{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_7096/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_7096","id":"gutenberg_7096","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7096","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Ancient","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Deluge","Libraries -- Iraq -- Nineveh (Extinct city)"],"text":"Produced by Jeroen Hellingman\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Babylonian Story of the Deluge as Told by Assyrian Tablets from\nNineveh.\n\nBy E. A. Wallis Budge.\n\n\nThe Discovery of the Tablets at Nineveh by Layard, Rassam and Smith.\n\nIn 1845-47 and again in 1849-51 Mr. (later Sir) A. H. Layard carried\nout a series of excavations among the ruins of the ancient city of\nNineveh, \"that great city, wherein are more than sixteen thousand\npersons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left;\nand also much cattle\" (Jonah iv, II). Its ruins lie on the left or\neast bank of the Tigris, exactly opposite the town of Al-Mawsil,\nor M\u00f4sul, which was founded by the Sassanians and marks the site\nof Western Nineveh. At first Layard thought that these ruins were\nnot those of Nineveh, which he placed at Nimr\u00fbd, about 20 miles\ndownstream, but of one of the other cities that were builded by\nAsshur (see Gen. x, 11, 12). Thanks, however, to Christian, Roman and\nMuhammadan tradition, there is no room for doubt about it, and the\nsite of Nineveh has always been known. The fortress which the Arabs\nbuilt there in the seventh century was known as \"Kal'at-N\u00eenaw\u00ee, i.e.,\n\"Nineveh Castle,\" for many centuries, and all the Arab geographers\nagree in saying that tile mounds opposite M\u00f4sul contain the ruins\nof the palaces and walls of Nineveh. And few of them fail to mention\nthat close by them is \"Tall Nabi Y\u00fbnis,\" i.e., the Hill from which the\nProphet Jonah preached repentance to the inhabitants of Nineveh, that\n\"exceeding great city of three days' journey\" (Jonah iii, 3). Local\ntradition also declares that the prophet was buried in the Hill,\nand his supposed tomb is shown there to this day.\n\n\nThe Walls and Palaces of Nineveh.\n\nThe situation of the ruins of the palaces of Nineveh is well shown\nby the accompanying reproduction of the plan of the city made by\nCommander Felix Jones, I.N. The remains of the older palaces built by\nSargon II (B.C. 721-705), Sennacherib (B.C. 705-681), and Esarhaddon\n(B.C. 681-668) lie under the hill called Nabi Y\u00fbnis, and those of\nthe palaces and other buildings of Ashur-bani-pal (B.C. 681-626)\nunder the mound which is known locally as \"Tall al-'Arm\u00fbsh\u00eeyah,\" i.e.,\n\"The Hill of 'Arm\u00fbsh,\" and \"Kuy\u00fbnjik.\" The latter name is said to be\nderived from two Turkish words meaning \"many sheep,\" in allusion to\nthe large flocks of sheep that find their pasture on and about the\nmound in the early spring. These two great mounds lie close to the\nremains of the great west wall of Nineveh, which in the time of the\nlast Assyrian Empire was washed by the waters of the river Tigris. At\nsome unknown period the course of the river changed, and it is now more\nthan a mile distant from the city wall. The river Khausur, or Khoser,\ndivides the area of Nineveh into two parts, and passing close to the\nsouthern end of Kuy\u00fbnjik empties itself into the Tigris. The ruins of\nthe wails of Nineveh show that the east wall was 16,000 feet long, the\nnorth wall 7,000 feet long, the west wall 13,600 feet, and the south\nwall 3,000 feet; its circuit was about 13,200 yards or 7 1/2 miles.\n\n\nDiscovery of the Library of the Temple of Nebo at Nineveh.\n\nIn the spring of 1852 Layard, assisted by H. Rassam, continued the\nexcavation of the \"South West Palace\" at Kuy\u00fbnjik. In one part of the\nbuilding he found two small chambers, opening into each other, which\nhe called the \"chamber of records,\" or \"the house of the rolls.\" He\ngave them this name because \"to the height of a foot or more from the\nfloor they were entirely filled\" with inscribed baked clay tablets\nand fragments of tablets. Some tablets were complete, but by far the\nlarger number of them had been broken up into many fragments, probably\nby the falling in of the roof and upper parts of the walls of the\nbuildings when the city was pillaged and set on fire by the Medes and\nBabylonians. The tablets that were kept in these chambers numbered\nmany thousands. Besides those that were found in them by Layard,\nlarge numbers have been dug out all along the corridor which passed\nthe chambers and led to the river, and a considerable number were\nkicked on to the river front by the feet of the terrified fugitives\nfrom the palace when it was set on fire. The tablets found by Layard\nwere of different sizes; the largest were rectangular, flat on one\nside and convex on the other, and measured about 9 ins. by 6 1/2 ins.,\nand the smallest were about an inch square. The importance of this\n\"find\" was not sufficiently recognized at the time, for the tablets,\nwhich were thought to be decorated pottery, were thrown into baskets\nand sent down the river loose on rafts to Basrah, whence they were\ndespatched to England on a British man o' war. During their transport\nfrom Nineveh to England they suffered more damage from want of packing\nthan they had suffered from the wrath of the Medes. Among the complete\ntablets that were found in the two chambers several had colophons\ninscribed or scratched upon them, and when these were deciphered by\nRawlinson, Hincks and Oppert a few years later, it became evident that\nthey had formed part of the library of the Temple of Nebo at Nineveh.\n\n\nNebo and His Library at Nineveh.\n\nNothing is known of the early history of the Library [1] of the Temple\nof Nebo at Nineveh. There is little doubt that it was in existence in\nthe reign of Sargon II, and it was probably founded at the instance of\nthe priests of Nebo who were settled at Nimr\u00fbd (the Calah of Gen. X,\n11), about 20 miles downstream of Nineveh. Authorities differ in\ntheir estimate of the attributes that were assigned to Nebo ( Nabu)\nin Pre-Babylonian times, and cannot decide whether he was a water-god,\nor a fire-god, or a corn-god, but he was undoubtedly associated with\nMarduk, either as his son or as a fellow-god. It is certain that\nas early as B.C. 2000 he was regarded as one of the \"Great Gods\"\nof Babylonia, and about 1,200 years later his cult was general in\nAssyria. He had a temple at Nimr\u00fbd in the ninth century B.C., and King\nAdad-Nirari (B.C. 811-783) set up six statues in it to the honour of\nthe god; two of these statues are now in the British Museum. Under the\nlast Assyrian Empire he was believed to possess the wisdom of all the\ngods, and to be the \"All-wise\" and \"All-knowing.\" He was the inventor\nof all the arts and sciences, and the source of inspiration in wise\nand learned men, and he was the divine scribe and past master of all\nthe mysteries connected with literature and the art of writing (, duppu\nsharrute). Ashur-bani-pal addresses him as \"Nebo, the beneficent son,\nthe director of the hosts of heaven and of earth, holder of the tablet\nof knowledge, bearer of the writing-reed of destiny, lengthener of\ndays, vivifier of the dead, stablisher of light for the men who are\ntroubled\" (see tablet R.M. 132) In the reign of Sargon II the temple\nlibrary of Nebo was probably housed in some building at or near Nabi\nY\u00fbnis, or, as George Smith thought, near Kuy\u00fbnjik, or at Kuy\u00fbnjik\nitself. As Layard found the remains of Nebo's Library in the South\nWest Palace, it is probable that Ashur-bani-pal built a new temple\nto Nebo there and had the library transferred to it. Nebo's temple\nat Nineveh bore the same name as his very ancient temple at Borsippa\n(the modern Birs-i-Nimr\u00fbd), viz., \"E-Zida.\"\n\n\nDiscovery of the Palace Library of Ashur-bani-pal.\n\nIn the spring of 1852 Layard was obliged to close his excavations\nfor want of funds, and he returned to England with Rassam, leaving\nall the northern half of the great mound of Kuy\u00fbnjik unexcavated. He\nresigned his position as Director of Excavations to the Trustees of the\nBritish Museum, and Colonel (later Sir) H. C. Rawlinson, Consul-General\nof Baghd\u00e2d, undertook to direct any further excavations that might\nbe possible to carry out later on. During the summer the Trustees\nreceived a further grant from Parliament for excavations in Assyria,\nand they dispatched Rassam to finish the exploration of Kuy\u00fbnjik,\nknowing that the lease of the mound of Kuy\u00fbnjik for excavation\npurposes which he had obtained from its owner had several years to\nrun. When Rassam arrived at M\u00f4sul in 1853, and was collecting his men\nfor work, he discovered that Rawlinson, who knew nothing about the\nlease of the mound which Rassam held, had given the French Consul,\nM. Place, permission to excavate the northern half of the mound, i.e.,\nthat part of it which he was most anxious to excavate for the British\nMuseum. He protested, but in vain, and, finding that M. Place intended\nto hold Rawlinson to his word, devoted himself to clearing out part\nof the South West Palace which Layard had attacked in 1852. Meanwhile\nM. Place was busily occupied with the French excavations at Khorsabad,\na mound which contained the ruins of the great palace of Sargon II,\nand had no time to open up excavations at Kuy\u00fbnjik. In this way a year\npassed, and as M. Place made no sign that he was going to excavate at\nKuy\u00fbnjik and Rassam's time for returning to England was drawing near,\nthe owner of the mound, who was anxious to get the excavations finished\nso that he might again graze his flocks on the mound, urged Rassam\nto get to work in spite of Rawlinson's agreement with M. Place. He\nand Rassam made arrangements to excavate the northern part of the\nmound clandestinely and by night, and on 20th December, 1853, the\nwork began. On the first night nothing of importance was found; on\nthe second night the men uncovered a portion of a large bas-relief;\nand on the third night a huge mass of earth collapsed revealing a very\nfine bas-relief, sculptured with a scene representing Ashur-bani-pal\nstanding in his chariot. The news of the discovery was quickly carried\nto all parts of the neighbourhood, and as it was impossible to keep\nthe diggings secret any longer, the work was continued openly and by\nday. The last-mentioned bas-relief was one of the series that lined\nthe chamber, which was 50 feet long and 15 feet wide, and illustrated\na royal lion hunt. [2] This series, that is to say, all of it that\nthe fire which destroyed the palace had spared, is now in the British\nMuseum (see the Gallery of the Assyrian Saloon).