Gilgamesh is still undaunted and prays to his
patron deity Shamash, who apparently accords him a favorable "oracle"
(_t?rtu_). The two heroes arm themselves for the fray, and the elders
of Erech, now reconciled to the perilous undertaking, counsel Gilgamesh
to take provision along for the undertaking. They urge Gilgamesh to
allow Enkidu to take the lead, for
"He is acquainted with the way, he has trodden the road
[to] the entrance of the forest." (lines 252-253)
The elders dismiss Gilgamesh with fervent wishes that Enkidu may track
out the "closed path" for Gilgamesh, and commit him to the care of
Lugalbanda--here perhaps an epithet of Shamash. They advise Gilgamesh
to perform certain rites, to wash his feet in the stream of Huwawa and
to pour out a libation of water to Shamash. Enkidu follows in a speech
likewise intended to encourage the hero; and with the actual beginning
of the expedition against Huwawa the tablet ends. The encounter itself,
with the triumph of the two heroes, must have been described in the
fourth tablet.
V.
Now before taking up the significance of the additions to our
knowledge of the Epic gained through these two tablets, it will be
well to discuss the forms in which the names of the two heroes and
of the ruler of the cedar forest occur in our tablets.
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