The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria Part 56

The problem propounded in the earlier tablets--the search for immortality--is, as has been shown, a perfectly natural one and of popular origin, but the problem with which Gilgamesh wrestles in the twelfth tablet,--the secret of the life after death,--while suggested by the other, belongs rather to the domain of theological and mystic speculation. This aspect of the twelfth tablet is borne out also by the fact that the problem is not solved. The epic ends as unsatisfactorily as the Book of Job or Ecclesiastes. There is a tone of despair in the final speech of Eabani, which savors of the schools of advanced thought in Babylonia. For the problem of immortality, a definite solution at least is offered. Man can reach old age; he may be s.n.a.t.c.hed for a time from the grasp of death, as Gilgamesh was through the efforts of Parnapishtim, but he only deludes himself by indulging in hopes of immortal life. 'Man must die' is the refrain that rings in our ears. The plant of 'eternal youth' slips out of one's hand at the very moment that one believes to have secured it.

The Gilgamesh epic, as we have it, thus turns out to be a composite production. Gilgamesh, a popular hero of antiquity, becomes a medium for the perpetuation of various popular traditions and myths. The adventures of his career are combined with the early history of man. Of actual deeds performed by Gilgamesh, and which belong to Gilgamesh's career as a hero, warrior, and ruler, we have only four,--the conquest of Erech, his victory over Khumbaba, the killing of the divine bull, and the strangling of the lion.[1001] The story of Eabani, Ukhat, and Sadu is independent of Gilgamesh's career, and so also is the story of his wanderings to Mashu and his encounter with Parnapishtim. Gilgamesh is brought into a.s.sociation with Eabani by what may be called, a natural process of a.s.similation. The life of the hero is placed back at the beginning of things, and in this way Gilgamesh is brought into direct contact with legends of man's early fortunes, with ancient historical reminiscences, as well as with nature-myths that symbolize the change of seasons and the annual inundations.

Popular philosophy also enters into the life of the hero. Regarded as a G.o.d and yet of human origin, Gilgamesh becomes an appropriate ill.u.s.tration for determining the line that marks off man's career from the indefinite extension of activity that is a trait of the G.o.ds.

Gilgamesh revolts against the universal law of decay and is punished. He is relieved from suffering, but cannot escape the doom of death. The sixth tablet marks an important division in the epic. The Ishtar and Sabitum episodes and the narrative of Parnapishtim--itself a compound of two independent tales, one semi-historical, the other a nature-myth--represent accretions that may refer to a time when Gilgamesh had become little more than a name,--a type of mankind in general. Finally, scholastic speculation takes hold of Gilgamesh, and makes him the medium for ill.u.s.trating another and more advanced problem that is of intense interest to mankind,--the secret of death. Death is inevitable, but what does death mean? The problem is not solved. The close of the eleventh tablet suggests that Gilgamesh will die. The twelfth tablet adds nothing to the situation--except a moral. Proper burial is essential to the comparative well-being of the dead.

The fact that Gilgamesh is viewed as a type in the latter half of this remarkable specimen of Babylonian literature justifies us in speaking of it, under proper qualification, as a 'national epic.' But it must be remembered that Gilgamesh himself belongs to a section of Babylonia only, and not to the whole of it; and it is rather curious that one, of whom it can be said with certainty that he is not even a native of Babylonia, should become the personage to whom popular fancy was pleased to attach traditions and myths that are distinctively Babylonian in character and origin.

The story of Gilgamesh was carried beyond the confines of Babylonia.[1002] Gilgamesh, to be sure, is not identical with the Biblical Nimrod,[1003] but the Gilgamesh story has evidently influenced the description given in the tenth chapter of Genesis of Nimrod, who is viewed as the type of Babylonian power and of the extension of Babylonian culture to the north.

The Gilgamesh epic is not a solar myth, as was once supposed,[1004] nor is the Biblical story of Samson a pure myth, but Gilgamesh becomes a solar deity, and it is hardly accidental that Samson, or to give the Hebrew form of the name, Shimshon, is a variant form of _Shamash_[1005]--the name of the sun in Babylonian and Hebrew. The Biblical Samson appears to be modelled upon the character of Gilgamesh.

Both are heroes, both conquerors, both strangle a lion, and both are wooed by a woman, the one by Delila, the other by Ishtar, and both through a woman are shorn of their strength. The historical traits are of course different. As for the relationships of the Gilgamesh epic to the Hercules story, the authority of Wilamowitz-Mollendorf[1006] is against an oriental origin of the Greek tale, and yet such parallels as Hercules' fight with a lion, his conquest of death, his journey and search for immortality (which in contrast to Gilgamesh he secures), certainly point to an influence exercised by the oriental tale upon the Greek story. It is not surprising that the elements contributed through this influence have been so modified in the process of adaptation to the purely Greek elements of the Hercules story, and, above all, to the Greek spirit, as to obscure their eastern origin.[1007] Most curious as ill.u.s.trating the continued popularity of the Gilgamesh story in the Orient is the incorporation of portions of the epic in the career of Alexander the Great.[1008] In Greek, Syriac, and Rabbinical writings, Alexander is depicted as wandering through a region[1009] of darkness and terror in search of the 'water of life.' He encounters strange beings, reaches the sea, but, like Gilgamesh, fails to secure immortality. Such were the profound changes wrought by Alexander's conquests that popular fancy, guided by a correct instinct of appreciation of his career, converted the historical Alexander into a legendary hero of vast dimensions.[1010] The process that produced the Gilgamesh epic is repeated, only on a larger scale, in the case of Alexander. Not one country, but the entire ancient culture world,--Babylonia, Persia, Egypt, Arabia, Judea, and Syria,--combine to form the legendary Alexander. Each country contributes its share of popular legends, myths, and traditions. Babylonia offers as her tribute the exploits of Gilgamesh, which it transfers in part to Alexander. The national hero becomes the type of the 'great man,' and as with new conditions, a new favorite, representative of the new era, arises to take the place of an older one, the old is made to survive in the new.

