Workbook Documents	Ancestors of the West
	Epic of Gilgamesh: The Flood, Epic of Gilgamesh: Death of Enkidu, Code of Hammurabi, Cross-section of an Egyptian Pyramid, Ziggurat

Epic of Gilgamesh: The Flood (c. 2000 BC)

Gilgamesh has made a long and difficult journey to learn how Utnapishtim acquired eternal life. In answer to his questions, Utnapishtim tells the following story. Once upon a time, the gods destroyed the ancient city of Shuruppah in a great flood. But Utnapishtim, forewarned by Ea, managed to survive by building a great ship. His immortality was a gift bestowed by the repentant gods in recognition of his ingenuity and his faithfulness in reinstituting the sacrifice.

Shurippak -a city which thou knowest,

(And) which on Euphrates' banks is set-

That city was ancient, (as were) the gods within it,

When their heart led the great gods to produce the flood.

There were Anu, their father,

Valiant Enlil, their counselor,

Ninurta, their herald,

Ennuge, their irrigator.

Ninigiku-Ea was also present with them;

Their words he repeats to the reed-hut (Utnapishtim's house). . .

"Tear down (this) house, build a ship!

Give up possessions, seek thou life.

Despise property and keep the soul alive.

Aboard the ship take thou the seed of all living things.

The ship that thou shalt build,

Her dimensions shall be to measure.

Equal shall be her width and her length.

Like the Apsu thou shalt ceil her."

I understood, and I said to Ea, my lord:

"Behold, my lord, what thou hast thus ordered,

I shall be honoured to carry out." . . .

The little ones carried bitumen,

While the grown ones brought all else that was needful.

On the fifth day I laid her framework.

One (whole) acre was her floor space,

Ten dozen cubits the height of each of her walls,

Ten dozen cubits each edge of the square deck.

I laid out the shape of her sides and joined her together.

I provided her with six decks,

Dividing her (thus) into seven parts.

Her floor plan I divided into nine parts.

I hammered water-plugs into her.

saw to the punting-poles and laid in supplies. . . .

On the seventh day the ship was completed.

The launching was very difficult,

So that they had to shift the floor planks above and below,

Until two-thirds of the structure had gone into the water.

Whatever I had I laded upon her.

Whatever I had of silver I laded upon her,

Whatever I had of gold I laded upon her,

Whatever I had of all the living beings I laded upon her.

All my family and kin I made go aboard the ship.

The beasts of the field, the wild creatures of the field,

All the craftsmen I made go aboard.

Shamash had set for me a stated time:

"When he who orders unease at night

Will shower down a rain of blight,

Board thou the ship and batten up the gate!"

That stated time had arrived:

"He who orders unease at night showers down a rain of blight."

I watched the appearance of the weather.

The weather was awesome to behold.

I boarded the ship and battened up the gate.

To batten up the (whole) ship, to Puzar-Amurri, the boatman,

I handed over the structure together with its contents.

With the first glow of dawn,

A black cloud rose up from the horizon.

Inside it Adad (the storm god) thunders,

While Shallat and Hanish (heralds of Adad) go in front,

Moving as heralds over hill and plain.

Erragal (god of the underworld) tears out the posts; 9

Forth comes Ninurta and causes the dikes to follow.

The Anunnaki lift up the torches,

Setting the land ablaze with their glare.

Consternation over Adad reaches to the heavens,

Turning to blackness all that had been light.

The wide land was shattered like a pot!

For one day the south-storm blew,

Gathering speed as it blew, submerging the mountains,

Overtaking the people like a battle.

No one can see his fellow,

Nor can the people be recognized from heaven.

The gods were frightened by the deluge,

And, shrinking back, they ascended to the heaven of Anu.

The gods cowered like dogs

Crouched against the outer wall.

Ishtar cried out like a woman in travail. . . .

The gods, all humbled, sit and weep,

Their lips drawn tight. . . . one and all.

Six days and six nights

Blows the flood wind, as the south-storm sweeps the land.

When the seventh day arrived,

The flood (-carrying) south-storm subsided in the battle,

Which it had fought like an army.

