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JASTROW-CLAY • OLD BABYLONIAN GILGAMESH EPIC
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as his birth-place (I, 4, 2), precisely as in the Pennsylvania tablet, while in another passage he is also described, as in our tablet, as “born in the field.”[1] Still more significant is the designation of Gilgamesh as the talimu, “younger brother,” of Enkidu.[2] In accord with this, we find Gilgamesh in his lament over Enkidu describing him as a “younger brother” (ku-ta-ni);[3] and again in the last tablet of the Epic, Gilgamesh is referred to as the “brother” of Enkidu.[4] This close relationship reverts to the Sumerian version, for the Constantinople fragment (Langdon, above, p. 13) begins with the designation of Gish-bil-ga-mesh as “his brother.” By “his” no doubt Enkidu is meant. Likewise in the Sumerian text published by Zimmern (above, p. 13) Gilgamesh appears as the brother of Enkidu (rev. 1, 17). Turning to the numerous representations of Gilgamesh and Enkidu on Seal Cylinders,[5] we find this resemblance of the two heroes to each other strikingly confirmed. Both are represented as bearded, with the strands arranged in the same fashion. The face in both cases is broad, with curls protruding at the side of the head, though at times these curls are lacking in the case of Enkidu. What is particularly striking is to find Gilgamesh generally a little taller than Enkidu, thus bearing out the statement in the Pennsylvania tablet that Enkidu is “shorter in stature.” There are, to be sure, also some distinguishing marks between the two. Thus Enkidu is generally represented with animal hoofs, but not always.[6] Enkidu is commonly portrayed with the horns of a bison, but again this sign is wanting in quite a number of instances.[7] The hoofs and the horns mark the period when Enkidu lived with animals and much like an

  1. ↑ Tablet IV, 4, 7 and I, 5, 3.
  2. ↑ Assyrian version, Tablet II, 3b 34, in an address of Shamash to Enkidu
  3. ↑ So Assyrian version, Tablet VIII, 3, 11. Also supplied VIII, 5, 20 and 21; and X, 1, 46–47 and 5, 6–7.
  4. ↑ Tablet XII, 3, 25.
  5. ↑ Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, Chap. X, and the same author’s Cylinders and other Ancient Oriental Seals—Morgan collection Nos. 19–50.
  6. ↑ E.g., Ward No. 192, Enkidu has human legs like Gilgamesh; also No. 189, where it is difficult to say which is Gilgamesh, and which is Enkidu. The clothed one is probably Gilgamesh, though not infrequently Gilgamesh is also represented as nude, or merely with a girdle around his waist.
  7. ↑ E.g., Ward, Nos. 173, 174, 190, 191, 195 as well as 189 and 192.
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