Gilgamesh lives again in Alexander, just as traits of the legendary Alexander pa.s.s down to subsequent heroes.

FOOTNOTES:

[844] See above, pp. 245-247.

[845] Or Gishdubar or Gishtubar.

[846] _Babylonian and Oriental Record_, iv. 264. For previous readings of the name, see Jeremias' article on 'Izdubar' in Roscher's _Ausfuhrliches Lexicon der Griechischen und Romischen Mythologie_, ii.

col. 773, 774.

[847] _Historia Animalum_, xii. 21.

[848] See p. 524.

[849] In the Oriental legends of Alexander the Great, this confusion is further ill.u.s.trated. To Alexander are attached stories belonging to both Izdubar and Etana. See Meissner's _Alexander and Gilgamos_, pp. 13-17 (Leipzig, 1894).

[850] See, _e.g._, Perrot and Chiplez, _History of Art in Babylonia and a.s.syria_, i. 84.

[851] Article 'Izdubar,' col. 776; see Delitzsch, _Handworterbuch_, p.

678. Hommel (_e.g._, _Altisraelitische Ueberlieferung_, p. 39) regards Gilgamesh as a contraction from Gibil (the fire-G.o.d) and Gam (or Gab), together with _ish_, an 'Elamitic' ending. If the name is Elamitic, one should hardly expect a Babylonian deity entering as one of the elements.

[852] See above, p. 167.

[853] See above, p. 284.

[854] Haupt's _Das Babylonische Nimrodepos_, p. 93.

[855] Lit., 'he who is applied to for giving a decision.'

[856] _Ta-par-ra-as_.

[857] _Das Babylonische Nimrodepos_ (Leipzig, 1884-91). This edition includes all but the twelfth tablet, which was published by Haupt in the _Beitrage zur a.s.syriologie_, i. 48-79. For other publications of Haupt on the Gilgamesh epic, see the Bibliography, -- 6. The identification with the Biblical Nimrod is now definitely abandoned by scholars, though the picture drawn of Nimrod is influenced by the traditions regarding Gilgamesh. See p. 515.

[858] The best general work on the epic (based on Haupt's edition) is A.

Jeremias' _Izdubar-Nimrod_ (Leipzig, 1891), a reprint with additions, of his article on 'Izdubar' in Roscher's _Ausfuhrliches Lexicon der Griechischen und Romischen Mythologie_ ii.

[859] _Vorgeschichte der Indo-Europaer_, p. 112.

[860] The words for 'city' in the Semitic languages embody this idea.

[861] _Old Babylonian Inscription_, i. 2, p. 48.

[862] IIR. 50, 55-57; VR. 41, 17, 18. An interesting reference to the wall of Frech occurs Hilprecht, _ib._ i. 1, no. 26.

[863] _Kosmologie_, p. 172.

[864] Jeremias' _Izdubar-Nimrod_, p. 15, conjectures that the death of the king has evoked distress, but that is highly improbable. That the fragment under consideration belongs to the beginning of the epic is tolerably certain, though not absolutely so.

[865] Sixth tablet, l. 192. He brings offerings to Lugal-Marada, _i.e._, the king of Marada--a solar deity. See p. 486.

[866] Heuzey, _Sceaux inedits des Rois d'Agade_ (_Revue d'a.s.syriologie_, iv. 3, p. 9).

[867] See above, p. 448.

[868] _Anu_ here used in the generic sense of 'lofty,' 'divine.' The phrase is equivalent to the Biblical 'image of G.o.d.'

[869] A phrase in some way again indicative of Eabani's likeness to a deity.

[870] That Gilgamesh undertakes this, and not the G.o.ds acting in the interest of Uruk (as Jeremias and others a.s.sume), follows from a pa.s.sage in Haupt's edition, pp. 10, 40.

[871] Eabani.

[872] Identical with our own word "harem."

[873] Perhaps "ensnarer."

[874] So in the "Dibbarra" legend. See p. 531 and Delitzsch, _Handworterbuch_, p. 41.

[875] Sixth tablet, ll. 184, 185.

[876] Book 1. ---- 181, 182, 199.

[877] See Jeremias' _Izdubar-Nimrod_, pp. 59, 60; Nikel, _Herodot und die Keilschriftforschung_, pp. 84-86.

[878] The protest of the Pentateuch (Deut. xxiii. 18) against the _K'desha_, as also against the 'male devotee' (_Kadesh_), shows the continued popularity of the rites.

[879] It is to be noted that in the Yahwistic narrative, Adam is in close communication with the animals about him (Gen. ii. 20). It is tempting also to connect the Hebrew form of Eve, _Khauwa_ (or _Khauwat_) in some way with Ukhat, not etymologically of course, but as suggestive of a dependence of one upon the other,--the Hebrew upon the Babylonian term. Professor Stade (_Zeits. f. Alttest. Wiss._, 1897, p. 210) commenting upon Gen. ii. 20, points out that Yahwe's motive for asking Adam to name the animals was the hope that he would find a 'helpmate'

among them. In the light of the Babylonian story of Eabani living with animals, Stade's suggestion receives a striking ill.u.s.tration.

[880] See Trumbull, _The Threshold Covenant_, p. 239.

[881] _Kharimtu_. In Arabic the word is likewise used for 'woman' in general.

[882] The temple at Uruk is meant.