The sea grew quiet, the tempest was still, the flood ceased.

I looked at the weather. stillness had set in,

And all of mankind had returned to clay.

The landscape was as level as a flat roof.

I opened a hatch, and light fell on my face. . . .

On Mount Nisir the ship came to a halt.

Mount Nisir held the ship fast,

Allowing -no motion.

[For six days the ship is held fast by Mount Nisir.]

When the seventh day arrived,

I sent forth and set free a dove.

The dove went forth, but came back;

There was no resting-place for it and she turned round.

Then I sent forth and set free a swallow.

The swallow went forth, but came back,

There was no resting-place for it and she turned round.

Then I sent forth and set free a raven.

The raven went forth and, seeing that the waters had diminished,

He eats, circles, caws, and turns not round.

Then I let out (all) to the four winds. . . .

As soon as Enlil arrived,

And saw the ship, Enlil was wroth,

He was filled with wrath against the Igigi gods (gods of heaven):

"Has some living soul escaped?

No man was to survive the destruction!"

Ninurta opened his mouth to speak,

Saying to valiant Enlil:

"Who other than Ea can devise plans?

It is Ea alone who knows every matter."

Ea opened his mouth to speak,

Saying to valiant Enlil:

"Thou wisest of the gods, thou hero,

How couldst thou, unreasoning, bring on the deluge?

On the sinner impose his sin,

On the transgressor impose his transgression!" . . .

Thereupon Enlil went aboard the ship.

Holding me by the hand, he took me aboard.

He took my wife aboard and made (her) kneel by my side.

Standing between us, he touched our foreheads to bless us:

"Hitherto Utnapishtim has been but human.

Henceforth Utnapishtim and his wife shall be like unto us gods.

Utnapishtim shall reside far away, at the mouth of the rivers!"

Thus they took me and made me reside far away,

At the mouth of the rivers.

Question:

What are the main events in this story?

Epic of Gilgamesh: Death of Enkidu

In this excerpt, the goddess Ishtar has fallen in love with the hero, Gilgamesh. When he rejects her, she sends the Bull of Heaven to kill Gilgamesh and his friend, Enkidu. They, however, kill the Bull, but afterward Enkidu dies at the hands of the gods. This story reveals Mesopotamian views of gods, life and afterlife.

Gilgamesh washed out his long locks and cleaned his weapons; he flung back his hair from his shoulders; he threw off his stained clothes and changed them for new. He put on his royal robes and made them fast. When Gilgamesh had put on the crown, glorious Ishtar lifted her eyes, seeing the beauty of Gilgamesh. She said, ‘Come to me Gilgamesh, and be my bridegroom; grant me seed of your body, let me be your bride and you shall be my husband. I will harness for you a chariot of lapis lazuli and of gold, with wheels of gold and horns of copper; and you shall have mighty demons of the storm for draft-mules. When you enter our house in the fragrance of cedar-wood, threshold and throne will kiss your feet. Kings, rulers, and princes will bow down before you; they shall bring you tribute from the mountains and the plain. Your ewes shall drops twins and your goats triplets; your pack-ass shall outrun mules; your oxen shall have no rivals, and your chariot horses shall be famous far-off for their swiftness.’

