: The Sumerian paradise, perhaps the Persian Gulf, sometimes described as ‘the place where the sun rises' and ‘the Land of the Living'; the scene of a Sumerian creation myth and the place where the deified Sumerian hero of the flood, Ziusudra, was taken by the gods to live for ever. See p. 39.

DUMUZI: The Sumerian form of
Tammuz
; a god of vegetation and fertility, and so of the underworld, also called ‘the Shepherd and ‘lord of the sheepfolds'. As the companion of Ningizzida ‘to all eternity' he stands at the gate of heaven. In the Sumerian ‘Descent of Inanna' he is the husband of the goddess Inanna, the Sumerian counterpart of
Ishtar.
According to the Sumerian King-List Gilgamesh was descended from ‘Dumuzi a shepherd'.

EA: Sumerian Enki; god of the sweet waters, also of wisdom, a patron of arts and one of the creators of mankind, towards whom he is usually well-disposed. The chief god of Eridu, where he had a temple, he lived ‘in the deep'; his ancestry is uncertain, but he was probably a child of
Anu.
See p. 26.

EANNA: The temple precinct in Uruk sacred to
Anu
and
Ishtar.

EGALMAH: The ‘Great Palace' in Uruk, the home of the goddess Ninsun, the mother of Gilgamesh, See p. 15.

ENDUKUGGA: With
Nindukugga
, Sumerian gods living in the underworld; parents of
Enlil.

ENKIDU: Moulded by
Aruru,
goddess of creation, out of clay in the image and ‘of the essence of
Anu
', the sky-god, and of
Ninurta
the war-god. The companion of Gilgamesh, he is wild or natural man; he was later considered a patron or god of animals and may have been the hero of another cycle. See p. 30.

ENLIL: God of earth, wind, and the universal air, ultimately spirit; the executive of
Anu.
In the Sumerian cosmogony he was born of the union of An heaven, and Ki earth. These he separated, and he then carried off earth as his portion. In later times he supplanted
Anu
as chief god. He was the patron of the city of Nippur. See p. 24.

ENMUL: See
Endukugga.

ENNUGI: God of irrigation and inspector of canals.

ENUMA ELISH: The Semitic creation epic which describes the creation of the gods, the defeat of the powers of chaos by the young god Marduk, and the creation of man from the blood of Kingu, the defeated champion of chaos. The title is taken from the first words of the epic ‘When on high'.

ERESHKIGAL: The Queen of the underworld, a counterpart of Persephone; probably once a sky-goddess. In the Sumerian cosmogony she was carried off to the underworld after the separation of heaven and earth. See p. 27.

ETANA: Legendary king of Kish who reigned after the flood; in the epic which bears his name he was carried to heaven on the back of an eagle.

GILGAMESH: The hero of the Epic; son of the goddess
Ninsun
and of a priest of
Kullab
, fifth king of Uruk after the flood, famous as a great builder and as a judge of the dead. A cycle of epic poems has collected round his name. See p. 20.

HANISH: A divine herald of storm and bad weather.

HUMBABA: Also Huwawa; a guardian of the cedar forest who opposes Gilgamesh and is killed by him and
Enkidu.
A nature divinity, perhaps an Anatolian, Elamite, or Syrian god. See p. 32.

IGIGI: Collective name for the great gods of heaven.

IRKALLA: Another name for
Ereshkigal,
the Queen of the underworld.

ISHTAR: Sumerian Inanna; the goddess of love and fertility, also goddess of war, called the Queen of Heaven. She is the daughter of
Anu
and patroness of
Uruk,
where she has a temple. See p. 25.

ISHULLANA: The gardener of Anu, once loved by Ishtar whom he rejected; he was turned by her into a mole or frog.

KI: The earth.

KULLAB: Part of
Uruk.

LUGULBANDA: Third king of the post-diluvian dynasty of Uruk, a god and shepherd, and hero of a cycle of Sumerian poems; protector of Gilgamesh. See p. 19.

MAGAN: A land to the west of Mesopotamia, sometimes Egypt or Arabia, and sometimes the land of the dead, the underworld.

MAGILUM: Uncertain meaning, perhaps ‘the boat of the dead'.

MAMMETUM: Ancestral goddess responsible for destinies.

MAN-SCORPION: Guardian, with a similar female monster, of the mountain into which the sun descends at nightfall. Shown on sealings and ivory inlays as a figure with the upper part of the body human and the lower part ending in a scorpion's tail. According to the
Enuma Elish
created by the primeval waters in order to fight the gods.

MASHU: The word means ‘twins' in the Akkadian language. A mountain with twin peaks into which the sun descends at nightfall and from which it returns at dawn. Sometimes thought of as Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon.

NAMTAR: Fate, destiny in its evil aspect; pictured as a demon of the underworld, also a messenger and chief minister of
Ereshkigal
; a bringer of disease and pestilence.

NEDU: See
Neti.

NERGAL: Underworld god, sometimes the husband of
Breshkigal
, he is the subject of an Akkadian poem which describes his translation from heaven to the underworld; plague-god.

