Reed hut hear! wall understand!
Thou man of Shurippak, son of Ubaratutu,
Make a house, build a ship, leave thy possessions, seek thy life.
Abandon thy goods, and save thy life.
Bring up living seed of every kind into the ship,
The ship, which thou shalt build.
Its dimensions must be measured;
Its breadth and its strength must suit each other.
Thou shalt place it in the ocean.”
I understood and said to Ea, my lord,
“See, my lord, what thou hast commanded
I shall heed and perform.
But, how shall I answer to the city, to the people and to the elders?”
Ea opened his mouth and spake, said to me, his slave,
“This answer shalt thou say to them:
Because Bel hateth me
No longer will I live in your city, nor lay my head on Bel’s earth.
To the deep will I go down and live with Ea, my lord.
He will then cause it to rain upon ye abundantly.
A large number of birds, a crowd of fishes,
A quantity of animals, abundant harvest.…
The lines here are too mutilated to make much meaning. According to some interpretations Sit-napishtim assures his fellow-citizens of coming prosperity so that they have no misgivings as to his leaving them; others, on the contrary, indicate that Sit-napishtim made no secret of the coming deluge. Sit-napishtim then relates how he built the ship, gives its dimensions, and tells what he put into it. He continues (Jeremias’n translation):
“I brought up into the ship my whole family, and my dependants,
Cattle of the field, beasts of the field, artisans all together I brought them up.
Shamash had appointed a signal,
‘The lord of darkness will send a heavy rain in the evening.
Then enter into the ship and close the door.’
The appointed time came;
The lord of darkness sent a heavy rain in the evening.
I feared the beginning of the day;
I was afraid to look upon the day.
I entered the ship and closed the door.
To the pilot of the ship, to Puzur-Bel, the boatman,
I intrusted the ship and what was in it.
When the first dawn appeared
A black cloud arose from the foundation of heaven
Ramman thundered within it.
Nabu and Marduk preceded it.
They advanced as leaders over mountain and earth.
Uragal pulled up the anchor;
Ninib went forth and caused the storm to follow.
The Annunaki raised their torches;
They lighted the earth with their beams.
The thunder of Ramman mounted to heaven;
Everything light was turned to darkness.”
Ramman floods the land, the tempest rages for a whole day, a strong wind blows the water like mountains upon the people.
“Brother did not see his brother, men could not be distinguished; in heaven
The gods were afraid of the deluge.
They quailed, they mounted up to the heaven of Anu.
The gods crouched down like dogs, at the borders of heaven.
Ishtar screamed like a woman in travail.
The lady of the gods cried with a loud voice
‘Former man has been turned again to clay
Because I counselled an evil thing in the council of the gods.’”
Ishtar complains that her offspring have become like fish spawn and the gods weep with her. After six days, however, the storm abates, the sea becomes quiet. Sit-napishtim looks out of the window and weeps at the sight that meets his gaze. Mankind is turned to clay, the world is all sea. After twelve days land appears, and the ship sticks fast on the top of Mount Nisit, where it remains for six days.
“When the seventh day drew nigh,
I sent out a dove and let her go. The dove flew hither and thither,
But as there was no resting place for her, she returned.
Then I sent out a swallow and let her go. The swallow flew hither and thither,
But as there was no resting place for her, she returned.
Then I sent out a raven and let her go.
The raven flew off and saw the diminishing of the waters,
She came near and croaked, but did not return.
Then I brought out (all), offered a sacrifice to the four winds;
I made a libation on the top of the mountain,
I laid out the vessels seven by seven,
Under them I put reed, cedar-wood and incense.
The gods smelled the smell. The gods smelled the good smell.
The gods gathered like flies about the lord of the sacrifice.”
When Ishtar arrives she bitterly accuses Bel for having destroyed mankind and refuses to let him approach the sacrifice. Bel on his part is angry that any man whatever has escaped. Ea interposes, rebukes Bel for his deed, and tells him that in the future some other device shall be used to punish mankind. Bel accepts the censure and himself leads Sit-napishtim and his wife out of the ship and blesses them. They are then transported to an island at the “mouth of the streams” where they are to live forever.
After listening to this story Gilgamish is cured of his disease by Sit-napishtim who also tells him of a plant which has the power to prolong life. Gilgamish sets out with Arad-Ea to find it, and their search is indeed successful; but later on in the journey a demon steals the plant, and Gilgamish returns sorrowfully home. Here he continues to mourn for his lost friend Ea-bani. In his desire to see him again he appeals in turn to Bel, Sin, and Ea to assist him, but they are powerless to help him. It is Nergal, god of the dead, who grants his request and “opened the earth, let the spirit of Ea-bani come out of the earth like a breath of wind.” When asked to describe the under-world Ea-bani at first answers, “I cannot tell you, my friend, I cannot tell you,” then he bids him sit down and weep while he gives him a gloomy account of the place, which closes with the following lines (Jeremias’ translation):
“On a couch he lieth, drinking pure water.
He who was killed in battle—thou hast seen it, I have seen it—
His father and his mother hold his head
And his wife kneels at his side.
He whose corpse lies in the field—thou hast seen it, I have seen it—
His soul has no rest in the world.
He whose soul has no one to care for it—thou hast seen it, I have seen it.
The dregs of the cup, the remnants of the feast—what is thrown on the street, that is his food.”h
This is the end of the epic. It has been suggested that the whole forms a solar myth and is divided into twelve parts to correspond to the twelve months. According to this theory the sixth tablet, relating to Ishtar, and her treatment of Tammuz and her other lovers, corresponds to the sixth month. It is the month when everything seems dry and dead after the hot summer sun, and in this month the festival of Tammuz was celebrated, as a characteristic of which was the weeping for Tammuz related in Ezekiel viii. 14. The seventh tablet speaking of Gilgamish’s illness would thus correspond to the seventh month, the one following the summer solstice, when the power of nature seems to grow less, and this was attributed to a disease of the sun.
ISHTAR’S DESCENT INTO HADES
This idea is brought out more fully in the legend of Ishtar’s descent into the under world. It is possible that the story used to be recited in connection with the festival of Tammuz just mentioned. Ishtar is pictured as descending into the lower realms, probably in search of her young husband. The picture it gives us of the conception the Babylonians had of life after death is very valuable. The poem begins:
To the land of no return, to the land …
Ishtar the daughter of Sin inclined her ear.
To the house of darkness, the dwelling of Irkalla
To the house from which none who enter ever return
To the road whose course does not turn back.
To the house in which he who enters is deprived of light,
Where dust is their nurture and mud their food.
They see not the light, they dwell in darkness.
They are clothed like birds in a garment of feathers.