Gilgamesh opened his mouth and answered glorious Ishtar, ‘If I take you in marriage, what gifts can I give you in return? What ointments and clothing for your body, what bread for your eating? How can I give food to a god and drink to the Queen of Heaven? Moreover, if I take you in marriage how will it go with me? Your lovers have found you like a brazier which smolders in the cold, a backdoor which keeps out neither squall of wind nor storm, a castle which crushes the garrison, pitch that blackens the bearer, a leaky skin that wets the carrier, a stone which falls from the parapet, a sandal that trips the wearer, an engine of assault set up in the enemy’s land. Which of your lovers did you ever love for ever? What shepherd of yours has pleased you for all time? Listen to me while I tell the tale of your lovers. There was Tammus, the lover of your youth, for him you decreed wailing, year after year. You loved the many-coloured roller, but still you struck and broke his wing; now in the grove he sits and cries, "kappi, kappi, my wing, my wing." You have loved the lion tremendous in strength: seven pits you dug for him, and seven. You have loved the stallion magnificent in battle, and for him you decreed whip and spur and a thong, to gallop seven leagues by force and to muddy the water before he drinks; and for his mother Silili lamentations. You have loved the shepherd of the flock; he made meal-cake for you day after day, he killed kids for your sake. You struck and turned him into a wolf; now his own herd-boys chase his away, his own hounds worry his flanks. And did you not love Ishullanu, the gardener of your father’s palm-grove? He brought you baskets filled with dates without end; every day he loaded your table. Then you turned your eyes on him and said, "Dearest Ishullanu, come here to me, let us enjoy your manhood, come forward and take me I am yours." Ishullanu answered, "What are you asking from me? My mother has baked and I have eaten; why should I come to such as you for food that is tainted and rotten? For when was a screen of rushes sufficient protection from frosts"? but when you had heard his answer you struck him. He was changed to a blind mole deep in the earth, one whose desire is always beyond his reach. And if you and I should be lovers, should not I be served in the same fashion as all these others whom you loved once?’

When Ishtar heard this she fell into a bitter rage, she went up to high heaven to her father Anu and to Antum her mother. She said, 'My father, Gilgamesh has heaped insults on me; he has told over all my abominable behaviour, all my tainted acts.’ Anu opened his mouth and said, ‘You invited this rebuke yourself, because of this Gilgamesh has related your abominable behaviour and your tainted acts.’

Ishtar opened her mouth and said again, ‘My father, make me the Bull of Heaven to destroy Gilgamesh. Fill Gilgamesh, I say, with arrogance to his destruction; but if you refuse to make me the Bull of Heaven I will break in the door of hell and smash the bolts. I will let the doors of hell stand wide open and bring up the dead to eat food with living; and the hosts of dead will outnumber the living.’ Anu said to Ishtar, ‘If I do what you desire there will be seven years of drought when the corn will be seedless husks. Have you saved grain enough for the people and grass for the cattle?’ Ishtar replied. ‘I have saved grain for the people, grass for the cattle; for seven years of seedless husks there is grain and there is grass enough.’

So Anu created the Bull of Heaven for Ishtar his daughter. The Bull fell on the earth; with his first snort he slew a hundred men, and again he slew two hundred, he slew three hundred; with his second snort hundreds more fell dead. With his third snort he charged at Enkidu, but he dodged aside and leapt on the Bull and seized it by the horns. The Bull of Heaven foamed in his face, it brushed him with the thick of its tail. Enkidu cried to Gilgamesh, 'My friend, we boasted that we would leave enduring names behind us. Now thrust in your sword between the nape and the horns.' So Gilgamesh followed the Bull, he seized the thick of its tail, he thrust the sword between the nape and the horns and slew the Bull. When they had killed the Bull of Heaven they cut out its heart and gave it to Shamash, and the brothers rested.

But Ishtar rose up and mounted the great wall of Uruk; she sprang on the tower and uttered a curse: 'Woe to Gilgamesh, for he has scorned me in killing the Bull of Heaven.' When Enkidu heard these words he tore out the Bull's right thigh and tossed it in her face saying, 'If I could lay my hands on you, it is this I should do to you, and lash the entrails to your side.' Then Ishtar called together her people, the dancing and singing girls, the prostitutes of the temple, the courtesans. Over the thigh of the Bull of Heaven she set up lamentation.

But Gilgamesh called the smiths and the armourers, all of them together. They admired the immensity of the horns. They were plated with lapis lazuli two fingers thick. They were thirty pounds each in weight, and their capacity in oil was six measures, which he gave to his guardian god Lugulbanda. But he carried the horns into the palace and hung them on the wall. Then they washed their hands in Euphrates, they embraced each other and went away. They drove through the streets of Uruk where the heroes were gathered to see them, and Gilgamesh called to the singing girls, 'Who is most glorious of heroes, Gilgamesh among men?' 'Gilgamesh is the most glorious of heroes, Gilgamesh is most eminent among men.' And now there was feasting, and celebrations and joy in the palace, till the heroes lay down to rest on their beds.