\n\nWhilst the workmen were clearing out the Chamber of the Lion Hunt\nthey came across several heaps of inscribed baked clay tablets of \"all\nshapes and sizes,\" which resembled in general appearance the tablets\nthat Layard had found in the South West Palace the year before. There\nwere no remains with them, or near them, that suggested they had been\narranged systematically and stored in the Chamber of the Lion Hunt,\nand it seems as if they had been brought there from another place and\nthrown down hastily, for nearly all of them were broken into small\npieces. As some of them bore traces of having been exposed to great\nheat they must have been in that chamber during the burning of the\npalace. When the tablets were brought to England and were examined by\nRawlinson, it was found from the information supplied by the colophons\nthat they formed a part of the great Private Library of Ashur-bani-pal,\nwhich that king kept in his palace. The tablets found by Layard in 1852\nand by Rassam in 1853 form the unique and magnificent collection of\ncuneiform tablets in the British Museum, which is now commonly known\nas the \"Kuy\u00fbnjik Collection.\" The approximate number of the inscribed\nbaked clay tablets and fragments that have come from Kuy\u00fbnjik and are\nnow in the British Museum is 25,073. It is impossible to over-estimate\ntheir importance and value from religious, historical and literary\npoints of view; besides this, they have supplied the material for the\ndecipherment of cuneiform inscriptions in the Assyrian, Babylonian\nand Sumerian languages, and form the foundation of the science of\nAssyriology which has been built up with such conspicuous success\nduring the last 70 years.\n\n\nAshur-bani-pal, Book-Collector and Patron of Learning.\n\nAshur-bani-pal (the Asnapper of Ezra iv, 10) succeeded his father\nEsarhaddon B.C. 668, and at a comparatively early period of his reign\nhe seems to have devoted himself to the study of the history of his\ncountry, and to the making of a great Private Library. The tablets that\nhave come down to us prove not only that he was as great a benefactor\nof the Library of the Temple of Nebo as any of his predecessors, but\nthat he was himself an educated man, a lover of learning, and a patron\nof the literary folk of his day. In the introduction to his Annals as\nfound inscribed on his great ten-sided cylinder in the British Museum\nhe tells us how he took up his abode in the chambers of the palace\nfrom which Sennacherib and Esarhaddon had ruled the Assyrian Empire,\nand in describing his own education he says:\n\n\"I, Ashur-bani-pal, within it (i.e., the palace) understood the wisdom\nof Nebo, all the art of writing of every craftsman, of every kind,\nI made myself master of them all (i.e., of the various kinds of\nwriting).\" [3]\n\nThese words suggest that Ashur-bani-pal could not only read cuneiform\ntexts, but could write like a skilled scribe, and that he also\nunderstood all the details connected with the craft of making and\nbaking tablets. Having determined to form a Library in his palace he\nset to work in a systematic manner to collect literary works. He sent\nscribes to ancient seats of learning, e.g., Ashur, Babylon, Cuthah,\nNippur, Akkad, Erech, to make copies of the ancient works that were\npreserved there, and when the copies came to Nineveh he either made\ntranscripts of them himself, or caused his scribes to do so for\nthe Palace Library. In any case he collated the texts himself and\nrevised them before placing them in his Library. The appearance of\nthe tablets from his Library suggests that he established a factory\nin which the clay was cleaned and kneaded and made into homogeneous,\nwell-shaped tablets, and a kiln in which they were baked, after they\nhad been inscribed. The uniformity of the script upon them is very\nremarkable, and texts with mistakes in them are rarely found. How\nthe tablets were arranged in the Library is not known, but certainly\ngroups were catalogued, and some tablets were labelled. [4] Groups\nof tablets were arranged in numbered series, with \"catch lines,\" the\nfirst tablet of the series giving the first line of the second tablet,\nthe second tablet giving the first line of the third tablet, and so on.\n\nAshur-bani-pal was greatly interested in the literature of the\nSumerians, i.e., the non-Semitic people who occupied Lower Babylonia\nabout B.C. 3500 and later. He and his scribes made bilingual lists\nof signs and words and objects of all classes and kinds, all of\nwhich are of priceless value to the modern student of the Sumerian\nand Assyrian languages. Annexed is an extract from a List of Signs\nwith Sumerian and Assyrian values. The signs of which the meanings\nare given are in the middle column; the Sumerian values are given in\nthe column to the left, and their meanings in Assyrian in the column\nto the right. To many of his copies of Sumerian hymns, incantations,\nmagical formulas, etc., Ashur-bani-pal caused interlinear translations\nto be added in Assyrian, and of such bilingual documents the following\nextract from a text relating to the Seven Evil Spirits will serve as\na specimen. The 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc., lines are written in Sumerian,\nand the 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc., lines in Assyrian.\n\nThe tablets that belonged to Ashur-bani-pal's private Library and\nthose of the Temple of Nebo can be distinguished by the colophons,\nwhen these exist. Two forms of colophon for each class of the two\ngreat collections of tablets are known, one short and one long. The\nshort colophon on the tablets of the King's Library reads:--\"Palace\nof Ashur-bani-pal, king of hosts, king of the country of Assyria\"\nand that on the tablets of the Library of Nebo reads:--\"[Country\nof ?] Ashur-bani-pal, king of hosts, king of the country of Assyria.\"\nSee on the Tablet of Astrological Omens, p. 22. The longer colophons\nare of considerable interest and renderings of two typical examples\nare here appended:--\n\n\nI. Colophon of the Tablets of the Palace Library. (K. 4870.)\n\n1. Palace of Ashur-bani-pal, king of hosts, king of the country\n   of Assyria,\n2. who trusteth in the god Ashur and the goddess B\u00ealit,\n3. on whom the god Nebo (Nab\u00fb) and the goddess Tasmetu\n4. have bestowed all-hearing ears\n5. and his possession of eyes that are clearsighted,\n6. and the finest results of the art of writing\n7. which, among the kings who have gone before,\n8. no one ever acquired that craft.\n9. The wisdom of Nebo [as expressed in] writing, of every kind,\n10. on tablets I wrote, collated and revised,\n11. [and] for examination and reading\n12. in my palace I placed--[I]\n13. the prince who knoweth the light of the king of the gods, Ashur.\n14. Whosoever shall carry [them] off, or his name side by side\n    with mine\n15. shall write may Ashur and B\u00ealit wrathfully\n16. sweep away, and his name and his seed destroy in the land.\n\n\n2. Colophon of the Tablets of the Library of Nebo. (RM. 132.)\n\n1. To Nebo, beneficent son, director of the hosts of heaven and\n   of earth,\n2. holder of the tablet of knowledge, he who hath grasped the writing\n   reed of destinies,\n3. lengthener of days, vivifier of the dead, stablisher of light for\n   the men who are perplexed,\n4. [from] the great lord, the noble Ashur-bani-pal, the lord, the\n   approved of the gods Ashur, B\u00eal and Nebo,\n5. the shepherd, the maintainer of the holy places of the great gods,\n   stablisher of their revenues,\n6. son of Esarhaddon, king of hosts, king of Assyria,\n7. grandson of Sennacherib, king of hosts, king of Assyria,\n8. for the life of his souls, length of his days, [and] well-being\n   of his posterity,\n9. to make permanent the foundation of his royal throne, to hear\n   his supplications,\n10. to receive his petitions, to deliver into his hands the rebellious.\n11. The wisdom of Ea, the precious priesthood, the leadership,\n12. what is composed for the contentment of the heart of the great\n    gods,\n13. I wrote upon tablets, I collated, I revised\n14. literally according to all the tablets of the lands of Ashur\n    and Akkad,\n15. and I placed in the Library of E-Zida, the temple of Nebo my lord,\n    which is in Nineveh.\n16. O Nebo, lord of the hosts of heaven and of earth, look upon that\n    Library joyfully for years (i.e., for ever).\n17. Of Ashur-bani-pal, the chief, the worshipper of thy divinity,\n    daily the reward of the offering--\n18. his life decree, so that he may exalt thy great godhead.\n\n\nThe tablets from both Libraries when unbroken vary in size from 15\ninches by 8 5/8 inches to 1 inch by 7/8 inch, and they are usually\nabout 1 inch thick. In shape they are rectangular, the obverse being\nflat and tile reverse slightly convex. Contract tablets, letter tablets\nand \"case\" tablets are very much smaller, and resemble small pillows in\nshape. The principal subjects dealt with in the tablets are history,\nannalistic or summaries, letters, despatches, reports, oracles,\nprayers, contracts, deeds of sale of land, produce, cattle, slaves,\nagreements, dowries, bonds for interest (with impressions of seals,\nand fingernails, or nail marks), chronography, chronology, Canons of\nEponyms, astrology (forecasts, omens, divinations, charms, spells,\nincantations), mythology, legends, grammar, law, geography, etc. [5]\n\n\nGeorge Smith's Discovery of the Epic of Gilgamish and the Story of\nthe Deluge.\n\nThe mass of tablets which had been discovered by Layard and Rassam at\nNineveh came to the British Museum in 1854-5, and their examination\nby Rawlinson and Norris began very soon after. Mr. Bowler, a skilful\ndraughtsman and copyist of tablets, whom Rawlinson employed in\nmaking transfers of copies of cuneiform texts for publication by\nlithography, rejoined a considerable number of fragments of bilingual\nlists, syllabaries, etc., which were published in the second volume\nof the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, in 1866. In that\nyear the Trustees of the British Museum employed George Smith to\nassist Rawlinson in sorting, classifying and rejoining fragments,\nand a comprehensive examination of the collection by him began. His\npersonal interest in Assyriology was centred upon historical texts,\nespecially those which threw any light on the Bible Narrative. But in\nthe course of his search for stories of the campaigns of Sargon II,\nSennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashur-bani-pal, he discovered among other\nimportant documents (1) a series of portions of tablets which give\nthe adventures of Gilgamish, an ancient king of Erech; (2) An account\nof the Deluge, which is supplied by the Eleventh Tablet of the Legend\nof Gilgamish (in more than one version); (3) A detailed description\nof the Creation; (4) the Legend of the Descent of Ishtar into Hades\nin quest of Tammuz. The general meaning of the texts was quite clear,\nbut there were many gaps in them, and it was not until December, 1872,\nthat George Smith published his description of the Legend of Gilgamish,\nand a translation of the \"Chaldean Account of the Deluge.