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G.
Smith places at this juncture Gilgames's accession to
the
throne; this is not confirmed by the fragments of the
text
known up to the present, and it is not even certain
that
the poem relates anywhere the exaltation and coronation
of
the hero. It would appear even that Gilgames is
recognized
from the beginning as King of Uruk, the well-
protected.
Ishtar
saw him thus adorned, and the same passion consumed her which
inflames
mortals.* "To the love of Gilgames she raised her eyes, the
mighty
Ishtar, and she said, 'Come, Gilgames, be my husband, thou! Thy
love,
give it to me, as a gift to me, and thou shalt be my spouse, and
I
shall be thy wife. I will place thee in a chariot of lapis and
gold,
with
golden wheels and mountings of onyx: thou shalt be drawn in it by
great
lions, and thou shalt enter our house with the odorous incense of
cedar-wood.
When thou shalt have entered our house, all the country by
the
sea shall embrace thy feet, kings shall bow down before thee, the
nobles
and the great ones, the gifts of the mountains and of the plain
they
will bring to thee as tribute. Thy oxen shall prosper, thy sheep
shall
be doubly fruitful, thy mules shall spontaneously come under the
yoke,
thy chariot-horse shall be strong and shall galop, thy bull
under
the yoke shall have no rival.'" Gilgames repels this unexpected
declaration
with a mixed feeling of contempt and apprehension: he abuses
the
goddess, and insolently questions her as to what has become of
her
mortal
husbands during her long divine life. "Tammuz, the spouse of thy
youth,
thou hast condemned him to weep from year to year.** Nilala, the
spotted
sparrow-hawk, thou lovedst him, afterward thou didst strike
him
and break his wing: he continues in the wood and cries: 'O, my
wings!'***
Thou didst afterwards love a lion of mature strength, and
then
didst cause him to be rent by blows, seven at a time.**** Thou
lovedst
also a stallion magnificent in the battle; thou didst devote him
to
death by the goad and whip: thou didst compel him to galop for
ten
leagues,
thou didst devote him to exhaustion and thirst, thou didst
devote
to tears his mother Silili.
*
Ishtar's declaration to Gilgames and the hero's reply have
been
frequently translated and summarized since the
discovery
of the poem. Smith thought to connect this episode
with
the "Descent of Ishtar to Hades," which we shall meet
with
further on in this History, but his opinion is no
longer
accepted. The "Descent of Ishtar" in its present
condition
is the beginning of a magical formula: it has
nothing
to do with the acts of Gilgames.
**
Tammuz-Adonis is the only one known to us among this long
list
of the lovers of the goddess. The others must have been
fairly
celebrated among the Chaldæans, since the few words
devoted
to each is sufficient to recall them to the memory
of
the reader, but we have not as yet found anything
bearing
upon their adventures in the table of the ancient
Chaldæo-Assyrian
classics, which had been copied out by a
Ninevite
scribe for the use of Assur-bani-pal, the title of
the
poems is wanting.
***
The text gives _kappî_, and the legend evidently refers
to
a bird whose cry resembles the word meaning "my
wings."
The spotted sparrow-hawk utters a cry which may be
strictly
understood and interpreted in this way.
****
This is evidently the origin of our fable of the
"Amorous
Lion."
Thou
didst also love the shepherd Tabulu, who lavished incessantly
upon
thee
the smoke of sacrifices, and daily slaughtered goats to thee;
thou
didst
strike him and turn him into a leopard; his own servants went in
pursuit
of him, and his dogs followed his trail.* Thou didst love
Ishullanu,
thy father's gardener, who ceaselessly brought thee presents
of
fruit, and decorated every day thy table. Thou raisedst thine eyes
to
him,
thou seizedst him: 'My Ishullanu, we shall eat melons, then shalt
thou
stretch forth thy hand and remove that which separates us.'
Ishullanu
said to thee: 'I, what dost thou require from me? O my mother,
prepare
no food for me, I myself will not eat: anything I should eat
would
be for me a misfortune and a curse, and my body would be stricken
by
a mortal coldness.' Then thou didst hear him and didst become
angry,
thou
didst strike him, thou didst transform him into a dwarf, thou
didst
set
him up on the middle of a couch; he could not rise up, he could
not
get
down from where he was. Thou lovest me now, afterwards thou wilt
strike
me as thou didst these."**
*
The changing of a lover, by the goddess or sorceress
who
loves him, into a beast, occurs pretty frequently in
Oriental
tales; as to the man changed by Ishtar into a
brute,
which she caused to be torn by his own hounds, we may
compare
the classic story of Artemis surprised at her bath
by
Actseon.