Enkidu also lay down to sleep, and he saw a dream. He rose from his bed to tell the dream to his brother. 'O my friend, why do the great gods sit in council together?' When the day came he said to Gilgamesh. 'Ah, such a dream I had last night. All the gods, Anu, Enlil, Ea, and Shamash sat in council and Anu said to Enlil, "Because they had killed the Bull of Heaven and killed Humbaba, one of the two must die; let it be the one who stripped the mountains of the cedar." But Enlil said, "Enkidu shall die, Gilgamesh shall not die." The glorious Shamash answered the hero Enlil, "At my command they killed the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba, and now Enkidu dies though innocent?" but Enlil was enraged at Shamash: "You have gone down to them every day like one of themselves, therefore you speak!"'

So Enkidu fell sick, and he lay before Gilgamesh: his tears ran down in streams. Gilgamesh said to him, 'O my brother, my dear brother, why do they quit me to take you?' He said again, 'Must I sit outside at the spirit's door by the ghost of the dead, never to see my dear brother again?'. . .

Enkidu slept alone in his sickness and he poured out his heart to Gilgamesh, 'Last night I dreamed my friend. The heavens moaned and the earth replied; I stood alone before an awful being; his face was sombre like the black bird of the storm. He fell upon me with the talons of an eagle and he held me fast, pinioned with his claw, till I smothered; then he transformed me so that my arms became wings covered with feathers. He turned his stare towards me, and he led me away to the palace of Irkalla, the Queen of Darkness, to the house from which none who enters ever returns, down the road from which there is no coming back.

'There is the house whose people sit in darkness; dust is their food and clay their meat. They are clothed like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness. I entered the house of dust and I saw the kings of the earth, their crowns put away for ever; rulers and princes, all those who once wore kingly crowns and ruled the world in the days of old. They who had stood in the place of gods like Anu and Enlil, stood now like servants to fetch baked meats in the house of dust, to carry cooked meat and cold water from the water-skin. In the house of dust which I entered were high priests and acolytes, priests of the incantation and of ecstasy; there were servers of the temple, and there was Etana, the king of Kish whom the eagle carried to heaven in the days of old. I saw also Samuqan, god of cattle, and there was Ereshkigal the Queen of the Underworld; and Belit-Sheri squatted in front of her, she who is recorder of the gods and keeps the book of death. She held a tablet from which she read. She raised her head, she saw me and spoke: "Who has brought this one here?" Then I awoke like a man drained of blood who wanders alone in a waste of rushes; like one whom the bailiff has seized and his heart pounds with terror.'. . .

This day on which Enkidu dreamed came to an end and he lay stricken with sickness. One whole day he lay on his bed and his suffering increased, a second and a third day; ten days he lay and his suffering increased, eleven and twelve days he lay on his bed of pain. Then he called to Gilgamesh, 'My friend, the great goddess cursed me and I must die in shame. I shall not die like a man fallen in battle; I feared to fall, but happy is the man who falls in the battle, for I must die in shame.' And Gilgamesh wept over Enkidu. . . .

He touched his heart but it did not beat, nor did he lift his eyes again. When Gilgamesh touched his heart it did not beat. So Gilgamesh laid a veil, as one veils the bride, over his friend. He began to rage like a lion, like a lioness robbed of her whelps. This way and that he paced round the bed, he tore out his hair and strewed it around. He dragged off his splendid robes and flung them down as though they were abominations.

In the first light of dawn Gilgamesh cried out, 'I made you rest on a royal bed, you reclined on a couch at my left hand, the princes of the earth kissed your feet. I will cause all the people of Uruk to weep over you and raise the dirge of the dead. The joyful people will stoop with sorrow; and when you have gone to the earth I will let my hair grow long for your sake, I will wander through the wilderness in the skin of a lion.' The next day also, in the first light, Gilgamesh lamented; seven days and seven nights he wept for Enkidu, until the worm fastened on him. Only then he gave him up to the earth, for the Annunaki, the judges, had seized him.

