Furthermore, we are indebted
to Dr. Langdon for the identification of two Sumerian fragments in the
Nippur Collection which deal with the adventures of Gilgamesh, one in
Constantinople, [12] the other in the collection of the University
of Pennsylvania Museum. [13] The former, of which only 25 lines are
preserved (19 on the obverse and 6 on the reverse), appears to be a
description of the weapons of Gilgamesh with which he arms himself
for an encounter--presumably the encounter with Humbaba or Huwawa,
the ruler of the cedar forest in the mountain. [14] The latter deals
with the building operations of Gilgamesh in the city of Erech. A
text in Zimmern's _Sumerische Kultlieder aus altbabylonischer Zeit_
(Leipzig, 1913), No. 196, appears likewise to be a fragment of the
Sumerian version of the Gilgamesh Epic, bearing on the episode of
Gilgamesh's and Enkidu's relations to the goddess Ishtar, covered in
the sixth and seventh tablets of the Assyrian version. [15]
Until, however, further fragments shall have turned up, it would
be hazardous to institute a comparison between the Sumerian and the
Akkadian versions. All that can be said for the present is that there
is every reason to believe in the existence of a literary form of the
Epic in Sumerian which presumably antedated the Akkadian recension,
just as we have a Sumerian form of Ishtar's descent into the nether
world, and Sumerian versions of creation myths, as also of the
Deluge tale.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25