**
As to the misfortune of Ishullanu, we may compare the
story
in the _Abrabian Nights_ of the Fisherman and the
Genie
shut up in the leaden bottle. The king of the Black
Islands
was transformed into a statue from the waist to the
feet
by the sorceress, whom he had married and afterwards
offended;
he remained lying on a bed, from which he could
not
get down, and the unfaithful one came daily to whip him.
"When
Ishtar heard him, she fell into a fury, she ascended to heaven.
The
mighty Ishtar presented herself before her father Anu, before her
mother
Anatu she presented herself, and said: 'My father, Grilgames
has
despised me. Grilgames has enumerated my unfaithfulnesses, my
unfaithfulnesses
and my ignominies.' Anu opened his mouth and spake to
the
mighty Ishtar: 'Canst thou not remain quiet now that Gilgames
has
enumerated to thee thy unfaithfulnesses, thy unfaithfulnesses and
ignominies?'"
But she refused to allow the outrage to go unpunished.
She
desired her father to make a celestial urus who would execute her
vengeance
on the hero; and, as he hesitated, she threatened to destroy
every
living thing in the entire universe by suspending the impulses of
desire,
and the effect of love. Anu finally gives way to her rage: he
creates
a frightful urus, whose ravages soon rendered uninhabitable the
neighbourhood
of Uruk the well-protected. The two heroes, Gilgames and
Eabani,
touched by the miseries and terror of the people, set out on the
chase,
and hastened to rouse the beast from its lair on the banks of
the
Euphrates in the marshes, to which it resorted after each
murderous
onslaught.
[Illustration:
068.jpg GILGAMES AND EABANI FIGHTING WITH MONSTERS.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chaldæan intaglio in the New
York
Museum. The original is about an inch and a half in
height.
A
troop of three hundred valiant warriors penetrated into the
thickets
in
three lines to drive the animal towards the heroes. The beast
with
head
lowered charged them; but Eabani seized it with one hand by the
right
horn, and with the other by the tail, and forced it to rear.
Gilgames
at the same instant, seizing it by the leg, plunged his dagger
into
its heart. The beast being despatched, they celebrated their
victory
by a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and poured out a libation to
Sharnash,
whose protection had not failed them in this last danger.
Ishtar,
her projects of vengeance having been defeated, "ascended the
ramparts
of Uruk the well-protected. She sent forth a loud cry, she
hurled
forth a malediction: 'Cursed be Gilgames, who has insulted me,
and
who has killed the celestial urus.' Eabani heard these words of
Ishtar,
he tore a limb from the celestial urus and threw it in the face
of
the goddess: 'Thou also I will conquer, and I will treat thee
like
him:
I will fasten the curse upon thy sides.' Ishtar assembled her
priestesses,
her female votaries, her frenzied women, and together they
intoned
a dirge over the limb of the celestial urus. Gilgames assembled
all
the turners in ivory, and the workmen were astonished at the
enormous
size of the horns; they were worth thirty _mimæ_ of lapis,
their
diameter was a half-cubit, and both of them could contain six
measures
of oil." He dedicated them to Shamash, and suspended them on
the
corners of the altar; then he washed his hands in the Euphrates,
re-entered
Uruk, and passed through the streets in triumph. A riotous
banquet
ended the day, but on that very night Eabani felt himself
haunted
by an inexplicable and baleful dream, and fortune abandoned the
two
heroes. Gilgames had cried in the intoxication of success to the
women
of Uruk: "Who shines forth among the valiant? Who is glorious
above
all men? Gilgames shines forth among the valiant, Gilgames is
glorious
above all men." Ishtar made him feel her vengeance in the
destruction
of that beauty of which he was so proud; she covered him
with
leprosy from head to foot, and made him an object of horror to
his
friends
of the previous day. A life of pain and a frightful death--he
alone
could escape them who dared to go to the confines of the world in
quest
of the Fountain of Youth and the Tree of Life which were said to
be
there hidden; but the road was rough, unknown, beset by dangers,
and
no
one of those who had ventured upon it had ever returned. Gilgames
resolved
to brave every peril rather than submit to his fate, and
proposed
this fresh adventure to his friend Eabani, who, notwithstanding
his
sad forebodings, consented to accompany him. They killed a tiger
on
the way, but Eabani was mortally wounded in a struggle in which
they
engaged
in the neighbourhood of Nipur, and breathed his last after an
agony
of twelve days' duration.