\" The interest\nwhich his paper evoked was universal, and the proprietors of the\n\"Daily Telegraph\" advocated that Smith should be at once dispatched\nto Nineveh to search for the missing fragments of tablets which would\nfill up the gaps in his texts, and generously offered to contribute\n1,000 guineas towards the cost of the excavations. The Trustees\naccepted the offer and gave six months' leave of absence to Smith,\nwho left London in January, and arrived in M\u00f4sul in March, 1873. In\nthe following May he recovered from Kuy\u00fbnjik a fragment that contained\n\"the greater portion of seventeen lines of inscription belonging to\nthe first column of the Chaldean account of the Deluge, and fitting\ninto the only place where there was a serious blank in the story.\" [6]\nDuring the excavations which Smith carried out at Kuy\u00fbnjik in 1873\nand 1874 he recovered many fragments of tablets, the texts of which\nenabled him to complete his description of the contents of the Twelve\nTablets of the Legend of Gilgamish which included his translation\nof the story of the Deluge. Unfortunately Smith died of hunger\nand sickness near Aleppo in 1876, and he was unable to revise his\nearly work, and to supplement it with the information which he had\nacquired during his latest travels in Assyria and Babylonia. Thanks\nto the excavations which were carried on at Kuy\u00fbnjik by the Trustees\nof the British Museum after his untimely death, several hundreds of\ntablets and fragments have been recovered, and many of these have been\nrejoined to the tablets of the older collection. By the careful study\nand investigation of the old and new material Assyriologists have,\nduring the last forty years, been enabled to restore and complete\nmany passages in the Legends of Gilgamish and the Flood. It is now\nclear that the Legend of the Flood had not originally any connection\nwith the Legend of Gilgamish, and that it was introduced into it by a\nlate editor or redactor of the Legend, probably in order to complete\nthe number of the Twelve Tablets on which it was written in the time\nof Ashur-bani-pal.\n\n\nThe Legend of the Deluge in Babylonia.\n\nIn the introduction to his paper on the \"Chaldean Account of the\nDeluge,\" which Smith read in December, 1872, and published in 1873,\nhe stated that the Assyrian text which he had found on Ashur-bani-pal's\ntablets was copied from an archetype at Erech in Lower Babylonia. This\narchetype was, he thought, \"either written in, or translated into\nSemitic Babylonian, at a very early period,\" and although he could\nnot assign a date to it, he adduced a number of convincing proofs in\nsupport of his opinion. The language in which he assumed the Legend\nto have been originally composed was known to him under the name of\n\"Accadian,\" or \"Akkadian,\" but is now called \"Sumerian.\" Recent\nresearch has shown that his view on this point was correct on the\nwhole. But there is satisfactory proof available to show that versions\nor recensions of the Legend of the Deluge and of the Epic of Gilgamish\nexisted both in Sumerian and Babylonian, as early as B.C. 2000. The\ndiscovery has been made of a fragment of a tablet with a small portion\nof the Babylonian version of the Legend of the Deluge inscribed upon\nit, and dated in a year which is the equivalent of the 11th year of\nAmmisaduga, i.e. about B.C. 2000. [7] And in the Museum at Philadelphia\n[8] is preserved half of a tablet which when whole contained a complete\ncopy of the Sumerian version of the Legend, and must have been written\nabout the same date. The fragment of the tablet written in the reign\nof Ammisaduga is of special importance because the colophon shows\nthat the tablet to which it belonged was the second of a series,\nand that this series was not that of the Epic of Gilgamish, and from\nthis we learn that in B.C. 2000 the Legend of the Deluge did not form\nthe XIth Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamish, as it did in the reign of\nAshur-bani-pal, or earlier. The Sumerian version is equally important,\nthough from another point of view, for the contents and position of\nthe portion of it that remains on the half of the tablet mentioned\nabove make it certain that already at this early period there were\nseveral versions of the Legend of the Deluge current in the Sumerian\nlanguage. The fact is that the Legend of the Deluge was then already\nso old in Mesopotamia that the scribes added to or abbreviated the\ntext at will, and treated the incidents recorded in it according to\nlocal or popular taste, tradition and prejudice. There seems to be\nno evidence that proves conclusively that the Sumerian version is\nolder than the Semitic, or that the latter was translated direct\nfrom the former version. It is probable that both the Sumerians\nand the Semites, each in their own way, attempted to commemorate an\nappalling disaster of unparalleled magnitude, the knowledge of which,\nthrough tradition, was common to both peoples. It is, at all events,\nclear that the Sumerians regarded the Deluge as an historic event,\nwhich they were, practically, able to date, for some of their tablets\ncontain lists of kings who reigned before the Deluge, though it must\nbe confessed that the lengths assigned to their reigns are incredible.\n\nIt is not too much to assume that the original event commemorated\nin the Legend of the Deluge was a serious and prolonged inundation\nor flood in Lower Babylonia, which was accompanied by great loss of\nlife and destruction of property. The Babylonian versions state that\nthis inundation or flood was caused by rain, but passages in some\nof them suggest that the effects of the rainstorm were intensified\nby other physical happenings connected with the earth, of a most\ndestructive character. The Hebrews also, as we may see from the Bible,\nhad alternative views as to the cause of the Deluge. According to one,\nrain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights (Gen. vii,\n12), and according to the other the Deluge came because \"all the\nfountains of the \"great deep\" were broken up, and \"the flood-gates\nof heaven were opened\" (Gen. vii, 11). The latter view suggests that\nthe rain flood was joined by the waters of the sea. Later tradition,\nbased partly on Babylonian and partly on Hebrew sources, asserts in\nthe \"Cave of Treasures\" [9] that when Noah had entered the Ark and the\ndoor was shut, \"the sluices of heaven were opened, and the deeps were\nrent asunder,\" and \"that the Ocean, that great sea that surroundeth\nthe whole world, vomited its waters, and the sluices of heaven being\nopened, and the deeps of the earth being rent asunder, the storehouses\nof the winds were opened, and the whirlwinds broke loose, and the Ocean\nroared and poured out its waters in floods.\" The ark was steered over\nthe waters by an angel who acted as pilot, and when that had come to\nrest on the mountains of Kard\u00f4 (Armenia) \"God commanded the waters\nand they separated from each other. The waters that had been above\nascended to their place above the heavens, whence they had come;\nand the waters that had come up from under the earth returned to the\nlower deep; and the waters that were from the Ocean returned into it\"\n(Brit. Mus. MS. Orient. No. 25,875, fol. 17b, col. 1 and fol. 18a,\ncols. 1 and 2). Many authorities seeking to find a foundation of fact\nfor the Legend of the Deluge in Mesopotamia have assumed that the rain\nflood was accompanied either by an earthquake or a tidal wave, or by\nboth. There is no doubt that the cities of Lower Babylonia were nearer\nthe sea in the Sumerian Period than they are at the present time,\nand it is a generally accepted view that the head of the Persian Gulf\nlay further to the north at that time. A cyclone coupled with a tidal\nwave is a sufficient base for any of the forms of the Legend now known.\n\nA comparison of the contents of the various Sumerian and Babylonian\nversions of the Deluge that have come down to us shows us that they\nare incomplete. And as none of them tells so connected and full a\nnarrative of the prehistoric shipbuilder as Berosus, a priest of B\u00eal,\nthe great god of Babylon, it seems that the Mesopotamian scribes\nwere content to copy the Legend in an abbreviated form. Berosus, it\nis true, is not a very ancient authority, for he was not born until\nthe reign of Alexander the Great, but he was a learned man and was\nwell acquainted with the Babylonian language, and with the ancient\nliterature of his country, and he wrote a history of Babylonia, some\nfragments of which have been preserved to us in the works of Alexander\nPolyhistor, Eusebius, and others. The following is a version of the\nfragment which describes the flood that took place in the days of\nXisuthrus, the tenth King of the Chaldeans, and is of importance for\ncomparison with the rendering of the Legend of the Deluge, as found\non the Ninevite tablets, which follows immediately after.\n\n\nThe Legend of the Deluge According to Berosus.