NETI: The Sumerian form of Nedu, the chief gate-keeper in the underworld.

NINDUKUGGA: With
Endukugga
, parental gods living in the underworld.

NINGAL: Wife of the Moon God and mother of the Sun.

NINGIRSU: An earlier form of
Ninurta
; god of irrigation and fertility, he had a field near Lagash where all sorts of plants flourished; he was the child of a she-goat.

NINGIZZIDA: ZIDA: Also Gizzida; a fertility god, addressed as ‘Lord of the Tree of Life'; sometimes he is a serpent with human head, but later he was a god of healing and magic; the companion of
Tammuz
, with whom he stood at the gate of heaven.

NINHURSAG: Sumerian mother-goddess; one of the four principal Sumerian gods with An,
Enlil
, and Enki; sometimes the wife of Enki, she created all vegetation. The name means ‘the Mother'; she is also called ‘Nintu', lady of birth, and
Ki
, the earth.

NINKI: The ‘mother' of
Enlil
, probably a form of Ninhursag.

NINLIL: Goddess of heaven, earth, and air and in one aspect of the underworld; wife of
Enlil
and mother of the Moon; worshipped with Enlil in Nippur.

NINSUN: The mother of Gilgamesh, a minor goddess whose house was in Uruk; she was noted for wisdom, and was the wife of
Lugulbanda.

NINURTA: The later form of
Ningirsu
; a warrior and god of war, a herald, the south wind, and god of wells and irrigation. According to one poem he once dammed up the bitter waters of the underworld and conquered various monsters.

NISABA: Goddess of grain.

NISIR: Probably means ‘Mountain of Salvation'; sometimes identified with the Pir Oman Gudrun range south of the lower Zab, or with the biblical Ararat north of Lake Van.

PUZUR-AMURRI: The steersman of
Utnapishtim
during the flood.

SAMUQAN: God of cattle.

SEVEN SAGES: Wise men who brought civilization to the seven oldest cities of Mesopotamia.

SHAMASH: Sumerian Utu; the sun; for the Sumerians he was principally the judge and law-giver with some fertility attributes. For the Semites he was also a victorious warrior, the god of wisdom, the son of
Sin
, and ‘greater than his father'. He was the husband and brother of
Ishtar.
He is represented with the saw with which he cuts decisions. In the poems ‘Shamash' may mean the god, or simply the sun. See p. 24.

SHULLAT: A divine herald of storm and of bad weather.

SHULPAE: A god who presided over feasts and feasting.

SHURRUPAK: Modem Fara, eighteen miles north-west of Uruk; one of the oldest cities of Mesopotamia, and one of the five named by the Sumerians as having existed before the flood. The home of the hero of the flood story.

SIDURI: The divine wine-maker and brewer; she lives on the shore of the sea (perhaps the Mediterranean), in the garden of the sun. Her name in the Hurrian language means ‘young woman' and she may be a form of
Ishtar.
See p. 38.

SILILI: The mother of the stallion; a divine mare?

SIN: Sumerian Nanna, the moon. The chief Sumerian astral deity, the father of
Utu-Shamash
, the sun, and of
Ishtar.
His parents were
Enlil
and
Ninlil.
His chief temple was in Ur.

TAMMUZ: Sumerian
Dumuzi
; the dying god of vegetation, bewailed by
Ishtar
, the subject of laments and litanies. In an Akkadian poem Ishtar descends to the underworld in search of her young husband Tammuz; but in the Sumerian poem on which this is based it is Inanna herself who is responsible for sending Dumuzi to the underworld because of his pride and as a hostage for her own safe return.

UBARA-TUTU: A king of
Shurrupak
and father of
Utnapishtim.
The only king of Kish named in the prediluvian King-List, apart from Utnapishtim.

URSHANABI: Old Babylonian Sursunabu; the boatman of
Utnapishtim
who ferries daily across the waters of death which divide the garden of the sun from the paradise where Utnapishtim lives for ever (the Sumerian
Dilmun
). By accepting Gilgamesh as a passenger he forfeits this right, and accompanies Gilgamesh back to Uruk instead.

URUK: Biblical Erech, modem Warka, in southern Babylonia between Fara (
Shurrupak
) and Ur. Shown by excavation to have been an important city from very early times, with great temples to the gods
Anu
and
Ishtar.
Traditionally the enemy of the city of Kish, and after the flood the seat of a dynasty of kings, among whom Gilgamesh was the fifth and most famous.

UTNAPISHTIM: Old Babylonian Utanapishtim, Sumerian Ziusudra; in the Sumerian poems he is a wise king and priest of
Shurrupak
; in the Akkadian sources he is a wise citizen of Shurrupak. He is the son of Ubara-Tutu, and his name is usually translated, ‘He Who Saw Life'. He is the protégé of the god
Ea
, by whose connivance he survives the flood, with his family and with ‘the seed of all living creatures'; afterwards he is taken by the gods to live for ever at ‘the mouth of the rivers' and given the epithet ‘Faraway'; or according to the Sumerians he lives in
Dilmun
where the sun rises.