The address indicates how early the tendency
arose to attach to ancient tales the current religious teachings.
"Why, O Gish, does thou run about?
The life that thou seekest, thou wilt not find.
When the gods created mankind,
Death they imposed on mankind;
Life they kept in their power.
Thou, O Gish, fill thy belly,
Day and night do thou rejoice,
Daily make a rejoicing!
Day and night a renewal of jollification!
Let thy clothes be clean,
Wash thy head and pour water over thee!
Care for the little one who takes hold of thy hand!
Let the wife rejoice in thy bosom!"
Such teachings, reminding us of the leading thought in the Biblical
Book of Ecclesiastes, [10] indicate the _didactic_ character given to
ancient tales that were of popular origin, but which were modified
and elaborated under the influence of the schools which arose in
connection with the Babylonian temples. The story itself belongs,
therefore, to a still earlier period than the form it received in this
old Babylonian version. The existence of this tendency at so early a
date comes to us as a genuine surprise, and justifies the assumption
that the attachment of a lesson to the deluge story in the Assyrian
version, to wit, the limitation in attainment of immortality to those
singled out by the gods as exceptions, dates likewise from the old
Babylonian period.
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