\n\n\"After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen\nsari. In his time happened a great Deluge; the history of which is\nthus described. The Deity, Cronus, appeared to him in a vision, and\nwarned him that upon the 15th day of the month Daesius there would be\na flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined\nhim to write a history of the beginning, procedure and conclusion of\nall things; and to bury it in the city of the Sun at Sippara; and to\nbuild a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations;\nand to convey on board everything necessary to sustain life, together\nwith all the different animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and trust\nhimself fearlessly to the deep. Having asked the Deity, whither he was\nto sail? he was answered, 'To the Gods': upon which he offered up a\nprayer for the good of mankind. He then obeyed the divine admonition;\nand built a vessel 5 stadia in length, and 2 in breadth. Into this he\nput everything which he had prepared; and last of all conveyed into\nit his wife, his children, and his friends. After the flood had been\nupon the earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from\nthe vessel; which, not finding any food nor any place whereupon they\nmight rest their feet, returned to him again. After an interval of some\ndays, he sent them forth a second time; and they now returned with\ntheir feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these\nbirds; but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged that\nthe surface of the earth had appeared above the waters. He therefore\nmade an opening in the vessel, and upon looking out found that it was\nstranded upon the side of some mountain; upon which he immediately\nquitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then\npaid his adoration to the earth, and, having constructed an altar,\noffered sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come out of\nthe vessel with him, disappeared. They, who remained within, finding\nthat their companions did not return, quitted the vessel with many\nlamentations, and called continually on the name of Xisuthrus. Him\nthey saw no more; but they could distinguish his voice in the air,\nand could hear him admonish them to pay due regard to religion; and\nlikewise informed them that it was upon account of his piety that he\nwas translated to live with the gods; that his wife and daughter,\nand the pilot, had obtained the same honour. To this he added that\nthey should return to Babylonia; and, it was ordained, search for\nthe writings at Sippara, which they were to make known to mankind:\nmoreover that the place, wherein they then were, was the land of\nArmenia. The rest having heard these words, offered sacrifices to\nthe gods; and taking a circuit journeyed towards Babylonia.\" (Cory,\nAncient Fragments, London, 1832, p. 26ff.)\n\n\n\nThe Babylonian Legend of the Deluge as Told to the Hero Gilgamish by\nHis Ancestor Uta-Napishtim, Who Had Been Made Immortal by the Gods.\n\nThe form of the Legend of the Deluge given below is that which is\nfound on the Eleventh of the Series of Twelve Tablets in the Library\nof Nebo at Nineveh, which described the life and exploits of Gilgamish\n(), an early king of the city of Erech. As we have seen above, the\nLegend of the Deluge has in reality no connection with the Epic of\nGilgamish, but was introduced into it by the editors of the Epic\nat a comparatively late period, perhaps even during the reign of\nAshur-bani-pal (B.C. 668-626). A summary of the contents of the other\nTablets of the Gilgamish Series is given in the following section of\nthis short monograph. It is therefore only necessary to state here\nthat Gilgamish, who was horrified and almost beside himself when\nhis bosom friend and companion Enkidu (Eab\u00e2ni) died, meditated\ndeeply how he could escape death himself. He knew that his ancestor\nUta-Napishtim had become immortal, therefore he determined to set\nout for the place where Uta-Napishtim lived so that he might obtain\nfrom him the secret of immortality. Guided by a dream in which he saw\nthe direction of the place where Uta-Napishtim lived, Gilgamish set\nout for the Mountain of the Sunset, and, after great toil and many\ndifficulties, came to the shore of a vast sea. Here he met Ur-Shanabi,\nthe boatman of Uta-Napishtim, who was persuaded to carry him in\nhis boat over the \"waters of death,\" and at length he landed on the\nshore of the country of Uta-Napishtim. The immortal came down to the\nshore and asked the newcomer the object of his visit, and Gilgamish\ntold him of the death of his great friend Enkidu, and of his desire\nto escape from death and to find immortality. Uta-Napishtim having\nmade to Gilgamish some remarks which seem to indicate that in his\nopinion death was inevitable,\n\n1. Gilgamish [10] said unto Uta-Napishtim, to Uta-Napishtim the remote:\n2. \"I am looking at thee, Uta-Napishtim.\n3. Thy person is not altered; even as am I so art thou.\n4. Verily, nothing about thee is changed; even as am I so art thou.\n5. [Moved is my] heart to do battle,\n6. But thou art at leisure and dost lie upon thy back.\n7. How then wast thou able to enter the company of the gods and\n   see life?\"\n\nThereupon Uta-Napishtim related to Gilgamish the Story of the Deluge,\nand the Eleventh Tablet continues thus:--\n\n8. Uta-Napishtim said unto him, to Gilgamish:\n9. \"I will reveal unto thee, O Gilgamish, a hidden mystery,\n10. And a secret matter of the gods I will declare unto thee.\n11. Shurippak, [11] a city which thou thyself knowest,\n12. On [the bank] of the river Puratti (Euphrates) is situated,\n13. That city was old and the gods [dwelling] within it--\n14. Their hearts induced the great gods to make a wind-storm\n    (a-bu-bi), [12]\n15. Their father Anu,\n16. Their counsellor, the warrior Enlil,\n17. Their messenger En-urta [and]\n18. Their prince Ennugi.\n19. Nin-igi-azag, Ea, was with them [in council] and\n20. reported their word to the house of reeds.\n\n[First Speech of Ea to Uta-Napishtim who is sleeping in a reed hut.]\n\n21. O House of reeds, O House of reeds! O Wall, O Wall!\n22. O House of reeds, hear! O Wall, understand!\n23. O man of Shurippak, son of Ubara-Tutu.\n24. Throw down the house, build a ship,\n25. Forsake wealth, seek after life,\n26. Abandon possessions, save thy life,\n27. Carry grain of every kind into the ship.\n28. The ship which thou shalt build,\n29. The dimensions thereof shall be measured,\n30. The breadth and the length thereof shall be the same.\n31. ... the ocean, provide it with a roof.\"\n\n[Uta-Napishtim's answer to Ea.]\n\n32. \"I understood and I said unto Ea, my lord:\n33. [I comprehend] my lord, that which thou hast ordered,\n34. I will regard it with great reverence, and will perform it.\n35. But what shall I say to the town, to the multitude, and to the\n    elders?\"\n\n[Second Speech of Ea.]\n\n36. \"Ea opened his mouth and spake\n37. And said unto his servant, myself,\n38. ... Thus shalt thou say unto them:\n39. Ill-will hath the god Enlil formed against me,\n40. Therefore I can no longer dwell in your city,\n41. And never more will I turn my countenance upon the soil of Enlil.\n42. I will descend into the ocean to dwell with my lord Ea.\n43. But upon you he will rain riches:\n44. A catch of birds, a catch of fish\n45. ... an [abundant] harvest,\n46. ... the prince (?) of the darkness\n47. ... shall make a violent cyclone [to fall upon you].\"\n\n[The Building of the Ship.]\n\n48. As soon as [the dawn] broke...\n\n[Lines 49-54 broken away.]\n\n55. The weak [man] ... brought bitumen,\n56. The strong [man] ... brought what was needed.\n57. On the fifth day I decided upon its plan.\n58. According to the plan its walls were 10 Gar (i.e. 120 cubits) high,\n59. And the circuit of the roof thereof was equally 10 Gar.\n60. I measured out the hull thereof and marked it out (?)\n61. I covered (?) it six times.\n62. Its exterior I divided into seven,\n63. Its interior I divided into nine,\n64. Water bolts I drove into the middle of it.\n65. I provided a steering pole, and fixed what was needful for it,\n66. Six sar of bitumen I poured over the inside wall,\n67. Three sar of pitch I poured into the inside.\n68. The men who bear loads brought three sar of oil,\n69. Besides a sar of oil which the offering consumed,\n70. And two sar of oil which the boatman hid.\n71. I slaughtered oxen for the [work]people,\n72. I slew sheep every day.\n73. Beer, sesame wine, oil and wine\n74. I made the people drink as if they were water from the river.\n75. I celebrated a feast-day as if it had been New Year's Day.\n76. I opened [a box of ointment], I laid my hands in unguent.\n77. Before the sunset the ship was finished.\n78. [Since] ... was difficult.\n79. The shipbuilders brought the ... of the ship, above and below,\n80. ... two-thirds of it.\n\n[The Loading of the Ship.]\n\n81. With everything that I possessed I loaded it (i.e. the ship).\n82. With everything that I possessed of silver I loaded it.\n83. With everything that I possessed of gold I loaded it.\n84. With all that I possessed of living grain I loaded it.\n85. I made to go up into the ship all my family and kinsfolk,\n86. The cattle of the field, the beasts of the field, all\n    handicraftsmen I made them go up into it.\n87. The god Shamash had appointed me a time (saying)\n88. The Power of Darkness will at eventide make a rain-flood to fall;\n89. Then enter into the ship and shut thy door.\n90. The appointed time drew nigh;\n91. The Power of Darkness made a rain-flood to fall at eventide.\n92. I watched the coming of the [approaching] storm,\n93. \"When I saw it terror possessed me,\n94. I went into the ship and shut my door.\n95. To the pilot of the ship, Puzur-B\u00eal (or Puzur-Amurri) the sailor\n96. I committed the great house (i.e. ship), together with the\n    contents thereof.\n\n[The Abubu (Cyclone) and its effects Described.]\n\n97. As soon as the gleam of dawn shone in the sky\n98. A black cloud from the foundation of heaven came up.\n99. Inside it the god Adad (Ramm\u00e2nu) thundered,\n100. The gods Nab\u00fb and Sharru (i.e. Marduk) went before,\n101. Marching as messengers over high land and plain,\n102. Irragal (Nergal) tore out the post of the ship,\n103. En-urta (Ninib) went on, he made the storm to descend.\n104. The Anunnaki [13] brandished their torches,\n105. With their glare they lighted up the land.\n106. The whirlwind (or, cyclone) of Adad swept up to heaven.\n107. Every gleam of light was turned into darkness.\n108. ...... the land ...... as if ...... had laid it waste.\n109. A whole day long [the flood descended] ...\n110. Swiftly it mounted up ..... [the water] reached to the mountains\n111. [The water] attacked the people like a battle.\n112. Brother saw not brother.\n113. Men could not be known (or, recognized) in heaven.\n114. The gods were terrified at the cyclone.\n115. They betook themselves to flight and went up into the heaven\n     of Anu.\n116. The gods crouched like a dog and cowered by the wall.\n117. The goddess Ishtar cried out like a woman in travail.\n118. The Lady of the Gods lamented with a loud voice [saying]:\n\n[Ishtar's Lament.]\n\n119. \"Verily the former dispensation is turned into mud,\n120. Because I commanded evil among the company of the gods.\n121. When I commanded evil among the company of the gods,\n122. I commanded battle for the destruction of my people.\n123. Did I of myself bring forth my people\n124. That they might fill the sea like little fishes?\"\n\n[Uta-Napishtim's Story continued.]\n\n125. The gods of the Anunnaki wailed with her.\n126. The gods bowed themselves, and sat down, and wept.\n127. Their lips were shut tight (in distress) ...\n128. For six days and nights\n129. The storm raged, and the cyclone overwhelmed the land.\n\n[The Abating of the Storm.]