Questions:

Why are Gilgamesh and Enkidu heroes, even though Enkidu dies?

What is the Mesopotamian afterlife like, according to Enkidu's dream?

Code of Hammurabi (c. 1792-1750 BC)

1. If a man accuses a man, and charges him with murder, but cannot convict him, the accuser shall be put to death.

3. If a man, in a case before the court, offers testimony concerning deeds of violence, and does not establish [prove] the testimony that he has given -- if that case be a case involving life, that man shall be put to death.

4. If he offers testimony concerning grain or money, he shall himself bear the penalty imposed in that case.

6. If a man steals the property of god or palace, that man shall be put to death; and he who receives from his hand the stolen property shall be put to death.

16. If a man harbors in his house a runaway male or female slave of the palace or of a common man and does not bring him forth at the call of the commandant, the owner of the house shall be put to death.

53. If a man neglects to strengthen his dike and he lets the water carry away the farmland, the man in whose dike the break has been made shall restore the grain which he has damaged.

54. If he is not able to restore the grain, they shall sell him and his goods, and the farmers whose grain the water has carried away shall divide the results from the sale.

108. If a barmaid . . . makes the measure of drink smaller than the measure of grain [paid], they shall prosecute that barmaid, and they shall throw her into the water.

127. If a man points a finger at [accuses] a nun or the wife of a man and cannot justify it, they shall drag that man before the judges and they shall cut the hair of his forehead.

128. If a man takes a wife and does not draw up contract with her, that woman is not a wife.

129. If the wife of a man is taken in lying with another man, they shall bind them and throw them into the water. If the husband of the woman spares the life of his wife, the king shall spare the life of his servant [her lover].

131. If a man accuses his wife and she is not taken in lying with another man, she shall take an oath in the name of God and she shall return to her house.

135. If a man is taken captive and there is nothing to eat in his house, and his wife enters into another house and bears [the other man's] children; if later her husband returns and reaches his city, that woman shall return to her husband; the children shall go to their father.

136. If a man deserts his city and runs away, and afterward his wife enters into another house, if that man returns and seizes his wife, because he hated his city and fled, the wife of the fugitive shall not return to her husband.

138. If a man puts away [divorces] his wife who has not borne him children, he shall give her money in the amount of her marriage settlement and he shall make good to her the dowry which she brought from her father's house and then he may put her away.

142. If a woman hates her husband and says, "Thou shalt not have me," her past shall be inquired into for any deficiency of hers; and if she has been careful and is without past sin and her husband has been going out and greatly belittling her, that woman has no blame. She shall take her dowry and go to her father's house.

148. If a man takes a wife and disease seizes her, and he sets his face to take a concubine, he may do so. His wife whom disease has seized he may not put away. She shall dwell in the house which he has built and he shall maintain her as long as she lives.

156. If a man has betrothed a bride to his son and his son has not had sexual intercourse with her, and he the father lies in her bosom, he shall pay her one to two mina of silver, and he shall make good to her whatever she brought from the house of her father and the man of her choice may take her.

195. If a man strikes his father, they shall cut off his hand.

196. If a man destroys to eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye.

200. If a man knocks out a tooth of a man of his own rank, they shall knock out his tooth.

201. If a man knocks out a tooth of a common man, he shall pay one-third mina of silver.

202. If a man smites on the cheek a man who is his superior, he shall receive sixty strokes with an oxtail whip in public.

204. If a common man smites a common man on the cheek, he shall pay ten shekels of silver.

205. If a man's slave smites the son of a gentleman on the cheek, they shall cut off his ear.

267. If a shepherd is careless and allows disease to develop in the fold, the shepherd shall make good in cattle and sheep the loss through the disease which he allowed to develop in the fold, and give them to their owner.

Questions:

What sorts of behaviors did Mesopotamian society have trouble controlling?

Cross-section of Egyptian Pyramid

Question:

What was the purpose of an Egyptian pyramid?

Ziggurat

Question:

What was the purpose of a Mesopotamian ziggurat?

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