"Gilgames
wept bitterly over his friend Eabani, grovelling on the bare
earth."
The selfish fear of death struggled in his spirit with regret at
having
lost so dear a companion, a tried friend in so many encounters.
"I
do not wish to die like Eabani: sorrow has entered my heart, the
fear
of
death has taken possession of me, and I am overcome. But I will
go
with
rapid steps to the strong Shamashnapishtim, son of Ubaratutu,
to
learn from him how to become immortal." He leaves the plain of
the
Euphrates,
he plunges boldly into the desert, he loses himself for a
whole
day amid frightful solitudes. "I reached at nightfall a ravine in
the
mountain, I beheld lions and trembled, but I raised my face
towards
the
moon-god, and I prayed: my supplication ascended even to the
father
of
the gods, and he extended over me his protection." A vision from
on
high
revealed to him the road he was to take. With axe and dagger
in
hand, he reached the entrance of a dark passage leading into the
mountain
of Mâshu,* "whose gate is guarded day and night by supernatural
beings."
*
The land of Mâshu is the land to the west of the
Euphrates,
coterminous on one part with the northern regions
of
the Red Sea, on the other with the Persian Gulf; the name
appears
to be preserved in that of the classic Mesene, and
possibly
in the land of Massa of the Hebrews.
[Illustration:
071.jpg THE SCORPION-MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS OF MÂSHU.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian intaglio.
"The
scorpion-men, of whom the stature extends upwards as far as the
supports
of heaven, and of whom the breasts descend as low as Hades,
guard
the door. The terror which they inspire strikes down like a
thunderbolt;
their look kills, their splendour confounds and overturns
the
mountains; they watch over the sun at his rising and setting.
Grilgames
perceived them, and his features were distorted with fear and
horror;
their savage appearance disturbed his mind. The scorpion-man
said
to his wife: 'He who comes towards us, his body is marked by the
gods.'*
The scorpion-woman replied to him: 'In his mind he is a god, in
his
mortal covering he is a man.' The scorpion-man spoke and said:
'It
is as the father of the gods, has commanded, he has travelled
over
distant
regions before joining us, thee and me.'" Gilgames learns
that
the guardians are not evilly disposed towards him, and becomes
reassured,
tell them his misfortunes and implores permission to pass
beyond
them so as to reach "Sha-mashnapishtim, his father, who was
translated
to the gods, and who has at his disposal both life and
death."
The scorpion-man in vain shows to him the perils before him, of
which
the horrible darkness enveloping the Mâshu mountains is not the
least:
Gilgames proceeds through the depths of the darkness for long
hours,
and afterwards comes out in the neighbourhood of a marvellous
forest
upon the shore of the ocean which encircles the world. One tree
especially
excites his wonder: "As soon as he sees it he runs towards
it.
Its fruits are so many precious stones, its boughs are splendid
to
look upon, for the branches are weighed down with lapis, and
their
fruits
are superb." When his astonishment had calmed down, Gilgames
begins
to grieve, and to curse the ocean which stays his steps. "Sabitu,
the
virgin who is seated on the throne of the seas," perceiving him
from
a distance, retires at first to her castle, and barricades
herself
within
it. He calls out to her from the strand, implores and threatens
her
in turn, adjures her to help him in his voyage. "If it can be
done,
I
will cross the sea; if it cannot be done, I will lay me down on
the
land
to die." The goddess is at length touched by his tears.
"Gilgames,
there
has never been a passage hither, and no one from time immemorial
has
been able to cross the sea. Shamash the valiant crossed the sea;
after
Shamash, who can cross it? The crossing is troublesome, the way
difficult,
perilous the Water of Death, which, like a bolt, is drawn
between
thee and thy aim. Even if, Gilgames, thou didst cross the
sea,
what wouldest thou do on arriving at the Water of Death?"
Arad-Ea,
Shamashnapishtim's
mariner, can alone bring the enterprise to a happy
ending:
"if it is possible, thou shalt cross the sea with him; if it is
not
possible, thou shalt retrace thy steps."
*
We must not forget that Gilgames is covered with leprosy; this is
the
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