\n\n130. When the seventh day approached the cyclone and the raging\n     flood ceased:\n131. --now it had fought like an army.\n132. The sea became quiet and went down, and the cyclone and the\n     rain-storm ceased.\n133. I looked over the sea and a calm had come,\n134. And all mankind were turned into mud,\n135. The land had been laid flat like a terrace.\n136. I opened the air-hole and the light fell upon my face,\n137. I bowed myself, I sat down, I cried,\n138. My tears poured down over my cheeks.\n139. I looked over the quarters of the world--open sea!\n140. After twelve days an island appeared.\n141. The ship took its course to the land of Nisir.\n142. The mountain of Nisir held the ship, it let it not move.\n143. The first day, the second day, the mountain of Nisir held the\n     ship and let it not move.\n144. The third day, the fourth day, the mountain of Nisir held the\n     ship and let it not move.\n145. The fifth day, the sixth day, the mountain of Nisir held the\n     ship and let it not move.\n146. When the seventh day had come\n147. I brought out a dove and let her go free.\n148. The dove flew away and [then] came back;\n149. Because she had no place to alight on she came back.\n150. I brought out a swallow and let her go free.\n151. The swallow flew away and [then] came back;\n152. Because she had no place to alight on she came back.\n153. I brought out a raven and let her go free.\n154. The raven flew away, she saw the sinking waters.\n155. She ate, she pecked in the ground, she croaked, she came not back.\n\n[Uta-Napishtim Leaves the Ship.]\n\n156. Then I brought out everything to the four winds and offered up\n     a sacrifice;\n157. I poured out a libation on the peak of the mountain.\n158. Seven by seven I set out the vessels,\n159. Under them I piled reeds, cedarwood and myrtle (?).\n160. The gods smelt the savour,\n161. The gods smelt the sweet savour.\n162. The gods gathered together like flies over him that sacrificed.\n\n[Speech of Ishtar, Lady of the Gods.]\n\n163. Now when the Lady of the Gods came nigh,\n164. She lifted up the priceless jewels which Anu had made according\n     to her desire, [saying]\n165. \"O ye gods here present, as I shall never forget the\n     lapis-lazuli jewels of my neck\n166. So shall I ever think about these days, and shall\n     forget them nevermore!\n167. Let the gods come to the offering,\n168. But let not Enlil come to the offering,\n169. Because he would not accept counsel and made the cyclone,\n17O. And delivered my people over to destruction.\"\n\n[The Anger of Enlil (B\u00eal).]\n\n171. Now when Enlil came nigh\n172. He saw the ship; then was Enlil wroth\n173. And he was filled with anger against the gods, the Igigi [saying]:\n     [14]\n\n174. \"What kind of a being hath escaped with his life?\n175. He shall not remain alive, a man among the destruction!\"\n\n[Speech of En-Urta.]\n\n176. Then En-Urta opened his mouth and spake\n177. And said unto the warrior Enlil (B\u00eal):\n178. Who besides the god Ea can make a plan?\n179. The god Ea knoweth everything.\n180. He opened his mouth and spake\n181. And said unto the warrior Enlil (B\u00eal),\n182. O Prince among the gods, thou warrior,\n183. How couldst thou, not accepting counsel, make a cyclone?\n184. He who is sinful, on him lay his sin,\n185. He who transgresseth, on him lay his transgression.\n186. But be merciful that [everything] be not destroyed; be\n     long-suffering that [man be not blotted out].\n187. Instead of thy making a cyclone,\n188. Would that a lion had come and diminished mankind.\n189. Instead of thy making a cyclone\n19O. Would that a wolf had come and diminished mankind.\n191. Instead of thy making a cyclone\n192. Would that a famine had arisen and [laid waste] the land.\n193. Instead of thy making a cyclone\n194. Would that Urra (the Plague god) had risen up and [laid waste]\n     the land.\n195. As for me I have not revealed the secret of the great gods.\n196. I made Atra-hasis to see a vision, and thus he heard the\n     secret of the gods.\n197. Now therefore counsel him with counsel.\"\n\n[Ea deifies Uta-Napishtim and his Wife.]\n\n198. \"Then the god Ea went up into the ship,\n199. He seized me by the hand and brought me forth.\n200. He brought forth my wife and made her to kneel by my side.\n2O1. He turned our faces towards each other, he stood between us,\n     he blessed us [saying],\n202. Formerly Uta-Napishtim was a man merely,\n203. But now let Uta-Napishtiin and his wife be like unto the gods,\n     ourselves.\n204. Uta-Napishtim shall dwell afar off, at the mouth of the rivers.\"\n\n[Uta-Napishtim Ends his Story of the Deluge.]\n\n205. \"And they took me away to a place afar off, and made me to dwell\n     at the mouth of the rivers.\"\n\nThe contents of the remainder of the text on the Eleventh Tablet of\nthe Gilgamish Series are described on p. 54.\n\n\nThe Epic of Gilgamish. [15]\n\nThe narrative of the life, exploits and travels of Gilgamish, king\nof Erech, filled Twelve Tablets which formed the Series called from\nthe first three words of the First Tablet, Sha Nagbu Imuru, i.e.,\n\"He who hath seen all things.\" The exact period of the reign of this\nking is unknown, but there is no doubt that he lived and ruled at\nErech before the conquest of Mesopotamia by the Semites. According to\na tablet from Niffar he was the fifth of a line of Sumerian rulers at\nErech, and he reigned 126 years; his name is said to mean \"The Fire-god\nis a commander.\" [16] The principal authorities for the Epic are the\nnumerous fragments of the tablets that were found in the ruins of the\nLibrary of Nebo and the Royal Library of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh,\nand are now in the British Museum. [17] The contents of the Twelve\nTablets may be briefly described thus:\n\n\nThe First Tablet.\n\nThe opening lines describe the great knowledge and wisdom of Gilgamish,\nwho saw everything, learned everything, understood everything, who\nprobed to the bottom the hidden mysteries of wisdom, and who knew the\nhistory of everything that happened before the Deluge. He travelled\nfar over sea and land, and performed mighty deeds, and then he cut upon\na tablet of stone an account of all that he had done and suffered. He\nbuilt the wall of Erech, founded the holy temple of E-Anna, and carried\nout other great architectural works. He was a semi-divine being, for\nhis body was formed of the \"flesh of the gods,\" and \"Two-thirds of\nhim were god, and one-third was man\" (l. 51). The description of\nhis person is lost. As Shepherd (i.e., King) of Erech he forced the\npeople to toil overmuch, and his demands reduced them to such a state\nof misery that they cried out to the gods and begged them to create\nsome king who should control Gilgamish and give them deliverance\nfrom him. The gods hearkened to the prayer of the men of Erech, and\nthey commanded the goddess Aruru to create a rival to Gilgamish. The\ngoddess agreed to do their bidding, and having planned in her mind\nwhat manner of being she intended to make, she washed her hands,\ntook a piece of clay and spat upon it, and made a male creature like\nthe god Anu. His body was covered all over with hair. The hair of his\nhead was long like that of a woman, and he wore clothing like that of\nGira (or, Sumuggan), a goddess of vegetation, i.e., he appeared to be\nclothed with leaves. He was different in every way from the people of\nthe country, and his name was Enkidu (Eabani). He lived in the forests\non the hills, ate herbs like the gazelle, drank with the wild cattle,\nand herded with the beasts of the field. He was mighty in stature,\ninvincible in strength, and obtained complete mastery over all the\ncreatures of the forests in which he lived.\n\nOne day a certain hunter went out to snare game, and he dug pit-traps\nand laid nets, and made his usual preparations for roping in his\nprey. But after doing this for three days he found that his pits\nwere filled up and his nets smashed, and he saw Enkidu releasing the\nbeasts that had been snared. The hunter was terrified at the sight\nof Enkidu, and went home hastily and told his father what he had seen\nand how badly he had fared. By his father's advice he went to Erech,\nand reported to Gilgamish what had happened. When Gilgamish heard\nhis story he advised him to act upon a suggestion which the hunter's\nfather had already made, namely that he should hire a harlot and take\nher out to the forest, so that Enkidu might be ensnared by the sight\nof her beauty, and take up his abode with her. The hunter accepted\nthis advice, and having found a harlot to help him in removing Enkidu\nfrom the forests (thus enabling him to gain a living), he set out\nfrom Erech with her and in due course arrived at the forest where\nEnkidu lived, and sat down by the place where the beasts came to drink.\n\nOn the second day when the beasts came to drink and Enkidu was with\nthem, the woman carried out the instructions which the hunter had\ngiven her, and when Enkidu saw her cast aside her veil, he left his\nbeasts and came to her, and remained with her for six days and seven\nnights. At the end of this period he returned to the beasts with which\nhe had lived on friendly terms, but as soon as the gazelle winded\nhim they took to flight, and the wild cattle disappeared into the\nwoods. When Enkidu saw the beasts forsake him his knees gave way, and\nhe swooned from sheer shame; but when he came to himself he returned\nto the harlot. She spoke to him flattering words, and asked him why\nhe wandered with the wild beasts in the desert, and then told him she\nwished to take him back with her to Erech, where Anu and Ishtar lived,\nand where the mighty Gilgamish reigned. Enkidu hearkened and finally\nwent back with her to her city, where she described the wisdom, power\nand might of Gilgamish, and took steps to make Enkidu known to him. But\nbefore Enkidu arrived, Gilgamish had been warned of his existence\nand coming in two dreams which he related to his mother Ninsunna,\nand when he and Enkidu learned to know each other subsequently,\nthese two mighty heroes became great friends.\n\n\nThe Second Tablet.\n\nWhen Enkidu came to Erech the habits of the people of the city were\nstrange to him, but under the tuition of the harlot he learned to\neat bread and to drink beer, and to wear clothes, and he anointed\nhis body with unguents. He went out into the forests with his hunting\nimplements and snared the gazelle and slew the panther, and obtained\nanimals for sacrifice, and gained reputation as a mighty hunter and as\na good shepherd. In due course he attracted the notice of Gilgamish,\nwho did not, however, like his uncouth appearance and ways, but after\na time, when the citizens of Erech praised him and admired his strong\nand vigorous stature, he made friends with him and rejoiced in him,\nand planned an expedition with him. Before they set out, Gilgamish\nwished to pay a visit to the goddess Ishkhara, but Enkidu, fearing\nthat the influence of the goddess would have a bad effect upon his\nfriend, urged him to abandon the visit. This Gilgamish refused to do,\nand when Enkidu declared that by force he would prevent him going to\nthe goddess, a violent quarrel broke out between the two heroes, and\nthey appealed to arms. After a fierce fight Enkidu conquered Gilgamish,\nwho apparently abandoned his visit to the goddess. The text of the\nSecond Tablet is very much mutilated, and the authorities on the\nsubject are not agreed as to the exact placing of the fragments. The\nabove details are derived from a tablet at Philadelphia. [18]\n\n\n\nThe Third Tablet.\n\nThe correct order of the fragments of this Tablet has not yet been\nascertained, but among the contents of the first part of its text\na lament by Enkidu that he was associated with the harlot seems to\nhave had a place. Whether he had left the city of Erech and gone\nback to his native forest is not clear, but the god Shamash, having\nheard his cursing of the harlot, cried to him from heaven, saying,\n\"Why, O Enkidu, dost thou curse the temple woman? She gave thee food\nto eat which was meet only for a god, she gave thee wine to drink\nwhich was meet only for a king, she arrayed thee in splendid apparel,\nand made thee to possess as thy friend the noble Gilgamish. And at\npresent Gilgamish is thy bosom friend. He maketh thee to lie down on\na large couch, and to sleep in a good, well-decked bed, and to occupy\nthe chair of peace, the chair on the left-hand side. The princes of\nthe earth kiss thy feet. He maketh the people of Erech to sigh for\nthee, and many folk to cry out for thee, and to serve thee. And for\nthy sake he putteth on coarse attire and arrayeth himself in the skin\nof the lion, and pursueth thee over the plain.\" When Enkidu heard\nthese words his anxious heart had peace.\n\nTo the Third Tablet probably belongs the fragment in which Enkidu\nrelates to Gilgamish a horrifying dream which he had had. In his dream\nit seemed to him that there were thunderings in heaven and quaking upon\nearth, and a being with an awful visage, and nails like all eagle's\ntalons, gripped him and carried him off and forced him to go down into\nthe dark abyss of the dread goddess, Irkalla. From this abode he who\nonce \"went in never came out, and he who travelled along that road\nnever returned, he who dwelleth there is without light, the beings\ntherein eat dust and feed upon mud; they are clad in feathers and have\nwings like birds, they see no light, and they live in the darkness\nof night.\" Here Enkidu saw in his dream creatures who had been kings\nwhen they lived upon the earth, and shadowy beings offering roasted\nmeat to Anu and Enlil, and cool drinks poured out from waterskins. In\nthis House of Dust dwelt high priests, ministrants, the magician and\nthe prophet, and the deities Etana, Sumukan, Eresh-kigal, Queen of\nthe Earth, and B\u00ealits\u00eari, who registered the deeds done upon the earth.\n\nWhen Gilgamish heard this dream, he brought out a table, and setting\non it honey and butter placed it before Shamash.\n\n\nThe Fourth Tablet.\n\nGilgamish then turned to Enkidu and invited him to go with him to\nthe temple of Nin-Makh to see the servant of his mother, Ninsunna, in\norder to consult her as to the meaning of the dream. They went there,\nand Enkidu told his dream, and the wise woman offered up incense and\nasked Shamash why he had given to her son a heart which could never\nkeep still. She next referred to the perilous expedition against the\nmighty King Khumbaba, which he had decided to undertake with Enkidu,\nand apparently hoped that the god would prevent her son from leaving\nErech. But Gilgamish was determined to march against Khumbaba, and\nhe and Enkidu set out without delay for the mountains where grew\nthe cedars.\n\n\nThe Fifth Tablet.\n\nIn due course the two heroes reached the forest of cedars, and they\ncontemplated with awe their great height and their dense foliage. The\ncedars were under the special protection of B\u00eal, who had appointed\nto be their keeper Khumbaba, a being whose voice was like the roar\nof a storm, whose mouth was like that of the gods, and whose breath\nwas like a gale of wind. When Enkidu saw how dense was the forest\nand how threatening, he tried to make Gilgamish turn back, but all\nhis entreaties were in vain. As they were going through the forest\nto attack Khumbaba, Enkidu dreamed two or three dreams, and when he\nrelated them to Gilgamish, this hero interpreted them as auguries of\ntheir success and the slaughter of Khumbaba. The fragmentary character\nof the text here makes it very difficult to find out exactly what\nsteps the two heroes took to overcome Khumbaba, but there is no doubt\nthat they did overcome him, and that they returned to Erech in triumph.\n\n\n\nThe Sixth Tablet\n\nOn his return to Erech, Gilgamish\n\n1. Washed his armour, cleaned his weapons,\n2. Dressed his hair and let it fall down on his back.\n3. He cast off his dirty garments and put on clean ones\n4. He arrayed himself in the [royal head-cloth], he bound on the\n   fillet,\n5. He put on his crown, he bound on the fillet.\n6. Then the eyes of the Majesty of the goddess Ishtar lighted on the\n   goodliness of Gilgamish [and she said],\n7. \"Go to, Gilgamish, thou shalt be my lover.\n8. Give me thy [love]-fruit, give to me, I say.\n9. Thou shalt be my man, I will be thy woman.\n10. I will make to be harnessed for thee a chariot of lapis-lazuli\n    and gold.\n11. The wheels thereof shall be of gold and the horns of precious\n    stones.\n12. Thou shalt harness daily to it mighty horses.\n13. Come into our house with the perfume of the cedar upon thee.\n14. When thou enterest into our house\n15. Those who sit upon thrones shall kiss thy feet.\n16. Kings, lords and nobles shall bow their backs before thee.\n17. The gifts of mountain and land they shall bring as tribute to thee.\n18. Thy ... and thy sheep shall bring forth twins.\n19. Baggage animals shall come laden with tribute.\n20. The [horse] in thy chariot shall prance proudly,\n21. There shall be none like unto the beast that is under thy yoke.\"\n\nIn answer to Ishtar's invitation Gilgamish makes a long speech, in\nwhich he reviews the calamities and misfortunes of those who have\nbeen unfortunate enough to become the lovers of the goddess. Her love\nis like a door that lets in wind and storm, a fortress that destroys\nthe warriors inside it, an elephant that smashes his howdah, etc. He\nsays, \"What lover didst thou love for long? Which of thy shepherds\nflourished? Come now, I will describe the calamity [that goeth with\nthee].\" He refers to Tammuz, the lover of her youth, for whom year\nby year she arranges wailing commemorations. Every creature that\nfalls under her sway suffers mutilation or death, the bird's wings\nare broken, the lion is destroyed, the horse is driven to death with\nwhip and spur; and his speech concludes with the words: \"Dost thou\nlove me, and wouldst thou treat me as thou didst them?\"\n\nWhen Ishtar heard these words she was filled with rage, and she went\nup to heaven and complained to Anu, her father, and Antu, her mother,\nthat Gilgamish had cursed her and revealed all her iniquitous deeds\nand actions. She followed up her complaint with the request that\nAnu should create a mighty bull of heaven to destroy Gilgamish, and\nshe threatened her father that if he did not grant her request she\nwould do works of destruction, presumably in the world. Anu created\nthe fire-breathing (?) bull of heaven and sent him to the city of\nErech, where he destroyed large numbers of the people. At length\nEnkidu and Gilgamish determined to go forth and slay the bull. When\nthey came to the place where he was, Enkidu seized him by the tail,\nand Gilgamish delivered deadly blows between his neck and his horns,\nand together they killed, him. As soon as Ishtar heard of the death\nof the bull she rushed out on the battlements of the walls of Erech\nand cursed Gilgamish for destroying her bull. When Enkidu heard what\nIshtar said, he went and tore off a portion of the bull's flesh from\nhis right side, and threw it at the goddess, saying, \"Could I but\nfight with thee I would serve thee as I have served him! I would\ntwine his entrails about thee.\" Then Ishtar gathered together all\nher temple women and harlots, and with them made lamentation over\nthe portion of the bull which Enkidu had thrown at her.\n\nAnd Gilgamish called together the artisans of Erech who came and\nmarvelled at the size of the bull's horns, for their bulk was equal\nto 30 minas of lapis-lazuli, and their thickness to the length of\ntwo fingers, and they could contain six Kur measures of oil. Then\nGilgamish took them to the temple of the god Lugalbanda and hung them\nup there on the throne of his majesty, and having made his offering he\nand Enkidu went to the Euphrates and washed their hands, and walked\nback to the market-place of Erech. As they went through the streets\nof the city the people thronged about them to get a sight of their\nfaces. When Gilgamish asked:\n\n  \"Who is splendid among men?\n  Who is glorious among heroes?\"\n\nthese questions were answered by the women of the palace who cried:\n\n  \"Gilgamish is splendid among men.\n  Gilgamish is glorious among heroes.\"\n\nWhen Gilgamish entered his palace he ordered a great festival to be\nkept, and his guests were provided by him with beds to sleep on. On\nthe night of the festival Enkidu had a dream, and he rose up and\nrelated it to Gilgamish.\n\n\nThe Seventh Tablet.\n\nAbout the contents of the Seventh Tablet there is considerable doubt,\nand the authorities differ in their opinions about them. A large\nnumber of lines of text are wanting at the beginning of the Tablet,\nbut it is very probable that they contained a description of Enkidu's\ndream. This may have been followed by an interpretation of the dream,\neither by Gilgamish or some one else, but whether this be so or not,\nit seems tolerably certain that the dream portended disaster for\nEnkidu. A fragment, which seems to belong to this Tablet beyond doubt,\ndescribes the sickness and death of Enkidu. The cause of his sickness\nis unknown, and the fragment merely states that he took to his bed and\nlay there for ten days, when his illness took a turn for the worse,\nand on the twelfth day he died. He may have died of wounds received\nin some fight, but it is more probable that he succumbed to an attack\nof Mesopotamian fever. When Gilgamish was told that his brave friend\nand companion in many fights was dead, he could not believe it, and\nhe thought that he must be asleep, but when he found that death had\nreally carried off Enkidu, he broke out into the lament which formed\nthe beginning of the text of the next Tablet.\n\n\nThe Eighth Tablet.\n\nIn this lament he calls Enkidu his brave friend and the \"panther of\nthe desert,\" and refers to their hunts in the mountains, and to their\nslaughter of the bull of heaven, and to the overthrow of Khumbaba in\nthe forest of cedar, and then he asks him:\n\n\n  \"What kind of sleep is this which hath laid hold upon thee?\n  \"Thou starest out blankly (?) and hearest me not!\"\n\n\nBut Enkidu moved not, and when Gilgamish touched his breast his heart\nwas still. Then laying a covering over him as carefully as if he had\nbeen his bride, he turned away from the dead body and in his grief\nroared like a raging lion and like a lioness robbed of her whelps.\n\n\nThe Ninth Tablet.\n\nIn bitter grief Gilgamish wandered about the country uttering\nlamentations for his beloved companion, Enkidu. As he went about he\nthought to himself,\n\n  \"I myself shall die, and shall not I then be as Enkidu?\n  \"Sorrow hath entered into my soul,\n  \"Because of the fear of death which hath got hold of me do I wander\n    over the country.\"\n\nHis fervent desire was to escape from death, and remembering that\nhis ancestor Uta-Napishtim, the son of Ubara-Tutu, had become deified\nand immortal, Gilgamish determined to set out for the place where he\nlived in order to obtain from him the secret of immortality. Where\nUta-Napishtim lived was unknown to Gilgamish, but he seems to have\nmade up his mind that he would have to face danger in reaching the\nplace, for he says, \"I will set out and travel quickly. I shall\nreach the defiles in the mountains by night, and if I see lions,\nand am terrified at them, I shall lift up my head and appeal to the\ngoddess Sin, and to Ishtar, the Lady of the Gods, who is wont to\nhearken to my prayers.\" After Gilgamish set out to go to the west he\nwas attacked either by men or animals, but he overcame them and went\non until he arrived at Mount Mashu, where it would seem the sun was\nthought both to rise and to set. The approach to this mountain was\nguarded by Scorpion-men, whose aspect was so terrible that the mere\nsight of it was sufficient to kill the mortal who beheld them; even the\nmountains collapsed under the glance of their eyes. When Gilgamish saw\nthe Scorpion-men he was smitten with fear, and under the influence of\nhis terror the colour of his face changed; but he plucked up courage\nand bowed to them humbly. Then a Scorpion-man cried out to his wife,\nsaying, \"The body of him that cometh to us is the flesh of the gods,\"\nand she replied, \"Two-thirds of him is god, and the other third is\nman.\" The Scorpion-man then received Gilgamish kindly, and warned\nhim that the way which he was about to travel was full of danger and\ndifficulty. Gilgamish told him that he was in search of his ancestor,\nUta-Napishtim, who had been deified and made immortal by the gods,\nand that it was his intention to go to him to learn the secret of\nimmortality. The Scorpion-man in answer told him that it was impossible\nfor him to continue his journey through that country, for no man had\never succeeded in passing through the dark region of that mountain,\nwhich required twelve double-hours to traverse. Nothing dismayed,\nGilgamish set out on the road through the mountains, and the darkness\nincreased in density every hour, but he struggled on, and at the end\nof the twelfth hour he arrived at a region where there was bright\ndaylight, and he entered a lovely garden, filled with trees loaded\nwith luscious fruits, and he saw the \"tree of the gods.\"\n\n\nThe Tenth Tablet.\n\nIn the region to which Gilgamish had come stood the palace or fortress\nof the goddess Siduri-Sab\u00eetu, and to this he directed his steps with\nthe view of obtaining help to continue his journey. The goddess\nwore a girdle and sat upon a throne by the side of the sea, and\nwhen she saw him coming towards her palace, travel-stained and clad\nin the ragged skin of some animal, she thought that he might prove\nan undesirable visitor and so ordered the door of her palace to be\nclosed against him. But Gilgamish managed to obtain speech with her,\nand having asked her what ailed her, and why she had closed her door,\nhe threatened to smash the bolt and break down the door. In answer\nSiduri-Sabitu said to him:--\n\n33. \"Why are thy cheeks wasted? Thy face is bowed down,\n34. \"Thine heart is sad, thy form is dejected.\n35. \"Why is there lamentation in thy heart?\"\n\nAnd she went on to tell him that he had the appearance of one who\nhad travelled far, that he was a painful sight to look upon, that\nhis face was burnt, and finally seems to have suggested that he was\na runaway trying to escape trom the country. To this Gilgamish replied:\n\n39. \"Why should not my cheeks be wasted, my face bowed down,\n40. \"My heart sad, my form dejected?\"\n\nAnd then he told the goddess that his ill-looks and miserable\nappearance were due to the fact that death had carried off his dear\nfriend Enkidu, the \"panther of the desert,\" who had traversed the\nmountains with him and had helped him to overcome Khumbaba in the\ncedar forest, and to slay the bull of heaven, Enkidu his dear friend\nwho had fought with lions and killed them, and who had been with him\nin all his difficulties; and, he added, \"I wept over him for six\ndays and nights ... before I would let him be buried.\" Continuing\nhis narrative, Gilgamish said to Sab\u00eetu-Siduri:\n\n57. \"I was horribly afraid....\n58. \"I was afraid of death, and therefore I fled through the\n    country. The fate of my friend lieth heavily upon me,\n59. \"Therefore am I travelling on a long journey through the country.\n    \"The fate of my friend lieth heavily upon me,\n60. \"Therefore am I travelling on a long journey through the country.\n61. \"How is it possible for me to keep silence about it?\n    How is it possible for me to cry out [the story of] it?\n62. \"My friend whom I loved hath become like the dust.\n    \"Enkidu, my friend whom I loved hath become like the dust.\n63. \"Shall not I myself also be obliged to lay me down\n64. \"And never again rise up to all eternity?\"\n\n65. Gilgamish [continued] to speak unto Sab\u00eetu [saying]:\n66. \"[O] Sab\u00eetu, which is the way to Uta-Napishtim?\n67. \"What is the description thereof? Give me, give me the description\n    thereof.\n68. \"If it be possible I will cross the sea,\n69. \"If it be impossible I will travel by land.\"\n70. Then Sab\u00eetu answered and said unto Gilgamish:\n71. \"There is no passage most assuredly, O Gilgamish.\n72. \"And no one, from the earliest times, hath been able to cross\n    the sea.\n73. \"The hero Shamash (the Sun-god) hath indeed crossed the sea,\n    but who besides him could do so?\n74. \"The passage is hard, and the way is difficult.\n75. \"And the Waters of Death which block the other end of it are deep.\n76. \"How then, Gilgamish, wilt thou be able to cross the sea?\n77. \"When thou arrivest at the Waters of Death what wilt thou do?\"\n\nSab\u00eetu then told Gilgamish that Ur-Shanabi, the boatman of\nUta-Napishtim, was in the place, and that he should see him, and added:\n\n81. \"If it be possible cross with him, and if it be impossible\n    come back.\"\n\nGilgamish left the goddess and succeeded in finding Ur-Shanabi,\nthe boatman, who addressed to him words similar to those of Sab\u00eetu\nquoted above. Gilgamish answered him as he had answered Sab\u00eetu, and\nthen asked him for news about the road to Uta-Napishtim. In reply\nUr-Shanabi told him to take his axe and to go down into the forest\nand cut a number of poles 60 cubits long; Gilgamish did so, and when\nhe returned with them he went up into the boat with Ur-Shanabi, and\nthey made a voyage of one month and fifteen days; on the third day\nthey reached the [limit of the] Waters of Death, which Ur-Shanabi\ntold Gilgamish not to touch with his hand. Meanwhile, Uta-Napishtim\nhad seen the boat coming and, as something in its appearance seemed\nstrange to him, he went down to the shore to see who the newcomers\nwere. When he saw Gilgamish he asked him the same questions that\nSab\u00eetu and Ur-Shanabi had asked him, and Gilgamish answered as he\nhad answered them, and then went on to tell him the reason for his\ncoming. He said that he had determined to go to visit Uta-Napishtim,\nthe remote, and had therefore journeyed far and that in the course of\nhis travels he had passed over difficult mountains and crossed the\nsea. He had not succeeded in entering the house of Sab\u00eetu, for she\nhad caused him to be driven from her door on account of his dirty,\nragged, and travel-stained apparel. He had eaten birds and beasts of\nmany kinds, the lion, the panther, the jackal, the antelope, mountain\ngoat, etc., and, apparently, had dressed himself in their skins.\n\nA break in the text makes it impossible to give the opening lines\nof Uta-Napishtim's reply, but he mentions the father and mother of\nGilgamish, and in the last twenty lines of the Tenth Tablet he warns\nGilgamish that on earth there is nothing permanent, that Mammitum,\nthe arranger of destinies, has settled the question of the death and\nlife of man with the Anunnaki, and that none may find out the day of\nhis death or escape from death.\n\n\nThe Eleventh Tablet.\n\nThe story of the Deluge as told by Uta-Napishtim to Gilgamish has\nalready been given on pp. 31-40, and we therefore pass on to the\nremaining contents of this Tablet. When Uta-Napishtim had finished the\nstory of the Deluge, he said to Gilgamish, \"Now as touching thyself;\nwhich of the gods will gather thee to himself so that thou mayest\nfind the life which thou seekest? Come now, do not lay thyself down to\nsleep for six days and seven nights.\" But in spite of this admonition\nas soon as Gilgamish had sat down, drowsiness overpowered him and\nhe fell fast asleep. Uta-Napishtim, seeing that even the mighty hero\nGilgamish could not resist falling asleep, with some amusement drew\nthe attention of his wife to the fact, but she felt sorry for the\ntired man, and suggested that he should take steps to help him to\nreturn to his home. In reply Uta-Napishtim told her to bake bread for\nhim and she did so, and each day for six days she carried a loaf to\nthe ship and laid it on the deck where Gilgamish lay sleeping. On the\nseventh day when she took the loaf Uta-Napishtim touched Gilgamish,\nand the hero woke up with a start, and admitted that he had been\novercome with sleep, and made incapable of movement thereby.\n\nStill vexed with the thought of death and filled with anxiety to\nescape from it, Gilgamish asked his host what he should do and where he\nshould go to effect his object. By Uta-Napishtim's advice, he made an\nagreement with Ur-Shanabi the boatman, and prepared to re-cross the sea\non his way home. But before he set out on his way Uta-Napishtim told\nhim of the existence of a plant which grew at the bottom of the sea,\nand apparently led Gilgamish to believe that the possession of it would\nconfer upon him immortality. Thereupon Gilgamish tied heavy stones\n[to his feet], and let himself down into the sea through an opening in\nthe floor of the boat. When he reached the bottom of the sea, he saw\nthe plant and plucked it, and ascended into the boat with it. Showing\nit to Ur-Shanabi, he told him that it was a most marvellous plant, and\nthat it would enable a man to obtain his heart's desire. Its name was\n\"Sh\u00eebu issahir amelu,\" i.e., \"The old man becometh young [again],\"\nand Gilgamish declared that he would \"eat of it in order to recover\nhis lost youth,\" and that he would take it home to his fortified city\nof Erech. Misfortune, however, dogged his steps, and the plant never\nreached Erech, for whilst Gilgamish and Ur-Shanabi were on their way\nback to Erech they passed a pool the water of which was very cold,\nand Gilgamish dived into it and took a bath. Whilst there a serpent\ndiscovered the whereabouts of the plant through its smell and swallowed\nit. When Gilgamish saw what had happened he cursed aloud, and sat down\nand wept, and the tears coursed down his cheeks as he lamented over\nthe waste of his toil, and the vain expenditure of his heart's blood,\nand his failure to do any good for himself. Disheartened and weary he\nstruggled on his way with his friend, and at length they arrived at\nthe fortified city of Erech. [19] Then Gilgamish told Ur-Shanabi to\njump up on the wall and examine the bricks from the foundations to\nthe battlements, and see if the plans which he had made concerning\nthem had been carried out during his absence.\n\n\nThe Twelfth Tablet.\n\nThe text of the Twelfth Tablet is very fragmentary, and contains large\ngaps, but it seems certain that Gilgamish did not abandon his hope\nof finding the secret of immortality. He had failed to find it upon\nearth, and he made arrangements with the view of trying to find it in\nthe kingdom of the dead. The priests whom he consulted described to\nhim the conditions under which he might hope to enter the Underworld,\nbut he was unable to fulfil the obligations which they laid upon him,\nand he could not go there. Gilgamish then thought that if he could\nhave a conversation with Enkidu, his dead friend, he might learn\nfrom him what he wanted to know. He appealed to B\u00eal and asked him\nto raise up the spirit of Enkidu for him, but B\u00eal made no answer;\nhe then appealed to Sin, and this god also made no answer. He next\nappealed to Ea, who, taking pity on him, ordered the warrior god Nergal\nto produce the spirit of Enkidu, and this god opened a hole in the\nground through which the spirit of Enkidu passed up into this world\n\"like a breath of wind.\" Gilgamish began to ask the spirit of Enkidu\nquestions, but gained very little information or satisfaction. The\nlast lines of the tablet seem to say that the spirit of the unburied\nman reposeth not in the earth, and that the spirit of the friendless\nman wandereth about the streets eating the remains of food which are\ncast out from the cooking pots.\n\nE. A. Wallis Budge.\n\nDepartment of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum,\n\nJuly 24th, 1920.\n\n\nNote.\n\nThe Trustees of the British Museum have published large selections of\ncuneiform texts from the cylinders, tablets, etc., that were found\nin the ruins of Nineveh by Layard, Rassam, Smith and others, in the\nfollowing works:--\n\n\nCUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS OF WESTERN ASIA. Vol. I. 1861. Fol. Il. (Out\nof print.)\n---- Vol. II. 1866. Fol. Il. (Out of print.)\n---- Vol. III. 1870. Fol. Il.\n---- Vol. IV. Second edition. 1891. Fol. Il. (Out  of print.)\n---- Vol. V. Plates I.-XXXV. 1880. Fol. 10S. 6d.  (Out of print.)\n---- Vol. V. Plates XXXVI-LXX. 1884. Fol. 10S. 6d.  (Out of print.)\n---- Vol. V. Plates I.-LXX. Lithographed reprint.  1909. Fol. Il. 7s.\nINSCRIPTIONS FROM ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 1851. Fol. I1. 1s. CUNEIFORM\nTEXTS FROM BABYLONIAN TABLETS, &C., IN THE  BRITISH\nMUSEUM. Parts I.-V., VII.-XXIII., XXV.,  XXVII.-XXXIV. 50 plates\neach. 1896-1914.7s.6d. each.\n---- Part VI. 49 plates. 1898. 7s. 6d.\n---- Part XXIV. 50 plates. 1908. Fol. 10s.\n---- Part XXVI. 54 plates. 1909. Fol. 12s.\nANNALS OF THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA. Cuneiform texts with  transliterations\nand translations. Vol. I. 1903. 4to. 1l.\nCATALOGUE OF THE CUNEIFORM TABLETS IN THE KOUYUNJIK\nCOLLECTION. Vol. I. 8vo. 1889. 15s.\n---- Vol. II. 1891. 15s.\n---- Vol. III. 1894. 15s.\n---- Vol. IV. 1896. 1l.\n---- Vol. V. 1899. 1l. 3s.\n---- Supplement. 8vo. I914. 1l.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n[1] A group of Sumerian words for \"library\" are  (girginakku), and\nthese seem to mean \"collection of writings.\"\n\n[2] These bas-reliefs show that lions were kept in cages in Nineveh and\nlet out to be killed by the King with his own hand. There seems to be\nan allusion to the caged lions by Nahum (ii. 11) who says, \"Where is\nthe dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions,\nwhere the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp,\nand none made them afraid?\"\n\n[3] (Brit. Mus., No. 91,026, Col. 1, ll. 31-33).\n\n[4] K. 1352 is a good specimen of a catalogue (see p. 10); K. 1400\nand K. 1539 are labels (see p. 12).\n\n[5] For a full description of the general contents of the two great\nLibraries of Nineveh, see Bezold, Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets\nof the Kouy\u00fbnjik. Collection, Vol. V., London, 1899, p. xviiiff.;\nand King, Supplement, London, 1914, p. xviiiff.\n\n[6] Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, London, 1875, p. 97.\n\n[7] Published by Scheil in Maspero's Recueil, Vol. XX, p. 55ff.\n\n[8] The text is published by A. Poebel with transcription, commentary,\netc., in Historical Texts, Philadelphia, 1914, and Historical and\nGrammatical Texts, Philadelphia, 1914.\n\n[9] A famous work composed by members of the College of Edessa in\nthe fifth or sixth century A.D.\n\n[10] A transcript of the cuneiform text by George Smith, who was\nthe first to translate it, will be found in Rawlinson, Cuneiform\nInscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV., plates 43 and 44; and\na transcript, with transliteration and translation by the late\nProf. L. W. King, is given in his First Steps in Assyrian, London,\n1898, p. 161ff.\n\n[11] The site of this very ancient city is marked by the mounds of\nF\u00e2rah, near the Shatt al-K\u00e2r, which is probably the old bed of the\nriver Euphrates; many antiquities belonging to the earliest period\nof the rule of the Sumerians have been found there.\n\n[12] Like the hab\u00fbb of modern times, a sort of cyclone.\n\n[13] The star-gods of the southern sky.\n\n[14] The star-gods of the northern heaven.\n\n[15] The name of Gilgamish was formerly read \"Izdubar,\" \"Gizdubar,\" or\n\"Gishdubar.\" He is probably referred to as [GR: Gilgamos] in Aelian,\nDe Natura Animalium, XII, 21 (ed. Didot, Paris, 1858, p. 210).\n\n[16] Langdon, Epic of Gilgamish, pp. 207, 208.\n\n[17] The greater number of these have been collected, grouped and\npublished by Haupt, Das Babylonische Nimrodepos, Leipzig, 1884\nand 1891; and see his work on the Twelfth Tablet in Beitr\u00e4ge zur\nAssyriologie, Vol. I, p. 49ff.\n\n[18] See Langdon, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Philadelphia, 1917.\n\n[19] The city of Erech was the second of the four cities which,\naccording to Genesis x, 10, were founded by Nimrod, the son of\nCush, the \"mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his\nkingdom was Babel, and Erech and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of\nShinar.\" The Sumerians and Babylonians called the city \"Uruk Ki\" ;\nthe first sign means \"dwelling\" or \"habitation,\" and the second \"land,\ncountry,\" etc., and we may regard it as the \"inhabited country,\" par\nexcellence, of Lower Babylonia at a very early period. The site of\nErech is well-known, and is marked by the vast ruins which the Arabs\ncall \"Warkah,\" or Al-Warkah. These lie in 31\u00ba 19' N. Lat. and 45\u00ba 40'\nE. Long., and are about four miles from the Euphrates, on the left or\neast bank of the river. Sir W. K. Loftus carried out excavations on the\nsite in 1849-52, and says that the external walls of sun-dried brick\nenclosing the main portion of the ruins form an irregular circle five\nand a half miles in circumference; in places they are from 40 to 50\nfeet in height, and they seem to have been about 20 feet thick. The\nturrets on the wall were semi-oval in shape, and about 50 feet\napart. The principal ruin is that of the Ziggurat, or temple tower,\nwhich in 1850 was 100 feet high and 200 feet square. Loftus calls it\n\"Buw\u00e1r\u00edya,\" i.e., \"reed mats,\" because reed mats were used in its\nconstruction, but b\u00fbr\u00eeyah, \"rush mat,\" is a Persian not Arabic word,\nand the name is more probably connected with the Arabic \"Baw\u00e2r,\"\ni.e., \"ruin\" \"place of death,\" etc. This tower stood in a courtyard\nwhich was 350 feet long and 270 feet wide. The next large ruin is\nthat which is called \"Waswas\" (plur. \"Was\u00e2wis\"), i.e., \"large stone\"\nThe \"Waswas\" referred to was probably the block of columnar basalt\nwhich Loftus and Mr. T. K. Lynch found projecting through the soil;\non it was sculptured the figure of a warrior, and the stone itself\nwas regarded as a talisman by the natives. This ruin is 246 feet long,\n174 feet wide and 80 feet high. On three sides of it are terraces of\ndifferent elevations, but the south-west side presents a perpendicular\nfa\u00e7ade, at one place 23 feet in height. For further details see Loftus,\nChaldea and Susiana, London, 1857, p. 159 ff. Portions of the ruins of\nWarkah were excavated by the German archaeologists in 1914, and large\n\"finds\" of tablets and other antiquities are said to have been made.","title":"The Babylonian Story of the Deluge as Told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh: The Discovery of the Tablets at Nineveh by Layard, Rassam and Smith","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":14878}